Olympic Surprises, Tatum's Mystery Absence, Brewers Trade Buzz, and Jordan Love's Big Deal – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag

Ever wondered how the addition of break dancing to the Olympics might impact the future of sports? Or what could be behind Jason Tatum's mysterious absence from the U.S. men's basketball team's victory over Serbia? Join us as we explore these fascinating topics and much more in our triumphant return to Wisconsin Sports. We kick off with a look back at our unforgettable county fair adventure, offering updates and a hearty dose of local charm before diving into the excitement of the MLB trade deadline and speculating what moves the Brewers might make to stay competitive.

We'll also discuss the far-reaching decisions of Wisconsin Badgers' athletic director Chris McIntosh, from extending his contract to making pivotal coaching hires. Was hiring Luke Fickell as the football coach a masterstroke, and does retaining Greg Gard as the men's basketball coach spell future success or ongoing frustration? We don't shy away from sharing our candid thoughts and personal anecdotes about the Badgers' basketball team's performance and what we believe it will take for them to turn things around.

Finally, celebrate with us as we analyze Jordan Love's record-breaking contract with the Green Bay Packers and dissect Josh Pate's predictions for the top 25 college football teams. We evaluate where Big Ten Conference teams stand and why some notable teams didn't make the cut. Plus, get the latest scoop on the Brewers' bullpen shakeup, injury updates, and strategic trade moves. From the return of All-Star closer Devin Williams to the signing of Prince Fielder's son, we've got all the latest updates to keep you informed and entertained.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Thank you, how we doing everybody and welcome in to Wisconsin Sports.

Speaker 1: 0:33

I'm your host, trage. It is Tuesday, july 30th. Who would have thought it is almost August. It is almost August already. It is crazy how fast this year is flying by, flying by right there.

Speaker 1: 0:48

We've been on. We've been gone for a couple of days. We've been gone for a couple of days. Gone last week, friday didn't get a show in, we had some issues with the server the night before and then ended up. We were gone all weekend down at the one of the county fairs here in the state of Wisconsin. So we're gone all weekend.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Got home late on Sunday night and well, autumn was tapped out. She was tapped out, she didn't want to jump on. I can't do it. I can't do it without my audio person, my stat checker. I can't do it without the backroom people. Right, I got my dogs over here. I got Autumn here too. I mean we can't do it without the backroom people. I got my dogs over here, I got autumn here too. I mean, we can't. Can't do without the backroom people. So we're here, we're back today. Lots to get into a lot, I mean, holy crapola. There has been so much that has happened since we last talked, but autumn and I are back today. Autumn, how we doing. Tuesday great day, trade deadline today it's. It should be a good day. I don't know we're going to talk about it today, but autumn, how we doing, are we doing on this Tuesday?

Speaker 2: 1:44

We're doing pretty good. I'm excited for the trade deadline and you can only hope that the Brewers will make some sort of a big move. I'm not super optimistic just based off their history, but we've had a couple of moves which I'm excited to talk about today.

Speaker 1: 1:58

So we're going to get into it today. We're going to get into it today If we think the Brewers are going to make a move. If we don't think they're going to make a move, who they could potentially make moves for? The list is getting shorter and shorter of some of the bigger name guys that we've talked about in the past. So we're going to wait and see here if the Brewers do make a move, I'm hoping I'm really hoping that it's sooner rather than later, before a lot of these guys are off the market here. But, like I said, lots to get into. I want to start right where the world is sitting right now, and that is in the Olympics.

Speaker 1: 2:29

We got some big stuff happening in the Olympics. Not really Not really crazy stuff happening, but we did see the men's team. They took a win over the weekend there, got a win over Serbia, got the best of Jokic there, which was good to see. Flip side of it. We did not see Jason Tatum play a minute in that game against Serbia. I thought that was kind of fascinating to me, just because Jason Tatum's Jason Tatum, you're talking about one of the best dudes in the NBA. Now you listen to Steve Kerr and Steve Kerr says that he messed up and he should have played him. I mean, they were up. I think they won that game like 100-something to 84. Like it wasn't, like it was a close ballgame, but he said he was. You know, he talked to Jason before the game started and he said it was, you know, going to depend on matchups and lineups and everything like that, and this was a possibility. How is it a possibility, is my question. How is it never a possibility that we don't see LeBron James play or we don't see Kevin Durant play? But we're talking about one of the up-and-coming stars in the NBA and I mean he's been in the NBA for a little while right now. You know and I'm not saying that you know Jason Tatum's the greatest player on that team, but Jason Tatum's also I mean we're talking about just went to the finals with the Celtics' Jason Tatum. Now, if Jalen Brown was on that team and also didn't play, then I'd be baffled, because then you'd be talking about two guys who went to the NBA finals who did not play and they were two of the main catalysts on that team. I don't know. Just an interesting storyline off of that one. They're not seeing Jason Tatum at all.

