I Love Mondays-Ep99, July 17, 2026

A great "Bourbon Friday" visit with Trevor Thomas of "Inside Wisconsin Sports" talking Packers, and what success looks like for 2026 and MLF.  Also, how to prepare Crow?  That along with the Brewers and the need to get a front line starting pitcher before the trade deadline on August 3rd.  The finish included Woodford Reserve Distillery Series-Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel Finish. Plus Plus

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Um Mondays.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

This is I love Mondays with Mike Heller. Empowered by determination and a little bit of duct tape. Here's your host, Mike Heller.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Oh, hey. I've been waiting for this. I look forward to Fridays. Um, not as much as Mondays. Uh I love Mondays. Name of the show. Uh, Mondays is our greatest uh talk day of the week. But I love Fridays, and we're, I don't know, we're a month and a week or so away from Fridays where we're talking about a game being the next two days, an exhibition game in that case, which I get less excited about. But when you get the return of football, you get the return of football, and we're not that far away. By the way, it's a bourbon Friday, so just a little advance, we're gonna finish right here. That is uh maybe my favorite stop last week at Woodford Reserve, uh just outside of Frankfurt, Kentucky. And this uh just as a little advance, this uh was bottled uh this year, Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel Finish of the Woodford Reserve Distillery Series. So um it's just a 375. I won't drink it all today. That would be dumb. Um, so I'm looking forward to that at the end of the show. We do that on Fridays, Bourbon Friday. So today that's from the bourbon trail that we were on. We were there uh eight days ago. We were there last Thursday that we went to Frankfurt, went to Buffalo Trace in the morning and then to Woodford Reserve in the afternoon. Uh so that's how we finish Fridays on a Bourbon Friday. So we will do that um in uh in a little bit. Uh that's kind of how we wrap up the show today. I wanted to um I want to welcome you aboard on this Friday. I'm messing with uh my computer screen. We got some new, some new uh screen page setups that I'm working my way through. So we'll get to uh we'll get to that as we work through on this Friday. I always want to welcome in uh our listeners and viewers on the day. First one in was James. Good morning, Mike. Happy Friday. It is a happy bourbon Friday, James. I'm good with that. Mike and Merrill says, uh, good morning. Mike, I'm wondering if uh your air quality is getting a little bit better uh if you're up in Merrill. Have a great weekend, he said. Hopefully we'll get better air quality soon if this is Canada. Uh I don't think this is Canada being angry for the Olympics. Uh, I don't think it is. Might be. I don't think they would do that on uh on purpose. Yo, uh breathing easy, he says. Uh his Chicago Cubs are home for uh their beginning of the second half post-all-star break. Uh they are home. Who do they get? The Cubs get um Cubs get Minnesota on a three-game set at Wrigley, but a rare not Friday day game against the Twins, a Friday night game. Uh the Brew are obviously beginning a nine-game homestand, three-game set against Miami this weekend. After Miami, who is uh the season doesn't end today, but if it did, the Brewers would be the two seed in the National League, and they would get the winner of a wild card series that would feature Miami and Atlanta. So this could be a divisional round playoff series preview. Again, if the season ended today and it doesn't, the Dodgers would be the one seed and they would get the winner of the Phillies and Cubs, which I think would be the most anticipated opening round wildcard series in all of the playoffs. But they would be on the upper track, it's a fixed bracket in Major League Baseball. The winner of the Phillies Cubs would get the Dodgers. So there's a lot of incentive for teams to find their landing spot by the time it's all said and done. And when we we talk about being all said and done, the Brewers have played 93 games. So you've got um you got 69 games to play, right? My math is right, whatever that is. I'm close. If I'm not on it, I'm close to it. Uh, so there's a lot of baseball to be had. And by the way, it just under 70 games remaining, and the Brewers have six days off on the schedule. That's Major League Baseball. They'll have one run in there where I think they play 17 games in 17 days. By some metrics, the Brewers have the most difficult remaining strength of schedule. It doesn't happen early. I mean, early on this run after the Brewers uh begin play tonight, Miami is 52 and 45, but also on this homestand is a really bad Colorado team, a really bad Mets team at 41 and 57, and then a really bad Colorado team at 39 and 59. So I don't like predictions, but you better have a good homestand because uh you're playing a couple of uh teams that are not good at all. They're gonna be trading off almost, they're gonna trade off a lot of pieces between now and August the third, the trade deadline. I'm talking about the Mets in Colorado. But you get Miami first, and we tend to ignore Miami, but it's a it's a pretty darn good baseball team right now. They'd be the last wild card in. But they are tied for uh for that spot or uh barely holding on in that spot. Let me just double check that because I don't want to misrepresent. But in the wild card race in the National League, it's the Cubs two and a half clear of the Phillies. Miami is the third wild card. They're a game better than St. Louis, two better than Pittsburgh, two and a half better than Arizona, three and a half better than the Padres, four better than the Nats. Those teams are all in it. I think when you go back to the Reds at eight games back of the wild card, then San Francisco, the Mets, and Colorado, the two worst teams in the National League, they're done. But when you talk about the wild card, Miami holds it. The Cardinals right there. Pittsburgh, uh, by virtue of that three-game sweep over the Brewers to wrap up the uh into the all-star break. They've won seven of their last ten, and they're right there. So there's a lot of interesting moving pieces. Uh the Brewers come out of the break with this rotation in mind against Miami's Sandy Alcantera tonight. Logan Henderson goes for the Brewers in game one, Shane Drowen in game two, Robert Gasser in game three. So this is not the top of your rotation. The Brewers are giving Miz and Harrison extra time out of the break. So that break, that downtime was elongated with the All-Star game. And it's it's certainly being done on purpose. They want to make sure Kyle Harrison is sound with that elbow, and I'm not sure he is. None of us can be sure of that. And they want to make sure that Miz is fresh because Miz is going to have to be your starting pitcher horse. And I don't mean horse like they used CC Sabathia back in the day on three days rest or pitching on the fourth, you know, all of that, all of the workload he carried. Ms. can't do that, not gonna do it. Wouldn't be the right thing to do by any stretch. So Miz is gonna have to be a guy that they find a skip, maybe, in the rotation for a turn. That's why Lance McCullough's Jr. It's why whoever else they might go out and get at the trade deadline becomes important to who and what it is the Brewers are doing down the stretch. British Open is going on today. I think that's I said this yesterday and put it out there for some folks on a little reel that I did. Oh, by the way, let me get a couple of more. Mark says, good morning, all still hazy in Manaqua. Uh only benefit, been a bit cooler than the forecast. Would be happy to sweat a little bit more. Yeah. And it smells different, right? I don't know what it smells like. Uh, maybe even electrical or plastic. It doesn't smell like a campfire. It's got a unique, weird smell. And uh, Kari and I were talking about this last night. We were at red and white, and we moved our event indoors rather than have it on the patio with uh Jage uh doing some live music and us uh benefiting the 115th Fighter Wing, the CARES program with the Air National Guard, and raised over $1,500 last night for them. And we're always grateful for our servicemen and women and what they do for us. Uh it it is just it's it's amazing the sacrifice and the life choice, and we're so grateful for it. It's why we do events for the 115th or badger honor flight, anything that that is military-centric. Uh, they