It's time for Make the Call, a weekly discussion on the top Wisconsin sports stories of the week.
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Now, it's time for Make the Call, a Civic Media sports production.
Indeed, another weekend
here on the Civic Media radio network.
I'm Jimmy Cuskas, sports director here at Civic Media, and it is time for Make the Call here.
on Civic Media.
I'm joined as always by Parker Olson in Madison.
Parker, how's it going, man?
Doing well.
The listeners will be happy to hear that I was deeply involved in my work today, so I was a little late, which means for you, listener, that you're going to get to hear a heck of a promo when you're listening to the Civic Media Network today.
There we go.
I'm excited.
All about the promos, and we head up north, and we check in with upper management, and that is Greg Gunders in New Park Falls.
Great.
What's up, man?
Good morning, guys.
Glad to be here.
Glad to be doing sport stuff because I haven't been able to think about sports all week.
You ever have a week?
Just decide for itself how it was going to go.
That's where I've been.
Hopefully I can grab the reins back today.
Well, hey, for me, it's been all sports because, you know, I run a flag football league.
We're hosting today right after this show.
I am running out to the football field to go start setting up the yard markers and all the other fun stuff so we can have 18 flag football games today here in basketball.
So pretty excited for that.
But.
We're not here to talk about like football or maybe we are.
I don't know.
I haven't looked at the top eight at eight yet, but that is what we do to start the show off.
It is eight o'clock in the morning when this show airs live.
So we do the top eight at eight, the top eight sports or not sports stories at eight o'clock in the morning.
We're going to leave things off for the personal favorite of mine at number eight.
And that is asking simply, what is your favorite yard game?
And Parker, since you're the one who put this on the board, explain yourself.
Yeah, so we were talking about the game Kube the other day, which I had heard of before, but I've never played it, so I don't understand entirely how it works.
I have come to understand that this is a cardinal sin in the Jimmy Cusco house, so I'm gonna say that my favorite game should be Kube, however, I'm gonna go with, I don't know, let's go with Badminton, if we can call that a yard game, I think.
People of Badminton sets.
That's that's a yard game, but it's also a weird pick.
Like I wasn't ready for that at all.
Like I don't see many.
That's
by Ed.
Okay.
Yeah, that's fair.
That's totally fair.
That background helps.
It's just that, you know, the badminton set, not a popular Christmas gift in the last 30 years, I'm not thinking, but for the right people.
For me, it's ultimate frisbee.
And usually not actually ultimate frisbee, but just throwing a frisbee because I'm the competitive guy.
And
When I'm in competitive mode, I fail to notice that other people aren't.
So let's do something casual so that doesn't happen and just toss a Frisbee because it's magic.
You throw a Frisbee and it just it just keeps going.
It's just a flat disk.
How does that?
It's so cool, Jimmy.
Save me from sounding this stupid, please.
Oh, you know, what's funny is that next to our football practice field are two disc golf holes.
So when we're having football practice in the fall, there's the occasional frisbee that makes its way in the practice.
So I always find that very exciting because much like a pack of, you know, Labrador Retrievers, football players are very much the same.
They will chase after the frisbee.
So it is really fun to watch and see that.
A lot of people in Hollywood go chase frisbee.
For me, obviously, it's cool.
Growing up in northern Wisconsin, Eau Claire is the host of the U.S.
championships for it, where they'll put out 140 games on the weekend of the national championships in July.
Got to be part of that in the early going.
They even gifted me my own kube set that is like handcrafted and like very very intricate and detailed and I own about four or five other sets between the various places I visit so kube for me is great Viking chests as they like to call it But if it wasn't kube if we take kube off the table I have always been a big fan of bachi because it's very similar you get to knock things around Also, the things are very heavy like the things that you throw are very heavy.
So if you know a sibling gets upset at something
you can always threaten them with pain.
So that is always great.
Statute limitations are up too if my sister's listening.
All right, number seven in the top eight and eight.
The Badgers have missed out according to rivals on the past top 17 in state recruits in men's basketball and another one from Freedom Wisconsin just signed with Iowa State earlier this week.
So is that cause for concern that Badgers men's basketball can't protect in state?
Yes.
Absolutely unequivocally.
Yes, simple answer here.
Instators are the ones who are most likely to be attracted to the program in a certain way.
Sure, people from California might look and think, man, Wisconsin's got some stuff going on and I'm tired of this big city vibe, but that's not how it works.
The instators are the ones growing up watching the Badgers and that emotional hook is there for them that...
you can't really replicate you can't replicate growing up in a place so for me yes cause for concern but i would entertain the idea that it's not as serious as it sounds because we haven't seen what the actual effect is parker you think i'm overreacting here a little bit.
I don't think you're overreacting that much.
I'm kind of with you.
Those in-state recruits you should own.