Speaker 1: 4:08

So we did see, like I said, united States they moved to 1-0. Starting out here in the Olympics they're 1-0. South Sudan, who gave the United States a scare there. We talked about that a little bit a couple couple weeks ago, a week ago. On the show here they're sitting at 1-0 in Group C, puerto Rico 0-1 and then Serbia at 0-1. Now too, looking over I mean some of the other notable teams, I guess we have Giannis with Greece there. They ended up losing that first match up there. So Giannis and Greece, they fall to 0-1. Giannis can only do so much I mean watching him play dude's getting buckets, but he can only do so much for a team that can't shoot. So Greece sitting there at 0-1 in group A right now.

Speaker 1: 4:51

The US women's team, who has not lost and I believe they haven't lost in the Olympics in like 50. Autumn, look at the streak, see if you can find the streak of the women's basketball team in the olympics. How, how long is that winning streak that they have? It's at least 50, some games, I believe, there. But it's something ridiculous. It's something ridiculous like that. But they got the win their first game there. They moved to 1-0. They beat japan 102 to 76, so not even a close game. Britney grinder's like seven feet taller than everybody on team japan, so that did not help. Autumn, you got it.

Speaker 2: 5:26

Yeah, so they are undefeated at the Olympics since 1992. So the USA women's team are seeking their eighth straight gold with a 56-game win streak.

Speaker 1: 5:38

That's ridiculous. But that tells you how not so good the rest of the world is at basketball, In the women's side at least the men's's. I mean in the women's side at least. The men's side, like we know, is slowly starting to spread apart. I mean look at Greece, look at Serbia. I mean South Sudan's got some pretty good players, as we know. So I mean there's some pretty good teams on the men's side. You look at the women's side, it had completely changed. I mean I watched the highlights of that game between the United States and Japan and I mean Japan's like their tallest girl is three feet shorter than Brittany Griner.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Like it is just ridiculous watching that game. I mean you got to play who you got to play. I'm not saying that you know the US, just you know it was this unfair. Well, it kind of was. But I mean I'm not saying anything against japan in any way, shape or form, but united states was just better, they were bigger, they were just better. That's just the way that it shook out.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Japan had to settle a lot from the outside because they weren't taking it inside against britney grinder. And well, we saw the finish. I mean we saw the finish there 102 to 76. There's not a lot of women's basketball teams that score 102 points. So I mean that's just blatantly honest. Like wmba games don't get up to 102 usually. So seeing that in this, I mean it puts a perspective on things, it puts a perspective on them. But I mean in good news, they moved to 1-0 in group c right now. Other notables around there serbia is 1-0 in group a, spain's 1-0, france and nigeria both 1-0 in group b right now. Germany is 1-0 in group c, spain is 1-0. France and Nigeria both 1-0 in Group B right now. Germany is 1-0 in Group C right now.

Speaker 1: 7:09

So that's where the basketball stuff stands in the Olympics right now. So good stuff there Coming out of the Olympics, some of the weird sports. I was looking up Because I saw some weird sports coming out of the Olympics so I had to see some of the ones that I saw out there and I saw a list of them. I saw one. It was called the modern pentathlon is what they call it. So essentially you the it starts with the show jumping on an unfamiliar horse. So you get on a horse and you do an unfamiliar. You get an unfamiliar horse, you do a random jump it's the weirdest thing that I've seen and then you move to two rounds of fencing, followed by a cool off with a 200 meter freestyle swim. The final portion is a laser run where athletes alternate between running and shooting at targets.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Each competition is divided into men's and women's and runs over three days. It was the the wildest thing I've seen. I mean I watched handball. I saw some handball stuff going on. I've heard of handball, I've never seen it. I watched some video of it. That's just crazy. Handball was in there. Table tennis, I thought that was. I mean, some of those people watching. Some of them play table tennis. I played table tennis before I don tennis before I don't even think I could be. I don't even think I could be. I mean, did you see any like looking at some of these sports, some of these like competitions in the olympics? Did you see any weird ones? Did you see any weird ones that you could think of?

Speaker 2: 8:33

I mean that you saw that you've seen so far anything like that I mean one thing when I saw it, I mean it came in the last olympics, but break dancing I guess I don't see it. I personally don't see it as an Olympic sport. But hey, I mean, to each their own, but that was a shocking one to me.

Speaker 1: 8:51

I would go to the Watermelon Crawl. You know that song, the Watermelon Crawl. I'd come out to that song. I mean just doing the Watermelon Crawl. If you can't, what did they say? If you're going to drink, do the watermelon crawl home. You can't drive, Don't fall, do the watermelon crawl. There you go, Don't fall, do the watermelon crawl. That's why I see it. I couldn't do the show without Autumn because I would not have remembered that specific song. Right there it's man, man, oh man. But some crazy sports that you see in the Olympics, some crazy competitions that you see in the Olympics these days.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So that you see in the Olympics these days. So with that I want to get. Oh, where should we look now? Wisconsin Badgers let's check the Badgers out real quick. We did see last week there the Badgers did extend. Chris McIntosh he has been the athletic director has been signed to a five-year contract extension running through June 30th there 2029. That includes a pay raise. Well, he's been the athletic director since Barry Alvarez's retirement in 2021. So McIntosh has made some good decisions in Madison.