were on site last night serving up uh old-fashions behind the bar, and we raised, like I said, over $1,500 on a night that a lot of people stayed home because of smoke and because of the the the conditions. But we moved that inside. And Kari and I were talking, um, and I don't remember this. I'm I'm sure did this not exist 20 years ago? I mean, there have been wildfires in Canada. I don't think it's new. I mean, did I don't remember it, but it certainly probably wasn't reported on when I'm growing up in the 70s and 80s, and maybe it just wasn't reported on. Maybe it happened, and we go, that smells like a wildfire somewhere. I I don't I don't have recollection of it, but we were both wondering the same thing. Uh James said Fox Valley heavy smoke. What is Craig uh weighing? Great interview with Sean Icorse. Excited to have him back at UW. Thanks, Craig. That was a fun uh sit-down, and he is a really good dude. I I like him. Doesn't mean he'll be great and doesn't mean he won't. Uh I like his energy, I like his focus, I like where he's pointed. Um, an athletic director is judged by the success of their football program in a power four conference that has football. Uh Wisconsin and Sean Ikeorse will be judged on that. You know, um when I got here, Aid Sponberg was the AD. And that was the Don end of the Don Morton era. And Wisconsin's fortunes flipped when Donna Shalala took over, and Donna Shalela convinced, had to convince and did Pat Richter to leave Oscar Meyer and to come be the athletic director at Wisconsin. And Pat did a number of things. One, he hired Stu Jackson as his basketball coach. Why to splash it? And I think he knew when he hired him that Stu wasn't gonna stay. But he went from Stu to Stan Van Gundy, and then eventually to Dick Bennett, and then eventually to Bo Ryan. And Pat didn't do all those moves, but he got it started. And he obviously hired Barry Alvarez. So what do they do? And and they've been successful in that role since Sponberg left. Pat Richter took over, and that hierarchy of Shalila to Richter to Barry changes everything. And then Barry takes over, and Macintosh takes over, and Chris's legacy will be tied to what Luke Fickle still does. And Macintosh can still have a winning legacy if Luke Fickle and this current coaching staff wins because it's under Mac that they do the renovation of the practice facility, knock down the McLean Center, which is in process right now. And there are a lot of good things that happened under Mac, but he left in the middle of it. And not under the best of circumstances in that regard. I like Sean Eichhorst, and uh we're gonna see how good it is, and it'll be based on 12 Saturdays. Well, 11 Saturdays and one Sunday this fall. Uh, is there a Friday game in there too? Whatever. Whatever it is. All right, but you you get the the point of it. Uh Trevor's gonna join us on the show today here in uh a matter of a couple minutes. He's standing by. When I say standing by, I think he's actually standing. Uh I see him uh no, oh, he's sitting. Now he's standing. When he stands, he's not in the camera shot. You'll see what I'm talking about here in a minute. Uh, I I want to spend uh a moment to talk about and to thank my sponsors, doing this in a slightly different way. So uh let me do that. Let me thank one community bank. It is onecommunity.bank is their website. The the the deal I talk about with one community bank is important. They earned our business with red and white, with my podcast, Hellerpods, and with our family banking. They earned our business. They were our business alone. They have stuck with us through the the times of COVID. They have helped us when we needed help. They earned our business. And when I talk about one community bank as a sponsor, yes, they're a partner sponsor of I Love Mondays. But I'm also asking you when you're making a banking decision to give them consideration: mortgage, personal banking, business banking, whatever that might be, give them a chance to earn your business. That's all I ask of any of our sponsor partners. M3 Insurance. And this goes to the point of if you're a business owner or involved in procuring insurance and benefits and risk management for a business that you work for, give M3 Insurance a chance, M3ins.com. And they have earned my and our respect and got to know uh Mike and his family and others involved with M3. And I just I love the people. And I think when you start there, uh that's a win. So again, if you're involved in business, risk management, insurance, benefit packages, uh, go to m3ins.com. I have a great uh friendship and and belief in uh in what neuroscience does. Ben is uh one of my guys at neuroscience that I met at the Brewers Fantasy Camp out in Arizona in January. And I'm going back because the people are so good. And I and I love you know the idea of being a ball player for a week. It's been a long time. When I did it last year, I got beat up. And and if if in my beat up I would have had a back injury or had a concussion, neuroscience group would have been my answer. My injuries were ego, pride, an oblique that I didn't know I had, and a hamstring, which I think everybody there uh has a hamstring issue. So uh neurosciencegroup.com. I'll be up there at uh Timber Rattlers game with the folks from neuroscience at the end of the month on July 31st. Hope you come by and see us when we do that. We're also presented by Traditions Lighting. And I get it, I I look outside, my window's right there. I look outside and I'm thinking about our permanent landscape lighting package that they're gonna do uh with us in concert with us. Came out and did a great consultation, walk through. This is how it works, this is where it goes, this is what this will look like, renderings, all of that. That along with our holiday lighting package. So if you're thinking of that, think of traditionslighting.com. They do the work at Tidal Town outside of Lambeau. So if you're wondering what their work looks like, you know how gorgeous that is at Title Town when we get to November, December. That's what they do. That is their work. Go to traditionslighting.com. Our friends at Pottawatomie Sportsbook and Casino are always part and parcel to what we do. And starting today again, now with the baseball back after the all-star break, go into Pottawatomi Sportsbook and Casino for the great restaurants, the hotel, the live entertainment, the sportsbook, and then taking a shuttle over to American Family Field for Brewers and Marlins for the three-game set tonight, tomorrow afternoon, 310, Sunday afternoon, 110. That shuttle to and from, Luis and his folks at Pottawatomi will take care of you and get you all set up. And we appreciate them being part of it. And then Habish, Habish, and Roter, 13 locations to ensure you get a hometown attorney who cares about the result of your injury claim. Because you have a hometown attorney with 13 locations, they're in your world. They live in your community. Seek outhish.com, Habish, Habish, and Roter as uh as we continue. All right, now I've got a couple of uh moving parts here that I need to see if I can get figured out. Um there's one of them, and then there's two of them, and there's three of them. Look at it. Nailed it, nailed it parts, and your microphone works. Look at you. Look at us. You know, you did this, you're one of my inspirations to uh to have entered into the podcast world. I think everybody that has listened to the this podcast since March or listened to me on the radio when it all went away last September, you know, you have to reinvent. Well, I didn't have to reinvent my opinions, my thoughts, my content on sports, but I had to reinvent the vehicle with which I was gonna put it out there. And uh and Trevor was a big help because it's what you've been doing for a while in a different format, but now you're you know you've entered into the radio format. Look at you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Thanks, I think.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Yeah, quite decide. Right. No, it's but it's it's uh, and I appreciate um you know the advice and the direction that you have given me and it it what you did in some ways, even when we weren't talking about it, it was kind of inspiring to say, okay, this can be done independent. Now you're doing it independent and with a radio group. Um, let's touch on that first because you moved, and I I want I want to make sure people understand that you're still there on Inside Wisconsin. It's on WNFL Radio in Green Bay, uh and you're there every day mornings, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:15

