Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers' Potential, Brewers' Roster Moves and upcoming series, and Badgers' Promising Addition – Wisconsin Sports
Are the Packers poised for a better season than the pundits predict? We tackle this head-on as we dissect the Green Bay Packers' roster improvements, especially on defense. From the Minnesota Vikings' offensive firepower to the Green Bay Packers' chances of surpassing a 7-10 record, we leave no stone unturned. We'll also compare the Packers to teams like the Atlanta Falcons, LA Rams, and Chicago Bears, while exploring Matt LaFleur's impressive red-zone strategies. Plus, we’ll touch on the buzz created by analysts like Nick Wright and how their hot takes shape sports conversations.
Finally, don't miss our Packers-centric discussion featuring Jordan Love's mentorship of rookie quarterback Michael Pratt, a dynamic that's sure to stir memories of Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre. We'll also dive into the latest trade rumors, including a tantalizing speculation about CeeDee Lamb. The Brewers' injury updates and roster moves get their due attention, with a detailed analysis of their ongoing series against the Dodgers. As we wrap up, we invite you to share your thoughts and feedback, while reflecting on the deep emotional ties that bind us to our favorite teams. Join us for a heartfelt, engaging, and informative conversation on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage!
Are the Packers poised for a better season than the pundits predict? We tackle this head-on as we dissect the Green Bay Packers' roster improvements, especially on defense. From the Minnesota Vikings' offensive firepower to the Green Bay Packers' chances of surpassing a 7-10 record, we leave no stone unturned. We'll also compare the Packers to teams like the Atlanta Falcons, LA Rams, and Chicago Bears, while exploring Matt LaFleur's impressive red-zone strategies. Plus, we’ll touch on the buzz created by analysts like Nick Wright and how their hot takes shape sports conversations.
Finally, don't miss our Packers-centric discussion featuring Jordan Love's mentorship of rookie quarterback Michael Pratt, a dynamic that's sure to stir memories of Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre. We'll also dive into the latest trade rumors, including a tantalizing speculation about CeeDee Lamb. The Brewers' injury updates and roster moves get their due attention, with a detailed analysis of their ongoing series against the Dodgers. As we wrap up, we invite you to share your thoughts and feedback, while reflecting on the deep emotional ties that bind us to our favorite teams. Join us for a heartfelt, engaging, and informative conversation on Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage!
Thank you. How are we doing everybody? And welcome in to wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage. It is tuesday, august 13th, a fantastic, fantastic Tuesday here in the great state of Wisconsin, or wherever you are tuning in out there. I hope it's a great day there as well.
Speaker 1:Not a lot happening in the world of Wisconsin sports, but we got a lot to talk about. Lots to talk about. Not a whole lot happening, right. That makes sense. That makes sense. The Brewers they're in the middle of a series with the Dodgers right now. As I'm watching right now here, brewers are down four to nothing. Hopefully, hopefully, they got a little bit of a comeback in them here. Otherwise, we're going to be talking about a 1-0 hole that the Brewers will start themselves in to start this series against the Dodgers. Outside of that, a little bit of Packer talk today, a little bit of flying around, flying around a little bit everywhere and seeing what there is to discuss.
Speaker 1:So, right away, I want to look at the Wisconsin's men's basketball team, because they did make a solid add to their recruiting class. They added in Ricardo Greppi is his name. He played, he was over in Italy. He's from Italy, played for Verona in the Italy Next Gen League, appearing in eight games and averaging 9.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per contest, according to what Gard had to say there. He said we are excited to add Ricardo to our program. With his size, strength and skill set, he adds great depth in our front court.
Speaker 1:As the landscape of college athletic continues to shift, we are in strong position here at Wisconsin, both academically and athletically, to attract some of the best student athletes in the world. Yeah, if they're looking for like I can see what he's saying Like if they want academics, right, if they want to go for academics, and I mean the programs are solid, right. But man, man, you know, let's looking at that I just read it back to myself to attract some of the best athletes. No, because it's a money game right now. Right, it's a money game. So academics kind of fly out the window when it comes to the money game of this. So I mean, all in all, like guard said, a great ad here size, size, strength, skill set, this guy, he seems like he's going to be a solid backup right away at the center position and then possibly be able to transition into the full-time starter once Steven Crowell is gone, once Steven Crowell has graduated out of the system. Now you have a guy like Greppy to be able to step in, hopefully and take that spot.
Speaker 1:I mean getting after the boards. That's a big thing that the Badgers I feel like have lacked in years past was rebounding. Rebounding from the big man position, somebody in there who's going to play tough, who's going to play strong. Because you look at the Big Ten, I mean, yeah, zach Eady's gone now, right, and the days of Kofi Coburn are over and Trace Jackson Davis are over, but there's always that big man right, there's always that big man in the Big Ten that seems to give the Badgers fits, gives everybody fits. Right, purdue is going to find another one, right, they're going to, maybe not to the size and stature of Zach Eadie, but they're going to find another one.