Speaker 1: 9:56

There's two things I guess that I looked at that I said could hinge his job and could be the difference between him getting a another extension or potentially being let go. My biggest one, I guess, was luke fickle, because he put a lot of money in that pot right. Bringing in fickle, it was supposed to change the environment. It was supposed to change this team, you know, and bring this program to new heights, something that they haven't been to in a while. You know it was 112, and they'd go 13-1. They'd always lose to Ohio State. That's just how it was, and Fickle was supposed to be the guy to take them over the top right. Bring in a different regime, bring in a different group of coaches. See what happens.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Well, now that McIntosh is extended. We all know everybody was telling us that we had to wait for Fickle to get his guys into Madison before we truly judged him, because I judged him early but I was told I had to wait. Well, in this time period now we will see Luke Fickle's contract slowly start to dwindle down to less and less years. Right, and we're going to see it. Was it the right hire? Was it the right hire to move on from Paul Chris when we did Not hire Jim Leonard, not go a different direction? Bring in this big money guy in Luke Fickle. Who is going to change the program Is that going to be?

Speaker 1: 11:14

the right move. I think that is one thing that is going to hinge McIntosh's job. Another one for me, and this is the hot topic. It seems like one for me, and this is the. This is the hot topic it seems like every single year with the Badgers basketball team, with the men's basketball team, greg Gard, because we continuously and it happens every year we get the fire guard, we get the hashtag fire guard.

Speaker 1: 11:38

All the time there's that one loss or that one losing streak and everybody starts blowing their gasket. I did last year. I mean, if you guys have listened to the show long enough, you guys listened to me blow a gasket. You guys heard Rogan tell me I was wrong and then, like three weeks later, you heard Rogan say that he was sorry for telling me I was wrong, because then he was on the same boat. I was and Austin, he was sitting on the. He was sitting at the what do you call me? The bus stop. He was at the bus stop. He wasn't on the train yet. He was at the bus stop waiting to get on the bus and at the end of the year he was on the bus.

Speaker 1: 12:06

And I mean, I didn't want to get to that point. I don't want to get to that point. I don't think Greg Gard is you know, and a lot of people think it's you know a different story than that, but they think Greg Gard's an idiot. I don't think Greg Gard knew something, but it's the decision-making, it's all those little things in there. So, hindsight, I'm not talking about Greg Gard right now. I'm talking about Chris McIntosh continuously bringing Greg Gard back without the success or without the you know.

Speaker 1: 12:41

You look at the winning seasons. Okay, yeah, he's got a lot of winning seasons, but what's that ending with? Right, you got to have an end goal. What's the end goal? Right, is the end goal to finish third in the big 10? Because if that's the end goal, we're right there. But the end goal should be a little bit more and the badgers aren't getting that little bit more, the players aren't developing that little bit more, and that's something that I think, looking at this team, is something that might hinge Chris McIntosh getting another extension is that contract? Because if he continuously keeps bringing guard back with continuous non-improvement, that might alter what's going to happen there.

Speaker 1: 13:20

I don't know. I mean Autumn. Do you hear anything in that that baffles you, that you know you wouldn't agree with there. I mean the Luke Fickle, the Chris McIntosh, two of the bigger programs, I guess, two of the ones that are mainly talked about, you know, outside of hockey, right, but we already saw the men's hockey team pull off a pretty good year. This year the women's hockey team is consistently good, so it's hard to argue with those two fronts. But the men's basketball and football seem to be the two hottest topics of head coaches that we hear about.

Speaker 2: 13:55

I mean not really. I agree with you completely, with what you had to say. I do think that I'm curious to see how this basketball season will go for the men. Like you said, they start out hot, they do really well, but then as soon as you start to get to the March Madness, things fall apart. And I'm just curious and like what happened last year with the football team, they stuck along with teams that they should have been blowing out of the water. So I think it's to a point where I'm just I'm really curious to see how the season's going to go for them.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Yeah, no, I completely agree. I mean like I said like and like you said. I mean you've had these guys for a. Does it play out? How does it play out now? I mean you look, you've had Longo for you know Longo's been around. Now Trestle's been around. They've had enough time to put their systems in. I mean the dairy rate offense, like we know, with Longo, trestle, with his defense, the change is there. How does it shape up now? And I think, like we're saying, that's going to hinge a lot of what happens there in this scenario. So I mean good stuff seeing McIntosh being extended. Now we just wait and see what's going to happen there with some of these head coaches over the years here. If McIntosh sticks with him, if that's going to be the downfall of him, if he does stick with him, if that will be the downfall of, say, mc McIntosh, if guard struggles, or if Luke Fickle doesn't get up to snuff and he's stuck with this guy and he stuck his neck out and gave him the big payday, is that going to be one of those things? So something to keep an eye on there with the Badgers. But big news coming out of the weekend there for this Badger team. So we got lots more to get into.

Speaker 1: 15:34

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Speaker 1: 15:57

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Speaker 1: 16:30

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Speaker 2: 17:20

Yeah, a little bit shorter today. I just wanted to kind of go into the preseason. We were just talking about college football, so I want to go into the preseason. Paul from Josh Pate predictions that he came out. So he had 25 teams that he came out with. I'm not going to read them all off, but the top five were Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas and Alabama, in that order.

