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.
Welcome in for another week here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome into the weekend.
I am Jimmy Cuska, and this is Make the Call.
This week joined by a couple of guests from around the state, as always, as a co-host of this program.
The guy who filled in last week for me, and I'm sure everybody is thrilled that I'm back after he did such a great job last week, Parker Ferticle Olsen back.
What's up, buddy?
Oh, you know, Jimmy, just recovering from whatever it was that I did last week.
I'm not sure that I should ever be in front of a microphone again.
Alas, you let me hear, which is good.
I'm just reading the text messages we got, and they're like, Jimmy, who?
And I'm like, you know, that's fair.
You know, that's fair.
He sounds different.
But anyway.
And also this week in place of gray upper management Gunderson, we have actual upper show in Joel carding Joel.
What's going on in the Northwood?
I'm still recovering from Parker vertical also.
Yeah, I want more on the vertical there.
I don't believe
either
Yeah, we're doing good.
Gray actually is at Summer Jam up in Eau Claire today.
He'll be introducing like sticks and Brett Michaels.
So he may be upper management now.
He's going to be on stage having a good time at Summer Jam today.
You know, I'm seeing and music festivals in the Chippewa Valley is how I grew up in the business.
So I am I am thrilled for him to be be out there doing that.
But yeah, all right, well, let's let's talk some sports and not sports because on this program,
As we know, we get through all the top sports stories and not sports stories of the week.
Later in the program, we'll recap the week in sports with our very own Mike Clemens, who is on assignment covering the brewers throughout the weekend.
We're going to hear from him coming up later on in the show.
But in the meantime, you get to enjoy what we call the top eight at eight, the top eight sports stories or not sports stories.
at eight o'clock in the morning when this show airs live on the weekend.
So we will start at number eight in our top eight at eight.
And I have to ask this because I am now after my kids baseball season kind of winds down, getting out to some, getting out some games involving older people, older than 10 year olds.
And I am noticing so many creative
giveaways and theme nights this year.
And I have to ask you guys, is there a favorite you have among some of the creative giveaways that are coming up or even theme nights that are coming up for teams that you follow this year?
Well, I'm old school, so I missed the free baseball night where the baseballs end up on the field and I missed the 10 cent beer night, too.
Those are all experiences that that baseball, of course, learned from over the years.
But I mean, you talk about all the giveaways.
I don't think there's any doubt.
that banana ball is having a real effect on teams creativity, uh, at these games, not only in giveaways, but other stuff, uh, that's going on at the park too.
But, uh, as far as unique giveaways, I guess I always love the bat.
I just, I know it's not unique, but I love the mini bats.
I have those as a kid because then you could use those against your older brother, of course, as a weapon and you could play baseball in the living room with it and get yelled at by mom.
But that was always my favorite, maybe not most unique.
You guys are closer.
to minor league parks and stuff.
So you, you probably see more of the unique stuff than I do.
I've got a, I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's definitely a weird one.
Um, so I work for the Madison Mallards.
This is, comes up probably more often than it should, frankly, on the show.
Um, and we did a giveaway, I believe last weekend, it was a six, seven day, which means that we were doing nothing but memes basically for the entire game and the giveaway, a skibbity toilet with the mascot jumping out of a toilet.
Yes.
That's
really what the
kids are doing.
And yes,
I hope there's a sponsorship.
I hope there's an explanation.
No
explanation
is what
kids are into because my kids are into the same stuff.
And I just kind of look at them like, I have no idea what's going on.
I'm
much for it.
I love the theme nights.
Like the brewers this year have really gone all in on theme nights, for example.
You know, they just announced a couple more for later in the summer.
They've really, they're tapping into some.
um, maybe non-traditional baseball markets are having like an anime night They're they're having a k-pop demon hunters night later this year, which is a movie those on netflix last year They've really gone all in on some of these seam nights just to draw kind of broader audiences and I feel like that's intentional too I think of some of my my favorite ones though I have to say I'm gonna go back to the mallards of this year because the the big Lebowski night, which I'll be there for I am
I'm beyond stoked for that.
Uh, I can't wait, wait to take in my, my first baller case of the year is going to be, going to be, uh, from a corporate suite because my wife's, uh, company is sponsoring it to free ticket in.
Um, you know, Parker, whatever you're doing on that game, you're probably going to have to make sure you zoom in on me because I'm going to be acting a fool that day.
I got you.
And take your dog to the ballpark night has to be one of the worst ideas ever.
I would never do that.
That would not
even be there.
I don't want to clean up after I just I don't want to be there
Yeah, yeah, I can't imagine what that's like.
All right.
We got to move on though We have some sports stuff to get to you Let's go to number seven in our top eight at eight and I got to ask just because it happened and it was all over social media this week The NBA title was won by the New York Knicks this year and I have to ask is it something that makes you excited is something that you don't care about We're already wish it was somebody else.
