Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Badgers' Powerhouse Clashes, Packers' Standouts, and MLB Trade Speculation – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
College football is evolving, and the expansion of the playoff system to 12 teams brings new challenges and opportunities. We delve into how this expansion impacts powerhouse conferences like the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12, especially when it comes to selecting one-loss and two-loss teams. With the Big Ten's footprint now stretching across multiple time zones, we explore the potential effects on various sports and the intriguing possibility of consolidating the Power 5 into two major conferences. Anticipation is high for the upcoming Big Ten season, with the Wisconsin Badgers at the center of it all.
Switching gears, we dive into the world of the NFL and MLB. Get the latest on the Green Bay Packers, focusing on standout players like AJ Dillon, Jordan Love, and Dontavian Wicks. We also add some fun by describing NFL and MLB teams like the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Vikings in three words or less, serving up humor and candid takes. Lastly, discover the latest Brewers news, including the return of Gary Sanchez, recent draft signings, and potential trade moves as the deadline looms. This episode blends serious sports analysis with lighthearted banter, offering something for every Wisconsin sports fan.
College football is evolving, and the expansion of the playoff system to 12 teams brings new challenges and opportunities. We delve into how this expansion impacts powerhouse conferences like the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12, especially when it comes to selecting one-loss and two-loss teams. With the Big Ten's footprint now stretching across multiple time zones, we explore the potential effects on various sports and the intriguing possibility of consolidating the Power 5 into two major conferences. Anticipation is high for the upcoming Big Ten season, with the Wisconsin Badgers at the center of it all.
Switching gears, we dive into the world of the NFL and MLB. Get the latest on the Green Bay Packers, focusing on standout players like AJ Dillon, Jordan Love, and Dontavian Wicks. We also add some fun by describing NFL and MLB teams like the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Vikings in three words or less, serving up humor and candid takes. Lastly, discover the latest Brewers news, including the return of Gary Sanchez, recent draft signings, and potential trade moves as the deadline looms. This episode blends serious sports analysis with lighthearted banter, offering something for every Wisconsin sports fan.
Welcome to the Wisconsin Sports Time. To go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. It is Wednesday, wednesday, july 24th, a fantastic Wednesday here in the great state of Wisconsin or wherever you are listening out there. I mean it would be a greater day if we had a Jordan Love contract to talk about, but still got nothing to talk about on that front there. But it's a fantastic day. Autumn's here. I'm here, autumn. How are we doing Wednesday, great day today.
Speaker 2:I'm doing really good. I coached a softball game last night and we came out with a W as the last game of the season, so I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 1:Great stuff to hear. Great stuff to hear when we pull out Ws. And well, the Brewers did not pull out a W in that series opener with the Cubs. So we've got to be talking. We've got some Brewer talk to get into.
Speaker 1:Today we saw I mean you might count it as a win for the Badgers during media day. I thought Luke Fickle, we're going to talk about that. I thought Luke Fickle said what he needed to say during media day and yeah, so maybe that counts as a win for you. Not a lot, not a lot happening outside of that. There we got lots to get into though. Lots to get into today here I want to start there. I want to start with the Big Ten media day commenced on Tuesday at Lucas Oil Stadium there in Indianapolis. The Badgers were among a group of six programs that were there on July 23rd. The rest of the programs will be there between the 24th and the 25th there. So Luke Fickle, he comes out and he said in his first statement basically, you know from hearing what he had to say I got out of. It is this team's building towards something. This team is building towards something here.
Speaker 1:The media members the best thing they could use to describe it was. They were impressed by Fickle's filibuster or his ability to deliver the necessary message without allowing others to redirect the conversation. So he kind of just steered everything towards what he wanted to talk about, not what you know. The media wanted to know everything like that. He kept it. You know in-house what he wanted to say. So I thought that was good on Luke Fickle's end end not reaching, not trying to fall to the media's trap, because we know the media loves to put you in traps. Maybe you know last season it goes so good trying to, you know, get after about some of the things they saw last season and he kind of steered it away. He wanted them to stay under wraps. I thought that was great there.
Speaker 1:I believe, from what I saw, he had Hunter Waller was there, I think it was. I think Chaney, I think Chaney was there, jake Chaney was there and also Jack Nelson. Those three went along. So I mean Hunter Waller, like Luke Fickle said, coming off a breakout season, there are 120 total tackles brought him along to media day. Jake Chaney was along down there and so was Jack Nelson. I mean this Badger team has the upside is there. The upside is there. You add a quarterback. Like Tyler Van Dyke and I know a lot of people weren't very impressed by that transfer. I was one of them right away.