I think I've talked about this a couple of times, especially with the Luke Fickle conversation of the last year or so.
The Badgers should own in-state recruits, regardless of sport, frankly.
However, for basketball, I am going to kind of give the caveat of this just, it's a smaller roster, right?
There's not that many guys on a team, okay?
And there's also...
Transfer portal.
That has become a massive thing.
We've seen that a ton in Badger basketball in these last couple of years.
I think that's more of a sign of the times than it is, oh, the Badgers can't get their in-state guys.
It's like, no, they've kind of just refocused their efforts a little bit and they are trying to pull some recruits from out of state as well, which is fine.
But yeah, I would definitely like to see one of these last 17.
I definitely would have liked to see stay in Wisconsin.
You know, there's a couple coming up that you just know are heading out.
What, uh, you know, Clinton Iples, uh, his brother is now offered by Duke.
Uh, there, there just doesn't seem like there's going to be a, a stoppage to any of this at any point.
Um, I don't know that I'm too concerned either because again, there's like, you said only 15 roster spots and there's only somebody guys that can play here, but.
it does suck to see this top talent that you see all through high school in wisconsin and then all of a sudden they scatter and they're playing for uh pretty much anybody but wisconsin or marquette at that point so uh that is that is disappointing i guess in a way but
to each their own.
Ultimately, their kids making the best decisions for themselves.
Number six in the top eight at eight.
And this is a question we asked last week as we wrapped up the show.
And the Packers, of course, very kindly answered it.
And that was what they were going to do about the back and quarterback position they signed Tyrone Taylor.
So now the question is, have they addressed all their needs?
Gray, have they addressed all their needs now?
On paper yes if you look at what positions they needed it was corner first and foremost there were some needs maybe an offensive line in a couple other ones here and there perhaps a wide receiver for example.
And you could argue that they grabbed returner sky more to help round out the receiver group but he's not going to see offensive snap so yes and no they put people in positions where they had need but we don't know if those players are enough to cover.
the needs that were had.
Is Benjamin St.
Juice going to do enough as maybe a starting outside corner?
We've got Bullard in the slot.
Is Jager Burton, excuse me, I flipped it around because his name is so cool.
It just works both ways.
Is he going to be the backup offensive lineman we need?
We're not going to know the answers to those questions until the season actually starts and we see what's missing and what's hitting, but I believe so.
Combine that with the answers to the questions that Jonathan Gannon was giving the other day.
Notably that he said he's not a 3-4 or 4-3 defensive coordinator.
He's an NFL style defense.
That speaks to me about some flexibility that's being required of him, and that's what really needed to happen.
Flexibility adapted the situation.
All I need to see now is that Matt LeFleurs figured out how to stomp on them when they're down instead of letting up a little bit.
When I see that, I'm sold, man.
I'm sold.
Super Bowl tickets, I'm buying them.
Parker, maybe I'm a little early on that.
That's a lot of dough to drop on Super Bowl tickets that I'm not sure I'm
going to care
about.
Yeah, I
mean, that's
nothing only upper management can afford, so.
Oh, I tipped my hand again.
Sorry,
guys.
The Packers have definitely addressed all of their needs.
We talked about this last week, obviously, a bunch.
They did a fantastic job, I think, with the draft.
And then right after we finished talking last week, they went and got this quarterback, which is, I think, a really good move.
with a lot of experience.
That's what I like to see in a backup quarterback.
I'm pretty happy with this.
Number five in the top eight and eight.
Are you hyped or not hyped that the Badgers are opening up against Notre Dame at Lambeau under the lights kickoff time announced a 630 kickoff of Labor Day weekend on a Sunday.
So Sunday night football at Lambeau.
How hyped are you or not hyped are you for this?
All right.
I was thinking about this the other day.
If I was a player, this would be awesome.
I would absolutely love this.
I am a fan of the Badgers, and I will be so honest with you, I hate this.
I don't like playing at neutral sites, even though it's Lambo, it's not that neutral of a site, I know.
I think it's really, really strange to see the Badgers anywhere other than a college stadium.
I don't like it.
I'm mad.
I hate that it's going to be on a Sunday, especially college sports belongs, not on Sunday.
Under the lights, gray, you're kind of like, oh, Parker with a hot take.
That's the face that I'm getting right now.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Parker hot takles in this week.
Man, I'm kind of surprised, but I'm with you in principle generally.
But I thought we were going to align a lot more because what I've got going on is I want to be excited for this.
But I'm not like I should like this.
I should be excited This is a really cool combo of a team I love and another team I love and I'm sitting here thinking all right Here's the part where the fun kicks in and it's not there It
literally looks wrong to me to see the Badgers in Lambo It's just weird when they did it and whatever that was 2016 I think against LSU it was just weird
Jimmy we need you to balance this out here.
Are we too far off on the left side of things?
You know, I think that the weekend that it's on makes sense.