I just curious about your reaction here to the Knicks winning the NBA title
I mean, as somebody who's not a big NBA guy, I'm not too enthralled with it, however I will say, it's always cool to see a team win when they haven't for a long time, much like the Bucks a couple of years ago.
I don't think the Knicks had won in over 50 years, I think it was 53 years.
That's got to be fun.
That's got to get some excitement going for everybody, I think.
Yeah.
And I think it was a legendary finals, I think, because the start of WEMB will talk about this years down the line.
And what Jalen Brunson did, a guy that was kind of discarded by everybody for what he did, is absolutely amazing.
Initially, when I saw New York win and I was kind of like, please, celebrities and all the, I was kind of like, I'm not liking this.
But then when I saw.
When I saw Larry David smiling on the sideline, I thought to myself, I don't know if I've ever seen Larry David have this much joy.
And then I saw Seinfeld and I thought to myself, you know what?
Yeah, these are celebrities, but they're real real people.
They're real fans.
The Ben Stillers are real fans.
I found some joy.
And them and it looked like they did it right.
They didn't burn down the city Everybody kind of behaved at the parade.
I mean if you're a spurs fan in new york, you know, you're in trouble anyway.
So what are you doing?
Uh, but I guess I was generally at the end I went not being real thrilled about it too I'm all right with it and then cat my old timber wolves guy He gets a he gets a title which is a theme for minnesota sports for guys to leave and go in titles
That was my that was one of my takeaways from the finals while in Carlite that he tells to I was in San Antonio for when they won one of their four titles I happened to be in San Antonio.
I went to the parade for no reason I'm not his first fan I just happen to be there and I gotta say that the vibes between New York and their celebration in San Antonio and their celebration a little different and how they celebrated out winning winning it all number six in the top eight at eight the NFL teams have begun announcing their training camp dates so
Gotta ask you guys, are you excited for practice?
I mean, this is this is what the NFL has become.
Every announcement is must must see TV, apparently.
For me, I just don't get hurt.
Just don't get hurt in these practices.
Other than that, you know, for the average fan, you're like, you know, you want to hear guys say good things and maybe some of the positive things that are going on.
But for the average fan, it's like, you just kind of wait for the coaches to say what they're going to say about them.
And
Yeah.
It doesn't, it doesn't interest me much until it gets to the Hall of Fame game.
You know, then, then I'm like, okay, we're starting the season.
That's where we're beginning now.
I don't know if I've ever heard somebody reference the Hall of Fame game as a great thing.
Wow.
That's interesting.
Huh.
Okay.
Yeah.
Sure.
It's the beginning.
It's the beginning.
I'll
give
you
that.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Practice.
To me, here is.
This is a signal that we're getting there.
And that's what I like to hear because now I'm going to start seeing reports from the head coach, from the, from new coordinators for the Packards.
We're going to be hearing, yeah, I think that this guy is going to be really good.
That guy is going to be really good.
Matthew Golden, he's actually going to be one of your leaders on this team, Tucker Kraft.
He's going to be really important.
That's the kind of stuff I want to hear.
And we're going to actually start to hear that now.
For me, I'm coaching in a seven on seven in high school football today.
So football is here for me personally.
But seeing NFL teams kind of following along, getting some summer practices in.
Yeah, you're right.
It's time.
It's football time.
Speaking of football, number five in our top eight at eight, I have to ask you guys, how much World Cup have you watched?
It's been going on now over a week.
The USA has played two games already, two matches, sorry.
I'm just curious.
Have you guys watched any World Cup yet?
I'll admit, I have it on the TV.
I have it muted for the most part, unless it gets really interesting.
If the USA is on, I'm there.
I'm all in.
I will turn up the volume on the national anthem.
I love the Columbia and Uzbekistan players just yelling, screaming at the top of their lungs or national anthem and singing it.
I just, I love that part of it.
Once the game gets going,
Pretty good chance you're not going to see a lot, so I kind of mute it and check back once in a while.
I see the two goose eggs and I'm like, all right, check back in in 10 minutes.
If somebody scores, I'll rewind it a little bit.
So for me, it's on, but if the USA isn't on, I'm kind of just drifting here and there.
Yeah, I'm kind of the same way.
I will say the other day I was at lunch in every TV minus one.
in this entire restaurant had the exact same World Cup game on.
Mike, that feels excessive.
That doesn't feel that necessary.
I'm not expecting to see anything happen, guys.
We can reel it in.
Let's just watch Pat McAfee.
Sure.
You know, there's a few matches that caught my interest.
I mean, there was that early on Tuesday, you had some of the biggest stars in the soccer world playing.
You had Lionel Messi.
You had Holland.
You had a few others.
And they were all scoring goals.
So that had people pretty excited.
Messi had three.
in the game he played in.
I think that there's going to be peaks of interest around certain players and obviously the USA.