Speaker 1:So it's, how do the Badgers respond to these programs? Who are adding big guys, adding big pieces there? I mean you look at Florida Atlantic's coach is heading to Michigan now. So I mean their hope is that he's going to draw in some good recruits there. There still is some solid big men around the Big Ten, a lot of younger guys, not a whole lot of age to them there. You know, like we saw with Edie, with Colby Coburn in the past, trace jackson, davis, hunter, dickinson, right before that I I mean you can go through a laundry list of big men to walk through the big 10.
Speaker 1:Hopefully greppy is going to be a guy to kind of settle down the interior for wisconsin and be that almost like a chris voight right away for wisconsin. If you remember voight coming in and being that solid backup who wasn't going to be your big scorer but was going to be that solid guy to come in, play some defense, get some boards, control the paint up until you brought back in, say, steven Crowell or whoever you're looking to control the paint. In that situation Crowell's more of your scoring big, whereas Greppy right away, yes, he can score, and if this guy is going to be better all the way around, then Crowell right off the bat, fantastic. I'm not going to bat an eye at that. But what I'm going to say is, if you're looking at maybe a development of this guy right away, if he can step in and be a big rebounder for Wisconsin, be a big presence in the paint, not get bodied around, you know, like you look at Nolan Winter last year for Wisconsin, he kind of got pushed around down there in the post, I thought. I thought at times he did his. I mean, he did his darndest to stand in there with some of the bigger guys in the big 10. And I mean, make his presence known. I will I am not going to be the guy to sit here and tell you that Nolan Winter did not give it his all when he was in the paint, but he just wasn't big enough yet. Right, he had some developing to do and that's the same thing that I think Greppy's going to face here.
Speaker 1:But Greppy's coming in with a little bit of a bigger stature to him. He's a little bit bigger. He's a little bit bigger. So hopefully that translates to easier transition in that standpoint and not as much, you know, having to build him physically, but maybe just his skill. Right, he's coming in with a pretty good skillset. I mean I saw a little bit of highlight videos on him. Uh, he was.
Speaker 1:He has national team experience. He played uh in Italy. There played in the under 18 European championships and then he was in the 2022 Under-18 Championships. So he's back-to-back years playing in the Under-18 Championships there in Italy. So I mean he's got some experience playing for that national team over there and, like I said, in his last season there, averaging a pretty good numbers there 9.1 and 8.6 rebounds per game that's I mean solid numbers. That's a solid average right there between the1 and 8.6 rebounds per game. That's I mean solid numbers. That's a solid average right there between the two. So I I like the ad. I really do like the ad there. I had to look looking at it. He had two standout performances on the season last season there 17 points and 12 rebounds against uh, bersica briska I'm bad with pronunciations, we know that right and he had another one with 17 rebounds and eight points and two blocked shots, beating Vertius Bo in that one. So I mean he's had some pretty good performances, some pretty high scoring and high rebounding games for him there. So that's great. That's great to see.
Speaker 1:Is the Badgers adding in a guy like that? That's what I think. The missing piece is, to be honest A physical big, not a scoring big, not a guy who's going to be flashy. I want a big man, a big man who I can put in there against the next Zach Eadie of college basketball. I can throw him in there. He's going to body him up. He's going to give me rebounds. He's going to do his thing. That's what I want and that's what I think the Badgers are going to get in Ricardo there. So love the ad there. Love the ad. Love the ad there by Greg Gard and his coaching staff. He joins that 2024 recruiting class there for the Badgers. So great stuff there Coming out of Madison on that one there.
Speaker 1:A little bit of other, a little bit of other Badger talk I guess you could put it into the Badger talk there and that is Braylon Allen. Got his first action there with the New York Jets against the Commanders there in that preseason game and pretty solid day, a solid day for Braylon Allen with the Jets. I know we really don't care that much because we really don'tlon Allen with the Jets. I know it's not, we really don't care that much because we really don't care how well the Jets do, but I still want to see some good stuff out of Braylon Allen and six carries for 54 yards for him there and he had a long at 24, and he was bruising. I saw one run that he had straight up the middle and he was bruising, he was barreling and that's the guy that I remember. So hopefully. I mean that's good sign for Braylon Allen.
Speaker 1:Hopefully he can stick on to that roster and maybe I mean make the 53 man roster. I think he will make the 53 hopefully get some good playing time. I mean he's gonna have, uh, brees Hall's gonna be in there. You got to remember that. So I don't know, you know he's not gonna be the everyday starter for this New York Jets team but maybe a solid number two back potentially at some point there. It all depends. It all depends there on it. But I could see him stepping in there, potentially being that number two back for him at some point, but right away being the number three, maybe in that rotation with Brees Hall already as the number one. And then whoever knows what the Jets are going to do. That's a mess of an organization out there. We all know that that's a mess. I mean we're waiting to see what Aaron Rodgers can do, right, we're waiting to see what Aaron Rodgers can do and I mean, if you like Aaron Rodgers and hate Aaron Rodgers, hopefully he can help Braylon Allen out to be a solid back at the NFL level there.