There's no NFL games.
There's no pre-season games.
The Sunday night makes sense.
It's going to get a lot of people paying attention.
It's two premier programs, right?
I am, though, on the other side of this, too, as well, because the LSU game in the at Lambeau field, I think, took the novelty of this way.
So now that the Badgers are going back here, the novelty of what happened 10 years ago, that isn't there anymore.
So I'm with kind of both of you on this.
I just I feel like, yeah, it's kind of cool.
It's in a time slot where people can see it.
But, you know, we already did this.
And, you know, yeah, it's probably great for the players.
But I don't know.
It feels like it feels like if we had this at Camp Randall Stadium with Notre Dame there, it'd be it'd be a lot more fun.
Jimmy, you're responding with too much fact and logic right now.
Parker and I are answering on an emotional level.
And I think we just needed you to agree with us on this one.
Yeah, I kind of agree.
Let's move
on to
number four in the top eight and eight.
Speaking of Lambeau Field, we just talked about the quarterback situation.
Someone asked this, which Packers rookie are you the most excited to see this year?
100% Brandon Ceasey, the cornerback taken in the second round, the high pick.
He's kind of the default first round pick for him, but he is by far the most highly regarded prospect.
He hasn't seen the field yet, so he's still technically a prospect taken into high rounds.
So you want to see success, but basically they're all potential projects.
See say has the highest likelihood of hitting right away, but thankfully there's been a couple other.
corners like St.
Juice, who was added.
We already mentioned that.
And of course, with the new defensive coordinator, who knows for sure, but he's the one because we needed him the most and he's the most promising on that defensive side of the ball.
Pretty much every other defensive player they took, which was four of the six has a major.
Maybe this could go wrong, but I believe in him.
Parker.
That is a good pick.
I am looking at Mr. Chris McClellan.
I think that he's just going to be a really fun addition for the defensive line, particularly against the run.
I'm really excited to have the Packers actually have somebody who's kind of main focuses against the run.
I think that's going to be really exciting for them.
I'm going to slide this kind of in a little.
Trace Mac, come on boys.
I would
love them.
You're getting two picks in this.
That was my pick.
Okay,
Jimmy,
you have
to
pick ease taking on taking all my thunder.
Yeah, as a special teams high school coordinator.
Yeah, I've excited for the kicker, especially one named Trace smack.
The headlines are all written for you.
Having a kicker who who is consistent.
If you want to get really nerdy and technical with a
very, very stable flight path on the footballs he kicks.
There's not a lot of wobble to him, not a lot on leader hook to him, good striking of the football when he kicks it.
And the fact that he's excited to just work with people, not even Green Bay, when you hear him talking at interviews, he's just excited to be a part of it, working with Daniel Whelan.
I really feel like, you know, given what happened last year, this was a, this is a nice answer to all of that.
So don't take my answer, Parker.
Sorry, geez.
You know, I, you know what?
You're right.
I shouldn't have given two names to Jimmy.
I apologize.
33% of the Packers are outclassed yourself, man.
I don't like it.
All right.
Well, we got to move ahead.
We have more in the top 80s to do, and we have three more questions, so we're falling behind, guys.
But we had a lot of time to talk about it.
Mike Clemens will join us later in the show to break down all things sports.
This is Make The Call, the Subik Media radio network.
Welcome back to Make The Call on Civic Media.
It is Make The Call.
Here are the big voiceover guys say we are at number three in our top eight at eight.
If you were here for the first segment, you heard us debate a lot of packers and badgers things.
We are going to shift gears a little bit here.
The NBA playoffs in full swing.
The draft lottery is coming up.
And number three in our top eight and eight asks a very simple question.
Parker Gray, if the Bucks win the NBA draft lottery, whether they get a first, second or third pick, moving far up from their double digits current pick where they would be at right now based on the odds, would you view this off season any differently?
I don't know that I really would.
The off-season itself I wouldn't view differently.
I do think that I would view the 2026, 2027 season a little differently because then you actually have an opportunity with a guaranteed...
Well, I don't know, guaranteed good building block, but you've got a pretty good chance at getting a really good building block onto your roster right out of the gate there as you go into 26-27.
The offseason itself right now, no, I wouldn't say it's going to change too much.
The main grade, I think, is what they do with the current roster, free agency, and the head coaching hire is obviously going to be the thing that most people point to.
Gray, what is your take on this?
My expectation is that, you know, if they do win the lottery, if they end up with a high pick like that, you know what the headlines are going to be?
What does Yanis say they should do with that pick?
You know, it's just that question is still going to remain.
Not to ignore the question, by the way, but this question really made me realize that all Wisconsin sports right now, Bucks...
Badgers and Packers especially, maybe less so the Brewers, are in kind of a weird transitional spot right now as the Badgers try to figure out what's going on with NIL and the Bucks are trying to figure out whether Yanis is going to stay in, what the new administration is going to bring.
