Training Camp And Trade Conversation

It's time for Make the Call, a weekly discussion on the top Wisconsin sports stories of the week.

You can listen to the show anytime on the free Civic Media app.

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Now, it's time for Make the Call, a Civic Media sports production.

It is the weekend and indeed it is another edition of Make the Call here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I am Jimmy Cusca here in the Driftless area of Wisconsin.

That's western Wisconsin.

And along for the ride today, we head to the north woods with Gray Gunnerson, who is our representative of upper management.

What's up, Gray?

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's a good morning, hopefully for you too, Jimmy.

And in our capital city, it is Parker Vertical Olsen.

What's up, Parker?

Jimmy, I feel like I am required to tell you this.

I was at the shareholders meeting in Green Bay.

We went up on Monday.

And in doing that, we also went into the Hall of Fame.

And I don't know if you've been to the Packer Hall of Fame before, Jimmy, but they have the vertical test thing there.

And you better believe I did it.

I don't think I need to disclose my number.

However, I will tell you I did it.

Obvious follow up to that is we have to know the number now, right, Greg?

We have to know the number.

I don't see how you can avoid it now.

You made this bed now laying it.

As a, as a, I want to say 511 man.

I had a nine foot six.

I think it's what it was.

Well, that's not how you measure vertical.

You measure vertical from standing.

Nobody's going off.

Hey, don't worry about it.

Hey.

nine feet six inches, Jimmy.

That's all I need to know.

I can jump that high.

Okay.

So Parker vertical Olson has a nine foot six vertical jump, which is not the way you measure it, but we'll go with it.

for the sake of the fact that it's radio and it's theater of the mind.

You can do whatever you want.

We are going to move along to the sports, not sports topics of the week.

Later in the show, we will have Mike Clemens join us.

He is in Green Bay where Parker was at the Hall of Fame, right?

But we have Mike Clemens in Green Bay covering Packers training camp, which got underway this past week with all the news and notes coming your way.

And a sports week in review coming up about 40 minutes from right now.

Later in the program, we're going to do a deep dive on the Brewers headed of the trade debt

which comes your way Monday.

And we'll ask the very simple question about what they have or have not done to make themselves World Series contenders.

We'll do that coming up later in the program.

But through that point, we do what we like to call the top 8-8.

And that's because the show airs in the morning on many of these civic media radio stations.

We do the eight top sports stories or not sports stories of the week.

So let's start with number eight.

And this one, inspired by

the brewers using a position player to pitch this week.

And I have to ask you guys, what's the equivalent of that in another sport where you take somebody out of position to do something like pitch?

I want to ask this question to speak because it is fascinating that we see guys be doing things in professional sports that they wouldn't otherwise be doing.

Wes Welker, when players have to kick, and Wes Welker is the one who immediately comes to mind.

I know there's other examples, but hey, go.

Oh, jeez.

I

repressed that memory.

But yeah, Wes Welkers, who I choose to remember there.

You went the exact same route that I went gray.

I was also thinking letting your emergency kicker just do for giggles.

I can't remember.

Didn't Tom Brady do a drop kick one time, too?

No,

Doug Flutie did.

Doug Flutie was allowed by Bella Check to do a drop kick, I think, in one of his final games.

It was his final season.

It was a farewell thing.

There you go.

I have a high

school.

player that did a drop kick in a game.

We went 0-9 that year, 0-10 actually, but he did a drop kick in our final game.

And we got it.

It made the Dan Patrick show, which was pretty awesome.

So I took a video of it from the sideline and he had a drop kick and he kicked that thing.

I mean, in practice, he was maybe 50%.

He mostly did the Goop around.

We did it in a game and he kicked it like through good.

over the, over the scoreboard, over the fence, out into the street.

I mean, that thing would have been good from a hundred yards.

It was crazy.

And it was amazing.

Um, my, my nomination for this is that in the NHL, they have a really odd rule where they have an emergency goal tender.

So in most, this happened like four or five years ago where they had some guy who was just like a wreck league goalie who was like managing ticket sales.

It was like 40 something years old.