Speaker 1:So, sticking with the NFL, I want to stick in the nfl a little bit. There. We'll get some packer talk here. We'll also look at another, I guess, picture. I saw image, I saw whatever you want to say on social media there and it was talking about the nfc north, this, our nfc as a whole this upcoming season and their predicted records. This comes from ChatGPT. I don't know what that is. I'm going to be honest with you. I see it all the time now but I don't know what that is. I'm going to look it up. I'm going to look it up here. Chatgpt what is ChatGPT? It is a, an open AI helps you find answers, inspiration and product and more, be more productive. That's what it tells me. Is chat GPT? I still don't have a clue. I guess maybe you're out there saying how do you not know what that is? That's self-explanatory. I don't know what it is. I have no clue at all. But we see this chat gbt or gpt predicts it's 2024 nfc records.
Speaker 1:Okay, so on top of the list, the san francisco 49ers 12 and 5. Now san francisco solid team. Yet I mean, even if brandon iuk doesn't, if they don't figure out brandon excuse me there, if they don't figure out brand Ayuk, I still think that's a solid team. We still got Christian McCaffrey. You still got, I mean, a great defense. You still got Kyle Shanahan calling it right. I think they'll get Ayuk figured out, and if they don't, I think they're going to find a trade suitor who's going to send back a decent wide receiver in return. So I think they he's still got Debo, he's still got George Kittle, I mean, that's still Trent Williams still on the offensive line. He's still got a solid team all the way around, right. But San Francisco 49ers 12-5. Okay, that's realistic.
Speaker 1:Eagles, they've changed a lot, right. So 12-5 for them, not a bad prediction there. Detroit Lions 11-6. I don't think that's bad whatsoever. I don't think that's a bad prediction of where Detroit could end up this season, right? Dallas 11-6. They get CD figured out, they get the stack thing figured out. Maybe they let it ride to free agency, I don't know. Then Dak's got a contract here, right. So Dak's going to be trying to ball out. He'll be trying to ball out in that instance.
Speaker 1:The Seattle Seahawks 10-7. Okay, a lot of faith in Seattle, a lot of faith in Geno. A lot of faith in Seattle, a lot of faith, a lot of faith in Geno, a lot of faith in Seattle to figure something out. The New Orleans Saints 10-7. Okay, now we're getting crazy with it. Now we're getting crazy.
Speaker 1:The Minnesota Vikings 10-7. Okay, now we're banking on Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy, who I believe JJ McCarthy's banged up right now, but we're banking on Sam Darnold to somehow, someway, possibly, maybe, maybe just all of a sudden turn it on after years of not being able to right. So I mean the Vikings outside of the quarterback position, on the offense, they have pretty good offense. Right, you have Addison, you have Justin Jefferson, you have Hockinson. Like, this is a good offense. It's not a bad offense.
Speaker 1:The offensive line question marks, defense. It seems like it's always the thing that holds back the Minnesota Vikings. But at the quarterback position, that's like I forgot, but I'm pretty sure that's the most important position on the field and there is still a lot of question on who's going to start week one and if they're even going to be ready to go. You know so, 10-7. 9-8 for the Atlanta Falcons, 8-9 for the LA Rams, 8-9 for the Chicago Bears, 8-9 for the Carolina Panthers, 7-10 for the Buccaneers and 7-10 for the Packers, 7-10 for the Green Bay Packers there, wow, if that ain't a shot, if that ain't a shot at Green Bay. I don't know what is. That's rough 7-10.
Speaker 1:After completely running the table last season there, returning virtually everybody off of that, thought they were going to lose to Green Bay, a lot of people out there still think that that game should have been great. I mean, you look at that one. You look at you know we talked the other day about Team USA coming back and winning that game against Serbia. Look at that game against Packers and 49ers. Outside of two minutes of that one, the Packers had that game. Now it's if ands and buts about it. Right, it's if ands or buts, but that tells you how close this team was to getting over that cusp.
Speaker 1:Now you bring back virtually everybody off of that same roster outside of Aaron Jones. But you add in Josh Jacobs. Right, you add to the defense. You bring in some solid rookies. You return virtually a majority of that defense. Right, the defensive front's back. You look at the linebacker room. Quay Walker has another year of experience. Isaiah McDuffie's back. Right, you look at the back end of the defense. You added Xavier McKinney in the safety room, who it could be undoubtedly one of the best defensive players in the league when it's all said and done.