Speaker 1: 17:52

The bottom five in this order were South Carolina, florida, gators, iowa State, oklahoma State, wisconsin and Iowa State, ohio State, oregon, penn State, wisconsin, in that order there coming out of the Big Ten Conference on that list there. So I mean just Michigan mixed in there too. They're coming in after Penn State or they're coming in after yeah, it was after Oregon's in there, followed by Penn State. I mean, yeah, looking at that top 25, nothing really surprising in that standard there. I mean got ohio state in the two spot right now, oregon in the three. They just got dylan gabriel out of, uh, oklahoma there. I mean he's coming over. You got penn state. They're bringing a good recruiting class, good in the transfer portal there. Michigan returning a good amount of the starters there.

Speaker 1: 18:36

And then I mean, looking down that list of Big Ten teams, you finally get your way down. You get to Wisconsin. There I mean solid. I mean Wisconsin solid. You don't know what to expect. Tyler Van Dyke's coming in. You got a good receiving core coming back. Defense supposed to be good right. Hunter Wohler's coming back. You're going to have some good players on that defense there. So lots of good players there. You know to work around there in the Big Ten Conference. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting to see Like we were just talking about Fickle how he works with this new group of guys, how Tyler Van Dyke fits in the system.

Speaker 1: 19:11

Ches Malusi coming back on the offense now Going to be very good. I mean I think the Badgers will be good this year. I think they will be good. 24 is about where I would see them right now. I'm going to be honest with you. 24 would be about where I see them right now. Ohio State's bringing in a good class. Oregon's bringing in a good class, penn State's also in that same boat. Michigan's always in that boat, it seems like. So I definitely the list makes sense. The list makes sense. Autumn's mic is working again. So some of your not mentioned, some of your teams that were mentioned in there, that you had listed there.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Some of the not mentioned teams that were in the top 25 were Minnesota, rutgers, nebraska, illinois and Michigan State Trayson. What are your thoughts on them not being mentioned in that top 25? Do you think they should have been mentioned? Should some not have been mentioned, what are your thoughts on them not being mentioned in that top 25? Do you think?

Speaker 1: 20:01

they should have been mentioned? Should some not have been mentioned? What are your thoughts? Minnesota no, rutgers, thanks. Nebraska's got a good quarterback now, but you got a quarterback Like. You still need to make it work. You got to have an offensive line, you got to have a running back. You got to have something that works right. So maybe they're good, maybe Nebraska figures it out, but until I see it, I got to see it right, I got to see it on the field. I'm not putting Nebraska in there.

Speaker 1: 20:22

Illinois Brett Bielema is still worried about Wisconsin. He still has feuds. He has feuds with Luke Fickle now, and Fickle had nothing to do with when Brett Bielema left. So I mean Illinois is just a mess. Michigan State's still a mess. So I mean those teams not being mentioned in the top 25, anywhere near it, that's fine, that's fine. I wouldn't even have had him close. I wouldn't have had him close in there with that. So with that I mean we had one more big topic coming out of the weekend Autumn you can get the numbers for me on this one but the Jordan Love contract. Jordan Love signed his contract over the weekend.

Speaker 1: 20:55

A big I mean a big sigh of relief. It was a sigh of it was it was a relief. It was a relief to finally I mean finally have that done and get it over with on the backside, right. I mean that's, that's what you need. It was a, it was a clapping moment there. I mean it was surreal, right, surreal, like we just felt it. We felt this on the inside. It just had to be that way. I'm sitting there doing absolutely nothing right, just enjoying myself down at the county fair, having a few too many beers, like you're supposed to, right here in wisconsin, and that was my feeling. That was my feeling when I saw it come across. So autumn, we got the numbers, the official numbers on the contract you haven't pulled, pulled up there I do so.

Speaker 2: 21:39

Jordan Love signed a four-year contract at $220 million, including a $75 million signing bonus, with $160 million $300,000 guaranteed, with an average annual salary of $55 million, making him the highest paid quarterback in NFL history.

Speaker 1: 22:03

Bam million, making him the highest paid quarterback in nfl history. Bam, that's like the mic drop right there, mic drop. I mean you know what people were upset. They're like oh, you're signing, you're signing jordan love to this massive contract and he's only proven something for a half a season and, oh, my goodness, you know the world was on fire. We're going to pay him all this money. What if he stinks? What if he does? Okay, then you bite the bullet, right, you got to do it. But if you don't sign that contract, let's just say you don't sign that contract. You tell him I want to see you do it in your fifth year. Let's say he lights the world on fire, wins the nvp. What do you do then? Because that 220 mil, it gets a lot more.

Speaker 1: 22:47

And the decision for jordan love to come back to green bay then becomes a lot harder because there's going to be other teams in on that. They're going to be offering money, they're going to be offering this, they, they're going to be offering this, they're going to be offering that. It's a deal you have to make. That's just the way the NFL works. It's the way the market works. Now you just don't have a choice anymore, right, I mean your quarterback. Like many people have said and I'm not the only one who's going to say this the quarterback position may be the most important position in sports, because if you don't have a quarterback, you really don't have a football team. That's just how it works. So I mean, yes, will I agree? He only had a half a year. That was good. Yes, he had a subpar start to the year, a good second half, right, and the second half was great, phenomenal. Like you have people talking about him being one of the better quarterbacks in football right now.