And, and after the first two go down, he has to come out and be the emergency goal.

For the team that he against the team that he works for which is crazy So the team that pays him had to go on goal and then he made all the saves and got the win, which is just insane to me Just literally playing in rec leagues comes in and he plays emergency goaltender in an NHL game.

That is incredible So I just inspired me to think when you have a position player pitching, you know, like something like that could happen.

It's just awesome

I actually remember that, and I'm not the hockey guy here by any means, but I remember the story.

I did some quick googling.

He was the Zamboni driver and arena operator David Ayers for the Hurricanes against the Maple Leafs.

What a story.

That's so awesome.

All right, we got to keep this thing moving.

Number seven in our top eight at eight.

We've talked about all these.

fun things this summer, right?

And now that it's August, we start thinking about fall, but I have to ask you with a month to go and what most people consider summer, not meteorologically and anything like that, but just what we have realistically left if you track summer by June, July, August, if anything left on your summer bucket list to get done.

I would like to get out to a couple more baseball games.

I really want to go to another brewery game or two.

I don't know if I've been to one with the roof open yet.

That's kind of the goal.

I don't think I've been to one with the roof open yet, so there you go.

Mother Nature, please help me.

Have a nice day for a brewery game, I'm at.

I haven't been to one of those either this year, but I usually don't get to one in a given year because, you know, living this far away, it's a little bit of a treat to make that happen.

It always involves a hotel stay and it's a pretty made to do thing.

So for me, I got to keep it

stable.

Complain, complain those managers, I swear.

But what I actually haven't accomplished is to go fishing yet somehow.

It's a little a little absurd this late on.

The temps have been bad for a lot of the fish in the area.

So you got to be gentle on them.

I got to at least get a worm on a hook and I haven't pulled that off.

I have not gotten onto

a boat yet this summer.

I hate to admit it.

I live in an area with a ton of rivers.

I grew up on lakes, so I was always on a boat.

I spent whole summers on the boat.

I've slept overnight on boats.

This summer, I have not made it onto one, and that's really weird for me.

But in my old age, living where I do, there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for that.

Unless I want to go on the Wisconsin River and end up

like 80 miles downstream somewhere in Iowa on the Mississippi River.

So I have to make it onto a boat this summer.

That's what's left on my summer bucket list.

All right, let's talk some sports though.

All right, we're halfway through the first segment.

So let's talk a little sports.

Sports show after all number six at our top eight and eight is this the Badgers and the rest of the big 10 had their big 10 media days for football this week Luke fickle got to speak got to hear from a few of the Badgers players as well and Just wondering you guys have any takeaways about the Badgers does any is anything sad make you feel any different about what's coming up this season?

I'm always pretty cautious when I hear what they're saying in media days But it seemed like the pretty much a consensus among the beat writers and everything that I've seen

is that this is the most confident that they think that Fickle has sounded since perhaps year one.

It seems like he actually kind of feels like there might be something this time.

And I do believe I was seeing some stuff on social media that Melvin Gordon was at media days as well.

That tells me that the Badgers are actually like investing and using those names, those people who have been part of the program previously and actually know what the program is, which is something that Luke Fickle kind of forgotten his first year or so, forgot what Wisconsin football was.

So

I kind of, I hate to say this.

They might be roping me back in, Jimmy.

They might have just got my attention for another season, for at least a little bit of the season to watch them and go, oh, you know, those badgers, they might not be too bad guys.

Hmm.

Just when you

got here real quick, just real quick, they did invest in bringing alumni in as part of it.

They hired Brady Ewing to be their alumni rep, you know, and he's formed Badgeries from Richland Center.

So they've got him working with some of the alums.

So

there you go.

That was actually the same moment of the speech that stood out most for me.

I still am trying to figure out how I feel about it, but his optimism about that higher viewing and his optimism in general regarding in-state recruiting, when that has been absolutely hot button lately, you know, it's not like I expected him to say, we need to do better still after that was the tone they took last year.

But I don't know, am I optimistic?

What do you guys feel about that?

Were you reassured?

I don't know if I was.

Closiously.