Speaker 1:And yet every prediction and all these predictions I'm taking, I just didn't even mention Jordan Love in that entire thing. I didn't mention Jordan Love in that entire scenario. And yet I still am telling you right now, this Packers team got better, they got better. And yet I'm looking at all these predictions and everybody talking about Green Bay and everybody talking about the NFC North and they're like I don't know the Packers, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's like do we forget what this team looked like down the stretch last year, when they put it all together, when Matt LaFleur was just flourishing, right, I heard I can't remember if I was listening to Burkhart, if it was that Burkhart guy or who it was and he said you can tell a lot about a coach from their red zone, from what they do in the red zone, what they draw up in the red zone. Matt LaFleur had a pretty good success rate in the red zone last year drawing up plays, making it work. That tells you. I mean, to me this Packers team is all the way around, a well-run, oiled machine that's ready to go. So that's 7-10. That's rough. That's rough there. I mean, they have them finishing with the same record as the Washington Commanders out there.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't know about you, but I think the Packers will finish with a better record than the Washington Commanders. I think they'll finish. You know, honestly, I'll go through the list Packers. I think they'll finish with a better record than the Buccaneers. The Carolina Panthers I would the Carolina Panthers. They have an 8-9. Packers will finish with a better record than the Carolina Panthers. The Bears Packers will finish with a better record. The Rams that one could be a toss-up. I think the Rams might finish better than 8-9, to be honest with you, but I think the Packers will be better than the Rams Falcons. Yes, sir, vikings. 100%. New Orleans Saints yes, sir, seattle Seahawks I think so. Right, I think so. I think the Packers are going to be top five. I really do truthfully believe they will be top five in the league.
Speaker 1:When it's all said and done, it really, this list almost made me laugh. It was almost like when Nick Wright was on FS1 and he was telling me that the players that had the most to lose by Team USA winning the gold for the Mets and number one on his list was Michael Jordan, because then they would have this gold medal for LeBron and it would hang over the top of Michael Jordan because they'd look back at his dream team and they would say, who did nothing for his dream team? But LeBron did it all for this one. I was like, dude, shut up, shut up, just that guy drives me up a wall. I don't know if you guys out there have seen anything from Nick Wright or listened to him, but he hurts me, he hurts my head sometimes. Just to listen to this guy, just to listen to him, I get you know.
Speaker 1:Sometimes sports guys, sports casters, whatever their goal is to get hot takes right Skip Bayless, stephen A Smith Sometimes I think they talk completely out of their behinds because they want to get a spark out of you. I think that's the greatest thing. Sometimes, when I listen to sports shows, I want to hear stuff like that Because, honestly, as much as I think that he is a complete doorknob, it brings me back, Because then I sit here and I'm like, yeah, this guy's a doorknob, it like drives. It brings me back, because then I sit here and I'm like, yeah, you know this guy's a doorknob and then I keep listening because I want to hear what he has to say next. Right, cause it's so stupid. So you know that it almost is like you know a lot of people they'll listen to a sports show and they'll give up on it after 10 minutes Cause they're like, oh, I didn't agree with the first thing that he said, so why am I going to listen to the rest? Right, but then all of a sudden, in the 15th minute, they like something that he said Right. So I absolutely I dislike listening to some of these guys, but it's also what brings me back to listening to these guys, because of the hot takes, because the hot takes they bring he brings me a lot of hot takes because he is a doorknob sometimes.
Speaker 1:Just the things that he says, it's just like dude, dude, come on now. Like just be quiet, just be quiet. This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I mean, there's a lot of people out there probably feel that way. Right, there's a lot of people. When he said that he's like yeah, yeah, this guy's right.
Speaker 1:I mean michael jordan doesn't look as good anymore if lebron wins another gold medal, right, and there's a lot of people out there like, dude, just be quiet. I just be quiet, like where I'm talking from right now, just be quiet. So I mean, just just one of those things, just one of those things there. But I mean honestly, honestly, that's got the predictions from chat gpt, this new thing I just found out about that I'm gonna have to do more research on. Just baffled me in this instance there. So with that, let's get to a little packers. Let's get to a little Packers. Let's get to a little Packers. I did see some news coming out of the Packers there and not really out of the Packers, but just some tidbits to talk about there.
Speaker 1:Packers quarterback Jordan Love has spent time working with rookie quarterback Michael Pratt, helping Pratt's film study and coaching him in camp. So, listening to Michael Pratt, he said he'll be like, hey, mike, who's the old I got? Who are they working to? What's the protection? I mean just asking him these simple questions, right, not really kind of flushing him out, because you know, rodgers, favre, those two saw this rookie coming in. They didn't want nothing to do with him. They didn't want nothing to do with him because they're like eh, you know he's not, he's here to take my job. I'm not really going to worry about coaching this guy up. Love's taking it in the opposite direction right now. He's saying hey, you know, I see this young guy who I can influence, who you know needs some help in the room, needs some help. You know, figuring everything out here at the NFL or at the big level. Now, right, I'm going to help them out and that's awesome. That's awesome to see there. So hats off to Jordan Love in that instance there.