Speaker 1:But you look at the talent of Tyler and you look at him over the years and what he looked like in his first couple seasons at Miami, he was impressive. He was impressive and he was in an air raid, a sort of air raid offense, which is exactly what the Badgers want to run. That sits well, that bodes well for him coming into Madison now giving him the weapons that the Badgers have got, and I mean Ches Malusi coming back into that backfield. I think that's a huge boost, something that the Badgers missed last season there just having Braylon Allen. I'm not saying Braylon Allen wasn't enough, right, I mean that guy when he was healthy was a stud. But you get a guy like Chesma Lucy back, experienced, back to add in there with a couple of those recruits, a couple of very good recruits that the Badgers have coming in. I'm honestly very optimistic about this Badger team.
Speaker 1:We looked over the schedule not too long ago here on the show and the schedule's tough. I mean the schedule's tough. I believe the Badgers they see Oregon on that schedule Autumn. Do you want to see if you can find the schedule for the Badgers coming up this season here? I believe I remember they got Alabama for sure. I know they have Alabama on that docket. I believe Oregon's in there and so is USC. I believe they have a date with Oregon and USC on there.
Speaker 2:They have a date with the upcoming games. They have a date with Alabama, usc, purdue, rutgers, oregon, penn State, iowa, nebraska and minnesota are the big teams yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean oregon, usc, alabama, all on that docket, penn state sprinkled in there too, and then I mean purdue always gives the badgers trouble. So it's definitely a tough. It's definitely a tough, it's definitely a tough schedule. It is is 100% a tough schedule for the Badgers. But you know Luke fickle Now he's got his guys sort of what he wanted to build towards. I like it. I I'm not. The schedule is tough, but I think it's something that the Badgers need to see and I think it's something that you know we're going to see it through the years.
Speaker 1:Now, because the Big Ten got that much tougher. I mean you add in teams like USC, oregon, washington. You have Ohio State already in there. You have Michigan, you have Penn State. You have, I mean, michigan State used to be good, they're not so good anymore. Nebraska, with their recent addition of that five-star quarterback down there. All these teams slowly starting to build towards something. The Badgers need to keep pace. They need to keep pace. I've seen lots of predictions where they're in the fifth to seventh range in the Big Ten. Now Is that a bad spot? If you look at hindsight? Yes, yes, it is a bad spot. Is it realistic for the first season, with all these big programs jumping in, that could very well be Three losses won't look terrible in a conference like this. This conference is tough. I mean, this conference is tough now. So is the SEC, though. The SEC is really tough. So you add those two conferences together, I mean, son of a gun, you have two conferences where one or two losses really don't look bad in their autumn. You got something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, like you're talking about some of these bigger teams, I think my concern is that, especially with the start of them last year, they let some of those teams that should not have hung with them for very long to hang with them over halftime and then some of them came out with a loss. For very long to hang with them over halftime and then some of them came out with a loss. So with these bigger teams, I'm a little concerned on what that's going to look like this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you load up the docket there with good teams, it leads to trouble. It leads to trouble in the Badgers. They, they, they played their hand last year and a lot of, like you said, a lot of those games, a, a lot of those close games that shouldn't have been close ended up as loss. Washington State I recall that one in Washington. There the Badgers let them play around, they kept it close for the longest time and led to a loss for the Badgers. So it's definitely going to be something interesting there to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1:I did see the Big Ten. I don't remember if it was the commissioner. I saw an update there. The Big Ten commissioner, I believe, was talking out there and he stated that the Big Ten wants to keep it at 16 teams. Now I believe it's 16. Now, yeah, 16 or 18. 16? I believe it's 16 teams in the Big Ten. Now they want to keep it there.
Speaker 1:They don't want to go any bigger. They think this last expansion was good enough. No kidding, no kidding, right. I mean 16? That's enough. That's enough. You get any bigger? I mean, this is what I've always said If you want to get bigger than that, you might as well have two conferences.
Speaker 1:Make them 30 teams in both. Make your Power 5 conferences, two separate conferences, your East and your West. Let the teams play. Split it into divisions, just like you do in the NFL. At that point that's what you should go for. That's kind of where we're trending right now. Look at how many of these great teams jumped into the SEC. Look at how many great teams are in the Big Ten now. Look how I mean in there. I'm not going to just completely shoot them down, but, man, I mean you're really.
Speaker 1:It's going to be tough for these, you know, the Big 12, the ACC. It's going to be tough when it comes to the college football playoff, to say, well, how do you take a one-loss team out of the Big 12 over maybe even a two-loss team out of the SEC or a two-loss team out of the Big 10? If those two losses in the Big 10, let's just say it's Oregon and their two losses came to, let's just say, ohio State and Michigan. I don't know if that's who's on their schedule this year, but let's just say those two teams and those two teams are your one and two. Let's just put that into perspective. Autumn's telling me that's not on the schedule this year, but it's hypothetical. Let's just say that happens. I mean, what tells you you can't take an Oregon team with two losses? Then, because Michigan and Ohio State are already in, it's going to be very tough.