Very cautiously.

That's all I got on that.

Your schedule is easier this year.

That's going to help the record.

That should get emboeligible.

Like they should get six wins out of this.

So they should be better just by virtue of not having a stack schedule.

Like they don't have a month like they had last year where they're playing like a top 10 team every week.

So I think just by virtue of easier schedule, like just the record should be better.

And winning solves a lot of problems, to be honest guys.

And I know this because if we ever won a game with the high school football team, I coach

It would solve every problem we have.

We just get away the game, and we'll all be happy again.

But that's the thing.

That's what solves problems with sports.

You win games.

People in your fans, your players, your coaches, boosters, alumni, administration, everybody's happy.

So that's all you got to do.

Just win, right?

Yeah, Davis, just win.

All right.

Number five in our top 888.

This one I threw in overnight last night because I thought,

You know, I've seen all these stories this week.

The WNBA had a post about two players that made kind of a joke wager on a game.

It's kind of, ha, ha, ha, funny, whatever, Warner bucks, wins, whatever.

And then they deleted it.

And then had they put out a very lengthy statement in which no punishment was offered.

And it's got people up at arms about just kind of the state of professional sports in general.

And I was thinking earlier this summer, we heard about Michael Beasley and him, you know, fixing stat products and games, like getting a certain number of rebounds or whatever.

We see there was a

big piasco in the NCAA with a quarterback who spent, it was gambling on, on other games and stuff like that.

And I'm just wondering with all the advertising by gambling services and like having the, the spread put in every like bottom line crawl in ESPN, do we need to rethink sports gambling?

Do we, do we need to, you know, cause I just think that, you know, 10 years ago, all of this stuff was unthinkable and all of a sudden today it's so widely accepted.

I'm just wondering if we need to reconsider like how we approach sports gambling, whether it's professional or college sports.

That's a really tough topic jimmy but i'm glad that we've got it on the show this week because it is something that's on the minds of a lot of people i think about it a lot i know i generally have a pretty negative reaction to gambling in general so i've got to keep that in mind when i when i think and talk about this kind of stuff but i also you know and without getting political over regulation is its own problem so stopping things entirely aside from being unrealistic is going to present its own issues so.

When you've got something like this, I think you've got to create a clear and concise system of addressing the issues where they pop up.

But I don't know if we can paint the whole scene with the brush of the issues that do pop up.

They're going to be ugly when they happen because these people who are betting on their own games, they have a lot of money or they're in positions where it's especially egregious if it happens at all.

Those stories are going to get a fantastic amount of attention and against the backdrop of a mostly honest sporting community, at least how it feels right now, I don't believe in the slippery slope quite yet.

Do I think about it a lot?

Am I worried?

Yeah, totally.

And I hope the people who struggle with gambling get the help they need.

But I don't know.

I don't think it's necessarily as serious as every story and the level of seriousness those stories have individually might make it seem.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, it does.

And it is hard because.

You don't even, the spotlight is always going to have a bit of gambling right around it, right?

Like if I'm watching an MLB game on ESPN, there's going to be some kind of sports gambling ad right there, which is a bad look.

IMO.

I think it's kind of a bad look to be coming down on players like this if you're going to actively advertise for that stuff.

I think the NFL has the right process for this.

They have very clear

said of like, you know, what you can and can't do.

I believe they even have device monitoring and things like that.

So you can't do things like within a venue, you can't do things with certain online sports or whatever it is.

I feel like the NFL has a dress system most rigidly, but then I think of baseball where there's people with lifetime band sports.

So then I can't say that because baseball, obviously, if they find out, they deal with it pretty severely.

You know, Shoya Tani had the same issues.

Is it translator?

Is interpreter?

What was caught with some of this?

So I feel like the professional leagues are

You know, I don't I don't think it's all for show yet, but I think as you know, this becomes more normalized It's gonna become a bigger issue and especially where big money is involved I feel like that's that's where where things would kind of push comes to shove like you know at what point does it start financially negatively impacting?

Professional or even college sports, that's the point where it will probably change We have only a minute so I have to change the topic real quick.