This is where I've been actually the whole time, Mike. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate the kind words. I love watching what you're doing, and I'm grateful that you and I got the chance to chat about doing what we're doing because when we first launched Inside Wisconsin, it was to do it differently than they were doing on radio and TV then. Right. And so many since then have picked up what we were doing on Inside Wisconsin, which is ironic because radio picked up what we were doing here too, and we're off to the races. So this whole relationship started actually when you and I were working together at the game. I was doing fill-in work, and I had a relationship here in Green Bay at WNFL, and we were working on me doing the inside Wisconsin show every day on the radio here. Then that whole new network thing happened, and I was uh put in an arranged marriage uh like the old testament. And right, uh ultimately it just didn't work out um business wise, and that's okay. And so I I made the personal decision to no longer offer my show to that network, but we are still live on WNFL on the radio here in Green Bay every day at 99.7. But then now we're streaming on all the platforms that we were supposed to be streaming on, right? So inside Wisconsin's YouTube page and Facebook page, WNFL has a YouTube page and a Twitter page. So it is literally what we've been doing since the beginning. Just just slowed down to speed up a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

That's where I was watching this morning with uh you got my guy Luddy, and then I haven't worked with Tommy Wirtz before, but I was on uh uh his former show just a couple of weeks ago when he was still there. Um, so I know him just a little bit, but Luddy is a guy I've known for a long time, and what a great uh pairing to put you guys together. Uh and I enjoyed uh the heck out of it since you guys, I mean it's you're early, you're in your infancy of that uh trio of of voices coming to you in the morning, and and I enjoyed today's, even though I don't always agree with Tommy.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Well, he's got a lot of takes, and he will share all of them.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

All of them, yeah, which is good. This is what this uh business is all about. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Everything good? Yeah, man, everything's really good. But kids are great. Uh, real quick, Luddy is behind the camera, helped get all this set up, can hear you. So he says hello and thanks, Mike.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Luddy's my guy. I mean, you want to talk about uh a grinder and a really smart dude and a good dude. Probably wasn't done right. He's one of one of many that weren't done right on the exit from iHeart. Um, but I'm glad that he's with you. He's in a good spot, and he's a good dude. So he's a great dude. Yeah, we're really good.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

I'll talk to you later about him when he's not listening. Deal. Uh take your headphones out, would you please, Nimble?