The Packers have a new defensive coordinator.
We're looking at the Brewers and the struggles they've had after that hot start.
It's like, man, how are you guys the most consistent Wisconsin sports team right now?
Do I view the offseason differently if the Bucks win the lottery?
Yes, but the headlines sure won't.
Number one, the most consistent Wisconsin sports team right now is UW Whitewater Baseball.
I don't think they've lost in like three
months.
Number
two, I look at it this way.
If they were to get a top three pick in the lottery, if it wasn't subject to some kind of pick swapping, I actually think that it becomes a very, very important trade ship to bring somebody in to help rebuild the roster.
So if they were to get a top pick and there was a team that really, really wanted someone in the draft, all of a sudden you either can trade it for.
another top, you know, a starter, somebody in the rotation, or you can package that thing up and get some draft picks back for the next two years to start working on that post-Yana's rebuild.
So I feel like if they win it, they just increase the amount of assets they have, some leverage in making some moves this offseason.
So it doesn't feel like they're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.
It kind of greases the skids a little bit to make some moves and make this roster a little more viable.
Number two in our top eight at eight.
And this is a question that is for everybody in the room because I know how much the NFL schedule drop means to all of you.
What are you looking forward to most with the Packer schedule or the NFL schedule as a whole is finally released next week.
There's one thing in particular that I'd like to see on the Green Bay schedule.
And it's the same thing that would be on everybody's schedule because last year was brutal.
with all the divisional games back loaded into the second half of the season.
I'm hoping those are a little bit more evenly spread out.
And also, honestly, I'm most excited to just to see what
the strength of schedule is going to be.
Frankly, I'm more hopeful than excited about anything because I'm really hoping we have a better timed by week instead of that super early one like we had in week five, I believe, of last season.
So it's more about hopes than excitement.
I'm just excited to have more football info, though.
I'm just excited that it's dropping if we want to talk about excitement.
Parker, how do you take the schedule
drop?
I've never put a lot of stock into the Packers schedule drop.
That said, though, there are obviously select opponents that you're going to be looking at and going, when are they going to play?
Because you never know if the bills, for example, the bills will be one of the Packers games at home this year.
How deep into the season is that going to happen?
Are the bills going to be fighting for a playoff spot?
Are the Packers going to be fighting for a playoff spot?
Or is it going to be kind of early on, middle of the season, figuring out who you are?
That's kind of the stuff that I look at.
I do really like your point, Gray, though, about what was it, the divisional games.
Those are huge.
It is so important on a schedule.
Frankly, and I...
I will pitch this to the group, I don't know what you guys think of this.
I think that they should have the first three games of the year should be against divisional opponents, and the last three games of the year should be against divisional opponents.
Maybe a little bit of shifting one or two weeks towards the beginning, maybe give yourself a couple of other opponents before you get into division, but I think you should hit all three right in a row, kind of see where everyone's at at the beginning of the year, and then get all three again at the end of the year, because those games matter so much.
for the divisional title.
That's an idea I've had for like a year or so.
I'm kind of interested if any one has thoughts.
Gray, you made a face.
That is a fascinating idea because on the face of it, it's like, why would we throw the schedule off that far?
But you can create some major intensity in the first half.
And in the tail end, like, back loading the divisional games makes obvious sense for viewer interest, but it has ramifications for how the playoffs come out.
Long story short, I expect them to do it, like, last year again and back load them.
But Parker, you got me thinking about this.
We're going to have to revisit this idea in the future.
I want to marinate on that one.
Well, we can see, too, that they actually take Parker's idea and they stick it in.
We know they heard the show.
They're going to go and change whatever they've got drawn up right now.
I look for a couple things myself.
The first thing I look for for the Packers specifically is what is their December and January schedule look like?
Are they bringing a warm weather team into Lambo and then having, you know, the Dolphins or the Cardinals or whoever would be on their schedule?
Are they going to be playing outside in the elements?
The other thing I look for obviously is the inverse of that.
Will the Packers play indoors at all down the stretch where they get a bunch of dome games at the end or warm weather games?
And that seems to have been a trend the last few years where the Packers
late season schedule will be something like two home four away in the last six weeks as they, you know, the schedule makers try to mitigate that home field advantage a little bit for the Packers playing in an outdoor venue in a cold climate.
So that's the part I'm curious about.
I do agree that divisional games matter a whole lot.
I know that they, they purposely put the week 18 game is always the, or the final game because it was week 17 before that is always a divisional game just to give themselves a chances at divisional matchups and having that play in kind of thing.
I think
Parker's idea has a bit of merit.
I don't know what the start of the year, but I think definitely the end of the year.
I do kind of like that idea.
Quick idea.
Parker, you inspired me.
All six last six games.
