Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers' Defensive Evolution, Brewers' Rebound Hopes, and Fantasy Dodgeball Fun – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
Is a coach who listens to his players the key to a solid defense? We kick off this episode with a rainy Tuesday in Wisconsin, chatting about the Milwaukee Brewers' recent bumps and pondering if they can find their footing once again. The discussion heats up as we spotlight Packers' Jair Alexander and his telling remarks about the new defensive coordinator, Jeff Halfley. Comparing him to the former coordinator, Joe Barry, we underline how Halfley’s open approach could be a game-changer for the Packers' defense.
Shifting gears, we talk about the Kansas City Chiefs’ decision to stick with kicker Harrison Butker amidst brewing controversy, showcasing the team's commendable loyalty. We also navigate through Jalen Johnson’s frustration over his omission from the NFL's Top 100 list and contrast it with Aaron Rodgers’ surprising inclusion. This conversation leads us to explore the biases defensive players face compared to their offensive counterparts when it comes to recognition and accolades.
The quarterback duel between Tyler Van Dyke and Brayden Locke gets our attention next, followed by a thrilling discussion on the wide receiver competition featuring talents like Will Pauling and Bryson Green. As we wrap up, we have a blast assembling a fantasy dodgeball team with superstars like Shohei Ohtani and Patrick Mahomes. Finally, we dig into the Brewers' crucial upcoming games and their pitching lineup, and encourage our listeners to share their thoughts and feedback. Get ready for an episode filled with analysis, debate, and a sprinkle of fun!
Is a coach who listens to his players the key to a solid defense? We kick off this episode with a rainy Tuesday in Wisconsin, chatting about the Milwaukee Brewers' recent bumps and pondering if they can find their footing once again. The discussion heats up as we spotlight Packers' Jair Alexander and his telling remarks about the new defensive coordinator, Jeff Halfley. Comparing him to the former coordinator, Joe Barry, we underline how Halfley’s open approach could be a game-changer for the Packers' defense.
Shifting gears, we talk about the Kansas City Chiefs’ decision to stick with kicker Harrison Butker amidst brewing controversy, showcasing the team's commendable loyalty. We also navigate through Jalen Johnson’s frustration over his omission from the NFL's Top 100 list and contrast it with Aaron Rodgers’ surprising inclusion. This conversation leads us to explore the biases defensive players face compared to their offensive counterparts when it comes to recognition and accolades.
The quarterback duel between Tyler Van Dyke and Brayden Locke gets our attention next, followed by a thrilling discussion on the wide receiver competition featuring talents like Will Pauling and Bryson Green. As we wrap up, we have a blast assembling a fantasy dodgeball team with superstars like Shohei Ohtani and Patrick Mahomes. Finally, we dig into the Brewers' crucial upcoming games and their pitching lineup, and encourage our listeners to share their thoughts and feedback. Get ready for an episode filled with analysis, debate, and a sprinkle of fun!
Thank you. How are we doing everybody? And welcome in to wisconsin. Sports time to go with trage. I'm your host, trage. It is tuesday, august 6th, a fantastic, fantastic Tuesday here in the great state of Wisconsin. A little wet, right, a little wet if you're in the state of Wisconsin, or I mean even in the neighboring states out there. We experienced a lot of rain yesterday. A lot of rain coming down. It seemed like forever. It was all day, an all-day event, all-night event there. The rain just kept on coming. Hopefully you weren't impacted by any severe stuff, anything like that, and if you, are hopefully you're okay.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're listening, you're okay. But if you're okay, everything's okay and everything gets better from here on out, because it looks like we might get a break from the rain. But you never know. You never know, that is for sure. So a great Tuesday here. I got Autumn with me. Autumn how are we doing Tuesday? We're hitting that getting closer and closer to the middle of the week here. How are we?
Speaker 2:doing on this Tuesday. Overall I'm doing pretty good, Trayvon, Don't have much to say, but just doing good.
Speaker 1:Doing good. She's doing good, that's all that matters. That's all that matters. She's doing good, because when she's doing good, I'm doing good. Right, that's just how it works. That's just how it works.
Speaker 1:So great day today let's talk about, let's get into. Like I said yesterday on the show, it was an overreaction. Monday I had a little bit of a blow up here and there about the Brewers. We're going to get more into the Brewers today. Simmer it back. Look at some stats. Look at I mean what this team to winning ways? Because it's been ugly. It's been ugly for a month now. Can it get better? Right, can it get better? That's the big question of the day. Can it get better? There's lots of things we want to dive into with the Brewers, so we're going to get there. Got a little bit of Packer talk. Badger football has been down in Platteville. We have some little bit of talk to come out of there. So we're talking about at random times. Right, keeps it spicy. They say, keeps it spicy. So right away, I want to get into the Packers. Right away, I want to get into the Packers.
Speaker 1:We had a quote I saw coming out from Lambeau and it was coming from Jair Alexander on new defensive coordinator Jeff Halfley, right from Jair Alexander on new defensive coordinator Jeff Halfley right, jeff Halfley, just, I mean brought in this last offseason by Green Bay replacing Barry. Better things, right, we're hoping for better things there. And Jair, he said the first day he came in I was in his office. He was very open to suggestions, ideas from me, which a lot of coaches don't want to hear. I knew from that point we're gonna have something. Well, you know, you can take that one of two ways.
Speaker 1:Jair is one of those guys where you take with some of the stuff he says and then you kind of some of the stuff he says you kind of watch out. For, like, sometimes Jair can be a little bit of an airhead. We know that. Right, he's his own kind of person. But I mean, all in all, when you have one of your better guys off your defense, right coming into the room and he's, you know, saying hey, we should try this, we should try that, you know, maybe he's like, hey, you know, we're running a lot of zones with Barry, I want to be manned up, I want to get man to man on some of these guys. Maybe he's walking in there saying stuff like that. We know Jair is a good, very good corner. We know he's a very good corner. We've seen that If he can stay healthy, he's very good.