That's the topic I would love to spend more time on Just real quick before the break.

I just curious you guys think the brewers have done enough

to this point, and I say that with the caveat that we do this ahead of the weekend, as they've done enough to this point to set themselves up for October in 15 seconds or less each

year.

No, they haven't really done anything very...

remarkable at all.

They haven't done a lot that I think is going to really add a lot.

And frankly, what they did, they got rid of one of the guys already.

So yeah, great.

The answer I was wanting to give before you just said what you said was, I hope so.

I was going to ask if that was allowed.

And now I'm not even willing to put that up there.

I still do hope.

So though, you know, there's it's hard not to not to be optimistic.

I don't know.

I guess I'm a believer.

Jimmy, what do you feel?

I feel like we'll talk about this in about 20 minutes when we deep dive off the doors because we have to hit a break with it.

This is

Make the call as part of the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

It is Make the Call.

It is the Civic Media radio network.

Myself, Jimmy, here with Gray and Parker.

As we move along, it is time for our Packers training camp update.

We've been doing previews for the past couple of weeks.

We are now into training camps.

We're going to take a look at training camp this week.

Our own Mike Clemens is at training camp.

You're going to hear a lot about that coming up here in about a half an hour from now with a sports week in review.

But with us three here, we get to talk about things away from the sound bites.

And so guys, I want to start with this number three and our top 88 is this.

Which position do you think is the most competitive at camp?

And I know that we've covered this a little bit the past couple of weeks offense versus defense.

But now that we've gotten into camp, we've had a few days under our belts.

Is there a position that really stands out to you as being extremely competitive?

Right off the bat, I think it bears mentioning that honestly, no starting position really stands out here in general.

The reshuffles that

are coming.

We're known about the offensive line.

The questions become who's number three at a couple positions like offensive skill positions, wide receiver three, total mystery.

Can Savion Williams

handle that role.

We touched on that last week, but we're no closer to knowing, I should say.

The same thing applies to RB2.

Can Chris Brook shoulder that load?

Is it too predictable to put him in and see that it's going to be a passing down, et cetera, et cetera?

I know that creates useful misdirection, but for me, it's mostly backup roles on offense excluding the line.

That's about it.

That's the whole list, at least for me.

Parker, what do you got?

Yeah, I think you're pretty much right.

This is mainly a depth question.

It's not a starting question for the most part.

When I was up in Green Bay on Monday, I had the opportunity to meet up with Mike Clemens, and we had a great conversation.

You can watch it on CivicMedia.us.

But one of the things that he mentioned to us was running back is kind of one of the things that he's really watching during camp.

And he mentioned Marshawn Lloyd, actually.

He kind of got his eyes, great, you smiled.

He's got his eyes on Marshawn Lloyd.

But Chris Books as well, that's something I've got my eyes on too.

I think that you're going to really be seeing those guys fight out for that.

RB two slot.

And who knows, we're not going to say a whole ton about this, but Josh Jacobs with his situation, who knows what he'll be like, who knows if he'll be on the team at certain points of the year.

It's very possible that the Packers need to have two really good depth running backs right here.

That's exactly what I'm looking at.

Half a dozen RBs on the list right now, including Jacobs, Brooks and Lloyd.

Beyond that, Martinez, Nixon and Strong Jr.

Yeah, me neither.

So, exactly.

But that said, someone may float to the top.

That's exactly what the Packers do well.

UDFAs, late round drafts and weird pickups like that.

So don't be surprised if it's someone you've never heard of before looking decent.

That's as much as I'll commit to.

I wanted to go off the board a little bit with defensive back.

I think defensive back has a lot of intriguing positional battles and you've already seen in camp a couple of guys who you thought maybe were borderline roster guys and they're making big plays already in training camp in the first few days.

I feel like defensive back is going to be one of those positions.

The Packers seem to scramble on this every year.

They find some random dude and they plug him in and then he ends up being Sam Shields or he ends up, you know, having a good year, right?

So I feel like defensive back is going to be one of those spots where whether it's, you know, CSA emerging as a rookie.