Oh,
yeah, Bears, Lions, Vikings, Bears, Lions, Vikings, and just see how the gauntlet treats you.
Oh, how many fans are going to absolutely ream on each other for six weeks straight?
I mean, if we're going
to do it, let's
do it, right?
Yeah, sure.
A lot of
snowball is being thrown at the stands those few weeks, except in Minnesota, Detroit, where that doesn't apply.
All right, we're out of time this segment.
We have a lot to talk about with the Brewers.
And with you that next, my club is showing us
at the shelf, it is they could call the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to make the call on civic media It is the civic media radio network make the call Jimmy Tuska Parker Olson Greg Gunderson with you as we continue along this half hour coming up in about 20 minutes Mike Clemens Our sports reporter will join us and he'll tell us all about sports going on this weekend here in Wisconsin Right now though, we're gonna wrap up our top eight and eight and we kind of save this one for the bottom of the hour because there's a lot of
Different ideas that go into this question.
That's because we are Roughly a sixth of the way into the baseball season and the Brewers are
pretty well.
I mean, they got a good record.
They just happened to play in a very difficult division right now with everybody right there at 500 or above.
So I want to leave this off.
And it's a pretty loaded question about whether the Brewers need to make any moves between now and the trade deadline, because they're going to make moves.
There's going to be pieces that go up and down with the minor leagues.
It's what they do.
But I'm asking this question just in the context of recent happenings here, guys.
And the recent happenings are getting guys like Turio, Vaughn back to the lineup, losing pitchers like Woodruff.
having another picture grow out for this season.
There's all these things that are kind of happening right now with the Brewers.
And you kind of look at it, are they setting up for a run?
Are they setting up for a contention?
And I got to get you guys' thoughts on all things Brewers.
So we are going to take a deep dive here for the next 10 minutes or so and just talk about the Brewers.
I will start though by just asking the simple question to you.
Is there any obvious moves that the Brewers need to make right now given where they are with the injuries and with where they are in the standings?
I think that one of the things that you're going to see the Brewers do is probably go for pitching.
They have performed well.
However, the injury bug has just been so deep in the Brewers pitching staff that I kind of expect that they're going to have to make at least a move there.
You usually see the Brewers do something similar-ish in the middle of the year towards a trade deadline.
I have a hard time thinking that they're
current pitching staff is what it's gonna be.
I think that there's an addition to come somewhere in there.
I wouldn't be surprised if you get kind of a setup man.
As Trevor McGill, he was back.
Go and take a step back here.
He
had been the closer last year.
This year he struggled a bit and he had to kind of take a step back.
He's gone more into that set-up man role and now Abner or Ribe has gone into the closer role, so they've kind of swapped.
McGill in that set-up role, he's starting to do okay, but he's wavered a little bit here and there.
I would not be surprised if they look for somebody right there to kind of fill in that role, and then maybe you can give McGill a little bit even earlier on in your relief situation.
Maybe you can come in, maybe you'll like the six ending or so, be that first guy out of the bullpen once or twice.
I would like to see that happen.
But yeah, I think that the Brewers may plug in, get a bullpen arm, possibly another starting arm as well, because there's been a ton to turn over there.
It seems like every week I'm hearing something about the Brewers have had a shift this guy's starting day because his elbow has got this, his hangnail has got that.
Genuinely happens so much.
It's really frustrating.
I think that if that does happen, you're going to see a prospect go.
I'm not saying it's going to be Jet Williams, obviously.
I'm not saying it's going to be Jesus Made.
I don't know who it would be, but the Brewers are just, they've got such a deep bench of prospects.
I could definitely see that happening.
Gray, what are you looking out for as the Brewers maybe make a move?
I think that speaks to the loudest need that they've got right now because it, you know, it'd be a fair answer to say that we'd need to make use of what we have before we add anything because there's a lot of good existing on the roster.
especially once you get past the injury bug.
Man, what the brewers need to do is get healthy.
But I believe it's the Marines.
It's someone in the military.
I've never served.
Thank you to those who have, but sorry for misquoting you or misattributing it.
There's one branch of the military who likes to say two is one and one is none.
And the idea there is you bring spares because if you've got one and it breaks, you're done.
You got nothing left.
The idea is always carry extra.
And one of my favorite things the MLB does that the NFL never will,
Probable starters that is a phrase that I just love like you go over to the the X posts from the brewers Here's the probable starters for pitching and it's like man.
How likely are we talking here?
And why aren't you committing more?
So like when that's the tone of of approaching a game I'm thinking cool.
So you got four extras hanging out there, right?
Because oh my gosh, it sounds like we might be down to zero like that It's like the Packers corners before the draft.
They're one hamstring away from
Done.
Toast.
So if anything, I agree.
Add a bullpen arm, maybe a starting arm, speak to the largest needs, and then maximize what you already have.