Speaker 1:I think it's even tougher on the committee now. I really do. I mean there's 12 teams in the playoff now you know they expanded the playoff. I get it right, you got 12 teams. Now that's going to help out a little bit. But what's that 13th team going to say? Now? What are they going to say? Because somebody is going to get upset in this entire situation. I could honestly see one to three teams from the Big Ten and the SEC making it in. It's basically like an auto bid. It basically is it's hard to keep them out. It really is. So I mean in hindsight what he said. It had to be that way. You can't add any more.
Speaker 1:First off, why is it called the Big Ten anymore?
Speaker 1:We should call it the Big 16. I don't know why it's called the Big Ten. There aren't 10 teams. There haven't been 10 teams in the Big Ten in a very long time. Why is it called the Big Ten yet? And that always, it always irritated me hearing that. But I mean, man, oh man, what I? I don't know what they're gonna do here moving forward. I don't know what they're gonna do these conferences, it's, it's baffled me. You know, the big 10 used to be a central thing. Now it moved to the east coast, which was okay. Okay, I still didn't like it, but it was okay. And now it moved to the west coast too. So you have three time zones in one conference. That that's. I mean Big Ten football. I don't like Big Ten football on at nine o'clock at night. I don't the start time at nine, I don't like it, I'm gonna be honest with you. So I feel like it could affect a lot of things down the road there. But we'll see. Right, we haven't even seen it yet. We haven't even seen it yet. I can't just be shooting it down completely. I'm not a, you know. I think the conference is going to be fine, I do.
Speaker 1:I think adding Oregon-Washington, I think it's going to add a lot of good competition in each individual sport. I mean, look at volleyball, oregon jumping in. We know Oregon's pretty good. You look at Washington and football there, oregon usually is good in football, usually good in basketball too. So that's going to add a lot UCLA jumping into the big 10.
Speaker 1:I saw a uh, some bozo out there picked you ucla to win the big 10 for basketball already. I was like I don't even have them in the top four. I'll be honest with you, maybe top seven, I don't know. I okay, you know they. They forget that purdue is still bringing back some pretty good players and so is illinois. Like there's some good teams in the big 10.
Speaker 1:I I don't know if this was a Pac-12 guy who was writing the article, but there's some pretty good teams in the Big Ten yet. So just hold your horses on picking them already as the odds-on favorite to win the Big Ten conference there. But I mean you add UCLA and USC. You look at them and I believe Autumn isn't USC good in softball, haven't you look at them in. I believe autumn isn't usc good in softball. Haven't been any good in softball in the past. So you add them there in the softball for the big 10. It helps out the big 10 for softball. I mean that's a big thing too. The big 10 conference has, you know, not been the greatest softball conference. I guess you could say I mean, look sec. Sec is where most of the good teams come from, and then it was out in the pack. Now you, you have these new teams coming in the Big Ten. It's going to add some teams in the softball game too. So there's a lot of good that's going to come out of this.
Speaker 1:I just don't want to see it expand any further than this. I'm going to be honest with you, and if it does, I want to see them split this thing off into two power conferences at that point and just get it over with. And just get it over with. Just rip the Band-Aid off, make your Power 5 teams two massive conferences, split up into divisions. Call it a day. I would be perfectly okay with that at the end of the day. So with that, that's enough about the Badgers. That's enough about the Badgers. We saw Big Ten Media Day happen. There's more happening as the week goes on here. I mean, we're getting closer and closer to the Badger season, so we're going to get more into the Badgers as the weeks go on, as the month goes on here, but there's more pressing issues on the docket right now that we have to talk about. So with that, before we get to those though, before we get there I want to mention some sponsors of the show here.
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Speaker 1:So with that little NBA talk, it was announced LeBron James makes history as the first US men's basketball player to carry the flag at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Player to carry the flag at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. You know as much as I tell you guys all. I tell you guys a lot that I don't like LeBron. Um, this is still cool. I'm gonna be honest, as much as I don't. You know, you guys know I don't care for LeBron, that much.
Speaker 1:You know, outside of basketball, sometimes in basketball too, this is a. It's an historic moment. It's great and I there's nothing more you can say about it. I think it's great. I think it's great. Um, there's probably a couple of other guys within the U S men's basketball team you could have picked right. I mean, you could have looked at Steph Curry and said, hey, steph, you want to carry the flag, like there's, you know, there's pieces and guys throughout it, but you know, but it is awesome for the game and really bodes well for Team USA going in having him carrying that flag out there. So that's awesome. That is awesome there. Also, I think this is awesome news TNT will match Amazon's $1.8 billion NBA media rights bid and it is now up to the NBA to decide which network to go with there. So I think that's great. I really do.
Speaker 1:I was going to miss Shaq and Chuck and Ernie and those guys on there during the pregame show, halftime show. I was going to miss those guys. To be honest with you having that kind of setting. So hopefully you know cause we know you know some of those guys. I believe Ernie already works with TNT, so he wouldn't go away from TNT and go and work for, let's just say, espn or ABC or whatever network it was on.