Speaker 1:So having a guy like Halfley listening to what he has to say, not completely kiboshing him, and saying, hey, yeah, we can try that, we can see how this works. And even if you have guys because if he's open to listening to Jair, you have guys like Rashawn Gary coming in and Quay Walker coming in, you know, maybe not as established as guys Walker, but a guy like that coming into the room Devante Wyatt, you know all of these guys coming into the room Kenny Clark and saying, hey, you know, half, like, we see this, right, we see this, we think that this would work. Right, you're trying to do this. But, hey, maybe we try it this way, simplify it whatever it is, you know, not try to overdo it. You know these little things that these guys see out in the field that maybe Halfley isn't seeing at the moment and I think that's huge. I really do. I think when you have a coach like that who, like Jair said, is very open-minded, very open to suggestions, right, not stuck in his way, right, we saw that with, like Bill Belichick, right, very stuck in his way. Right, we saw that with. Like bill belichick, right, very stuck in his way. This is how it has to be and certain guys didn't want to play for a guy like that. But a guy like halfway if he stays this open, right, wants to, wants to see the best out of his guys, wants to get the best out of him every single day and doesn't, you know, force them to do things that they don't agree with or, you know, they might have a better idea of doing. That's awesome. So I I love hearing that. I really do that's.
Speaker 1:That's why I wanted to bring up that quote about halfley is because hearing something like that from one of your better defenders, one of your you know, supposed to be leaders, one of your you know top guys, hearing something like that where he's already meshing with that D coordinator, you love to hear stuff like that. You love to hear stuff like that because that makes everybody's life easier, right, valentine, valentine I mean Williams out there. Kaelin King right, it's going to make Bullard, it's going to make all their lives easier, these young guys, because maybe they have a suggestion. Now they aren't as established, but they might have a suggestion in the room, they're going to feel more welcome into that room too, right? They don't feel like they're getting into this. You know, this is how it's got to be kind of system here. Guys are more open to staying for that. Guys are more open to wanting to give it their all for a coach like that, though you know the old saying that you would, you know, go through hell for that coach, right? That's exactly how it is, that's exactly how it is. So, having a coach like this, I love that. I love hearing that out of Jair about halfway there.
Speaker 1:Another quote I saw. This is from Matt LaFleur on Josh Jacobs. He said he can do anything. He is a hard-nosed runner. I can't wait to see the first exposure from him getting hit, which will probably be week one. He's a guy just watching from afar. You always respect you hear about a great character guy that he is, what a great locker room guy he is, and to see first hand. I've been amazed this guy.
Speaker 1:A lot of people look at his stats from last season and they say, well, he's not as good as Jameer Gibbs, right, he's not as good. He's not as good as Montgomery right, you got to take what Josh Jacobs was able to do with the Raiders into a perspective. The Raiders suck Like, plain and simple, he played for a very bad organization, and to have numbers like he did and also being injured right, he was injured, but having numbers like he did, playing a bad, managed, bad coached, everything organization I think it speaks volume. I think it does. I think it speaks volume onto how good Josh Jacobs really is. You know, because you have a guy like that, who is a very well-known running back in the league, a lot of guys are actually, you know, scared of him coming to Green Bay because now he has playmakers around him, now he has a good coach, now he has a good offensive line. Now wait to see what Josh Jacobs can really be. He is a threat, like a lot of people.
Speaker 1:You know, we sit here and we talk about, well, the big thing. We talk about Jordan Love, right, we talk about Jordan Love. Well, jordan Love this, jordan Love that. We talk about the receivers. Well, if Christian Watson could do this and Christian Watson could do that. And a lot of people are like, oh well, you know, love was only able to do this because he had Aaron Jones in the room. And yes, I am completely on board.
Speaker 1:I thought Aaron Jones was a catalyst in that offense. I really do think he was. But you replaced Aaron Jones with Josh Jacobs, and Jacobs may not be the same type of runner that Aaron Jones was, but Josh Jacobs is really good in his own right. He is really good. And did you take a step back? I don't think so. I don't think you went side to side. Maybe I'm high up. I'm a very high up person. On Aaron Jones, I thought he was a very skilled running back. I think he still is Right. So I think, if you anything, you took a side-to-side step from Jones to Josh Jacobs. Plus Jacobs is young yet right. So you only add to the youth that is this team, the team building that you're still working on. You know this is technically a real rebuilding team, not a lot of vets. I mean, elton Jenkins is like the oldest guy on the offense. That's crazy. That's crazy to have a guy to have that young of an offense. The defense is really young too. So to have that young of a team right and to bring in a guy like Josh Jacobs, who's already we know he's explosive it's only it's trending upwards, right A lot of people forget about him.
Speaker 1:This is a he's going to be a catalyst in this offense. He will be a catalyst in this offense. And a lot of fans out there, a lot of you know I get into these groups, these groups on Facebook all the time and you know I've talked about it the one, the NFC North trash-talking group, right, all these people you know the Bears fans, pack fans, everybody, they all get into this group and you know somebody will post like, hey, caleb Williams sucks. And then the whole world will blow up. Bear fans will be saying, well, this guy sucks. And then Vikings fans will jump in and say, yeah, he does, it's this whole thing.
Speaker 1:Well, somebody said today, besides Love and Josh Jacobs, there's nobody worth mentioning. In Green Bay I was like, okay, nobody worth mentioning. Right, have they looked at the Packers defense? Kenny Clark, devante, wyatt Rashawn, gary. You looked at the Packers defense. Kenny Clark, devante, wyatt Rashawn, gary. You looked at them guys lately, jair Alexander McKinney on the defense. I think they forget about McKinney who is, I believe, only 24 years old and is already a pro bowler and is a fantastic safety. Right, I mean a highly sought after safety in free agency that the packers were able to bring in. I think they must have forgot about those guys off the defense.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, okay, the offense. You have a lot of no-name guys yet, but not for long, right, not for long. Dobbs is on his way. I truthfully believe dobbs is on his way to a breakout season. Christian watson, if he stays healthy, could be right there with him. Jayden reid was fantastic last year and don tavian wicks a lot of people are picking as the dark horse in the wide receiver room for the green bay packers.