For me, I have a soccer obsessed son who's
That's a sport.
And so it is constantly on in our house.
And also in Spanish language, because that's what we get for free here.
So I'm learning Spanish and soccer at the same time.
I feel, I feel very cultured now.
Number four at our top eight and eight.
Let's switch sports.
I got to ask you guys, we just talked about much watch soccer guys, right?
So who's most watching baseball right now?
I feel like the Brewers have one of the most watch guys now this year as he's really emerged.
I mean, yeah, Jacob Mizrowski's got to be the answer, right?
Yeah, I mean, definitely, definitely.
I mean, he's doing stuff and throwing harder than it's just absolutely it's absolutely insane.
You know, I guess
If you want to say a must watch, obviously when you got the stars on there, when you got the big teams with the big buck guys and that, and that may shift with the CBA changing in the next couple of years.
But I mean, I'll admit, you know, when Aaron judge is playing and he steps to the plate, I pause, you know, I pause.
I want to see the at bat.
There's certain players like that that you see step to the plate where you're just, you know, you just like, all right, I'm going to take this in because this may not.
I'm not sure how long this is going to last, but I think the Miz is number one.
I mean, he's number one.
It's not too often that you get a pitcher.
Usually it's a hitter.
It's not too often you get a pitcher.
I remember the Randy Johnson days when he pitched.
They're just like, well, I'm going to see if he hurts anybody here because he's probably going to nail somebody with a 100-mile-an-hour fastball.
And the Miz is kind of that way.
He's throwing just so hard.
It's crazy.
I agree with you on the fact that typically I think of this more as like batters like pitchers Must watch pitchers.
You have to you have to settle in for the long haul to picture You have to invest your time into watching a good pitching matchup, right?
One of the reasons I always loved going to brewers games when I was in college was I would go see Ben sheets and part of those because Ben sheets was a great booers pitcher, right?
But part of it too is that his games will be done in under two hours So I still had the rest of the night in front of me if I wanted to but I agree that it's typically hitters and I think like Mark McGuire Sammy so they had
their chase, you know, Barry bonds with all the controversy, his at bat smack and home runs all over the place.
Like I always think of it more of a hitter related thing, but I'm with you.
Are the pitchers this year?
I've got me more interested.
Like if Otani's pitching, I'm curious.
I, you know, he's obviously fantastic.
Um, but yeah, but Jacob Mizorowski is a player I had in mind when I put this question on our sheet.
Uh, and he's definitely to me, someone very much watching Parker.
It seems like every time the brewers play and you're at the game, it's Mizorowski pitching.
I genuinely think four of the last like six games I've been to have been Mizorovsky.
Yeah, it is honestly weird and I hope I honestly I hope I get to see someone else sometime.
I would I want to add in the Shohei Otani when he's got a bat in his hand like Joel you were saying you pause when you see somebody like Aaron Judge.
Shohei Otani is somebody that I love to see.
I hope that I come across a day where I can afford a ticket to go to Dodger Stadium and see him.
Yeah, you're going to need to take out a couple of loans for that.
All right, we're going to switch gears a little bit in our next segment.
It's summer, this third of summer, officially, is happening over the weekend.
So I have asked some summer-related questions coming up.
We're going to have some fun, talk to some Wisconsin-related summer activities coming up next here.
I'll make the call part of the Civic Media radio network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Welcome back to Make the Call on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Here are the big voiceover guys.
Say that all ready.
I'd like to repeat it sometimes.
It's fun.
We are through our, most of the way through our top 88.
And you know, most weeks we go through a lot of the not sport stories we usually save up early.
I kind of wanted to
Save a segment just to talk about this because I took a week off last week as you guys know, as the audience knows, and I thought to myself, you know, I'm here in the Northwoods, I'm back home, and I'm thinking to myself, what is the best way
or the best places, best activities to do in Wisconsin when you just got to get away for a weekend, right?
And I'm going to pose that question to you guys here in the top eight at eight to start.
I want to start by asking you guys if there's a Wisconsin destination for you that's kind of top of your list, because for me, I love the Chippewa Valley, but there are so many things in Wisconsin.
It's almost overwhelming.
The choices you have to find something to do on a weekend, especially in the summer.
So I want to ask you guys, if you have a favorite Wisconsin getaway,
Somewhere in the state that you like to get out to or that you would like to get out to at some point in the future.
I guess when you're married, obviously that's a negotiable thing.
But definitely for me and my family, it's headed to Lake Superior or Lake Michigan, one of the two.
I love the ocean.
I love the vast
expanse of the ocean and the closest thing we can get to that here without driving hundreds of miles is to go stare across Lake Superior or Lake Michigan and look for treasures and my wife likes to look for the glass and all that stuff on there.
But you give me a lawn chair and you give me a nice 70-75 degree day and I could just sit there and pretend this is the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean and stare out at Lake Superior, enjoy the breeze.