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of reports or a lot of articles about the Packers and the Cowboys swinging a deal to trade CeeDee Lamb to Green Bay, and I've seen a lot with Christian Watson going down to Dallas. I've seen a lot of those. You know what CeeDee Lamb is a dynamic wide receiver. Would I hate CeeDee Lamb on Green Bay right now? I don't think, you know. Truthfully, I don't think the Packers need him. I think he might be a headache. I think he might be a headache. Look at him with Dallas right now. Now, this is Dallas trying to play hardball too with a wide receiver that thinks he's worth a lot of money. So I mean, looking at his stats, he's worth a decent chunk of change, right? But do you want that headache in Green Bay? I don't think so, truthfully.
Speaker 1:Like I, look at this receiving core for Green Bay Now you're going to have Watson Dobbs, jaden Reed, dontavian, wicks, right, those are your big four and then your five is most likely going to be Bo Melton right, bo Melton. Unless he has a complete meltdown, bo Melton's going to be your number five, number six, if you go with the number six receiver there, I think you're looking at Malik Heath or you're looking at DuBose. Now, right, there, I think you're looking at Malik Heath or you're looking at DuBose now, right, you're looking at DuBose or you're looking at Malik Heath there to be on that number six spot. If they do, if DuBose does make the 53 and they do decide on a six wide receiver, if he does, he gets in Malik Heath. So, looking at that receiver core and listening to Matt LaFleur when he said you know, looking at, you know all these reports of the Packers having a number one wide receiver, you know, matt LaFleur said I want to vomit every time I hear number one wide receiver. It drives me crazy. That's something you guys talk about. I think we've got a lot of them. I love that statement because that tells me Matt LaFleur thinks Wicks is as good as Watson. Watson has his own. He has his own categories where he's better than Dobbs. Dobbs has his own categories where he's better than Wicks. Wicks is better than Watson in these ways, all the way around. They all do their own thing.
Speaker 1:We've looked at this preseason and we've talked about Dobbs. We've talked about Watson with some big plays, we've talked about Wicks with some big plays. The guy that we haven't talked about a lot is Jaden Reed, and Jaden Reed, I feel like, is going to be a dynamic version and he's going to be. He's a Randall Cobb. Right, he's a Randall Cobb. Now is he the flashy guy who gets all the names and he gets to be talked about all the time? No, we don't talk about him all the time.
Speaker 1:As we know, not a lot of people are talking about Jaden Reed, but Jaden Reed is that underlying factor. He's going to be that slot guy that everybody's going to forget about, because we're so much into what Watson's going to be, because Watson hopefully stays healthy, right, dobbs? We're like oh, dobbs is going to be the next. Could he be the next Devontae Adams, could he be that next big number one wide receiver? And we look at Wicks and we say Wicks might be the underlying guy, he might be the biggest guy in this. You know, in this rotation of wide receivers he might actually end up being the best one in this wide receiver group. And we all forget about Jaden Reed.
Speaker 1:Reed was phenomenal last season. I still remember that catch he had against Minnesota where I believe he scored a touchdown there and broke a couple tackles along the way. Like it was just come across across the field, catch it go and it was just everything about. It was fantastic. And a lot of people forget about Reed. A lot of people forget about Reed.
Speaker 1:So would the Packers need CeeDee Lamb on this? I truthfully wouldn't want him. Now that's kind of crazy, because you look at it and you say I mean, look at this guy, he's a phenomenal wide receiver, he's going to automatically put you in. I mean, just say the Packers traded Watson and some picks and they got CeeDee Lamb. Do you know what NFL Network and everybody would be talking about now? Chat GPT would be telling you Packers are going to be one of the best teams in the NFL. They're probably going to win the NFC. They're just going to go completely nuts about it, right, they're going to go completely nuts about it, and I really don't think that's going to be that big of a game changer for Green Bay.
Speaker 1:I think they have all those pieces that CeeDee Lamb has in-house already. I think Wicks gives them that deep ball threat, as we saw right against the Browns there. Well, also that catchability. He's got that ability in traffic to be able to haul it in. Same with Dobbs Watson, he has the ability to blow the top off a defense. Reid, he's a little bit everywhere, right, he's a little bit everywhere for you. And then Bo Melton is a solid number five. He's a solid number five and DuBose if he keeps playing like he is, this guy could work his way into that number five spot and Bo Melton might not have much to be able to do about it, because DuBose has just played phenomenal in that first one.
Speaker 1:Now, am I saying that's the way it's going to completely shake out? Maybe not, maybe it's not the way it shakes out, but all in all, all in all, ceedee Lamb to Green Bay just doesn't work for me Just doesn't work for me. I am not in on that one, not in on that one there. What I am interested in is the kicking situation. Do the Packers go with Carlson or Joseph? Joseph has looked better in summer, but do the Packers go with their draft pick or do they go with Joseph? I am really interested to see how that one plays out because I mean, what's going to happen? What's going to happen. It's going to be definitely. It's going to be definitely interesting to see what the Packers decide. Have they seen enough out of Carlson in this summer to say we trust this guy, we trust this guy to take him into a season because Joseph has been better in summer? So you've seen it on Joseph now in the summer. Do you trust that to carry over or do you trust Carlson to be able to figure it out in the second half? That's going to be something to keep an eye on there in that kicking room Also, the quarterback room I just talked about Michael Pratt before.