Speaker 1:So in order to keep them, you gotta keep it on TNT. I think that that's a big kicker in this entire thing. The NBA needs to sit there and say what do our fans want? Right, they're matching the money. Money for money. It's money for money at this point. So it's not like TNT is coming in at 1.5 billion and they're saying, hey, you can keep the crew. Right, they're matching what Amazon wants to pay. So at this point, it's like NBA, what's better for you? What is better for you? What's better for you is keeping this crew together, because that is the highlight of a lot of people's days and nights is watching these guys in the pregame show, on the halftime show. Whatever it is watching those guys, they make you laugh, they teach you something as you go along. It is honestly one of the greatest halftime pregame shows that I've seen in a long time.
Speaker 1:So for me I am going to be honest with you I'm hoping that they go with this deal here. But in where should we go? Where should we go? Should we look? Should we look over at the Packers? Real quick, let's look over at the Packers. Let's look over the Packers. Nothing really on the Jordan Love front. So I got nothing to say there. We're hoping. We're hoping there's a contract that's signed there.
Speaker 1:The Packers did sign Jacob Eason, a fourth round pick of the Colts out of Washington. He was with the Packers in May at mini camp on a trial basis. Long snapper Peter Bowden was released there Just looking at that quarterback situation, just basically to have another guy around Jordan Love still working through the contract situation. So having another guy around right now, that is basically all there is to it. They did release Peter Bowden to make room for him on the roster there. Eason he's going to be on the practice field on Tuesday looking at being the number three behind Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt. There he was on the practice field as of yesterday. He will remain on the practice field most likely until we see this contract get worked out between the Packers and Jordan Love here. Hopefully, hopefully, we see something soon because this is getting. This is getting ridiculous here. But autumn did. Did you see joe burrow's new hairdo, did you see it?
Speaker 2:I did, and I did, and I am an eminem fan, so I thought it was pretty cool I got the picture up right now.
Speaker 1:I I wish I could. You guys, if you haven't seen joe burrow's new haircut, this new hairdo that he's trying out, it is, it's like eminem um he. His exact quote was blondes do it better. That's what he said back on may 19, 2017 when he went. He's been blonde twice. He was blonde back in the day. That's when he posted that. Now he went blonde again. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not a fan of it. It was kind of like when jimmy butler in. I don't know what. The haircut he was going for that time was some diva haircut that he had going on. I mean, the St Joe Burrell, the St Joe Burrell. I don't know what he's going for here. This is like I don't know. Mr, steal your Girl.
Speaker 2:No, he's being compared to Slim Shady. I don't know he's being he needs to please sit down.
Speaker 1:He needs to please sit down. I don't need him to stand up, I need him to sit down and maybe dye his hair. I don't know, I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan, joe. I'm not a fan of this hairdo that you got. Is this a phase? Is it a phase? Is this what people do? They go through phases. This is my comeback trail. I was, you know, I was injured. I banged up last year. I'm going to comeback trail now, so I'm going to dye my hair blonde because blondes do it better. I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's Joe Bernal, these guys sometimes you just got to go with the flow. You got to go literally go with the flow. This is his new flow. We got to go with the flow on this one.
Speaker 1:But other news coming out of the packers um I you know what, what I've basically seen from all the reports and everything like that, don tavian wicks is. I mean, he's playing like a dog in training camp so far, like this guy looks like to be on another level. So we talked about the other day where the dickhead came out. He said the Packers don't have a number one. Wicks might be giving him the big old middle finger and saying hey, dude, check it out. I'm here right now. I am that dude Because Dontavian Wicks from what I've heard and from what I've seen in video, this guy looks to be the real deal. So I mean, keep an eye on Dontavian Wicks during training camp and, coming out of it, anders Carlson he walked into there and he is a man on a mission and, to put it into other terms, like this guy is. I know a lot of people don't like Anders Carlson because of what we saw last year in the kicking department. But Anders Carlson walked in and he's like I'm going to keep my job, this is how it's going to be department. But Anders Carlson walked in and he's like I'm gonna keep my job, this is how it's gonna be, and he has looked good in training camp. Now is that gonna translate to a game? We'll wait and see, but he has looked good.
Speaker 1:Aj Dillon looks like the dog that we remember. Aj Dillon is on a different level right now, probably because he knows that we just drafted a running back. Now we got Josh Jacobs too. There's a chance that I might lose my job here. I got to show up. He's showing out right now we know Jordan Love is there right. So Jordan Love is there.