Speaker 1: 23:41

So I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I don't believe that Jordan Love could be good, because I was a doubter. If you guys have listened, I doubted Jordan Love for the longest time. For the longest time, I said Jordan Love was this and that and that the Packers needed to move on and that they shouldn't have let Aaron Rodgers go and that they should start Sean Clifford. I was saying everything underneath the blue moon and I hate my words on it because he proved me wrong. He did his thing, he stuck with it. The receivers got better. He got better. Everything started to flow. Matt LaFleur, as his coach, opened up holes for him that we didn't know he could open up. The play calling was phenomenal and Jordan Love looked good. Sometimes that's all it takes.

Speaker 1: 24:25

So is the contract great in this circumstance? I mean probably not, because, in hindsight, for half a good season, would you want to see all that money get floated out there? Probably not. But you want to see all that money get floated out there? Probably not. But you got to. You have to make this deal, otherwise that contract gets bigger Teams start floating in and you might lose Jordan Love. So now you have to start from ground zero again. You have to go to the draft. You might have to look elsewhere, right, and is elsewhere going to be better? Right? You're going to start yourself over. Now you have a chance to build. You have a chance to build with Jordan Love. He's the centerpiece right Now. You build around him as they have Through the draft, through, I mean, a little bit of picking guys up here and there. It's slowly building into something that you want to see. So the contract, though it seems pricey, it had to happen. It was the deal and I'm thinking it's going to be a good deal. I'm hoping it's going to be a good deal. I'm hoping it's going to be a good deal. We'll see. It's a wait and see, right, I mean it's going to be an encore performance.

Speaker 1: 25:46

Now we saw Jordan Love in the first season, his first full season as a starter, the beginning kind of rocky. Figured it out in the second half, though he made some questionable decisions right. I mean, the biggest one that people bring up is the 49ers game late. Did he have to make that throw across the field to the middle of the field? Probably not right With all the time, with all the timeouts. But that's a young quarterback. I mean that's a young quarterback in one of the biggest I mean in the biggest moment of his career playing the 49ers on the road.

Speaker 1: 26:16

You have to lead your team down the field and score to win it. That's a tough spot. There are very few quarterbacks who are going to lead their team down the field and win that game right, especially in that spot. I mean you have the 49ers on the ropes all game long. You led the entire time and now you're looking to go to the NFC championship and you couldnC Championship and you couldn't do it, you couldn't do it, and it happens. So you just I mean you forget. You move on. The Packers have forgot about it because, like I said, they signed this massive contract with them. They're going to move on with it and they have faith in them. They've been pretty good at having faith in quarterbacks brett barf, aaron rogers and now jordan love. So now we wait and see. It's a wait and see moment, but I rejoiced.

Speaker 1: 27:13

I was glad it was over. I'm glad we get to now see a little bit of Jordan Love in training camp. We get to see him work with his receivers. We get to see the offense as it should be no Sean Clifford working around, none of these other quarterbacks, right. We get to see the number one QB1, in the huddle again and not standing there in a sweatshirt off to the side just watching practice. So great stuff. I thought that was great stuff coming off the weekend there I mean Autumn, any thoughts on the Jordan Love contract?

Speaker 1: 27:44

Nothing like that. No, all good on that. And so I mean that's where we stand. Packers made the deal. They got it done, as everybody was hoping for Good stuff there coming out of Green Bay. So with that, before we get to the Brewer Talk because, like I said, we're at the trade deadline we got to get to the Brewers today. Before we get there, I want to get to our fact of the day with Autumn there and hopefully, hopefully, we got the music back on Good enough send kids to their grandma's house through postal service.

Speaker 2: 28:30

So they found about seven instances of people mailing children between 1913 and 1915 beginning, beginning with the baby in Ohio. Now, this wasn't common to mail your children yet for long distances. It would have been cheaper to buy the stamps to send a kid by railway mail than to buy them a ticket on a passenger train that was, that's odd, that's odd.

Speaker 1: 29:13

So we're, we're mailing kids. We're, we're just mailing kids is what you're telling me in the early 1900s?

Speaker 2: 29:20

yeah, there wasn't when I was looking at. Apparently there wasn't a lot of specifics on postal mail, so then people went to that link. Well, now you know there ain't much more I can add to that.