Speaker 1:So for I mean, whoever posted that out there, it makes me laugh. It makes me laugh because they they try to find ways to shoot the packers, but they can't find ways, because that in itself is like dude, have you looked? Just take the offense out, take the guys that you expect to be good out and look at the defense for five seconds and go. Hmm, there's at least four guys on there who are definitely worth mentioning One guy who you probably wish was on your defense in McKinney, and a couple of other ones who I guarantee you, as the season goes along, you're going to wish were on your defense. So definitely, man, oh man, man, oh man. I love sometimes going through there and reading some of those quotes because it makes me laugh. It definitely makes me laugh there.
Speaker 1:So Autumn saw some stuff in NFL talk today. She saw some stuff. She's like you got to get me in. You got to get me in and talk about this kind of stuff. So, autumn, nfl talk, what do you got outside? I mean, it's outside of Green Bay, but what do you got NFL-wise today?
Speaker 2:I have two things that I want your take on. So the Chiefs came out today saying Harrison Bucker agreed to terms on a four-year $25.6 million contract extension with $17.8 million in guarantees, which makes him the highest paid kicker in NFL history.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know what that's for. You know what that's for. I don't care, and this is gonna be my honest take on this one, and you guys can hate me, you can love me, whatever you want. I don't care. This is my honest take. I don't care how you feel about what harrison buckers speech said. I don't care. I really really don't. I have my take on it. Okay, I'm not going to get my full spiel right now. I don't care how you feel.
Speaker 1:This is a multi-time Super Bowl champion right here, multi-time right. He's been in the Super Bowl multiple times with the Chiefs, had a lot of very memorable kicks for this Chiefs team, lot of very memorable kicks for this Chiefs team. And when he came out with that speech, there was I mean, there was a petition, a freaking petition. You can get a petition for anything. I could get a petition right now to try and I mean I don't, I don't know get rid of stop signs, like I could. I could create a petition for that. I don't know why. Why we have this. It's just, it's stupid sometimes some of the petitions I see, but there was a petition to get Harrison Bucker basically kicked off, the Kansas City Chiefs, right, and a lot of his teammates.
Speaker 1:When all this you know you have to really listen to the speech and actually understand what he is saying in the speech to. I mean, you know fully like accept what he said was mean. You know fully like accept what he said was not. You know telling people what they had to do with their lives, because he wasn't telling anybody what they had to do. But as far as I'm going to go, a lot of his teammates in the room they might not have agreed with him, right, and even management of the team might not agree with what he said. So you have all these different factors in there. His teammates came out they said maybe we don't agree with what he said, but we're going to back our guy. This is our guy. He said what he said. That's how it is Right and that's the thing he said what he said, right. He said what he said. Whether you agree with it or you don't agree with it, he said what he said.
Speaker 1:So at the end of the day, I applaud the Kansas City Chiefs for not falling for this crap. You know craptastic narrative that you know all these people are upset because of what he said, which I forgot, but I'm pretty sure, just like I'm doing right now, I can see you can say whatever you want in this country to an extent right to an extent but you can say whatever you want. It's not going to. It's called the freedom of having it right. It's freedom of speech. It's pretty much what you do. He had the freedom to say what he wanted to say. That doesn't tell people how to live their lives, right, it doesn't tell you how to live their lives.
Speaker 1:So I applaud the Kansas City Chiefs for sticking with their guy, who has stuck with them, who has consistently given them year after year of success, stuck with their guy and offered this massive contract to him to make him the highest paid kicker in the league. I love that. I love everything about that. Whether you agree with what he said or not, the guy on the field is fantastic and if they would have released him, I would have called Brian Gutekinds myself down in Green Bay because we still have this kicker problem. I would have called Brian Gutekinds and said I'm going to tell you this now I don't think many Packer fans really care what Harrison Bucker had to say we just want him to kick field goals for us because we're a kicker away.
Speaker 1:It seemed like last season from going to the NFC Championship. So you know what? I applaud the Kansas City Chiefs for making this move. Great for the Chiefs, great for the NFL, great for Karrison Bucker. Love it, love every second of that. You might have a different opinion on that out there, that's fine. That's my opinion on it. What the Kansas City Chiefs did is they stuck with their guy, and that's what you love in a well-ran organization is a team that's going to stick with their guy yeah, my second question and this is just I.
Speaker 2:I found it kind of comical today so I just had to see what your thoughts were on it. Uh, it came from Jalen Johnson. After the NFL's top 100 list came out, he quoted it as BS. Aaron Rodgers didn't even play in the season and he was voted in the top 100. Aaron Rodgers was voted 92 out of 100 for the top 100 players of 2024. So essentially jalen johnson was the bears all all pro um cornerback and wasn't having it after being left off the nfl top 100 list for somebody who didn't even play last year.
Speaker 1:I could I mean yeah, you know, but the top 100 list is the top 100 list, right? I mean, jordan Love just got thrown on the top 100 list. There's a bunch of names that were left off the top 100 list where, if you look back during this season, you're going to have breakout guys, right, so put your money there, right? I mean, if you were left off top 100 list, mr Johnson, and you're all kinds of upset with the world, get yourself onto it. Right and honestly, offensive guys have an easier path onto the top 100 list, unless if you're a standout, right. Unless if you're a standout. Aaron Donald, we always saw him on there, right? Aaron Donald is always on the top 100. You could look back and even say a guy like Von Miller would have been on the top 100, right? Ray Lewis would have always been on top 100. Ed Reed right. You look back at some dominant defenders, even look at Packers guys, guys. Charles Woodson right. Charles Woodson has some fantastic years.