For me,
Any of the big lakes, you take me there, I'm good.
That's my idea of a nice getaway.
Yeah, I mean, a getaway for me is not been often, but I will say Devil's Lake is very quickly growing on my list of places that I want to be visited there really, really briefly, basically just drove around a couple of weeks ago.
And it is just so beautiful.
The bluffs and everything, they're so awesome.
Not been camping in...
a very long time, but I would absolutely love to get out on the campgrounds there.
That's somewhere I want to be.
I will say too, the memorial union terrace in Madison, sitting right on the lake, really awesome spot.
They've got live music a ton of the times.
Grab a pitcher of beer, have a good time with a bunch of people.
It's a really nice spot to be.
Sitting on the water is a great spot.
You guys enjoy the peaceful vibes that the state has to offer.
There are a lot of great places for it.
I'm with Joel in the lake setting.
I'm also with Parker on finding stuff in South Central Wisconsin.
I've gotten to know a lot of the places since I moved down here in the last 10 years.
But for me, I think
for me, since I already live in places where it's very tranquil in Wisconsin, I've lived in the driftless area for most of my life.
And I had some time I lived in Milwaukee, Madison, but I like getting to where people are.
So when I see there's a good, you know, there's a music festival, there's something like an arts thing, there's whatever going on, going to summer fest, going to the music festivals back in my hometown of Kedah.
Those to me are kind of a nice draw as a kind of a getaway.
I plan a weekend around just going and hanging out and join some music or, you know, for summer fest.
which is a whole different vibe.
You get to walk around and just take in different kinds of music all over the place.
To me, those are like destination things.
People come from out of state to come to these things.
You get to meet a lot of cool people, enjoy a lot of cool things.
Here's some great music.
Those, to me, are kind of un-matched for Scots, but we have so many great music festivals for every genre in Wisconsin.
I mean, like I said, we just talked about it.
Gray, who's normally on the show, he's out.
I'm seeing an event this week, and he was out a couple of weeks ago because he was taking in
force fields and EDM Music Festival in Northwestern Wisconsin.
So, you know, we have so many of those cool things to offer.
And that to me, I don't get away sounds more relaxing, but I already kind of live the cabin life every day.
So for me, I need a little need a little jolt of excitement, some loud noise and some people when I got to get out and do something.
As a quick follow up to this, you know, I think of two, you know, speaking of tranquil peaceful settings that we have like a million state parks in the state to offer, you know, Parker,
just talked about one of the great natural areas we got of the state.
I live pretty close to Wyall-Lucing, which again, has a lot of bluffs, a lot of hiking trails, great river views of the Mississippi, Wisconsin.
So, you know, maybe a good chance to plug our favorite state park.
I'm curious what your odds and slots are.
I certainly have a thought of mine, but I'm curious if you guys have a favorite state park here that you like to enjoy.
I got the Copper Falls State Park, which is right in my backyard up here in northern Wisconsin.
And I've been to a lot of state parks, but when one is that close, literally like 30
miles away and you can take a walk around the waterfalls.
So if you guys ever make it, Gals, make it to northern Wisconsin, the Copper Falls State Park, you will not regret that walk around the beautiful falls.
It is one of the many amazing state parks, but if you're in the north, you gotta go if you haven't been to Copper Falls.
I do a few favorites of my own.
I'm a northern Wisconsin person myself.
I grew up in the Chippewa Valley, and I spent a lot of time with my youth at Lake Risota State Park.
Lake Risota was where my dad lives, too.
It's man-made lake, so a lot of the features don't quite have the charm of some of the state parks that are kind of
you know, kind of nestled along the rivers where you got those naturally carved out valleys and things like that, right?
Or the waterfalls or anything like that.
But there's a lot to do there, especially if you're on a boat.
There's a lot to do when you're watering, doing things like that.
That's one of my favorite ones to go to.
Buckhorn in the middle of the state is one of the most unique state parks.
There's not a lot of amenity to it necessarily.
There's not a lot of, you know, like things to go and do like activity-wise.
But, you know, if you're out there for a family outing, there's a lot of
really interesting I guess things you don't normally see in Wisconsin in terms of like the vegetation and the kind of the layout you've still got a big lake to go around to there's a lot of water obviously but like just seeing just the different ways like of things that kind of grow in Wisconsin the way they educate on it a couple of towers to go up on there's a couple of the state parks in the eastern part of the state that have the elevation you could see out over everything you know a high cliff over by by Appleton area Oshkosh area that's that's a great one too
I just feel like we've got an abundance of, we have so many great places to go.
The state parks are certainly a big part of that.
I don't even know if this one is a state park, but I had a dig for the name because I remember going here with my grandpa as a kid, the Horkon Marsh.
I think there was, we did like a boat tour or something around there.
It's like you were saying to me, there's just so much neat vegetation.