Speaker 1: 29:38

I mean I'm trying to ponder up something in my head but I guess, uh, don't nowadays, don't try to mail your kid. Maybe back in the day, mail your kid around, send them to grandma's house. Maybe in seven days the kid will actually show up. I don't know. But my worry would be nowadays, with us postal service and the ups trucks and the fact I mean, you ever gota package from fedex? Like they dang near, throw that thing at your door from the highway, like it doesn't matter if your driveway is a mile long, they'll just throw it. So don't mail your kid anymore because your kid will get a concussion from being tossed from a FedEx truck. Nah, I'm just taking shots at FedEx now. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 30:13

That's American, what is it? What's the one with the eagle? Is there like an american one? American, no, it's a credit card. I'm trying to think of the. There's a third one. There's a fedex ups. I can't remember the other one now, can't remember the. It might be this united states postal service. I don't know. I don't know if I thought there was a third one there, but man, baffling, baffling news coming out of 1913, with mailing your kids around. Never knew that. Now you know something new, you got, you know, something new today, folks. That's what you needed to know. You needed to know something like that. So let's get. Let's get to the brewers. Let's get to the brewers. We got a trade deadline coming up today. It's I. I did not expect it to come this fast. I mean, I'm sitting here, you know, talking, thinking about trades, didn't realize it was so close. It's here. The trade deadline is here. It's today. It is today, folks, and it is dangerously close because our brewers have done nothing besides get Nick Mears yet.

Speaker 1: 31:18

So, we're going to get into that Nick Mears deal. We're going to look all over it. So, to start it, I mean let's look at the injury report because, wowza, so we see the airbender come back. That was great. We saw Devin Williams come back. So bolster up the bullpen, right, folks. We get the airbender back, we get to move guys around in the bullpen. Everything's looking great.

Speaker 1: 31:42

And then, oh, my goodness, it's like everybody decided to get hurt at the same exact time. So we see Trevor McGill go down with a low back strain. He's out 15 days. We see Brian Hudson go down with a left oblique strain. He's down on the 15 day IL. We see Rob Zastrinsky go on the 15-day IL. So that's three bigger. I mean Hudson and McGill, your big-time relievers. Rob Zastrinsky was actually pitching extremely well for the Brewers in like a long reliever role for them. He goes down. Holy cats, right, holy cats. I mean look at that. It's like we got one guy back right, our all-star closer. And then everybody else says, oh, we've been hurt this entire time. Now that you guys got Dev back, we're going to go on the injured list. We're going to call it a day. Not good news on that front. And then I mean we do see JB Buckus. He ends up going on a rehab assignment. He was down with the ACL Brewers there in the Arizona League and then he did get moved up to the Nashville Sounds. So maybe we get JB Butkus back pretty soon. But outside of that, I mean we're looking at an injured list Through the roof there the Brewers did.

Speaker 1: 32:51

They made a lot of moves. They have made a lot of moves with those injuries. We did see Tyler Jay was recalled from Nashville Sounds Nick Mears we're going to talk about that here in a second. He was activated by the Brewers so now you have him out in the bullpen there. Jansen Junk was designated for assignments Looking down the line here. We've seen a lot of moves here. The Nick Mears move we're going to talk about that in a second here Signed a lot of guys not a lot of big names there on the list of guys they've signed.

Speaker 1: 33:20

So nothing really to talk. There's average. I mean nothing really crazy on that front there. And then they did sign Jaden Fielder, which is who is the son of Prince Fielder, to a minor league deal. He was not selected in the draft but they did end up signing him. So pretty cool news coming out of the Brewers there. But we did see the Brewers. They grabbed up on Nick Mears Autumn. Do you have potentially the stats on Nick Mears, what we've seen from him this season? There he was with the Rockies, now coming over to the Brewers there. The stats don't tell you everything. The stats don't tell you everything.

Speaker 2: 34:02

So, Autumn, what have we seen so far with Mears in the stats department, so far in the? I'm sorry my iPad is lagging, so I do apologize for that.

Speaker 1: 34:11

No, you're good. You're good on the back side.

Speaker 2: 34:13

So the 2024 regular season? I You're asking me.

Speaker 1: 34:23

We're having some problems in the back room right now. We're having some problems in the background right now Looking at Mears. I got stats pulled up right here. It's all good. Looking at the stats right now he has. If you look at the stats it looks bad. It looks bad for Mears there. He has that 1-4 record, a 5.56 ERA, 41 games pitched and he's got 45 innings and 57 strikeouts. So you're like, oh, my goodness gracious. I mean, look at that, look at that ERA there.

Speaker 1: 34:49

What are the Brewers doing? This isn't a good move. This is a bad move. This is just one of those Brewer moves that we're used to right. Well, yes, but if you look at nick mears over the recent period now we got to look recent with this mirror steel it has looked a lot better. He still has. I mean you're talking about a guy with an electric fastball, some underrated breaking stuff there, and you look at the stats over the last seven games 3.68 er ray in those seven and thirds innings pitched there, three earned runs. He's got 10 strikeouts. I mean this is a guy who, if he puts it all together and the Brewers can work with him, they get him in the pitching lab, they can work with him there. This is a guy who the Brewers could potentially figure out Right Electric fastball, good breaking stuff. Put those together with the Brewers' great pitching coaches that they have fixed a lot of pitchers over the years. This could be a good move for the Brewers. Now it's a wait and see. We haven't seen him pitch for the Brewers yet, so we're still waiting on that to see him go there. But it could be a great move. It could be an underrated great move for the Brewers to give him a solid guy in that bullpen. So that's a good move by the Brewers there. So we see Mears. He gets added up by the Brewers there. They do end up dealing off Bradley Blake, who we've seen in the majors a little bit this year, bouncing from AA up to the majors. We've seen him a little bit. He gets moved there. And then we also see Herrera, a right-handed pitcher from down there in the minors. He gets moved there for Nick Mears. So, like we always say with the Brewers, not a huge move, but it could be a good move. It could be a good move. It's not a well-known, this guy is pitching fantastic this year kind of move, but it's a solid move. It's a solid move and that's all you can say. So hopefully, like I say, good stuff coming out of that trade there. Like I said, we haven't seen them yet. We haven't seen them pitching for the Brewers yet. So maybe this is an underlying move that we're going to talk about later on this year. Hopefully we're talking about in the playoffs there as a great reliever for the Brewers in the second half.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Now to the trade deadline. We saw a big deal happen yesterday Dodgers and the Cardinals and the White Sox in a three-team deal there. We saw the Dodgers get Michael Kopech and Tommy Edmond, we saw the Cardinals get Tommy Pham and Eric Fetty and we saw the White Sox get Miguel Vargas, alexander Albertos and Jarrell Perez there from the Dodgers. So Cardinals, they get Pham and Fetty right, the Brewers were bigging on Fetty. So it's like crap, right, this was crap.