Speaker 1:There Do the Packers carry two or three quarterbacks on the roster going into the year or do they stick with just two? I think that's something to keep an eye on. There too is another one of those battles between Clifford and Pratt to be first off. Who's going to be the number two? Secondly, if we do go with two guys, are they going to stick with Michael Pratt or are they going to stick with Michael Pratt? Are they going to stick with Sean Clifford? I don't know. I could see them carrying three quarterbacks. To be honest, I could see them carrying three quarterbacks. But what will Green Bay do in that situation? I definitely am carrying three quarterbacks. That's just me. But we will see. We will see how that all works out there.
Speaker 1:Also, I talked about the AJ Dillon there situation yesterday. A lot of short. I mean I don't know what I was even expecting out of AJ Dillon in his first performance. Like he didn't have that many carries, didn't have a lot of opportunity. I don't know what I was even expecting out of him in that first performance there. So AJ Dillon. But now with the injury to Lloyd kind of opens up the door for AJ Dillon to, I mean, get more reps, be out there more. Maybe we see a little bit more out of him there. And we don't know what happens with that Lloyd injury. He's been banged up for a little while now. Do they actually get him back and healthy for a long stretch. That's what is going to be something to watch out for there. So AJ Dillon to the fans out there who didn't want AJ Dillon anymore they wanted him to be released on Monday I'm going to say good luck with that one. Now. I'm going to say good luck with that one because I just don't see it happening anytime soon with that there.
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Speaker 1:So with that, let's get to our sports fact of the day here. We got to get to our fact of the day. So our sports fact of the day Autumn is out, so we gotta get. I got it. I got it today here. So english cricket team beats australia by one wicked in a famous victory at the oval in london.
Speaker 1:Just finding that one out there didn't know that 1908 future baseball hall of famer cy young's career is celebrated with special day in his name. In Boston he pitches briefly for Red Sox against an all-star team there. And in 1906 Chicago Cubs pitcher Jack Taylor ends a string of completing 202 MLB games, 187 complete 15 relief against Brooklyn Superbass in third uh, third inning of an 11-3 win at Washington Park in New York City. So there are your sports facts of the day right there. I mean not a whole lot happened. Not a whole lot happened on August 13th in the history of sports. It's surprising. It is definitely surprising. There're in that right.
Speaker 1:So with that, let's get to some Brewers. Let's get to some Brewer talk to wrap this one up. So Brian Hudson does return from injury. Brian Hudson returns from injury. The interesting one DL Hall was optioned back to AAA. Now Hall is out of options. After this he's out of options, so they utilize this option now maybe bring him back up for the stretch run. I thought he was solid in his first outing back at the big league level so I thought maybe he was a little bit early on that one. But I also said the same thing about Aaron Ashby when he had one solid outing when they brought him back up and then we saw what happened at AAA level. So maybe they saw something in DO Hall they didn't quite like yet. But that's all we know in that aspect is Hall was sent back down to AAA.
Speaker 1:Jb Butkus was injured again. He got injured again, so he's working his way back. He's been out for a while now. I can't remember the last time. I even recall seeing JB Butkus on the mound for the Brewers and working his way back and all of a sudden he just has more issues with it and they terminated his rehab assignment. So it started, as I believe it started, as a shoulder injury. Now it's an oblique injury. So it started as a shoulder. He's working his way back from the shoulder injury. Now it's an oblique injury. I don't know if we're going to see JB Buckus at any point this year back from injury Blake Perkins. He also hits the injured list for the Brewers there. Tyler Black, we know it. He's back up with the crew right now. Probably going to see a little bit more of Black this week here going up against the Dodgers, because a lot of righties going for the Dodgers here.
Speaker 1:Looking at some other moves Anoli Paredes something that I did want to see. He was actually slated to begin a rehab assignment but he was supposed to start it later this week. Ended up now he's getting transferred to the 60 DIL. So kind of an interesting developing story there. I don't know what's happening with Paredes there, but he's heading to the 60 DIL. So not going to see Paredes for a long time now. Not going to see him for a long time now.
Speaker 1:That was an arm. I was really excited to get back at some point because I did hear he was going to start a rehab assignment. He was slated for it and now we're not going to see him get it. So definitely interesting, definitely interesting In developing news there. I did not see that one.