Brandon Ceasey, their first pick this year in the NFL draft, seeing him emerge and find a spot or it's one of the other pickups that they've had.

Seeing somebody emerge from there, that feels like a really competitive area of the roster.

Let's move on to number two in our top 8-8 and this is because, well, there's some good news in Packerland this week.

And that is that Tucker Kraft came off the pup list, the physically unable to perform list.

And with Micah Parsons never even being added to it, there is some optimism that these guys can be ready sooner rather than later.

What's your take on

the news

of this

week?

Craft, yes, Parsons, no.

I can't find a belief in me that Parsons is going to be back anywhere but on the original schedule.

They actually went in and did a surgical cleanup on his knee to deal with multiple issues.

So as I understand it, the Packers kind of have a pretty strict minimum timeout kind of timeline system.

And when you've doubled up like that the way that Parsons has, it sounds like he'll miss.

The first quarter of the season perhaps that's that's kind of what I'm seeing thrown around a lot for games maybe five if it doesn't go great craft though off the public as we speak so fantastic I expect to see him sooner rather than later I don't know if we've.

I haven't seen any official word but first two or three weeks it sounds like that's definitely the vibe I'm getting has anybody seen something more official.

Not official, but I have had the same understanding that you have great I believe the craft should be back fairly early in the season Hopefully in time to have a game to warm up for that Bears game and that is in I believe that's week five Which I believe is the target for my Caparsans, right?

And can you imagine if you get my Caparsans first game back this year is against Chicago?

Oh, baby But yeah, I obviously those are absolutely huge for offensive defense because

because we've talked about this last week, right?

The wide receiver room, you don't know how much depth there is necessarily there in that like maybe fourth spot, maybe the third slot.

Tucker Kraft, he's gonna add you depth there in that receiving core.

So if you can get him back the sooner the better, especially for those games that really matter like against Chicago, that's really huge.

Micah Parsons though.

I think he's probably more important, so I would want to hang on to him for a little extra long just to make sure he's 100% ready.

I know I was just saying that you want him back for those really key games like against the Bears, but I would rather make sure that he's 100% ready to go if he's got to wait one extra week against Dallas, which also a meaningful game for him, but I would rather that than test it a little too early against the Bears or someone else.

The benefit of being out the pop list that takes you up for the first four weeks automatically So I think for craft I think that's that's the optimism is that he's back ahead of week The fifth game then at that point that would be the benefit to it I saw Parsons try to ride one of the little kids bikes at training camp in a video.

That was pretty hilarious He ended up getting up and just walking the bike which you know to be fair coming off an ACL having your knees over your head riding a bike probably not the best of plans but Thought that was pretty cool.

I think either way both of these guys.

I would say arguably the most important

pieces they've got coming back this year outside of Porterback, obviously.

And also for Kraft, I think with Luke Musgrave also having injury issues, I think the tight end spot really just needs that shot of optimism now.

Final thoughts here in the final 30 seconds of this

segment?

I am watching Bob Melton.

I wonder if the Packers are going to just say, you know what?

No, no.

I feel like him trying to play two different positions is kind of like having two quarterbacks.

I mean, that really means you have no quarterbacks.

Yeah.

As I understand it, Melton is recommitted as a wide receiver again, having taken zero snaps at corner.

That said, I'd want to double confirm, but pretty sure he's going to be on offense this year and they'll be better for it.

I think you're right about that.

We are going to talk some brewers in our next segment.

This is make the call part of the Civic Media radio network.

Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

Halfway through this edition of Make the Call, the Civic Media Radio Network, myself, Jimmy Cusco, along with Parker Olson in Madison and Gray Gunderson in the Northwoods and Park Falls.

We are moving along in our program 20 minutes from now.

Mike Clemens will give you a sports week in review.

He's at training camp in Green Bay, and he'll get you all the latest and greatest on what's happening there.

But right here, we are going to talk about the Brewers.

And despite the Sterling record,

It feels like they have kind of gone back on their heels a little bit in the sense that I don't feel like there's a lot of motivation for them to be, you know, for them, from their perspective, to be aggressive here near the trade deadline.