Speaker 1: 37:42

And I saw a lot of people saying well, you know, don't worry about it, don't worry about it, don't you know, don't think the Brewers have to make a move now because the Cardinals added up Fedde and they added up, you know, tommy Pham there and I could see that. I could see what you're saying there. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. There's no reason to freak out. The Cardinals are making moves. You know what the Cardinals making moves tells me. The Cardinals don't really see the Brewers as being that far ahead in the division. I know I've heard it a million times the Brewers have a comfortable lead in the division. I can tell you what that could change in a week. That could change in a week span. We just saw a struggling series against the Marlins. We've seen a struggle for a while from the Brewers and now you're playing the Braves. You got another trip with the Braves, yet it's not.

Speaker 1: 38:33

I'm not going to say you know you have to start freaking out, but I'm going to tell you what it'd make me feel a lot better if the Brewers went out there and made a move Now. There's a lot of guys available Now. We did see yesterday I saw Jack Flaherty was scratched from his start for the Tigers. Like you always know, I shoot this day before, so I don't know if they're going to make a move in the middle of the night. We know teams make moves in the middle of the night. So I'm not going to say the Brewers aren't in on Jack Flaherty right now, that another team isn't grabbing Jack Flaherty.

Speaker 1: 38:59

But that I mean Flaherty's out there, florio's out there from the Nationals, cal Cantrill from the Rockies Is he a big move? No, is he an arm? Yes, looking down the line there, you still got Tyler Anderson out there right now. The Yankees have said Nestor Cortez is available. I mean I don't like Nestor, I hate Nestor, I'm going to be honest with you.

Speaker 1: 39:21

But a move's a move, right, a move's a move and the Brewers need to make a move. I don't know, and this is where it's going to lead in my next question. Where do the Brewers truthfully need help on this roster? The outfield. I mean, okay, yelich is out. Now the Brewers making a move in the outfield is going to bar on. How long do they believe Yelich is going to be out? Because that's a hole, that's a hole that he left in the lineup there.

Speaker 1: 39:50

So I truthfully believe the Brewers could add a bat. I mean I'm not going to bat an eye on the Brewers adding a bat out there. A consistent bat right, starting pitching is a definite for me. I just don't know what the bullpen, right, I don't know what the bullpen. Could you use another bullpen arm? Definitely, you definitely could. But let's just say you go and you add a bullpen arm. You have McGill, you have Brian Hudson, devin Williams, jared Koenig, you have guys like Zastrinsky when he comes back, if JP Buckus figures it out and I mean you have Paguero Pyeumps and Hobie Milner. Those are all guys that I mean. They have the stuff. It's just if they can figure them out.

Speaker 1: 40:39

So does the bullpen need help? It never hurts to an arm, but with the Brewers it's almost like you have to pick and choose a spot. I'm picking and choosing the starting rotation, autumn. I mean where do the Brewers need help? If you had to think of a spot? If you had to think of a spot, I mean you got starters, relievers, you know position players where. If you're looking at the Brewers right now, where do you see them? You know, if you were the Brewers heading into should have been yesterday, but into today here heading up towards the deadline where are you looking to add right now?

Speaker 2: 41:10

you know I'm not gonna lie, I completely agree with you in the sense that I wish I wish we had. You know, I think our lineups doing okay, we have a lot of young talent in there, but I wish we had a more solid bat. I mean we have Christian Yellich. Granted, he can be a hit or miss depending on the week, but I still think he's a consistent bat that is good for the Brewers. Now, I also agree that I wish we had a solid starting pitcher. I mean we have a bullpen, but I personally do not feel we have a solid starting pitcher.