Speaker 1:Edron Cooper is, I mean, playing like an animal on the line right now. He's playing like an animal, fast, explosive, getting after the football, getting after guys Love to see it there. Like an animal, fast, explosive, getting after the football, getting after guys Love to see it there. Rashawn Gary is this 4-3 is like butter to him right now. This guy looks fantastic watching him out there on the end. There in that 4-3 defense there is, I mean, man, oh man, this Packers defense.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to love because also, carrington Valentine is slowly proving why that seventh round pick that he got drafted in the seventh round, slowly proving why that maybe should have been a little bit earlier, because Carrington Valentine is playing on another level too and he's playing for a job out there also. So I mean a little bit of takeaways from what I saw, but I mean honestly, back to the Dontavian Wicks, this whole wide receiver core from what I saw. But I mean honestly, back to the Dontavian Wicks, this whole wide receiver core, from what I've seen, between the route running, between the explosiveness, between the athletic ability, this wide receiver core is unreal, unreal. So I mean I know what we heard about what Dick had to say the other day. But slow, cool your jets. I know there's a lot of fans out there. You just got to cool your jets. This Packers team is going to be A-OK. Love's going to sign up. They're going to look good. I got a little game here. Got a little game.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give you an NFL franchise Autumn. I'm going to give you an NFL franchise. Autumn. I'm going to give you an NFL franchise. You have to describe them to me in three words or less. I'm going to give you an NFL franchise. I'll give you a franchise MLB NFL, somewhere in there. You describe them to me in three words or less Okay, so you can only use three words or less. She's looking at me like she's questioning me right now. Three words or less Okay, so you can only use three words or less. She's looking at me like she's questioning me right now. Three words or less to describe them, okay. The Chicago Cubs Three words or less If you had to describe the Cubs.
Speaker 2:Um. I mean.
Speaker 1:You can use one word, you can use two words, you can use three. Just spit the first thing that comes to your head. You have one word to describe the Cubs.
Speaker 2:Despised.
Speaker 1:Despised.
Speaker 2:I don't have much, okay, I just hate the Cubs a lot.
Speaker 1:Okay, now you, you think of one for me NFL, nba, mlb throw a team out there.
Speaker 2:Let's make it interesting Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 1:Right now. No, I'm going to call them. I can't. This is family friendly here. This is family friendly. We F up, that's what they do. We F up. There you go, they F up, that's what they do. The Minnesota Vikings have had some teams where it's been like they should be able to do something and they always find a way to screw it up. They all we can. We can just say we F'd up, we call them screw ups, we call them screw ups. There they had some pretty good teams put together. They find a way to screw it up. I mean, even she's shaking her head over it. She's a Vikings fan. She's like, yeah, yeah, you know, I've watched a lot of those games, watched a lot of those games out there right now, I mean, because of the Bears I've been like hot garbage. That would have been okay there.
Speaker 2:The Lions, over-re overreactors, Lions oh, Jared Goff had a good year last year.
Speaker 1:Oh, everybody freak out. Now it's like everybody relax. All right, yeah, oh, he's made it to a Super Bowl. Yeah, great, he's been to a Super Bowl. He scored three points in the Super Bowl. Nice job, your defense carried you there, thank you, settle down. Settle down. Lions are a good team, but hold on a second. We're not winning Super Bowls yet. We're not winning Super Bowls. You guys did screw the pooch against the 49ers in the NFC Championship game. I just love. I just saw that today. Actually, the one that I saw when they posted was a picture of the Vikings. They said describe this franchise in three words or less. When I saw it on there, but I thought I could make a fun game out of it. Autumn was not prepared, she was not prepared. I saw it on there, but I thought I could make a fun game out of it. Autumn was not prepared, she was not prepared. You just got to throw it out there like hot garbage. Complete mess, if I said the Green Bay Packers three words or less.
Speaker 2:What do you got for me? I hate them.
Speaker 1:You're describing the franchise, not what you feel. What's the franchise?
Speaker 2:like that's how you felt about the Minnesota Vikings you described how you felt about the minnesota vikings.
Speaker 1:You described how you felt. No, I said they f up, that's what they do. Oh well, you gotta be more specific. Well, you could just said, like hot garbage, love the cheese oh, that'd been a good one love the cheese with them, green bay packers. So with that we gotta get, we gotta move on here. I gotta get to autumn's fact of the day here, autumn what we got. Fact of the day here, autumn what do we got. Fact of the day.
Speaker 2:Well, this is something I saw on the news today in line with the Brewers. So back in 2008, the Brewers, they really liked their Philly Cheesesteaks. So Sabathia I don't know if you guys remember him first baseman Prince Fielder and outfielder Corey Hart went to town on the Philly Cheesesteaks back in 2008. So during the three days that they spent in Philly, the trio wolfed down a bunch of Philly Cheesesteaks and sabathia estimated about 28 cheesesteaks I, I would say total I would hope total, not a day which was more than three per player per day. Um, when sabathia returned to philadelphia in 2009 with the yankees for the 2009 world series, the manager, joe Girardi, put his foot down and Sabathia says the skipper banned the cheesesteaks from the visitors' clubhouse because of how many they consumed. So Joe took them out of the clubhouse and Sabathia came back and was like yo, I learned my lesson from my experience the year before.