I know there's rumors floating out there tied to every starting pitcher.

Tarek Skubal, as Ben mentioned, a million times in my timeline.

I know that there's probably talks happening.

They're always exploring these things.

They have a billion prospects.

They've got a lot of injuries in the pitching staff right now.

We had a position player pitch this week.

We're kind of loud.

So there are some things happening in Brewerland that make me a little concerned.

And I have to ask question now going into August.

Are the Brewer's legitimate World Series contenders?

Let's flash back to a couple of weeks ago.

The Brewer's sent the son of Prince Fielder to Houston to get a couple of pitchers back at a time in which Jacob Mizorowski was dealing with arm soreness.

Carl Harrison was injured.

They had a couple other injuries in the bullpen, Brandon Woodruff as having surgery on his shoulder.

And they put Lance McCullers, one of the players they got back in the trade, who has missed three complete years due to injury in his MLB career, former All-Star, but clearly at the tail end of his career, and didn't do very well to the point that he got DFA'd and then eventually released.

So essentially, the brewer swapped a low-level, like a single-lay prospect

for a single pitcher who I don't even know, I don't, I couldn't even tell you his name at this point.

And it's not my sheet in front of me.

I know his name, but somebody that's had an impact for the Brewers.

And that's been kind of the move they've made to this point.

The Brewers have made some off season moves, obviously Harrison coming in, making the deals they do to reshape the roster.

I get that.

A lot of their stuff happens in the off season, but with the World Series in mind and the Brewers done enough to get there, I'm curious guys.

Oh man.

Whenever I hear brewers in World Series, I just kind of shrug.

I want it more than any other championship in my fandom because it would be so meaningful being the first for the brewers.

But it's the brewers.

That's where we are.

Have the brewers done enough to get to a World Series to win a World Series?

No, I think they're pretty legitimate contenders to get to it, but I don't think that they can win it.

They haven't particularly done anything.

Jimmy, you're right.

They traded a good prospect for a couple of meh.

Nothing too important.

And if you're willing to trade a prospect for a guy who can give you, I think it was two appearances, three appearances for the McCullers.

that didn't feel worth it to me.

I will say this though, that I am very, I'm excited about this, but it also worries me a little.

I'm excited about the fact that the brewers seem very sure of the fact that they will get into the postseason and that they can just kind of ride the wave through the rest of this regular season.

And then when they get to the postseason, they can really ramp up.

I say this because

They're really watching the innings for their starting rotation, right?

Jacob Mizorowski, they're being very careful with him.

They've messed around with the starting rotation here and there to make sure that pitchers are actually getting their rest, which is absolutely awesome because that means that they don't need to go absolutely flooring it pedal to the metal right now.

That means that they are pretty confident that they're going to be getting into the postseason.

So that is a good thing to me.

What concerns me is that it also kind of tells me that they're coasting through.

The Cubs are, I believe, five and a half games back right now of the Brewers.

And that's a sizable lead, but you get another two months or so of this season.

I think exactly two months are left.

That lead could disappear.

And if you're on coasting mode, instead of really playing hard mode, you might run into a couple of issues.

Gray, do you think...

What are you reading with the tea leaves here?

Are the brewers making moves that make them legitimate contenders?

Does it feel like they're coasting to you?

Well, the only thing I worry about is an overcautiousness.

That could be the potential mistake, but the problem with that is, doesn't matter what sport you're playing, you can only spot overcautiousness.

after the decisions have panned out and the dust has settled.

It doesn't mean it's the wrong decision going in.

It's one of my favorite quotes, you can make no mistakes and still lose.

That's not failure, it's just life.

So honestly, no matter what they do, they don't stand 100% chance of any particular outcome.

So tea leaves, I don't believe in tea leaves.

I believe in hope, I believe in prayer, if you're so inclined.

And if you are, please, please, please, please, very, very much.

I look at it this way.

The Brewers got to get through the National League.

The American League, none of these teams have really jumped out.

I mean, the Tampa Bay Rays are your number one team in the AL right now, and they're run differential.