It is funny too, you're starting to see those probable starters for pitchers that is inching closer and closer to game day I've noticed as well.
Like, it is not that uncommon to have, eh, I don't know about tomorrow.
We'll see.
It gets
a little worrying.
Um, I think Friday starters were released like pretty late Thursday or probable starters.
Like again, what's the level of confidence here and why?
Yeah.
Um, moving, I think it's worth moving over into the batting as well.
Um, I don't, this isn't a trade need.
Um, this is more of just a.
I don't know, I'll call it an administrative need, but kind of a strategic need.
I need the Brewers to stabilize the batting lineup.
I still think the Brewers haven't had the same batting lineup twice.
And I don't expect that you will for a little while still, because as we started off the segment talking about Andrew Vaughn, Jax and Cheerio, those guys are back.
Christian Yelich, last I heard, was on track to get in way closer, or way sooner rather than we thought that he would.
I am very interested in the brewers finding a batting lineup that actually works for them, rather than just
play with it so much.
I think it's kind of hard to find consistency there when you're moving around so much as a batter.
Great.
You know what else the Brewers need?
Three more Bryce Terangs.
That guy is absolutely on fire.
I think I saw a graphic on Friday just recently here.
Something like 0.44 O.B.P.
right now.
I mean, he just lives on base.
It was funny
because when he kind of broke out during the world baseball class, like I kept, I think we were joking even back in what February, March, we were saying like, oh, great, you know, Turing's, you know, he's breaking out now.
So now he's going to be, uh, you know, he's going to be next to the trade block so the players can scoop up prospects or whatever.
But it has been nice to have some stability in the infield, um, because it just felt like for years, they were just putting random guys out there.
They're kind of doing that with third base right now.
They kind of pick a guy and throw him out there.
But, um, you know, just in terms of.
uh, you know where they're at as a lineup.
I think the lineup itself, uh, with cheerio coming back with vaughn coming back that pop they were missing is there and that's exciting the pitching.
Yes.
That's where I think the moves will have to make because you know
And it always feels like they go through a year where their rotation, it is completely different two months into the year.
And there's going to be a breakout guy this year.
There always is.
There's always a breakout guy somewhere around May, June, July.
There's somebody who breaks out last year was Mizorowski.
You know, so there's always somebody, maybe it's not an obvious pitching prospect, but it feels like there's a breakout candidate somewhere.
We just don't know where.
And when that happens, it'll kind of change that trajectory mid season for the team and give them someone another reliable arm going down the stretch.
Another part of that is that they still have to figure out the back end of it with closers, as you guys were talking about.
That part, I'm curious to see too, if it's still by a committee approach.
But I feel like the pitching rotation, the pitching step itself, as you guys have talked about, is still very unsettled.
And if there's a move to make, it's something to sort of stabilize one end of what happens with pitching.
Yeah, no, I'm right with you.
Any stabilization that you can find whether we're talking pitching or batting is totally needed.
The less stable you are, the less confident I am, especially in such a competitive division.
I don't know if we've talked about that quite as much here yet.
I know we've talked about it last week a little bit.
The Brewers, over 500, still doing well.
In my opinion, if you're over 500, you're doing pretty well and you've got a solid chance of making it to the playoffs, still in like fourth or fifth in the division.
Power to power to how good they are, but it's more power to how good the division is, right?
The Cubs have been on an absolute tear
However, I'm very happy to hear that the Reds have been struggling a little bit.
Yeah, the Reds
went from like first to the last place, like the matter of what a week.
It was crazy.
But that's early season baseball for you.
I want to point you a couple of things in the standings and I'll set it up for you guys here.
First, we talked about pitching and stability.
Well, the Brewers are third and runs allowed in the NL just to run behind the Braves and several behind the Dodgers.
Well, the Dodgers are a whole different animal.
You can't really compare yourself to what the Dodgers do.
Their payroll is like this.
small nation, right?
It's a lot of money.
That being said, the run differential has been pretty good.
It's fourth in the National League.
Even though they're hanging around the bottom part of the standings in the NL Central, they're still within a game of the wild card.
And there's still a handful of games behind the Cubs in the standings.
There are two parts to this one.
They have not played
Really anybody in their division yet.
They've had very few divisional games a game I guess the Cardinals got rained out pushed to July You know a five game series with the Cardinals before the all-star break That's crazy five game road series with the Cardinals.
That is amazing The other part of this though, and I want to throw this one at you guys This is kind of like her ball and all this the schedule has been so weird that the Brewers are last in the National League at this They are last in playing teams with a record over 500.
They are two and three
in games against teams of the record over 500.
They have not played a lot of great teams yet, and I don't know if that's concerning or if these early season records just really don't matter that much when you talk about things like that.
I just look at the other teams, so a lot of other teams have played a dozen or so games against top teams.