Speaker 1: 41:45

Yeah, I mean 100%. I mean Freddy Peralta is your guy and Colin Ray's been pitching solid, tobias Meyer's been solid, but you need that number one and I don't truthfully believe the Brewers have that number one. So that begs my next question here Truthfully, do I see the Brewers making a move? And I'm going to be honest, and you know they did. Reports came out after the fact that the Brewers were upset that Fedde ended up going to the Cardinals because they had a trade package centered around Brock Wilkin, one of the Brewers' better prospects. Okay, if you're really after a guy, if you know other teams are involved, you make a deal that cannot be denied. And as we're recording right now, we do see the Brewers just made a deal. We just saw they made a deal for Frankie Montes. Now I mean this is from the Reds, so an interesting development. I'm glad that it came up across the board there. Autumn actually pointed out there. She's having issues back there with the screen, but up on the TV as we're watching the Brewer game there, as we're recording, this deal came up and this is another one of those deals. Frankie Montes, I mean good stuff. He's had good stuff in past seasons there, but you look at him this year in Cincinnati 4-8 with a 5-0 array, 93 innings pitched there. He's given up 14 home runs, 52 earned runs, 78 strikeouts on the year. For Frankie, this is a Brewer move. This is a Brewer move. This is a Brewer move right here. I would be interested to see what the Is there any developing news of what the trade was centered around?

Speaker 1: 43:37

Is there any? I don't. They probably don't have that full list out there of who is in that deal. I mean, it's one of the better starters that are left on the trade market in that division, like teams that are actually going to deal. We saw the Cubs making deals. We've seen the Cardinals making deals. The Pirates aren't going to move starters. So the Reds? That was the best I mean best he had to offer in division. Is there anything that they've released now on who was involved in that trade? Or it might just say Frankie Montes right now, I mean more details later, right? So stay tuned on the Facebook page, the Twitter page, instagram, we'll let you know who was involved in a deal, who the Brewers end up sending to the Reds there, but maybe Frankie Montes the Brewers have had success with, like Wade Miley and Gio Gonzalez and Ulysses Chassin over the years. Maybe Frankie Montes is another one of those.

Speaker 1: 44:34

For the Brewers Not the biggest deal, not the biggest deal, but we see the Brewers make a move, see the brewers make a move. So I guess, in that sense, good, good, I'm just interested to see what the backside of that deal is there. So I guess that answers my first question. Do I see the brewers making a move? They've made two moves so far. Do I see them making a big move? No, I see it. No, the brewers will make small deals because and you know, I guess I was asked that question earlier today by a good friend and they said with this Brewers team, do you see them making a move for anybody big named? And I said honestly no, because ownership for the Brewers is not how they operate and they don't like making big deals with prospects. They don't like shipping off prospects.

Speaker 1: 45:23

The Brewers are in a situation right now where nobody expected them to be good, so the owners can ride that, they can ride that. Nobody expected them to be good, so we can just sit stagnant because we're doing better than expected Right Now. I mean, would I say that no, because I think the Brewers have a lot of upside. The lineup's actually been good this year. They've scuffled as of late, but the lineup's been good. If Yellich comes back, they get even better. On the flip side of the pitching, it's struggled. Can you fix that with a trade? No, maybe multiple trades, right? A Frankie Montes deal? That's a solid back end of the rotation kind of guy, right? Maybe you still dip in there and try to find a number one, maybe a number two. I don't think you're going to find a number one right. I think the asking prices for all the number ones is going to be too high. The Brewers will have to look into the littler pool of pitchers which was Frankie Montes. Now there's other guys out there like that.

Speaker 1: 46:20

I do believe the Brewers. I would love to see that they're in on Jack Flaherty. I think that would be a big move. He's not a number one anymore but he could be a number two. If you have two number twos in Freddie and Jack Flaherty, that equals a number one. So I'm in on that. I'd be in on that.

Speaker 1: 46:36

I think there's a lot of good moves the Brewers could make there. There's a lot of good moves the Brewers could make there. Do I see them making a big-time move? I don't think so. I don't. I would love to see it. I don't see it. I don't see them making a big move. I see them sitting more stagnant in that department there.

Speaker 1: 46:55

I mean, you know any other players available for the Brewers out there? The only guy in the starters that I could see available would be in the outfield, and the one that keeps crossing my mind is Garrett Mitchell. I don't know if that you know, I saw that or I thought about that earlier, but with the injuries in the outfield, I just don't see it as a potential to move him. I don't, you know, I think the Brewers have to hold still with trading away some of their bats. I don't think they have enough bats to trade. So I would not be making a deal right now with Mitchell. I wouldn't be looking at trading away any of the guys in the bigs right now. I'd be looking. If you're going to make a trade, it's minor league guys. It's minor league guys getting shipped out. I don't think you're trading away any big league level guys there right now.

Speaker 1: 47:42

So, with that. I mean that's about all we got. That's about all we got. Big day, trade deadline day. Here in the US, the state of Wisconsin, the US Big things watching right now is the trade deadline. Like I say, keep up to date with it. We're going to be on Facebook, instagram, twitter letting you know deals that are being made I mean rumors, everything like that, deals that the Brewers are in on. We're going to be keeping you guys up to date on the Facebook page, instagram and Twitter. So stay tuned on there, give it a follow, give it a like out there and I mean hopefully, hopefully, we see the Brewers make a big-time move there. But with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.

Speaker 2: 48:57

But until we talk to you guys again tomorrow, deuces, oh, my Lord, watch me sway. 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 the devil.