And I think a lot of good birdwatching, if I remember, I think that was kind of the attraction for him.
I was seeing some birds, but yeah, awesome time.
Pretty much anywhere that you go in Wisconsin, right?
There are so many awesome places, Jimmy.
Yeah, you can't really go wrong with anywhere you go in this state.
much fun.
We have to pause and when we return, we're going to dive back into the sports topics a bit.
We'll hear from Mike Clements coming up in about a half an hour, but coming up next, I'm going to talk a little bit of baseball.
It is baseball season and rumors are pretty good.
So let's talk about it with you guys coming up next year.
I'll make the call on the Civic Media video network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Halfway through Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network.
We'll be joined by Mike Clemens coming up in about 20 minutes of Soda Recaf in sports.
We are up to number one in our top 8-8 in this segment.
We're going to talk some baseball because the Brewers are kind of good.
They are pretty good.
In fact, I would say they are very good currently sitting with 40
40 plus wins and top of the standings and you're thinking all things are great right now, but you know, we're still in June and I'm curious about when we determine whether a team is for real in baseball because things are still pretty packed into the standings.
There's nothing really for certain yet.
Even the bad teams are still kind of in reach.
There's not truly a team that's really completely falling out.
There are teams certainly far behind in the standings, but you know, I look at the NL central with every team.
at above round 500 the whole year.
And I feel like there's so much baseball to play.
And I keep getting back to, I don't know if I'm feeling overconfident in the Brewers or what, but seeing the big record and seeing the success they're having, I'm curious about when we start.
Thinking a team is for real and that they're a legit contender and whether or not the Brewers kind of fit that mold right now So I'm gonna take the segment myself Jimmy Cuskett Parker Olson and Jill Karnick all the program and talk some baseball here So I'm gonna ask that question to you guys.
When do you consider any team for real in MLB?
What sort of data the calendar?
Is it a is it a win threshold?
I'm curious your thoughts on this
I think right now with the Brewers, for me, what's different from this year versus last year, and I'm not saying Mizorowski wasn't good last year, but he's incredible this year.
Typically, if you're going to go into the playoffs and have a run, you need the guy.
You need the guy who's going to go out there and there's a pretty darn good chance you're going to win or be in that game.
And that's Mizoroski right now.
So if the Brewers have a number two, obviously, and a three to follow that, that's goal two, but they got that number one right now.
And I think that makes the Brewers even more legit than they were making it to the, you know, the NLCS and stuff.
I think it doesn't make him a favorite obviously, but I think it makes them legit if the miss is out there because you know if it's a seven game series He could throw three of those maybe if you need them, you know if he gets to game seven He and your chances of winning those are pretty good.
So for me just on the brewer side of analyzing it I think their chance of winning a World Series title
is legit this year because of Jacob Mizorowski.
And if they add a scuba or whatever, another guy who's really good at the two, you know, then Vegas might tilt them right up there, you know, with the Dodgers and others as a favorite to win the whole thing.
Joel, I would argue they have a number two with Kyle Harrison and just the historic run he's been on and you know Tremendous success.
He had the one game obviously we were hyping him up I think a couple weeks ago and then he has like the one bad on it said this year So maybe we're unlucky for that But I would argue they have it but I'm with you too that if they let's say they make it a big trade They swing for the fences scuba or whoever it is they get I think that certainly locks them in Parker.
What about you?
What do you
think?
I
I was thinking this before you mentioned scuba earlier Joel and the fact that you brought him up is now kind of telling me this is the time to start being thinking that yeah this team is legit.
When you start talking about teams bringing in other players leading up to the trade deadline.
That's kind of when I tell myself, okay, now is the time this team is actually legit or not.
We're a couple of months into this season and we've obviously seen the Brewers have got those pieces.
They've got Miz, they've got Harrison.
If they add another third pitcher that is an absolute ace like Scoobl, I don't know if that's going to happen.
Maybe it does, maybe it won't.
They're going to be very, very well liked in Las Vegas.
You're 100% right.
But even if they don't, they're still right there.
There are not really many times that I see who the starting pitcher is for the Brewers and I go, oh, that's not going to be good.
We don't have somebody that makes me go, that's not going to be worth watching.
There's pretty much five guys that are going to give you a quality start in this rotation.
And the birds have got enough bats too.
That's the other thing.
We want to feature the pitching all the time with the birds because it's been so good, right?
The pitching lab, whatever they've got going on in there, it's working all the time.
It seems like for the last couple of years they can turn out whoever they want and they turn into somebody good.
But the bats have been really nice too.
They've got one of the better run differentials in the league as well.
They've got all these pieces that I think...
make them as legit as can be.
And the Brewers have one of the strangest stats going on in baseball right now.
And I talked with Mike Clemens on our local show yesterday about this.
I said, Aaron Ashby being 10 and 0 as a reliever.
That's just crazy.