The Brewers have had such a weird schedule, especially against AL teams, that they've only played five games this year against teams with a winning record.
i'm gonna file that under maybe okay but it has to be corrected the term that comes to mind is paper tiger and it shows up i know i know i know i'm the football guy but there's always a team who at about week 12 or 13 in the nfl season some reddit post goes off yeah but this team's only got two wins against winning teams and it's always one of those juggernauts last year it was i think the patriots had a pretty rough record against
winning teams.
And what do you know?
Who do you face when you get to the big game?
Again, though, we're earlier in the season.
We're not 40 games in yet.
And so there's plenty of time to correct it, but I feel it must be corrected.
So this could be okay if they do the right thing and correct it.
Parker, do you think it's a bigger deal?
Am I overreacting?
Where do you fall?
I'm trying to, I had not heard this step before actually, so I'm kind of diving in right now to see who it is.
just based off of my memory, which is spotty.
It looks like the Brewers have played a lot of teams who are floating around 500, I think is a good way to put it.
Largely 100%.
A lot of them are below 500, but it's not by more than like two, three games from what I'm seeing at least.
I don't know that I would put too much stock into that.
However, it certainly is a little bit worrying when you haven't played a lot of teams who are really good.
I think that the best team that I have found in here is, ooh, well, the Cardinals.
Well,
the Yankees right now, I mean, obviously the Yankees.
Yes, yes.
Yeah, but you look at baseball, there's a lot of parity.
I mean, yeah, the top of the division leaders have good records, but everybody else is kind of packed in there.
I also
just think that the rumors need to start playing divisional games.
It really will help sort this mess out where you've got all five teams over 500 as of today.
It'll sort itself out once they start playing at all central teams here.
Yeah, that is a really good way to look at it and kind of goes back to our NFL conversation about the divisional schedule.
It kind of evens itself out.
Should they
put all 20 divisional games at the
end of the year?
Oh, God, no.
Oh, no, that'd be
awful.
Don't do that in baseball.
The whole month of September is Cubs, Cardinals, Pirates Reds.
Oh, no, please no.
That's kind of what it is this year anyway.
A little.
Yeah, it is.
Your chips will fall where they will a little bit better once you get into those in division opponents of baseball
Well, it is a very fun time to be a baseball fan, just given that the Brewers have somehow managed to stay competitive despite having a very small payroll.
They are finding ways to contend and develop star players and also seeing a lot of their big money players, you know, with guys like Christian Yellow, it's missing time.
It is really a fascinating organization.
And well, not a lot of other teams are trying to study to figure out what the Brewers are getting right so that these teams with three times the payroll can somehow be more efficient than just throwing money.
but we are out of time for this.
We are going to come back.
We're going to hear from Mike Clemens.
He's going to give us a full rundown on all things sports and we'll offer our final thoughts next year on make the call part of the civic media radio network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
One final time here on Make the Call part of the Civic Media Radio Network as we wrap things up here for this weekend.
And guys, that's a chance for us to offer any final thoughts.
We covered a lot of ground today.
It is a chance for us to offer some final thoughts.
We'll start with you, Parker.
Final thoughts here on this weekend's program.
Oh, Jimmy, you know where I'm thinking.
I'm thinking about D3 Baseball.
I'm thinking about my Waywater Warhawks.
They actually did lose a game the other day.
It was very sad.
After 36-0, Windstreak, they lost.
I actually kind of got shelled by River Falls.
So looking to see how they do in the postseason now, WIAC tournament wrapping up here, I believe today, maybe tomorrow, and then the D3 actual postseason national tournament.
we'll get going.
I am interested to see how that goes as they've been untested.
Gray, what are you thinking?
I'm thinking that for me this weekend, I'll admit sports actually means something different.
I'm going to go way off kilter here because
I didn't get to go fishing last weekend.
I ended up attending an award ceremony going out of town, getting some recognition for some of our awesome coworkers here on the Civic Network.
But I did not get to drop a line in the water, and I have been itching for a week.
So my brother's texting me pictures of the wall eyes he's catching.
You're going to find me doing that kind of sporting this weekend, I think.
Well, first of all, Gray, the network, you got some hardware yourself.
You have a big amount of it here on the cameras.
We're walking here.
You saw all these awards that he got.
Uh, I even picked one up somehow.
I didn't even put one in and they gave me one for something I wrote on the internet.
So that's pretty cool.
Um, I will be running a flag football tournament today and that is pretty much my weekend.
Uh, you will see me back here next week on this camera, very sunburn.
Um, even more than I usually am, uh, this summer year, I, I am very bright, bright red, which is great.
It matches the color of the shirts we wear here at Boston.
Yeah.
That is my weekend.
Uh, here, lots of cool things happening in sports and we've got a lot of fun talking about it all.
here today.
Great, Parker.
Great to have you on board here.
Thank you,
Jimmy.