Speaker 1:You look at guys who are, you know, offensive guys to me have an easier way on there because of stats. Stats are easier to get on the, not easier to get on the offensive side, but you look around wide receivers. Usually a team has a standout wide receiver on their wide receiver, one running backs, quarterbacks right, those are be your guys. You have your dominant offensive linemen who are on their tight ends right, you're going to get tight ends on there. So you have all those guys to compete with. And then you flip over to the defensive side. You're looking at some linebackers in their cornerbacks hard, cornerbacks, hard. Unless if you have a outstanding like Darrell Revis right, you have Revis Island out there. You have some of them guys. It's a little bit easier for those guys, but the name puts them up there. The stats put them up there. Right, johnson had a fine year. I mean, the Bears defense had a fine year.
Speaker 1:It would not have surprised me if he was on the list. I can see where he's upset because Aaron Rodgers did not play. But they take the guys who they think are the top 100 players right, the top 100 players in football. Aaron Rodgers is still. I mean, I don't know what to expect out of Rodgers. He's coming off from the Achilles. You never know what to expect. But Aaron Rodgers, if he plays like Aaron Rodgers plays, he is still expected to be a top quarterback in football. So it's really hard, I get it, I get it. It's really hard to accept it. But I mean, the NFL is the NFL. They throw guys around like that, right, it's hard to not put Aaron Rodgers on that list. I guess I would say Now for the NFL's perspective, for a fan's perspective, probably not as hard For the NFL, the people that create this list. A little bit different, a little bit different of a story there.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's where I kind of stand on. That is I get it. I get where he's kind of upset coming from, that. But it's tough, it's tough to throw in something like that onto there. Two questions, that was it. Two questions for the day, right there, two questions, okay, okay, she says for now, I, it can never know what's coming next, right? So with that we got a little Badger football talk for the day. Badger football They've been.
Speaker 1:You know, training camp has been happening down in Platteville. We haven't talked about it much, but I saw a list top 10 wide Wisconsin wide receivers since 2010,. Number one Jared Aberdaris in 2013, 78 catches, a hundred a thousand 81 yards yards, seven touchdowns. Nick toon I love me some nick toon, I miss nick toon 64 catches, 926 yards and 10 touchdowns. We look around the list here for some, you know, jared abradaris makes it in the third spot in 2011. Quintez cephas in 2019 there I quintez cephas was fantastic.
Speaker 1:But then we get to some of the receivers, not right. We got to get to the now and we see in the number five spot Will Pauling from last season there 74 catches, 837 yards and six touchdowns there. So that leads me into my badger talk for the day and we saw Luke Fickle come out and he was talking about will paul. He was kind of talking about, you know, the offense in general and he was talking about will pauling and he said he expects even more out of will pauling this season. Is that far-fetched? Is that a far-fetched thing to ask out of a guy like will pauling? I don't think so. I'll be honest with you, because last season look at the stats he put up last season. Like I said, 837 yards is fantastic, six touchdowns, 74 catches.
Speaker 1:But now you had a guy like Tanner Mordecai. Now I don't want to completely bash Tanner Mordecai right now, but I did not find Tanner Mordecai to be that impressive to me, especially a guy coming out of SMU, in the transfer portal where he had over, I believe, over 5,000 yards, at least passing. I think he was close to six. Was he close to six? He was around that range there passing. So I look at a guy like Tanner Mordecai I think he was around that five mark and I'm like, okay, he wasn't that great of a thrower in Madison, it just didn't work for him. And then he gets hurt.
Speaker 1:You Brayden Locke come in now. I was impressed by Locke right away, but it kind of simmered off a little bit. There he started to struggle. So, will Pauling, now with possibly, you know the quarterback battle is something that's still going on.
Speaker 1:I did not expect there to be a quarterback battle. I'll be honest with you. I kind of went into it thinking, okay, tyler Van Dyke's coming in, I expect to see Tyler Van Dyke. I'm not expecting to see Brayden Locke as much. Right, I thought there would be a battle but I didn't think it would be very notable. I guess you could say the opposite. It's the opposite.
Speaker 1:Right now we're seeing Brayden Locke battling it out with Tyler Van Dyke for that first spot. It's truly a battle for that starting quarterback position right now between those two. And I didn't see that. I honestly didn't see that, because Tyler Van Dyke coming in I mean Van Dyke, he's from an air raid offense, right, originally from an air raid offense. The Badgers are trying to run an air raid offense. It almost seems to fit him right. And a lot of analysts I saw are actually predicting Tyler Van Dyke to have a breakout season in Madison.
Speaker 1:So all those little things knotted up, I was like I'm not expecting much of a quarterback battle. I think Bradlock's going to take the backseat this year to Van Dyke. Luke is going to take the back seat this year to Van Dyke. Luke Fickle says it's the opposite. Right now we're seeing a definite battle between these two guys. I mean, we saw Locke last year. That dude is a slinger, he is a gunslinger. I mean he's trying to fire the ball into windows that I don't even know if there's a window there, he's just firing it right.
Speaker 1:So this quarterback battle, I tell you I did not expect it, but with, I mean just you know, tidbit there. But rolling off of that, I think Will Pauling is going to have a breakout season. I really do think he will. Just because having an arm like Braden Locke or Tyler Van Dyke in the room, either way, having an arm like that, I think that bodes well for Pauling. I really do. I think that bodes well for Pauling. I really do. I think that bodes well for Pauling.
Speaker 1:I also think it bodes well for a guy like Bryson Green, who Bryson Green right now is showing. I mean, we saw it last year. He was the if you think of it in Packer terms, he was your Christian Watson. Right, he's the guy who can spread the field, he's the deep ball threat. Bryson Green is your guy right, he's got a.
Speaker 1:I mean he's got very good foot speed and when he gets down the field, the biggest thing about Bryson Green that you watch, you know when he goes up is he's a late reactor. Now, when I say that, you know watching him, he doesn't react to the football right away, giving it away almost right to a defender, because a lot of these corners who are trailing them, they're not looking at the ball, they're looking at green, they're waiting for him to make a reaction. Because once he makes a reaction now they know the ball is close now. They know where it's kind of heading now. They know where to stick a hand.