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Sounds good. Uh no, thanks for asking about my family. Family is awesome. Um, having a driver now is something new. Uh, there's nothing that prepares you for that.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

No, no, we are we almost failed as as kids grow older. I I know I've got seven of them. Um, as they grow older, you trade one set of concerns and worries for another. And I don't know if there's a bigger other than leaving to go to college. I don't know that there's a bigger game changer than when you give your keys to your child and let them drive away. Um, because we know what the road can do, and we know what we did when we were young driving a car occasionally, right? So, yeah, that's a little nervy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Yeah, when we were taking him down to get his license in Appleton, my wife and I both went down and he was a little cocky. He was like, Dad, I got this whole thing figured out. So he pulls away, and Amanda and I are like, Listen, we don't want him to fail because we really need him to be a driver in our house. Yeah, that little shit needs to fail. So he didn't, he got his license, and then we got home, and he really right away, like all kids do, like you and I both did. All right, I want to go to the store. Uh culver's. And I was like, you know what? Fine. Why don't you go buy us lunch for all the pain and suffering you're about to put us through? He pulled away and I looked at my wife, and she's got tears. And I'm like, Yeah, I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't, I didn't see that part coming.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah. And then he even that the parking lots are the worst, right? I mean, you're thinking about trusting your your 16-year-old with the keys to go park in a and even the drive-thru, because the lanes can be a little narrow and their spatial awareness is uh developing at the wheel of a car. So I hope you had him go in, like not through the drive-thru. If he was going to culverse or whatever, anyways.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yep. He actually uh he works there, so that's what the first place he wanted to go. He might have gone through the drive-thru. Somebody, when we were talking about this on the air on the show, messaged in and said, You know, uh, teenage boys learn by bumping into things. And I'm like, uh, it's not what we want.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Right. Uh Mike said, uh Mike weighs in. Uh love Trevor's platform of presentation, been glued to the podcast with John Anderson and an alliance with I don't know what that is. A uh no idea. Me either. All right. But thanks, Mike. Um so let me spend a little time on the Packers. We have it it is uh two weeks. In less than two weeks, they'll be in camp. There's uh this is the outrage season because this is the season of lists, and you know, Caleb Williams made ESPN.com's top 10 quarterbacks, and Jordan Love did not. Um, so that has people outraged. But I want to skip past the outrage for a moment and just talk about what this season might lead to. Uh, I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of different people, and most are on the the same side of trying to coach against history with Matt LaFleur. Only John Madden has gone past year seven without getting to a Super Bowl and then getting to and winning one. So Matt LaFleur um has not been to one, and there are doubters for him. I'm not one of them, but I do also understand, Trevor, I don't want to get your thoughts on this, as to whether he is, even though with an extension, if he is coaching for his job. To me, the NFL as a head coach is a year-to-year contract, even if there are extensions. And I certainly think that's the case in Green Bay. Do you?

SPEAKER_03 25:34

I do. With the way that last season ended, I made a stupid comment live on the air in a fit of rage that he should be gone when he signed his extension. I was the first person to go, okay, fine. I'm not running the ship. Let's see if we can run it back. But I did say this if we win the Super Bowl this year with him in the same position as he was last year, I will physically eat Crow, prepared Crow on the radio that next. Like that next, I don't want to. I mean, I want to, but I don't want to. But the reason I feel that way, and yes, I do feel like he's still coaching for his job, is because of the way those games ended last season when we had the lead. That's the opinion around here in Green Bay is that unfortunately Matt can't quite push through the pressure of that moment. And so last year didn't matter how many points we had a lead of, there was a plausibility that it was going to be given up. And so as we go into this season, specifically the first what, probably six-ish weeks without Micah Parsons, yeah, he's gonna show his hand there pretty quick. And if they the the conversation we've had is if they get into the playoffs as a wild card and lose that first round, we think he could be gone.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Yeah, I've said that uh Trevor, we're we're uh on the same page there. If if they don't make the playoffs, he's gone. If they're in and they lose in the wildcard round, he's gone. I wonder if everything else allows him to be safe, you know, if they if they have the bye and they play in the division round, or if they win a wildcard game, then lose in the division round. I don't know. But here's the difference to me. And you brought it up very deftly. It is a fourth quarter. He he's got a coach in the fourth quarter like Caleb Williams played in the fourth quarter. All right, and it's just not Caleb. Caleb and Ben Johnson won the fourth quarter in Chicago all season long last year, against whoever they played. And the Packers didn't, and specifically against that team. They lost in the fourth quarter. So this head coach, not just him, but he, his staff, and his players have to finish games this year like they didn't against Cleveland, like they didn't against the Bears multiple times, like they didn't against Denver. They got to be able to finish games. And if they can't finish games, then the uh end result, I think, is the coach won't be coaching games in Green Bay next year.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Mike, do you think of it this way too? I wonder who's coaching coach. Steve Jones, who is a wildly successful high school coach, is in the building and working directly with Matt, but Matt reports up to the president. I call it the love triangle. It's Goody, Rust Ball, and Matt all reporting up to now ed policy. But last year, with all due respect to Mark Murphy, that was who his boss was. I'm not sure that Matt's being coached on how to coach in those moments outside of a Steve Jones, which is great. He's a phenomenal coach himself and a motivational speaker and author and all those things. But I think if if we're being honest, that I believe is the problem here in Green Bay. I believe that the love triangle situation where Matt doesn't report to Goody and Goody doesn't have final say over the whole shebang, I think that hurts. And you see that come out at the end of those games.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Yeah, and I I I do think that um that there was another coach on a sideline that was supposed to be that guy um that handled special teams that's no longer there. Uh and I think I think he was but I mean, all you uh all that matters is what what happens. That's all you can be judged on. Coach has one statistic, it is wins and losses. That is the only thing. I'm not a big believer in quarterbacks having a win-loss record. I think coaches have a win-loss record. That goes twofold. It goes to the coach and it goes to the GM. They win and lose games. And the GM says, here's your roster. Now you got to go win and lose with these guys. And for that, it's a coaching stat. And when Green Bay didn't finish games, and I it's a little bit misleading that they lost five in a row. I mean, they uh they didn't play the last game of the regular season, so maybe you kind of kick that up. But there's no getting around. They had Denver beat and lost it, they had Chicago beat and lost it. They had Chicago beat again and lost it. And those things matter. So you gotta find find a way. And I was also um curious, I was visiting with Aaron Egler about this. He he had a really interesting thought that I I thought was when I when I put more time into it, I thought is really dead on. We all talk about the return from injury from Micah Parsons. He thinks later rather than sooner on that, that they're gonna be cautious, but we'll see. Um Tucker Kraft coming back is significant. Devontae Wyatt. Uh, but his biggest return from injury is Zach Tom. Who and he said Zach Tom is kind of an interesting story because we didn't uh consider him to be injured, and he certainly was. And his time not on the field is significant, and he's your best offensive lineman, but he plays right tackle. But if if he's a stud, then you we're gonna pay attention to Jordan Morgan on the left side. But if Zach Tom's not healthy, that line is not in a good spot, period.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