Speaker 1:All I know is Joe Girardi can eat one. That's what he can do. He can eat a Philly cheesesteak, because these things sound fantastic if we're wolfing down that many. I mean, you think of the guys that you're talking about right now CeCe Sabathia pretty big fella. Prince Fielder pretty big fella. And then I mean who's the last one there? Corey Hart, that dude looks like he could put him away. Come on, that dude looks like you'd want to have a beer with him and he can probably put away some food along with it. Like, these are some pretty big dudes here that we're talking about Three per day. That ain't bad. That ain't bad there. And I mean Joe Girardi chill out. So CeCe wants to enjoy a Philly cheesesteak in between innings. That's fine, let him go. How many guys?
Speaker 1:I mean Gary Sanchez is packing such a big lip full. I'm watching him playing the Cubs right now. He's got such a big lip over there. He thinks it's going to poke out Jackson Churrio's eye over there. I mean, geez louise. And we can't even have cheesesteaks down there. Pretty good fact of the day right there. Pretty good fact of the day. I did not know that. 28 cheesesteaks, though. 28, I mean they kept a business, a company. They kept them afloat for three days. That's all. I know that. That like they were their main customers. They're like, are we getting any business today? Yeah, cc, and the boys were just back like, yeah, that's about it, that's all we need for the day. I mean, holy crap, that's. That's a lot of cheesesteaks right there. So I mean great, great stuff, great stuff coming out of it there.
Speaker 1:Looking into the Brewers front, we do expect Pat Murphy did say we do expect to see Gary Sanchez return from the injured list on Wednesday. Like I was just saying he's back with the crew because I just saw him packing a lipful there in the dugout. So I know he is there and great stuff there. Also, the Brewers did sign their draft picks Braylon Payne, their first-round draft pick, their outfielder Very good prospect for the Brewers.
Speaker 1:He did sign with them. He's got the speed, he's got the glove. I mean everything is there. The athleticism, he's got some power. It's raw power. It's not built power yet Slowly going to build that. You listen to him in his press conference. That he had too. He's slowly building that up. So I mean, hopefully this is another good outfield prospect that the Brewers have At some point. At some point they're going to have to unload somebody, right? I mean, otherwise transition guys around back to positions that I mean maybe one of these guys could play third base, I don't know, maybe they can Also first baseman. Blake Burke did sign. Blake Burke is the guy from Tennessee, I believe, correct, correct, I believe that's the guy they got in the compository draft, or whatever you call it there. The Compository Draft or whatever you call it there. Yeah, they agreed on a minor league contract there.
Speaker 2:He's out of Tennessee.
Speaker 1:Tennessee. Yeah, I mean, he's a big home run hitter. He is Blake Burke, so love to see that signing by the Brewers. A great first base prospect. Right, the Brewers haven't had a great first base prospect come through the minors in a very long time. Yes, I mean Tyler Black's on his way up, but he's a multi-position kind of guy. This is a guy who's a solidified power hitting first baseman. I cannot wait to see him build himself up.
Speaker 1:We do have mike bovey working his way up and he has been playing a lot of uh first base there as the oh brewer is butting the baseball around here against the cubs in this sixth inning is. It is fantastic. So far pat murphy's got the challenge up all the time. Now I'm watching this go. But, um, the brewers, I mean you got mike bovey coming up through the system. He's working on first base, brock wilkins coming up for third, but you have some guys coming in behind him too. Maybe, maybe, trade bait, maybe, trade bait. Eventually, the Brewers are in a period right now where I mean I'm going to tell you this now. You get a little sidetracked here. But sixth inning last night I would have probably challenged that bunt Bryce Terang had. I'll be honest with you, I would have challenged the out call at first base because that was pretty darn close there, maybe a little too close to not even throw up the challenge, uh, to challenge it there for pat murphy, but I guess I guess you know whatever, but it's great to have a lot of good prospects.
Speaker 1:Look at the orioles right now they have a loaded farm system and they're going to be able to make a lot of trades at the deadline. Right now the brewers have good farm prospects. But will the Brewers unload them? That's my million-dollar question, because we know Matt Arnold, we know the Brewers. The Brewers do not love to make deals at the deadline. They don't love to unload the system, right, you know. You look at a lot of these other teams blockbuster trades, right, the Brewers don't make those kinds of deals. They love to. They love to, you know, the under the radar stuff, the small deals, like Savallee for Barros, the simple things, right, they don't. They never really reach. You know, go for these blockbuster deals and it's something to keep an eye on. Maybe this season is one of those years that they do something like that. I don't know.