Speaker 1:Bryson green's late with his hands a lot. It's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing because he plays with defenders that way, which is something that I think is very beneficial in why he is a good deep ball threat. Also, the way I mean he's got a way to torque his body. You know that's a big thing being able to go and get up, jump balls, bring him down, but also be able to bend around if, say, that deep throw isn't spot on. He's got the ability to quick turn. He's got the ability to twist that body and be able to shoulder it. Whatever he's got to do, he's got that ability down the field. So I love that.
Speaker 1:Out of Bryson Green, I think that's going to be huge with some of the big arms with Brain Lock's big arm and with Tyler Van Dyke's big arm. That is going to be huge with Bryson Green coming in for this senior year. But outside of those two, there's a little bit of a wide receiver battle going on right now for the opposite of Bryson Green. We know Will Pauling's going to be in there, I'm assuming Bryson Green we got to think opposite side of the field, right Opposite side, and possibly a fourth wide receiver position. So Vinny Anthony, one of the fastest guys in college football this guy's fantastic Vinny Anthony is. So that's a guy to watch there. Fantastic Vinny Anthony is. So that's a guy to watch there. Cj Williams and also Terrell Henry there All guys who are battling for that third wide receiver spot and even that fourth spot there. Trek Kikohana is in that slot position behind Will Pauling right now, so expect to see a little bit out of him there, but a lot of it's going to go towards um will pauling.
Speaker 1:Another thing I'm watching for in training camp and well as the season starts up here is the defense. I'm watching this defense. Last season, getting off the field on third down was a huge thing to watch out for. Limiting big plays. I thought big plays were a killer for the badgers. The run defense for wisconsin we saw it in the iowa game. The run defense for the badgers can be something big that I want to see them be able to control moving forward there.
Speaker 1:So just a little bit of the things that I saw coming out of Madison or coming out of Platteville, essentially there, and hearing some of the stuff that's been going on. I mean all good things that I watching some of the videos that I've seen coming out of training camp down there. I mean all good things. All good things on that side Not so good of a thing. I watched the Big Ten football commercial release. Right, they just came out with the new one. We got to span the whole freaking country. Now it takes like a minute just to get through the entire video. I mean they won't even have to go to another commercial. It's just going to be that on the commercial. I just kidding, it's not, it's not a full minute, but holy cats, they spread the whole country. I mean Rutgers. I you know, looking at the United States map, seeing how far Rutgers is going to have to travel for like a game against Oregon or UCLA. That's nuts, that's nuts. That's across, I mean completely across the country. That is nuts, that is nuts. So I mean, if you haven't seen the new Big Ten commercial, definitely definitely get there, look it up. I mean you can probably find it on YouTube. You can probably YouTube it. Find it. I saw it on Twitter. I saw it on Twitter there. So definitely something to check out there in that aspect.
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Speaker 2:So with that we got to get to autumn, we got to get to the tidbits of the day just a quick tidbit today, though, for the olympics is the women's three-on-three basketball won the bronze medal today, and the united states played amazing defense uh, they use the word relentless physical defense Sunday against a strong Germany team to win 87-68, despite apparently not having the best offensive game.
Speaker 2:So that's now 58 Olympic wins in a row and the number one seed in the medal round which begins Wednesday in Paris as Team USA goes for its eighth consecutive gold medal in Paris. As Team USA goes for its eighth consecutive gold medal, next up for the United States is Nigeria, which it is known that it is a fact that it is the first African team to ever make it that far in the Olympics. Brewer update for looking around the league for top players and teams. For looking around the league for top players and teams, bryce Turing remains in second place with 32 stolen bases, behind Ellie De La Cruz. However, shohei Otani is at 31, right behind him. The Brewers are currently in third place behind the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals in total stolen bases, with 141.
Speaker 1:the Washington Nationals in total stolen bases with 141. Well, at least the women's three-on-three basketball team is doing good, because the men's team got completely dinked out of there. They suck. I mean, is that the best we could throw out there? Is that the best three-on-three team we could make up? I mean, we could have thrown Michael Jordan right now out there and he would have found a better way to win that game. They suck, they were bad. So at least the women's team doing pretty well over there.
Speaker 1:Great stuff to hear out of that aspect. Kind of surprised that you know Bryce Terang 32 stolen bases, yet still in second. I mean he built himself up a pretty good, you know, lead there for that second place spot. But you know, you see the factor there we're going to get into it. I mean we're talking about the Brewers a little bit there, but the stolen bases they were in second. Now look at them. They dropped down to third there in stolen bases. Not a whole lot happening on the bases for the Brewers lately. So something there definitely to keep an eye on. Definitely something that was noteworthy there that Autumn brought up the tidbits. So great stuff there in the tidbits for the day.
Speaker 1:Autumn does have her dodgeball team. She wants to pick a dodgeball team. She wants to pick a dodgeball team right now. So she's going to give a list and we're going to pick our dodgeball team. For I don't know who we're going up against. I don't know, probably global gym. We're going up against global gym, so we got to find a way to battle them here so we're building the perfect dodgeball team.
Speaker 2:So, trajan, you're gonna pick one player from each column. So column a showy otani, john cena, lebron, james caitlin clark or serena williams showy otani throws gas.
Speaker 1:We need gas. We need hard throwers on here. John cena is more of just a built body and lebron is. He'd get hit and cry. We don't't want that. We don't want that. We want Shohei.
Speaker 2:All right. Category B you have Kelsey Plum, tom Brady, simone Biles, ellie De La Cruz or Paul Skeens.
Speaker 1:See, that's tough because, Tom Brady, if he was on our team he wouldn't lose right, except if Eli Manning joined Global Gym, which they might do to undermine us then we would lose that.