And that line needs to be in a good spot. This is not a prove it year for Jordan Love. This is uh, hey, dude, we have an expectation year for you to be the dude that we need you to be, right? If he doesn't have the guys in front of him, he's gonna be forced to scramble, and especially on that right side, which is where he's gonna take his first step to scramble. If Zach Tom's not there, that's not gonna work out well, and that's when he gets injured too in Jordan Love, when he has to scramble. If he could have some time in the pocket and actually develop a game there instead of constantly on the move, then I think this will be different. But you're right, Mike. Zach Tom has to be the guy that is there, otherwise, I have questions.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

So, have you started the process to figure out how you would attain said crow or how it would be prepared?

SPEAKER_03 31:49

It's not it's not in the that's a wild bird. Yeah, that's it's the rat. Listen, it was a dumb thing to say, but I will do it if I absolutely have to. I had some friends that are in the hunting community reach out and go, they'll provide recipes. We got you. You know, like this is not gonna be that painful, right? Let's all just hope it we get there. Because if that's the case, then that means the Packers won the Super Bowl. And I think we have uh more celebrating to do than whining about having to take a bite out of something that I've never done, and nor will I ever do after that.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

And is that the the whole deal then? Is just a bite of crow? I will eat crow, yes.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Eating means bite and digest. I did not say the whole crow.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

One bite of crow. At that point, would Luddy and Tommy Wirtz like would they measure it out? Is is a bite minimum two and a half ounces?

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Is I'll own it. I will own it. It's gonna be deep fried and seasoned to taste like a chicken tender. It's gonna be awful, but I'll do it. I'll do it.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

That's that's awesome. Well, I I've listened to some of the brewer's conversation too, as they enter uh, you know, with just under 70 games to play in their season. In that, there's only six off days. So uh one of the the biggest questions about this team is there's a segment of the fan base, right? Is already talked to me in October. I'm not in that, I've never been in that. I enjoy the journey. Uh, I think when you don't enjoy the journey, um, you're missing out on a lot as a fan of sports. If you're saying, hey, talk to me in January as a Packers fan, all that matters what they do in the playoffs, then you've missed a whole journey. If you have the same concept on what the Brewers are doing, talk to me in October, because they haven't done it in October since 1982. And then I'm on a tangent here, but I always think of this, Trevor. Even in 1982, you're not old enough, but I am. In 1982, you know how many games they won to make it to the World Series in the postseason? I mean three. Oh, yeah. Is it it was just the Brewers and California Angels in a best of five. American League East winner, American League West winner. They played a best of five and the winner went to the World Series. So the Brewers won three games in the postseason that year to get uh the matchup against the Cardinals. Now it's so different. If you're not that bye, you play in that wildcard round, then the division round, then the NLCS to get to the World Series. But for those people who are just gonna jump ahead and say, talk to me in October, I think you miss a lot. And part of what the Brew have to do in the second half, and I'm curious as to your view, they're gonna have to go get a pitcher outside of Lance McCullers Jr. What if they don't, Trevor? Like, what's the reaction gonna be if they don't? And part two to that, what is the reaction gonna be if the Cubs do and the Brewers don't with a big name pitcher?