Speaker 1:You know we've talked about Fetty from the White Sox. There is going to be a lot of people after Fetty. There is going to be a lot of teams going after Fetty. I believe there's going to be a lot of people going after Crochet too. I talked about it weeks ago. The Brewers should have actually started kicking up the tires on that one to see if they could get one of these guys. I just don't know.
Speaker 1:You know, now getting so late, so close I mean we're already to July 23rd. Here 24th, we're at July 24th. We're getting close to the trade deadline and I mean teams are going to be making phone calls and now it's going to be a who can offer us the most kind of deal. And the Orioles have a lot to offer. So it's going to be hard to compete with them for a lot of these top guys.
Speaker 1:Right, jack Flaherty might be an under-the-radar guy that you could grab from Detroit Scooble. He's going to be out of the price range, I believe, for the brewers. I mean I saw a lot of mock trades for him from the orioles to, uh, acquire him from the tigers, and they had jackson holiday in there. I mean you're talking about the number two prospect in all of baseball and that's tough. That's tough for the brewers to compete there, unless if you completely send a haul back there with major league ready talent there. I mean it's going to be tough.
Speaker 1:So, trade deadlines coming up, we're going to get more into some trade targets. We're going to go into trade targets tomorrow here on the show. We're also going to look at some of the people that we believe throughout the organization and even maybe on the big league roster that we could see the Brewers try to move at some point here before the deadline or could possibly be involved in a trade there. So with that Autumn, we got your tidbits. We got your tidbits, autumn's tidbits for the day here. What do we got?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So just going into the season, you know the Votings mostly pick the Cubs to win the division Yesterday. I'm not really worried about the Cubs. After the Brewers' performance with the Cubs, I may or may not second guess myself, but I mean the Cardinals were the next most popular pick, then the Reds, then the Brewers. So, looking at it right now, the Brewers are in first place and I know, going into the season they described them as being more of a different team, having more youth, younger team, more defense and like the speed and they're more versatile with their offense than in 2023. Well, going in coming out of the all-star break, in 2023, the Brewers had a record of 43 and 28, with a 249 team batting average and a 3-28 average of on-base percentage. While looking into the 2024 season, coming out of the All-Star break, they have a record of 55-42, with an on-base percentage of 3-33. With an on-base percentage of 333. I don't know, trayden, I guess what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:just comparing the two seasons. Last year this team was built on pitching. That's what I would say. I mean you had Burns in there. Woodruff was there for a little bit. He was injured, he was banged up. You had Freddie. You were heavily reliant on the pitching staff to carry you lots of places. And this season, I mean there's been some good pitching performances sprinkled in. Tobias Myers has had some, freddie had one his last time out there. Colin Ray has been solid, but it has been a mix and match.
Speaker 1:Whoever the heck can grab innings for the Brewers at this point? I mean it's like Pat Murphy said at one point if you have a pulse and you can pitch, you are being looked at as a potential guy to start for this team. So I mean comparing the two from 2023 to now. I would say am I more comfortable with this team offensively? Yes, I feel better offensively about the Brewers now than I did last season. Am I more comfortable with the starting pitching now than I was last year? No, I am not, because to me and this is just the way, this is the way that I always look at it is okay. The Brewers now to me, are a playoff team. They're a playoff team. So if I went into a playoff series and I had the Phillies, if I had to play the Phillies, you want to go through those first three games. You want to have your ace on the mound, you want to have your number two. You want to have your ace on the mound, you want to have your number two, you want to have your number three. I don't know if the Brewers have a solidified number one.
Speaker 1:If you were to ask me hey, who would you start game one of the NLCS right now? If you had to pick Brewers starting rotation right now, who's starting? I don't know if I could solidly say Freddie Peralta. I don't know if I could. Honestly, I would probably say Tobias Myers. I would just throw it out there Now. Do I believe that Tobias would be the best fit to start NLCS game one? Maybe not, but options. I mean you could throw Colin Ray. He's been solid. But options. I mean you could throw colin ray. He's been solid. Freddie's still a good pitcher. I'm not knocking freddie completely, but what I'm saying is is that there isn't that guy in this rotation right now. Who is that guy? You know you have that dude right. Your ace is supposed to be that guy, after your number five pitches in the rotation, that your ace comes out there and he can give the bullpen a little bit of a break. He's gonna go six.
Speaker 1:He can give you those six solid. Now he's gonna have some rough periods, right, we saw that with burns. We saw that with burns through the year. We've seen that with other brewers aces through the years. They're gonna have their rough spots, the rough games, but I mean nine times out of ten it's a solid game. Now with this team I would say you know, to backtrack to the question there, I just don't. I'm not as comfortable with the pitching as I was last year. I'm more comfortable with the offense.