And he said that his teammates are kind of laughing about it.
Like, yeah, he's been really good, but he's just kind of been in every situation where the Brewers have
Just taking care of business and gotten them to lead.
Uh, so for him to be, we could have a 20 game winner out of the bullpen.
There you go.
How about that, Mr. Ashby?
It really is absurd.
And I think of like some of the role players that have really stepped up and he certainly won, but.
You know, we we came into the year and we you know, when it was parker gray and I were talking about this in march early april We were talking like well, you know, they came into the year so banged up.
Everybody was hurt and things weren't looking good early, right?
Things were a little questionable early and they've gotten healthier They've gotten a lot of these guys back But more to the point a lot of the big questions we had in the offseason about where they gonna who's gonna be the next
Picture that emerges out of nowhere.
Well, Collarison's answered that.
Who's in a play, you know, left side of the infield?
Well, they've sort of answered that, too.
And now with promoting Cooper Pratt this week, they're finding more from their very deep minor league system, too.
They kind of plug in and
It feels you know, we've been saying this for a few years now at the Brewers because they've been obviously been to the playoffs and you know, they haven't won at all They you know, they've they've run into some you know the Dodgers And and they've run into them and that's been a problem But like you look at how they're positioned and for a team that that doesn't have the resources in terms of salary spending the other teams do they're finding a way and they're doing it
Largely through development and I think that is something that if you if you want to shine a lot on anything the brewers are doing in terms of being that condition being legit They have proven now for several years that they can develop
pretty much anybody they want into being MLB caliber or even all star caliber.
And I think that is what's setting them apart from pretty much anybody else in baseball at this
point.
Yeah.
And having a good farm system not only obviously provides good players, but it gives you options in picking up players too in a playoff run.
Because if you got two short stops in your system, one at A and one at triple A or whatever, that's good.
You're like, well,
We're probably only going to need one moving forward.
So then you can start using those guys as tools to move to pick up other players.
So I mean, that's the brewers recently were named as the number one farm system in baseball.
So that's, that's going to give them a lot of options to pick up.
If it's not scuba, at least pick up a guy who can come in off the bench and maybe swing a bat and a pinch hit or something like that.
I think it gives them options to make a, to make a run at it this year.
It's interesting too with their farm system, and I don't follow MLB broadly this in depth as I do with the birds obviously, but it's really interesting with the birds that you hear names that aren't even in triple A yet.
We're talking about guys like Jesus Mate, he's in triple A still, or excuse me, he's in double A still, he hasn't gotten to triple A yet, and he's I think the top 20 prospects in baseball, top 10.
Might be the top prospect depending on who his list you're looking at and when you look at it He's been getting a ton of attention and then there's other guys too, but they've got Andrew Fisher He was in single a and he just came up into double a I believe last week or this week These are guys that Brewers fans are really excited about and they think that they can make a really big difference and they're not even close yet They've still probably got another year of developing before they get pulled up to the big league club and we're talking about them as guys that are really
exciting.
Angel, you're right.
They 100% can be used as guys that bring in a scuba if you want to trade.
That can happen.
And you'd be kind of bummed about it because for a lot of these guys, Heizu Smade, that's somebody that we've been talking about for a couple of years now.
If he goes away, that would suck.
But man, if that brings somebody like a scuba win that can actually get you a World Series, that's, I mean, that's worth it, right?
The brewers have been very shrewd about trading and drafting and developing, right?
They've been
And it's how they've survived in the era of MLB where there's clearly a lack of parity where the Dodgers have like five times the payroll the Brewers do, right?
I know that MLB is trying to correct that with salary caps.
And I think more importantly, a salary floor to get a lot of teams like the Brewers to spend a little bit more to kind of level the playing field in that aspect.
You look at what they've done with trades and just the guys it seems like every pitching trade has worked on their favorite, right?
They call heads on the coin toss and it always comes up heads.
I don't know how they're doing that That's obviously them doing their prep their homework researching deciding.
Hey, these are the guys we can ship out and bring back in I think back to even like the transition trade where you know Everybody was hypheremia grade minor league highlights and he's been a serviceable major leaker, but like people thought he was gonna be the next like
you know, the next superstar, the next Christian Yelich, and that hasn't quite materialized, right?
So I look at what the brewers have done just from a program building standpoint.
They don't have the payroll of the teams that are in contention every year yet.
The brewers are in contention every single year.
It's why Pat Murphy keeps winning manager of the year awards I think the landscape of baseball will shift a bit and I wonder how the brewers would adapt if they do come in with that salary cap salary floor and All of a sudden now you have to kind of change your strategy a bit because now you do have to spend and in the brewers case maybe 40 million dollars more on your roster.
I'm just
That part of it to me, right now in the current era, the Brewers are winning it, but they're winning it because they're extremely prepared and they trade, they draft, they develop very well.
The front office in Milwaukee is absolutely insane.