Speaker 2:We need some speed. We're going to go with Ellie De La Cruz, category C. You have Patrick Mahomes, alex Pereira. I botched it. I apologize. Libby Doon, connor McDavid or Coco Gauff.
Speaker 1:We got to go with Patty here because he's going to throw some crazy crap out there.
Speaker 2:And then category D you have Katie Ledecky, novak Djokovic, djokovic, is that how you say it.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Dwayne Johnson, ooh Yorak Kohli and Shikari Richardson.
Speaker 1:Who's the first one on that list?
Speaker 2:Katie Ledecky.
Speaker 1:We need some muscle. Give me the rock. We don't have any muscle yet. We got speed, we got arm. We don't have muscle.
Speaker 2:Alright, and then last column Cristiano Ronaldo, lewis Hamilton, jared McCain, pat McAfee or Conor McGregor.
Speaker 1:It's a toss-up between McAfee and McGregor. I'm going to take McGregor. I need a trash talker. I'm going to take McGregor.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, trajan, you are going up against Globo Gym. You are on your dodgeball team. You'll have yourself Otani Cruz, mahomes the Rock and Conor McGregor. I didn't know, I had to play.
Speaker 1:I was just going to coach. It's your team. Oh, I thought I was just coaching. I thought I was just coaching. Fine, fine, if what's his nuts can play, then I can play too. Right, who the heck was the guy? The leader of Global Gym? I can't remember what his name was now With the mustache and the pump-up nut cup, can't remember what his name is now, can't remember what his name is. But he can play, I can play. I know that he can play. I can play. That is a dangerous dodgeball team I just created there. That is a dangerous dodgeball team there.
Speaker 1:So let's quick. We're going to fly around the league real fast. See where everybody's sitting right now, before we get to the fact that they end the Brewer talk here. So let's look at the standings. Brewers still up six games now. The Cardinals and the Pirates the Pirates, the sneaky Pirates, coming up behind the Brewers and Cardinals. Right now they're six games back, tied with the Cardinals for second place. Cubs sitting eight and a half, and so are the reds. Looking at the nl east right now, we got the philly six games up on the atlanta braves. If they're not careful, then braves are going to catch them.
Speaker 1:Braves are playing some good baseball, followed up by the new york mets, seven and a half back, the national 16. The brewers just met the nationals. That is a very, very bad team, right, but who cares? And the miami marlins 25 games back. They are mathematically eliminated. Come on, we know it Dodgers leading the NL West right now, followed by the Diamondbacks 4.5 back, the San Diego Padres 4.5 back, the San Francisco Giants 9 games back and the Colorado Rockies sitting 24.5 games back.
Speaker 1:Baltimore and the Yankees are tied for first in the AL East right now, followed by Boston, 6.5 back. The Razor, 9 back. In Toronto is 15.5. The Cleveland Guardians and the AL Central they are in first by four games over the Twins. Four and a half back are the Royals, 14 and a half are the Tigers and the White Sox sitting 41 games back of first place, I believe.
Speaker 1:The White Sox they're almost at a legal drinking age of losses in a row. Right now. They've lost 20 in a row, so if they lose one more, they will be able to buy a beer. That is fantastic. That is fantastic news. Right there, they will officially reach the age to drink. So great stuff there. Lubav can finally get a drink, because I would need a drink if I played for that team. Next up we have the AL West Seattle Mariners in first place by a game over the Houston Astros. Texas Rangers come up next there. They are five and a half back, the Angels are nine and a half and the Oakland A's are 13 games back of the first spot right now. Great stuff there in the standings, but let's get to autumn with our fact of the day.
Speaker 2:Fact of the day is, McDonald's once made bubble gum flavored broccoli. However, kids found the flavor confusing so it never made it to the menu. The motivation behind this was to get kids to eat healthier Folks.
Speaker 1:Nobody thinks of McDonald's and thinks healthy. That's what I'm saying right now. Nobody thinks McDonald's and says, hey, let's go have a healthy snack, let's head down to McDonald's. Who says that? Nobody says that. So McDonald's, you tried, but you were going to fail, come on. Nobody goes to your restaurant for healthy food. They go there when they're feeling down, they're feeling sad, they want to get something. They go to mcdonald's. It's where you like, just in. You just indulge in the grease.
Speaker 1:That's where you go. That's where you want. You just want to, you just want to taste the grease. You go to mcdonald's. So great stuff there, interesting, interesting. Mcdonald's tried, but they failed. Stick with the big mac, that's all I know, and just keep the shamrock shake all year long. That's all we need. That's all we need right there.
Speaker 1:So with that, let's get to the brewers. They play tonight. They got the braves coming up. A big series against the braves. I keep telling you big series because it seems like every series now is a big series. This is a big series because, like I just said, pirates are finding ways to win ball games. Now the pirates are six games back. So now we got to worry about the Pirates too.
Speaker 1:620 start. Now it looks like Chris Sale is not going to. I thought Chris Sale was going to start against Colin Ray, but now it's going to be Elder taking on Colin Ray. We will see Chris Sale in game two of the series taking on Freddy Peralta. So a 620 start for this one. Colin Ray taking on Elder Rays.
Speaker 1:Look good this year. Nine and three with that 3.59 ERA, elder two and four with a 5.67 ERA. So the Brewers got to jump on Elder. Here you got to jump on Bryce Elder. I mean looking at him over his last couple outings there against St Louis gave up six runs, against the Diamondbacks gave up three runs and then he had the Brewer game where he gave up one run. So you see the trend there is. When he faced the Brewers, which was the last time out, the Brewers couldn't find a way to score runs. Brewers couldn't find a way to score runs. Definitely need a big game out of the offense here heading into Atlanta.
Speaker 1:This is a tough, tough stretch. The Brewers will be on. They got Atlanta, then Cincinnati, then the Dodgers, then the Guardians I can't stress it enough. This Dodgers than the Guardians. I can't stress it enough. This is a tough stretch. The Brewers have coming up what this might be. This might be a I don't know Autumn, is it? You can tell me yes or no to this. Is this a stretch that could define what we're talking about with the Brewers come September, like this could be the? You know, these set of games could define the entire season right now.