Speaker 1:Trevor McGill is another one there. He's supposed to be half. He threw live batters on the 12th of August there, looking like he's going to have a brief minor league rehab assignment any day now and then he's going to be back up with the big league club. So that's good news. Get Trevor McGill back there. Rob Zastrinsky really uncertain on him on there. He began his rehab assignment on August 9th with AAA Nashville. Not sure when we will see him back up. So Jamie Butkus we know about him. He's going to be on that 60-day IL. Anoli Paredes he's on the 60-day IL. Outside of that. That is about it on the injury front. So hopefully the Brewers start to slowly get healthy here. Hopefully they slowly start to get healthy again, because getting some of these bullpen arms back, getting some of these bullpen arms back, getting some of these arms back would be huge for this Brewers team. It would be definitely huge. So, like I said, watching this Brewers-Dodgers game now 4-2, now 4-2. Hopefully, hopefully, we do see the Brewers get back into this one, hopefully win this one. I'm seeing Braden Puzimski I can't remember how the heck to say his name from the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1:He was 2021, wisconsin, mr Basketball. Interesting, I did not know he was from the state of Wisconsin, so that is an interesting thing that we just learned tonight. I don't know exactly how to say his name. So if you know who I'm talking about, you know who I'm talking about. If you don't go to look at the Warriors roster and go find him on there, it's P-O-D-Z something at the end, I don't know. It's like Podzinski or something like that. You're probably out there, somebody's like dude. I just know how to say this guy's name. We all know I'm bad with names. On now, come on now.
Speaker 1:But we're watching this series here and my biggest question of it was the Brewers go into this one. They're a half game back, a half game back of the Dodgers heading into this game. Now, barring what happens in this one, we'll change that if the Brewers win, if the Brewers do lose this one, but just judging off of that, can the Brewers actually catch the Dodgers and or keep pace with the Dodgers Watching this game here? I think the only thing that hurts the Brewers is something that has hurt the Brewers mightily for I mean both this whole season and that is the home run ball. The home run ball has hurt the Brewers all season long.
Speaker 1:This Dodger team likes to hit home runs. That's their big thing. They're a home run hitting team. Right, you got Mookie, you got Freddie, you got Otani, you have Hernandez, you have Will Smith. We saw him hit four bombs, four consecutive home runs against the Brewers when we played them out in LA Excuse me, there this is a home run hitting team. The only thing that I think really outside of Pitching to pitching is kind of an interesting one there too, because I was just about to pull up the Dodgers pitching staff there, kind of look at some of their stats there in that pitching department, if I can find it here.
Speaker 1:Here we go. Here we go. Got to trust good old espn with this one here. Looking at the dodgers pitching stats, so we look at some of their starters here glass, now we won't see them in this series. But looking at some of the other guys. So you look at gavin stone there he's got an era sitting at 3.71. James paxton he's at 4.43. They did add jack flarity. We're not gonna see flarity in this43. They did add Jack Flaherty. We're not going to see Flaherty in this one. But they did add Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline. Yawamoto, he's on the shelf Outside of that.
Speaker 1:I mean you look at Clayton Kershaw coming back Now. They have some bits and pieces in there. I don't think the pitching staff is where it kind of separates himself out or separates. You know that's where it separates these two teams. I think it's lineup to lineup. I think when I look at this lineup for the Dodgers, which is some of the pieces that they have in it, the star power I think the star power is what separates these two teams, but I don't think it's as deep as lineup to lineup because I think the Brewers lineup we've seen them score runs. We know this team is a run scoring team. We know they can score runs. Can they keep pace with the Dodgers in that aspect? I think so. I think so. For some reason we can't hit slow and we can't hit junk. So Clayton Kershaw kind of ate us alive, right. Kind of ate us alive.
Speaker 1:In his outing, freddie gets himself into trouble, right, freddie gets himself into trouble. And that's something I watched with Freddie there with Brewer starting rotation. Freddie, it really sucks. Because if he was more efficient right, you know, you look at efficiency of guys If he was more efficient with his pitches, he gets in a lot of deep counts and deep counts are killers for Freddie because then that pitch count goes through the roof and then we have to go to the bullpen early. Right, he could be having a good outing. You know, two runs given up, whatever it is, he could have a good outing and we have to go to the bullpen in the fifth because Freddie's got a hundred pitches already. You know, and maybe you don't have to go to the bullpen, but realistically, most, most starting pitchers only go a pitches. That's just how it goes.
Speaker 1:Freddie's efficiency is a lot of what holds Freddie back. He works himself into deep counts, he gets himself into trouble. He walks guys. When he walks guys then guys end up hitting home runs off him. Then we have this whole cluster. It usually starts in about an inning. It's about in one inning where all the trouble happens for Freddie.
Speaker 1:I've always said it, it seems like it's one inning, a game, where Freddie seems to have a blow up and if he could avoid that one inning then Freddie Peralta could probably win a Cy Young, right? I mean this guy, he's a darn good arm. We saw his velocity last night. He was showing a lot of life, his breaking stuff was working and the velocity was up 98 miles per hour. I saw him touch a couple of times there. Was he outside his own with it? Yeah, I mean he was pulling off a little bit, but Freddie's a guy if they can get that efficiency, if they can just get him to be more efficient with him.