Have a good one.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Thank you for listening and coming up now, Mike Clemens with an update on sports here.
This has been Make the Call on the Sydney Media Radio Network.
The Yankees come to town.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports from American Family Field in Milwaukee, where it's the Brewers and the Yankees this weekend.
New York tied with the Atlanta Braves with the best record in baseball.
Brewers analyst Vinny Retino.
They're going to have to play really clean baseball.
They're going to have to really pitch well.
They're going to have to come up with some timely hits in order to win this series.
This Yankees team looks like the class of baseball.
The
series got off to a good start for the crew Friday night as they beat New York six to nothing.
Jacob Mizorowski pitching six quality innings, striking out 11 batters and setting a new velocity record for a starting pitcher.
At 103.6 miles per hour while striking out Aaron Judge, the Miz talked about keeping it going.
into the sixth.
I think it's I think it's also with the adrenaline.
I think that's a part of it too is like you kind of settle in and you know figure out a way to get through those innings because you know they're going to be tough in the you know it's the second third time that those guys are going to see you.
So it's like probably the toughest time of the game.
So you got to figure it out.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy
on Mizorowski's performance.
When you come up and you're throwing real good, you don't realize how much it is to get six innings in in a big league game.
It gets to line up like that.
You don't realize the conditioning that it takes the
that it takes.
Now a serious injury left fielder Brandon Lockridge had to be carted off the field in the top of the fourth inning after chasing a pop fly in foul territory slamming into a concrete wall not protected by cushions.
Initial x-rays say it's not fractured, but he's got a huge laceration that's going to be a while.
I mean, it's all the way down to his bone, the laceration.
So it's pretty ugly.
We don't know any other extent of any other damage.
because there's so much swelling that we're going to have to wait until it goes down.
get an MRI at that time.
Brewer's right fielder, Sal Freelik, after the game.
You know, anytime the ball's over there, you understand the wall is there.
It's not like you're ignoring it.
But if you have a chance at making a play, it kind of negates the thought of hitting the wall.
And that's what happened there.
Like, he knew he had a shot at it and it wasn't going out.
So, you know, that's the culture here.
That's, you know, what's expected.
I think that's why we want the pitchers to be fully confident in throwing strikes because we're going to go after balls like that.
And yeah, sometimes, you know,
it happens.
So I just hope he's okay.
NFL, the Packers have a new backup quarterback behind Jordan Love.
They released Desmond Ritter and signed 36 year old former Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor.
He's played for seven different teams.
Packers quarterback coach Luke Getze.
When he walked in the room, you can feel the presence, the confidence, the composure.
You know, he's seen a lot.
He's been in a lot of different systems.
And so that part of it just, you know, how quickly he's able to pick up on things.
And then I mean, he like showed up and we were going right to drill.
and stuff and like it was you know he's just he's a true pro and it was pretty cool to see and as far as the juice he's definitely still got that.
On Friday Green Bay released place kicker Brandon McManus after two seasons with the pack and that opens the door for rookie kicker Trace Smack out of Florida drafted last month in the sixth round new special teams coordinator Cam McCord.
Obviously you had a tremendous year last year we've sat down we've talked you know I tell the guys we're they're getting better we're getting worse you know you're never gonna really stay the same.
So our goal is every day to get better.
NBA the Bucks introduced their new head coach this week 41-year-old Taylor Jenkins who told reporters he knows there's a chance Giannis and Ted Acupo may not be here next year.
Yeah, I mean I think obviously we have big important decisions as a team and organization over the course of the summer We're gonna have great dialogue with all of our players Giannis included, but that's the belief and trust I have with this group right here I know the belief and trust that they have in me that we're gonna have those appropriate conversations and navigate and
decisions for not just now but the future.
After the press conference, I caught up with Bucks general manager John Horst.
Given key injuries to key players the last two years, what does you and your staff think?
Here's what we need to do better.
I think it's always holistic.
We have to make better decisions at our front office.
We have to do things differently as a coaching staff.
We have to continue to evolve and grow as a medical group.
Like Taylor talked about and why I'm excited to partner with Taylor is it's about competing every day.
it's about being together.
I think we will make improvements in all areas and we have to.
We're not where we want to be right now.
We have to get better.
So it's about building and getting better.
Jimmy Haslam, who also owns the struggling Cleveland Browns, was the only Bucs owner present for the press conference, saying he will be more involved with the operations of the team.
So how much does Yanis and Terakupo mean to the Bucs history and
franchise?
brought Milwaukee its second championship in first in 50 years.
He's a phenomenal player.
He's a phenomenal person.
He's arguably one of the best basketball players in the world, and we will do what's best for Yanis and what's best for the organization.
We don't know whether Yanis will stay with us or not, but we'll work through that with Yanis in the coming weeks.
That's the Bucks Co owner Jimmy Haslam with sports.
I'm Mike Clemens.