Speaker 2:I mean, I yes, if you want just a straight answer. I think so. I think, just like you and I were just talking about yesterday, I this is the time when the Brewers start to tank every single season. So I do think that if they can get these couple wins, I do think it'll kind of break, for lack of better terms, bring their spirits back up. Otherwise, I think, if they start going on a losing streak, I do foresee the season continuing to trend on a downward slope.
Speaker 1:I mean 100%. Like you look at these series here, you want to see, you want to see. Now, it's not always what we want, but you want to see the Brewers head to Atlanta, you want to see them. You got to at least take a game, right. You got to at least take a game right, maybe two. You come back home. You have the Reds. You need to take two out of three. That's just plain and simple. You need to take two out of three from the Reds. The Dodgers you need to take two out of four. A lot to ask. Take three out of four. Can it happen? Yes, a lot to ask. A serious sweep against the Dodgers would be phenomenal, but phenomenal there.
Speaker 1:The Guardians come to town next. You got to be able to take a game in that, but you're at home. You got to be able to take two out of three from the Guardians. You're not going on the road to Cleveland, you're playing them at home. You got to be able to take that one because then next up you travel to St Louis to take on the Cardinals, and I mean that's going to be a tough test. That will be a tough test going on the road to Bush Stadium to take on them Cardinals.
Speaker 1:So this, like we just said, this stretch of games could be, I mean season defining. You hope not, but it could be, it really could be there. So I mean looking at the Brewers now, I just I was pulling up team stats just to see, kind of where they're sitting right now hitting, pitching, where they're ranking right now. So, looking at the bats right now for the Brewers, 22nd in home runs not something we remember much out of the Brewers because we were a home run first kind of team there for a little bit of a stretch 22nd in home runs, 11th in RBIs, third in walks, 18th in strikeouts. Right now third in stolen bases, which I ought to mention before there. So they're still up near top there. But I mean you look at the hits, 10th and hits, this team is hitting the baseball. I mean you know this is the stats over a season. So you can't excuse me there, you can't just define this last little stretch into the season stat there. But this is a team who has collectively hit throughout the season.
Speaker 1:Now, so what do they need to get back? Well, number one, like we talked about yesterday, your big bats need to get going right. I mean we talked about yesterday William Contreras, willie Adamas. Those two guys were catalysts. I mean William Contreras was definitely a catalyst early on for this team. He needs to get himself back on. I don't know what it's going to take, but William Contreras needs to get his bat right. Hopefully it happens over this next stretch of games. Willie Adamas has been hitting better as of late, so hopefully continues on that trend there.
Speaker 1:Reese Hoskins man I hope he gets going at some point. I really do. He's been getting the bat. The bat's been going pretty well for Hoskins as of late. That needs to stay on that trend right.
Speaker 1:We need to see the raw power that we brought Hoskins in. That would be huge down the stretch here for the Brewers. Bryce Terang needs to find it. He lost it. I'm surprised he's still second in stolen bases right now. I'm really surprised he's still second the Brewers and Bryce Terang that is Bryce Terang early on in that leadoff spot was huge. We need Bryce Terang to find it again. Like that is no ifs, ands or buts. He is huge to this offense. We know that. His ability on the bases is huge. We need to see Bryce Terang find it again. Sal Frelick has been hitting pretty well. As of late here Garrett Mitchell has been hot. As of late Jackson Churrio has been doing his thing. We just need the big. You know all those guys are your RBI guys. These guys are my contact first guys who are going to get on base for me. We need to see the guys who are your big bats, like Autumn mentioned yesterday, the big bats in the lineup. Those guys need to get going here. Something that is going to be big for the Brewers.
Speaker 1:We can't look at and say Christian Jelic's injury, I would hate to say at the end of this season, christian Jelic going down was the reason why this team completely faltered off because it was at the same time period. It was that same time period. Christian Yelich gets hurt, the team falters. We can't go into the offseason saying that we have this loaded up outfield right now. We did see Tyler Black the other day. He was playing a little bit outfield in AAA. So maybe Tyler Black's going to be an option in the outfield if one of these guys does start to falter.
Speaker 1:But we're seeing these guys. We have a ton of outfield depth. Some of these guys need to step up and they have. Garrett Mitchell, sal Frelick, perkins has been playing pretty good. I mean he's been playing average, right, perk isn't expected to do that much and Jackson Cherto has been playing great. We need the big boppers behind him to get going. Joey Ortiz, like I mentioned yesterday, that's a guy who the Brewers desperately need to get going. Ortiz was big early on, hasn't been able to find it. So Joey Ortiz is a big guy for me, is a big guy for me that the Brewers need to get going there. So that's some of the offensive stats in there. So that's some of the offensive stats.
Speaker 1:Looking at the pitching stats right now, the biggest glaring number when I look at the pitching staff it's the home runs 138 home runs given up on the year. That's 26th, 26th in all of baseball. I mean you're down at the bottom. There's some bad pitching staffs out there and you are down at the bottom in home runs. Right now that is the biggest struggle. I mean it's not like the brewers. I mean you look at hits they're 13 and hits. They don't give up a lot of hits. Right, they don't give up a lot of hits. But you look at walks to home runs 14th and walks 26th and home runs not a good combo. Not a good combo between those two. You need to.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know how right, maybe it comes with pitch location, right, maybe is it the pitcher's fault. Are we looking at a guy like William Contreras and saying, maybe Contreras isn't calling great games? I don't know who you want to blame it on at this point. They have said that, looking at William Contreras, his defensive metrics have been a little bit worse this year. Maybe that's something to keep an eye on. Maybe that's something that the Brewers coaching staff has to keep an eye on there and say, hey, maybe we got to work with Contreras and you know he's the highest percentage of hardball pitches requested. I don't know what you were you looking for. They're called for, right, you know, I mean he's, he's the highest rate in that category. Is that the issue? Is that the issue with some of these guys? I'm not sure. I not sure, but there definitely is something.