And frankly, the weirdest part about that to me is the fact that it doesn't
It hasn't just been like one guy.
They've been able to reload even their front office.
David Stearns was kind of the first guy that I think of.
He's not with the Brewers anymore.
He was helping out that Milwaukee office for a long time, and he got the Brewers into being where they are today.
He's not Milwaukee anymore, and they're still doing really
well.
I don't want to rain on the prey, but enjoy it this year, Brewer fans, because there's a pretty good chance with the CBA coming up that we're going to have less baseball, maybe.
Oh,
come on.
You're bringing us down, Joel.
It's summer.
We're supposed to have a spot here.
I'm just saying, absorb it, absorb everything, because all the experts are saying that there's probably going to be some kind of a lockout or strike or something eventually.
It's a logical thing that'll happen.
That's happened in past years when you have such a change in the salary structure of a sport.
But let's just enjoy it this year.
Sorry.
No rain.
I'll stop raining on parades.
All right.
Joe, I think it's actually worth talking about, though, because I just said it.
If there's a salary floor, the brewers have to change their strategy.
They got to invest another $40 million in what they have into things.
And they're one of the teams that gets a chunk out of revenue sharing, right?
And I think that's the part of it.
There are teams that are kind of
paying out to other teams to kind of be viable, right?
It wasn't that long ago, Joel, that we were hearing words like contraction in MLB.
Now we're hearing expansion all of a sudden because TV rights have completely flipped.
We're seeing MLB take over broadcast rights, right?
There's been such a change in regional networks and just those things and the money that goes into the professional sports now.
And it has changed the discussion in a very short amount of time.
I think I'm with you.
I think there's going to be, if not,
an outright stoppage, there's going to be an abrupt shift.
There's going to be some whiplash from whatever happens next to baseball because something's going to change.
Everybody can tell.
Everybody knows that you can sense it.
I'm just happy that the Brewers have made the best of the current state of baseball.
They find themselves sitting pretty good here at this state.
Yeah, and they have to find a way because, yeah, because 170 million, if that's the floor, that's a
pretty high number for a small market team like Milwaukee.
So I'm sure there's a lot of, a lot of ins and outs of what'll happen in those negotiations.
But I think baseball fans are just happy that something is being done, that you can't buy yourself a competitive team.
If we can, if we can limit that anyway, moving forward,
I think it's going to be if, if the proposed floor.
is what becomes the thing.
I believe over a third or a third of teams in MLB are going to get moved or are below that.
So they're going to get moved up and there are money.
That would be absolutely massive.
You're going to see teams playing really well, but you haven't seen play well in a long time.
I think that the salary floor will have a bigger impact than a salary cap, although not letting the Dodgers spend $480 million, whatever.
I don't know what the number is.
It's a big number.
I can't count that high without my shoes off.
It's a lot of numbers, right?
And if that maybe that helps, but I think the salary floor has a bigger impact, like you said, with almost a third of the teams below what's been proposed.
We're going to get back to, we're going to talk a little more sports.
We have Mike Clements joining us next to recap the week in sports.
We'll get our final thoughts here.
on Make The Call, part of the Civic Media video 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.
Mike Clemmons standing by to get us a week in review, but a chance for us to express our final sports or not sports thoughts for the week.
Joel as the guest, the newcomer, we're going to start with you.
I'm always fascinated with analyzing the state of like a certain side of like American National League and like in the NBA, the Eastern Western Conference, analyzing
Who has the best chance of maybe winning a championship because of the strength of that conference or league and you look at baseball right now You've got 10 teams of the 15 and the national league that are above 500 in the american league You've got five of the 15 that are above so in the national league The bad news is it's a bad year to be good because there's a lot of there's a seems to be a lot of better teams american league you could have
one or maybe two wildcard teams get in right now that could be under 500 that could get into the playoffs.
So that's just the way it works.
But it always fascinates me to look at that, to see if it corrects itself throughout the year, which it may just a little bit.
But it definitely leans in the national league right now that it's a stronger league as far as talented and good teams.
Parker, how about you?
A bad year to be good.
Oh, I've got to wrap my head around that one.
That one kind of hurts.
Geez.
I hate that you're right.
That's so disappointing.
I just want to be good all the time.
There shouldn't be bad times to be good.
Jimmy, this week I'm thinking about golf.
I'm really hoping we get a nice weekend here.
I really want to get out and hit the course.
I've been playing more often this year, and I am very excited to try to stop being so bad at golf.
It's a good year to be bad.
I tell people I can get a hundred points in golf.
Just give me nine holes.
I'll get there.
So,
you know, it's
good.
I mean, in the NBA, 100 points is amazing, right?
That's pretty standard.
But no, golf is amazing.
That's probably our subject next week.
We talked about our favorite place to golf in the state.
Speaking of that, we had state park talk today.
We talked a little bit about getaways in the state.