SPEAKER_03 34:51

You said something there about October, as in Talk to Me in October. I want the Brewers to talk to me today, yeah, so that we win in October. And that's where, to your point, I feel like the Brewers have to make a move at starting pitching, not just McCullers, but somebody else. And I believe that it is worth literally selling the farm. If there's ever been a year where we think we have the best chance to win the World Series, even through all of the injuries that we've had, that's been the hardest part about the starting pitching. Miz has a clunky arm, Harrison has a bad forearm. Woody may never pitch again. We just got Logan Henderson back, lost Quinn Priester. Well, there was our starting five last year. Yeah, correct. So none of those guys, do we believe, are at the top of their game as we sit in the middle of the season? If you go to hitting, well, we need a bat at third base. No, we don't need a bat at third base. Would we take one? Yes, but Joey Ortiz is the third best third baseman in the league in certain percentages. Yeah, so things are okay there. Relief pitching. Well, if we have good starting pitching, it's not something that we have to worry about. And I think the reason I we have to go and get a pitcher, and if we don't, and Chicago does, it means one of two things. Either we're unwilling to do what it needs to be done in order to win a World Series, or two, we're playing a chess match. And I kind of feel, Mike, like this season has shown a little strategy, I like to say, from the Brewers that we haven't seen in the past. Ms. not starting because of a clunky arm, not pitching in the in the all-star game, not being the first pitcher out of the gate to start the series against the Marlins, means I think they're taking it a little easy with him. Yeah, he's been the most dominant pitcher in baseball. Why wouldn't we want to trot him out there as often as we can? I call it Blake Snellisms. Maybe we're catching on to this thing that we really do need these guys to be on the top of their game in October, which is all the more reason, like you just said, then go get someone else right now.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Okay, I'm gonna talk about the go get someone else. I just want to add this in on Ms. He's pitched 111 innings this year. He went 129 in the regular season a year ago, triple A and Major League level. So uh they're going to be cautious with him, and rightfully so. If they're gonna have a chance to win in October, he's got to take the ball in game one of the NLDS, NLCS, and World Series. Uh, and when he takes it in one, he's got to take it again in five, right? But then you've got two, three, and four in between. You talk about selling the farm. There's there's a pitcher in Minnesota, Joe Ryan, who I think is as quality from what he puts out there right now. His ERA is 2.85 and his whip is 105. I would uh Luis Pina doesn't have a big up. Well, he's got a tremendous upside, but people are worried because he's only played a couple of dozen games this year after he collapsed on on the bench early in the year. Um, Andrew Fisher was a star for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. He's approaching 30 home runs across high A and double A. And then you've got a Garrett Mitchell at your big league level. And I think if you put together a package that had Mitchell, because then Luis Lara is your everyday center fielder and your outfield is Churio, Lara, and Freelick, Garrett Mitchell is producing at a really high level. It's a risky move because if he's healthy, he can be great. He can be all-star material. But if you did a Pina, Fisher, Mitchell, there's nobody that's not available. And that is what I would describe as you talked about selling the farm. That's a significant move, but you've got to go get a Tarek Scuble, a Michael Walker, or a Joe Ryan, one of those types of guys. And I think those three are the top three on the market. You got to go get one of them. One of them needs to be in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Do you think we can get that done without Garrett Mitchell? There's a lot of prospects in the farm system that you just rattled off, and even a few that we've brought up this year. Sure. Not horribly impressed by Cooper Pratt just yet, but I think they're going to be patient with him. Yeah. Man, it's so good to see Garrett Mitchell be doing so well and so finally healthy. And I know that Jordan Walker was in that exact same draft, and I believe he was the next pick after the Brewers picked Garrett Mitchell or one before, I'm not sure how that shook out. I also think it's a year to sell the farm because we really don't know what this CBA looks like after December, and there may not be baseball. So if there was ever a time when the little engine that could could go all in to get it done before everything changes, then I think this is probably the year. So to your point, I would love to go get a starting pitcher that is defined and healthy because look at the rotation then. Yeah. And I don't know where you stand on Brandon Woodruff. I feel terrible for the man. I think he's done as well. Yeah. That's a lot of money that got eaten up in a guy that we didn't necessarily. When they gave him that money, Mike, I was like, You sure? Like that. Yeah.

unknown 40:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

You sure?

unknown 40:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yeah. And uh I I think there's a love affair with him and who he is and who he will continue to be, just maybe not as a pitcher uh in major league baseball. I think the Brewers have two three prospects that are untouchable. Two of them are with your big league club. You're not dealing Cooper Pratt, you're not dealing Luis Lara, and you're not dealing Jesus Made. Those three are untouchable, I think, from a prospect standpoint. Anyone else could go. Um, so and and I hope they do. I was talking to Vinny about this um yesterday, and Vinny is he's a scout, right? At his core, so he's truly a baseball guy. He's still a fan, but he's truly a baseball guy. And he said, go get Scoobyl. Go get Derek Scoobyl. I don't know that it's probable, but man, I uh and I love Matt Arnold. I hope that you go ahead and spark that clubhouse and spark the fan base by getting that dude. Uh, I think people would love Joe Ryan too, they just don't know him as well.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Right. But as long as whatever the move that they make isn't a clubhouse disaster move like Josh Hayder was when they were in first place and blew the thing up inside. And you know who that would be?

SPEAKER_02 41:24

It would be if they traded uh Sal Freelick, who a month ago I thought, you know, Freelick just got hot. Maybe you move him. And then I was having that conversation with Vinny and some others, and they said, He's the heartbeat. He he is he defines who this team is. You want to um shake up in in a not positive way that clubhouse? That because otherwise, if he's not that guy, he he'd be top of my list because uh he does some things that you love, but there are a lot of times when he can't the the barrel of the bat doesn't find the ball enough for him. Um, but I I don't think I think he would be that guy if they dealt him, that would be the problem, and so I don't think they will. That's why I brought up Garrett Mitchell.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Yeah, God, I don't want to lose him, but Murph is really good at getting really good guys to do really incredible things, whether they're supposed to on paper or not. Now add in the pitching lab and take a guy like Scoobyl, who's a clear number one Cy Young award winner, and put him in the pitching lab with the Brewers. Yeah, and then go yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

For then for the next three months. Let Chris Hook and Jim Henderson work with him. Exactly. Those guys are uh horse whisperers with pitchers. That's what they do. How long have you been in Green Bay?

SPEAKER_03 42:45

Is it is this a lifetime home? No, it is not. I actually grew up in Johnson Creek, Jefferson area, halfway between Madison, Milwaukee. Yeah, we talked about Creek and Crick. Yeah, Crick, you heard it right. Yep. We've lived here 20 years this year. This is home now, and our boys were born here and they're going to school here, and we will forever live here. We're gonna follow if if our boys leave, we're leaving, we're gonna follow them. Yeah, but at the end of the day, this community, uh, the Green Bay area to pier is where we've settled. Mike, there's nothing like it in the state. I know it feels like crick, yet with everything to do, and oh, yeah, that football stadium down the road.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

Right. I I grew up in Appleton and I say this a lot to people, but I think you can attest to it. So I've lived in Madison essentially nonstop since 1988. And here there is a, I mean, the Packers are centric to the state, no matter where you are in the state. Then here, the Badgers are centric. And I I I work for Badger Connect. Uh, I'm connected to the university and their athletics program. What I think a lot of people here sometimes fail to understand is that their relevance in the Fox River Valley, uh, northern Wisconsin, southeast Wisconsin. Is when they're middling, nobody cares. When they're terrible, they care. And when they're really good, they care. But I'm talking about really good. The rest of the time, Wisconsin badger athletics can sadly be a bit anonymous. Is that a you've lived there a long time? Do you find that a little bit among the people you're around?