Speaker 1:Now I know he switched to just being out of the stretch. Now he's not going in the windup anymore. He's going more into this to stretch, trying to work on his mechanics, trying to correct his mechanics. Hopefully that helps him and he starts to adjust to that, because it is an adjustment right. You've been pitching out of the windup for how long you know, with nobody on. Now you're going to the stretch. Only. That was something that did help Corbin Burns. Right, burns used to pitch out of the windup but he couldn't figure it out in the windup. He went to just the stretch. That was great stuff for him, right. So we saw it out of Burns there. Some guys do pitch better just out of the stretch. Maybe that's something that's going to be for Freddie. Maybe that fixed the mechanics. Maybe that gets that efficiency better. Maybe that leads to better and longer outings for Freddie Peralta. I think that's something I really am interested to see is if that does help them there.
Speaker 1:So, outside of that, can the Brewers catch the Dodgers? Yeah, I think they can. What doesn't bode well for the Brewers is that they do have the eighth toughest schedule left in baseball. Now the Cardinals are up there, they have the third toughest schedule in baseball left, cubs have the 27th toughest schedule in baseball left and the Dodgers have the 15th. Now the Dodgers do have a date. They play Cleveland. Yet they got the Phillies for one, they have the Orioles for three, they got the series against the Brewers, then they have the Padres and then they're going to have the Diamondbacks in there too. Brewers, they face Cleveland, they face the Phillies, they face the Dodgers. Here they have seven against the Diamondbacks, they have two against the Braves and then they have three against the Mets. That's tough. That's a tough stretch of games. That's a tough stretch. This week is a tough stretch for the Brewers. So I mean, man, man, oh man, can they catch them? Yes, I think it's going to be hard. I think it's going to be hard.
Speaker 1:The Dodgers if you're a Dodger fan, you're banking on getting healthy. I think they will get healthier here. They just I mean watching this umpiring crew that the Brewers and Dodgers have it's like they want the Brewers to lose. I think sometimes, when I watch the Brewers and Dodgers play, it's just like they just want the Brewers and Dodgers play. It's just like they just want the Brewers to lose. That half swing that Mookie Betts just had there in the seventh inning, that they called the ball because they said he didn't go, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me right now? How much further can he go? Right, the bat's going to hit him in the back or what Like. How much further can this guy go? Just ridiculous. Just Pat Murphy's probably going to get tossed. Pat Murphy's probably going to get tossed here pretty soon, but I think they can. I'm going to go with the optimistic side. I think they can. I'm hoping that, you know, the Brewers just win the NL Central and get into the playoffs. But I think they can catch the Dodgers. I really do. I think they can catch the Dodgers. Brewers just got to get hot and they got to stay hot there.
Speaker 1:So I saw one last thing to wrap it up here. I saw a graphic. I saw a graphic. It was Team OPS compared to ERA. So basically, it's good hitting, good pitching, right. If you got good hitting, if you got good pitching, you got one side of the graphic. If you got bad hitting and good pitching, you're on this corner of the graphic. If you got bad, both you're in this corner. If you've got bad, both you're in this corner. If you have good hitting and bad pitching, you're in this corner of the graphic and the farther you work your way down, well, either the worse or the better. You are right.
Speaker 1:So, looking at the Brewers in that standpoint, they're actually in the quadrant of good hitting, good pitching. There OPS is higher. You look at their OPS they're sitting right about 800 there in OPS. Just looking at this graphic here, I don't have the number up in front of me, but they're sitting around that 800 mark there in Team OPS and Team ERA. They're sitting right around that 3.5. Solid spot to be in both.
Speaker 1:Now you look at the teams that are around them. Kansas City Royals they're around them. The Padres are actually higher in Team ERA or lower in Team ERA. They're sitting around three and they're sitting at that 800 OPS there. Diamondbacks right on the borderline, they have an above 850 OPS but they're sitting above a four Team ERA. Worst team, if you had to guess, the, the chicago white socks. They are above a six team era. They are below 600 in team ops there. Huh, doesn't surprise me. Doesn't surprise me with that one there. And one last thing to wrap it up the brewers did move up, or they stayed kind of stagnant in the team power rankings. Baltimore phillies, yankees, dodgers, brewers those are your top five in the power rankings, followed by the guardians, the padres, the twins, the diamondbacks and the royals rankings. Baltimore Phillies, yankees, dodgers, brewers those are your top five in the power rankings, followed by the Guardians, the Padres, the Twins, the Diamondbacks and the Royals there to wrap up that power ranking list to start this week. So with that, that's about all I got for the day. That's about all I got for the day.
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Speaker 1:So, 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 I talk to you guys again tomorrow, deuces.
Speaker 2: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 man Down to the river, down to the river, down to the river. Oh, oh, bury me, carry me, oh, oh, far beneath. Oh, oh, fire and water me. Going down deep, saying oh, oh, bury me, carry me, oh, oh, far beneath, oh, oh, fire and water me.