I feel like golf courses are right in that vein, too.
So maybe that's our topic next week.
But for now, we have to say goodbye.
Mike Clemens is standing by with a week in review.
Guys, thanks for your time this week.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the start of summer.
Peace out.
Thanks, Jimmy.
Have a good one.
Mike Clemens has a week in review.
sports here in Wisconsin right now.
You've been listening to make the call part of the Civic Media radio network.
Have a great weekend everybody.
The Brewers welcome Cooper Pratt.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with our Week in Wisconsin sports review.
The Brewers welcome Cooper Pratt to the team in a game against the Cleveland Guardians at American Family Field where he got his first hit in the major leagues.
Covered John Brewer's
TV.
That ball goes on the mantle for all time.
Pratt's family was there.
His father, Russell, doesn't like to fly, so he drove 700 miles from Oxford, Mississippi to arrive in Milwaukee just in time to see his son play in his first major league game at shortstop.
Pratt was asked.
What was he going to do with the game ball from his first hit?
Yeah, probably throw it away.
No.
I'll probably just give it to my parents to hold on to it with the rest of the stuff that I have.
Manager Pat Murphy says he once coached an uncle of Cooper Pratt at Arizona State and he predicted that his first major league hit would in fact end up between first and second base.
He'll tell you, you know, it was predicted by some great swami that his first hit would be between three, four hole.
That was a prediction that was told to him by the swami and then
It came true and he started to realize, you know what, I don't have to do too much.
So really proud
of him, really proud of him.
Now the Brewer signed Pratt in April after spring training to an eight year contract worth $50.7 million.
Brewer's GM, Matt Arnold, on what impressed him the most about the 21 year old shortstop.
The type of person that he is is super important when you're making a commitment like this.
And, you know, he's a he's a baseball rat.
You know, I think at his core, he just loves the game.
He loves to play.
He loves to practice.
You know, and when you talk to somebody like Christian Yelich, you know, you have to love the game.
You have to you have to love being around it and practicing is is one of the hardest things to do in our sport.
You know, and you have to love everything about that because it is such a grind.
And I think the fact that Cooper loves baseball, loves being around it, he comes from a baseball family.
All those things are certainly, they bowed in his favor, you know, to be successful down the road.
A setback, though, for the Brewers organization, Quinn Priester is lost for the season.
The team had hoped that Priester would be one of their starters this year, but he's been dealing with a pinched nerve and will undergo thoracic outer surgery to repair the nerve and blood cells between his collarbone and first rib bone.
Priester on what the doctors told him.
So talking to Dr. Pearl again, doing all the things that we had, you know, gone through to try and kind of fix this problem without, you know, surgery is we've just kind of gotten to a point where these things aren't working.
So we're going to go down on Monday and get surgery with Dr. Pearl, make sure we clean this issue up so that the rest of, you know, my career, this isn't an issue.
I think, you know, 10 years ago, this was a little bit more of a, you know, question mark.
But now as things progress, like anything in the
field like feel really, really confident that we're going to come back even better.
Clean some of this stuff up.
Make sure that it's not an issue going forward.
It's not something that we're trying to manage and just worried about getting outs and pitching for the verse.
Priesters 25 years old and has tried a variety of treatments to no avail.
Pat Murphy.
Yeah, I mean that speaks to the character of the kid and Quinn Priest or someone.
If you're following it, you know what he did for us last year.
What did he win 12 straight or something?
So he was so good for us and it's a huge loss.
to lose a starter like that.
And he did everything he could to try to come back.
But this is kind of the last date that he could have the surgery and be back for next year, hopefully on time.
Usually we think he can be back for the start of next year and that would be
huge.
Basketball, the NBA draft is Tuesday night.
The Bucks have a new coaching staff and a new head coach hired by John Horst and Jimmy Haslam, 41 year old Taylor Jenkins.
I've got a vision.
I've got a game plan partnering with John, Jimmy and ownership to like really figure out
out how we're going to build this roster, but I've got a style of play in mind.
That's going to unlock even more for these guys.
Bucks GM John Horst on what they can do with the 10th overall pick in the draft in the first
round.
There's a lot of excitement for what it can do for the organization.
This opportunity represents a lot of things.
Taylor talked about an opportunity to add a player to our roster.
that can have a big impact and hopefully a big impact quickly.
It's also an opportunity to have an asset that we can consider using to build the team in other ways.
There's
reports this weekend that Jimmy Haslam now will take over as the governor of the Bucks owner, Wes Edens, steps down.
Haslam was asked to confirm.
Yeah, I think so, but I want to be careful because I have a great partner in West and but do I think we'll be here more?
I do and very, very excited to continue working with John and to get off to we've already established a good
relationship with Taylor, but work with he and the guys to build the kind of team that this community deserves.
That's box owner Jimmy Haslam with sports.
I'm Mike Clemens.