SPEAKER_03 44:24

Did you see in the news that Doug Gottlieb figured out how to get Wisconsin and Marquette to come here to Green Bay to the Rush Center to play the GB men's team in exhibition games? Do you see that? No, no, I did not. October 15th is the date that the Wisconsin men's basketball team will be here in Green Bay for the first time in, I believe, almost 20 years. The last time they played here was a regular season game, and ironically, GB won that game, which is probably why they haven't been back in a regular season or even in the exhibition for so long. I bring that up because that game at the Rush on October 15th, regardless of its meaning, will be sold out. That game 20 years ago or whatever it was was absolutely sold out at the Rush Center. There are Badgers fans here. Yes. And when the Badgers, to your point, do well, they come out in droves. Yeah. We are actually hosting here at WNFL and inside Wisconsin, along with the other stations in the building, the big pep rally that's downtown on Broadway for Wisconsin, leading up to their game against Notre Dame at Lambo. Yeah. That will be a sea of red. And everyone here, especially in the what I call the Brown County area, that is a UW alum, is down there. They're the ones that help plan it. So absolutely, Mike, there are Badgers fans here, but that's not a natural conversation. Yeah. The natural conversation is obviously the football team.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Right. And I think, and I've said this for as long as I've uh had a microphone in front of me. Uh I think the state basketball fans would love the annual get together in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay of the Panthers, Marquette, Green Bay, and Wisconsin. And I think all basketball fans would love it. And the problem has been um money, greed at some level, because they have never figured out how to share the proceeds, how to make it work. But all you got to do is rotate, you know, have two years in Milwaukee, one year in Madison, one year in Green Bay, and just rotate that through. Can you imagine the the thrill of that? And this, I mean, that you couldn't get a ticket, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:37

No, especially if they didn't have to clear the arena after the first game, right? So Milwaukee and Green Bay play the first game. Everybody that was interested in that will be there for that, and then nobody has to leave. The next game starts just like a tournament game.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

Well, now you're giving somebody's money away, Trevor.

SPEAKER_03 46:58

Well, I know that's the hardest part about it, right? But right when they do that at Five Serve, when there's a Marquette game during the day and then a Bucks game at night, two years in a row now. My son Roadie and I have gone down there for that day, right? And it's a blast from a basketball perspective. Yeah. Up here in Green Bay, October 15th is Wisconsin at GB. Then the 18th is the Cowboys game here at Lambeau. Yeah. The 19th is Marquette at the rush center. There you go. That's that's a week. Yeah. That's a good five-day run. And I know you don't want to talk about October, but there could be a brewer playoff game that falls in there as well.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Yeah, there could. Um, and uh, I think one of the biggest uh, and then I'll let you go after this, but one of the biggest elements of the the final 70 games for the Brewers is that they desperately need to be the one or two seed. I I mean all teams want that, but to not have to play in that wild card round uh is significant, especially with a young, not pitched 200 plus inning pitching staff, because that's uh uh uncharted territory for Miz or Harrison. And when we talk about the bullpen, if they go ahead and add a pitcher, then drone or uh Sproat or Gasser falls into middle relief, and that's good because that allows you to be more careful with what you do with Ashby and McGill and Yuribe, right? I mean, that allows that opportunity. There's so many moving parts here. The next two weeks for Matt Arnold are gonna be significant.

SPEAKER_03 48:34

I really like momentum in baseball, though. And so we've seen it in the NFL where the team that takes that by and sits their starters that last week, they don't necessarily come out guns a blazing per se. Yeah, with the Brewers and especially with their young team. I think if they get a good thing going and get those guys excited, then do I want them to have the one or the two? Yeah, but I don't necessarily think their chances are lowered if they indeed have to play that first round.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Yeah, we'll uh we'll we'll have a lot of fun uh in this run down the stretch. Hey, thanks for doing this uh on relatively short notice. I appreciate you saying yes. Uh uh I love what you do and the guys you're around, uh in particular Luddy. I mean, tell Tommy, he he'll he'll earn my he'll earn my love.

SPEAKER_03 49:17

Sure. Yeah, thanks for asking me on, Mike. And hey, by the way, we've both been in this business a long time. I got my first job in radio when I was 15 years old. I'm 43. There's not been a soul that I've come across in this business that didn't have amazing things to say about Mike Keller. So thanks for the inspiration that you've given me and some of the coaching. We've had conversations, and I'm really glad to see that I love Mondays, even on a Friday, is doing so well.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

Yeah, and today's a bourbon Friday.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

So oh yeah, hold on, don't get rid of me yet. I need to know. Oh, Woodford.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

So it's a it's a Woodford. I've I got it. I was on the Bourbon Trail last week. So I I got this at Woodford Reserve, and it's one that finishes in a cab barrel, uh Cabernet Sauvignon. So I and I haven't tasted it yet because we didn't taste this when we were there, but I I like finishing barrels. Uh that's why I like Jay Henry that finishes in a cognac cask. It's called um Bellefontaine, but I like finishing barrels, I like toasted barrels. So I'm gonna I'm gonna open this up and and finish the show with it today and talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

This past weekend, I won an empty bourbon barrel, like for decoration. I'm like awesome! I put all my raffle tickets in there. I won it. This is fantastic. Everybody wants to win a bourbon barrel until you have one of those damn things. Now, what do I do with it? It's heavy as hell, those rings fall off of it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