Speaker 1:Now, the preseason picks I mean the Cubs basically take the Cubs, taking the Brewers manager and the Brewers just pulling up their bench coach and throwing them in there as the manager. That's definitely has a lot to do with it. You thought you were losing wins when Craig Council walked out the door. Plus, this team was I mean you lost Burns. It was looking like it was going to be one of those years where it was like a rebuild and this team has exceeded expectations. They have guys who I mean you talk about guys in the bullpen like Brian Hudson. You talk about Jared Koenig. You talk about I mean Tobias Myers coming out of the minors. You talk about the I mean just little impacts that guys have had along the way and guys that have hit Jackson Sherrill coming along very well, sal Frelrelick, bryce Terang coming along very well. Joey Ortiz was not expected to be as good as he was when he walked through the door in Milwaukee. So there's a lot of different pieces that the Brewers have added or brought up through the system that weren't expected to exceed expectations this year, and they really are. So that's something that you don't factor in when you're making a preseason pick. And the Cubs? They had a more solidified lineup. So did the Cardinals. Now the Cardinals are kind of starting to slowly figure it out, which makes you a little nervous. So are the Cubs. They're starting to figure it out a little bit too, but the Cardinals are figuring out. They actually. I saw a ranking. They were ranked second most lucky team in baseball. Things just go on their way. That bodes well for them. I guess that bodes well for a team like that, all in all, being comfortable heading towards the trade deadline.
Speaker 1:No, I truthfully believe the Brewers need to make a move for the home stretch. They need to add somebody in that starting rotation. Is it going to be a big name? I don't think so. I don't think it's going to be one of the hot commodities on the market. I really think it's going to probably be like maybe like a Chris Bassett or you know.
Speaker 1:I really was leaning towards the Mets, but now the Mets are actually in the wildcard picture, so I don't see the Mets making deals. I don't see the Mets making deals for their starters. You know, luis Severino was on my radar, so was Sean Mena out there? If you really want to take a risk, you'd pick Jose Quintana from the Mets there. But now that they've played themselves back into a wildcard spot, I don't foresee the Mets making a deal at the trade down line. They might be buyers, barring what happens with this Brewers-Cubs series. That might flip the Cubs script. If they would have probably lost this series. Maybe they're sellers Now if they win the series versus the Brewers. That changes. That changes there. So I mean there's yeah, I mean going off your point there. I mean there is a. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I would say I was more comfortable. It's a split. I'm a split. I was more comfortable last year with the pitching staff, less comfortable with the lineup. Now I'm more comfortable with the lineup, I'm less comfortable with the pitching staff. Heading into this one. I mean, would you probably say yeah, yeah, she's saying yeah, she agrees, she's right with me there. So with that I mean Autumn, you got the bullpen usage from this last week. I mean just if you want to just quick skim over top of that before we wrap it up here.
Speaker 2:I mean they're there. From what it looks like They've only. They're using three guys the most Peguero, mcgill and Zastrinsky. Zastrinsky Thank you and they and Piamps, and this is from just till july 22nd. I mean, I don't know, I'm not, I'm not pretty, I'm not that knowledgeable in terms of pitching per se, but I don't, I don't know. I'm not super impressed with how the pitching staff has been doing recently with the Brewers. I don't know if you have a different thought on that, trajan.
Speaker 1:I would say it's hit or miss. I would say it's hit or miss. Jared Canning, just coming off injury, I thought he looked solid in his outing. Outside of that I mean Paguero, he worked himself out of issues. Milner actually worked himself out of issues there against the Cubs on Monday. He got himself into a little bit of a jam, worked his way out of it there. Uh, outside of that I mean McGill giving up runs. But I mean solid. Solid for McGill. You know McGill's a tough one because he was kind of thrown into a role that he wasn't expected to be in at one point. So the bullpen usage over the last, you know, saturday was heavy. Saturday was heavy because we saw, I mean, poguero, we saw Junis, we saw McGill, we saw Hudson, we saw Pions, we saw Zastrinsky. In that one Sunday, same boat, there we saw Poguero and Koenig McGill, we saw Zastrinsky, we saw Wilson. Monday, we just saw Milner and Pajamps there.
Speaker 1:You know a little bit of a blunder of a game there that the Brewers had against the Cubs, nothing really seemed to go right. Lots of guys getting on, not a lot of producing of runs, which we've talked about to be issues there for the Brewers, but with that, that's about all we got for today. That's about all we have for today there. Like I said, tomorrow we're going to get into the trade deadline. I want to talk trade deadline. I want to talk about some trade targets the Brewers should be looking at. I want to look at guys the Brewers could potentially be looking at moving on from, moving from the minor league system wherever it is. I want to get into that a lot there tomorrow as we get closer and closer to the trade deadline there. But with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports on the Go With Trades. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Wednesday, but until I talk to you guys again tomorrow, deuces, deuces.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my Lord, watch me sway.
Speaker 1:Darkness falls and we all pray, hoping for the light of day. Down to the river, I have held the devil's hand, felt the weight of my own sin Buried by the heart of man Down to the river down to the river.