Speaker 1:It seems like teams, it's the long ball against the Brewers that really kill them. So limiting that here along this stretch is going to be huge. Because you look at Team ERA they're eighth in Team ERA right now. They're sitting at 26th in strikeouts, which isn't a great number. But you look at. I mean you factor in the hits, you factor earned runs fifth and earned runs sixth and runs. So it seems like the Brewers it all trends back to they're not giving up a lot of runs. The offense just can't find a way to score them runs right, the offense just can't find a way to score runs. Why they struggle with runners in scoring position. I don't know what it is. I really don't they hit. We know the Brewers can hit. I just read you off the stats. We know this team can hit. They're seventh in average. They're hitting 254 collectively as a team. We know this team can hit. We know they have the bats to be able to put guys on base when it gets to pressure situations. Do we have? Is this brewers? Is a mental thing with the brewers right, that's a big thing I look at. Is it a mental side of it? I don't know, but it's something with when runners in scoring position, when the bases are loaded, the brewers cannot find ways to push crust runs. That's something that they need to figure out here in this little stretch run, because that is going to be huge for this team. So so I mean, man, oh man, this Brave series. I always say it, but this is a big one. This is going to be a big one here coming up against the Braves, starting tonight. Here A little bit of an injury update.
Speaker 1:Brian Hudson began that rehab assignment there with AAA Nashville All good things we've heard so far there. Dl Hall will make at least one more rehab start with AAA Nashville, potentially seeing DL Hall on his way back. I mean looking at Savalli right now. What's DL Hall going to do? That's worse. Right, Bring DL Hall back and put him in Savalli's spot. I don't care if you got to shift Savalli to the bullpen. I don't care if you got to release him. I really don't Just get him out of that starting rotation. It might be me, it might be a hot take, people might not agree with that, but I am not a big fan of Savalli. I thought Bryce Wilson has done better than Savalli has. I mean, honestly, bryce Wilson has had some struggling starts and I think he is better than Savalli. So I mean that is yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 1:With the Brewers right now. I mean man, oh man, this is going to be a. It could be a great stretch of baseball. It could be all happy talk, or are the Brewers falling? I mean that was a big question. Are the Brewers falling? Do we have to worry about? We know we were talking post-season, we were talking what the Brewers need to add to find their way into the. I mean Brewers need to add to find their way into the I mean deep into the playoffs.
Speaker 1:The trade deadline was kind of a letdown and I mean could they have added, probably I'm, you know the small market thing that everybody loves to bring out. While they're a small market team, they can't add big. I'm not asking for them to add big arms, I'm asking them to add average arms. Right, trade deadline, add an average arm. Jack Flaherty, average arm. Right, he pitched pretty good for the Dodgers the other day but he's not a great arm anymore. He's not a high-priced arm. Add a guy like Jack Flaherty in. Look around the league and find average guys you can add into this rotation.
Speaker 1:At the trade deadline they did nothing like that. They brought in Montes, who I said yesterday. I mean you can't judge him off of one start. It wasn't terrible, right, it wasn't terrible for a start, but outside of that, savalli hasn't looked good. Savalli hasn't looked good. Nick Mears has had a good outing. He's had a bad outing. He's been hit or miss right. So, nick Mears, they relying on when they get healthy, everything's going to be good.
Speaker 1:Because once McGill comes back in Hudson, yeah, once those guys come back, the bullpen gets fixed. But what's the bullpen supposed to do if they're trailing by the time they get the ball right? We can't just throw it to the bullpen in the second inning and hope they're the best that these guys can go two or three innings. You're not going to expect that out of these guys every single night. The starters have to get them there right, and that's the Brewers' biggest problem. So, yes, getting healthy is going to help.
Speaker 1:I think getting DO Hall back if he can pitch back to what we saw with him in the Orioles a little bit, that's going to be huge. Zastrinsky, I think, will be huge getting him back, because I was not opposed to him maybe even being a starter for the Brewers at some point. Maybe you turn to a guy like Jared Koenig to give you extended starts. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is going to be. In Milwaukee they brought Jacob Mizorowski up to AAA. Potentially see him at some point this year. They're stretched thin. They're stretched thin right now, and that's going to be a problem. That's a problem. That's a problem in Milwaukee, and it continues to be so. With that I mean Autumn. We got anything else for the day?
Speaker 2:here we're going to wrap it up. We can do sports trivia.
Speaker 1:Autumn is in for the trivia, she's in for the Jeopardy.
Speaker 2:We'll do two today. All right, bucs.
Speaker 1:Bucs trivia.
Speaker 2:The Bucs trivia the Bucs best number one draft pick.
Speaker 1:Bucs best number one draft pick. That's rough. I mean it's going to be way back because they haven't added no, it's going to be way back because they haven't added.
Speaker 2:No, it's gonna be way back, oh Kareem yep there we go, there we go and then Brewers the year the Brewers made the World Series oof.
Speaker 1:That's rough. Should have been 2018, should have been 2018, should have been 2018. 1982, yep, 1982. I just play with it. Sometimes you got to play around a little bit, I don't know. Think about it, think about it, right. So with that, that's about all we got. That's about all we got. I mean, hopefully you guys enjoyed the show. Like I always say, like review rate.
Speaker 1:Anywhere you're listening itunes, spotify, wherever you're listening out there leave us a review, leave us a rating out there. We'd love to hear from you in the review section and also go down in the bio of the show where it gives a description of the show. Click to send us a text message. You can send us fan mail on there. It says but it's like whatever you're thinking that day or anything like that, anything you love us here is talk about. We'd love for you to send that to us on 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, but until we talk to you guys again tomorrow, 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.
Speaker 2:I have held the devil's hand Felt the weight of my own sin Buried by the heart of man Down to the river.