You're gonna now you now you have to have the money, uh, spend the money to have it finished uh and stained and make it look pretty. Was unaware of that. We've done one outside our front door uh at our entrance, but it weathers. Mike doesn't fix stuff, Mike calls people to fix stuff. Oh Trevor. Yeah, good to see you, man. Thanks for having me. Hey, thanks for being part of it. I appreciate it. I'll keep uh watching what you do, and thanks for being part of what we're doing. Yeah, thank you. All right, that is uh well, then I gotta hit another button here. There's multiple buttons. Uh, appreciate Trevor and his time and Luddy for sticking around to help him out. All right, so um I'm violating a couple of rules. This is a uh this is uh a glass, uh a Glenn Karen glass that we got at Preservation. Preservation is uh the distillery and farm is right outside of Bardstown, Kentucky. It's a small format. So last week on the Bourbon Trail, we went to a bunch of large format distillers. You know, we stopped by Jim Beam, uh, we went to Buffalo Trace, we went to Woodford, we went to Angels MV, we went to Micter's. But uh preservation, we went to Heaven Hill. Preservation is a small format distiller, female-owned, in the heart of Bourbon Country. Don't find that very often. Uh, so I'm not drinking a preservation uh label today. I am drinking a large format uh Woodford Reserve Distillery Series Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel Finish. So it's a 90 proof, so it's kind of my cruising speed. I I'm not a high proof, I'm not a barrel-proof guy. Uh, give me one or two, and then give me a barrel proof, maybe. Um I'll dabble into all different kinds of bourbons, but so this, and I haven't tasted it yet because they weren't offering it that day. I just said, Kari, we're gonna get this one. So um, and you have to ask this specific question. I don't know how long, you know, to be a bourbon, it's gotta be four years in new American oak. But then the finishing process that can be a year, it can be six months. Uh, you have to ask the question. It's not on the label. They call that first move, the Kentucky chew, if you're there, to kind of get it around um on the roof of your mouth and throughout the palate. And then the second sip is the one where you really get the taste. And you get that that sweetness. I I do get the wine finish on it. Um yeah, if if you wait a minute, you get more and more of the Cabernet finish on it. And I'm a cab drinker, so Cabernet Sauvignon is um uh a full-bodied red wine. Uh, if I'm gonna have a uh, and I do, we're wine, and I'm bourbon and Kari got there last week. Um if I'm drinking a wine, I like a cab on the red side. That is uh I can go other directions. I like Pinot, but we're at the far end of the spectrum. Pinot is a lighter tasting red wine, and a Cabernet is a full-bodied red wine. So I like the effect of the finish on this. It's good. And regardless, I mean, shoot, it's a bourbon Friday. So give this one a shot. I I would give this a really solid grade. Uh, this is the distillery series for Woodford Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel finish. So I like it. It gets a plus from me, and uh, that's our bourbon Friday finish. All right, Brewers in this weekend set against Miami. Miami is a wild card team right now, as we sit. So this is a good team. Uh the Brewers play a lot of really good teams in the second half, not on this homestand. Miami to open, and then the two worst teams in the National League, the Mets and the Rockies. The Brewers are gonna have to find I they don't have to. But the hope here is you have a really good homestand. I don't know what that looks like in a numbers capacity, but you know, seven and two is an outside of the realm. Six and three is a really good homestand. When you get down to the five and four stuff, now we're now we're flirting with a not good run. But they're gonna do this opening set against Miami, the better of the three teams they're gonna see, and they'll do it without their top pitchers. No Miz, no Harrison in this series. They opened tonight with Logan Henderson. I like Logan Henderson a lot, so do they. His uh ERA is 3.18. Last time out, five and a third against the Cardinals, allowed three hits, three runs. That was his first start since May 22nd. So I like Henderson tonight. You're gonna put Shane Gron out on Saturday afternoon, 3.10. And then you're gonna pitch uh Robert Gasser on Sunday. He had a terrible outing in Pittsburgh to finish last Sunday. Let's let's hope that. And Gasser prior to that was really good. So let's hope the really good one shows up on Sunday. Should be a fun weekend set again tonight. Tomorrow, 3-10 in the afternoon, Sunday, 1-10 in the afternoon. The lead over the Cubs is five games. Uh it's eight and a half over the Cardinals and nine and a half over the Pirates, who have put themselves back into the race for the wild card in the National League. What a fun day. Uh, I appreciate Trevor doing that. Uh, that was great. Uh, really good dude. Great conversation. Uh, he's doing fantastic stuff, and he really is. Uh, what he did, I needed to lean into. Uh, so he inspired me from a distance and also in the conversations we had about how the podcast works, what I would need to do, uh, and his assistance there is uh is very valuable. And also, uh I'm gonna repeat what he said a little bit in my direction. He's just a good guy. Okay, start there. Relationships matter. Uh and he's a really good dude, and I appreciate him spending time with us. We rap. Uh, I'm so excited about the things that are gonna happen this weekend. Gonna uh spend part of the week with really good friends of ours in uh south central Wisconsin. I'm gonna go uh be on a lake a little bit, small lake. Um, but we're gonna be on a lake a little bit. Uh I get it, Hank. Toughest second half schedule of Major League Baseball, whatever. The Brewers have been great against teams above 500. So keep that in mind as they get this second half started. Uh, enjoy the rest of your weekend, whatever that might be. Thanks for being here with us. And uh we get out of here and enjoy the weekend. We'll talk to you on Brood Daily tonight, remotely, and then uh tomorrow and Sunday as well. And then we'll visit with you Monday morning on I Love Mondays. Have a great rest of the weekend. We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

I love Mondays with my hell.