It would put them somewhere in the middle of the pack of the National League.

The AL doesn't scare me.

If the NL gets to the World Series, I feel like

It's going to be advantage now.

But in the national league, you have to deal with the Dodgers.

You have to deal with the Braves.

You have to deal with the Cubs.

Heck, even the Phillies, when they're feeling like playing well, are pretty tough to go as well.

And, you know, and that's the part of it to me.

The Brewers have already played a pretty difficult schedule this year.

If 37 wins against teams over 500, they've already done a pretty good job against the better teams that they've had to play.

But I also, you know, got to think of it this way, too.

They are, as Parker mentioned,

really managing their pitching staff with a postseason in mind.

Kyle Harrison's pitching.

He pitched in Wisconsin Rapids on Thursday night.

You know, they're getting guys back and kind of setting up that postseason a bit once they get into September.

We don't have that big roster call-up that we used to have.

We have like 40 dudes.

You have like random dudes in the dugout.

Like, who is this guy?

They're bringing their whole active roster out to games like that.

They don't do that.

They have a set number of players that they have.

Now for that and that's how they roll.

So I feel like the management strategy by the brewers has always been pretty aggressive on the pitching front It seems like they they are more than content to burn options and just cycle guys through triple a and the brewers or even cycle in the single a let him go pitch and You know pitch pitch for the timber rattlers

And and come back, you know, I said with scott's and rapids earlier.

I'm sorry.

They playing grand shoot.

That's my bad It's got some timber rattlers.

We have broadcast with scott's and rapids raptors on one of our stations here on WFH RWRI So that's my bad.

I'm the speaking there, but back to the point They do seem to be managing themselves for that and and you know when you look at just the Available players and the cost of available players the Minnesota twins at the deal to prospects for a random Mets free lever are the brewers willing to pay

you know, that kind of price where they got to give up out of their top rank farm system, two guys, just to pick up some mid-end guy for their bullpen.

I know that they've already got kind of a super bullpen going behind Ashby and all the other guys, but, you know, the cost of doing business, you know, disclose the trade deadline to you, also something to consider.

Although that being said, the brewers do have a lot to offer anything that wants it.

That's what I was going to say.

the brewers have a lot of, they have a lot of prospect wealth.

They don't have a lot of money wealth, they have a lot of prospect wealth.

I don't know, and this isn't, Mark, you can put this into cold takes exposed later on.

I don't expect Luis Lara to be traded, but if they were to trade Luis Lara, he's worth like a

player and a half for how good of a prospect he is, right?

He's got more power in a trade than somebody else.

So I don't think that you would necessarily need to see the brewers putting together a package that would have a bunch of prospects necessarily, unless it's for someone big.

As we talk right now on- We're

talking scoobles and a cost,

four

prospects.

That's that's a lot.

Yes.

As we talk right now, nothing really has happened.

However, if potentially by the time that you're listening to this show, maybe the Brewers have scoobal on their roster and they did just like four guys go.

I don't expect that to happen, especially since I think that the Brewers are more of a long term kind of a team and not so much.

You're not trying to manifest

this, Parker.

This is like the one chance where we get to be the time travelers here.

Because we do this on Friday, obviously, ahead of the weekend.

So things could change by the time the show airs.

But we're not manifesting a scuba trade.

Is that what we're not doing here?

I just want to make it clear.

Hey, I would rather not, I think.

I don't believe.

Let's commit, shall we, if I may.

Do either of you truly believe in a world where the brewers move the necessary capital to end up with Tariq Scuba in Milwaukee this season?

Jimmy, Jimmy, go ahead.

I think the brewers, if they're going to make a move.

Here's the I think they do go for a top-end arm.

I just don't think it's gonna be a starting pitcher I think they're gonna go find a bullpen guy.

That's what that's my take on it I think if they're gonna move anything it's gonna be maybe two maybe two and a half good prospects And they'll find themselves a top-end reliever some of that can give them innings this year in a postseason push and then help them next year too

I am

Currently researching hang on one second.

I that

is that is our show prep and progress

books.

Okay, how we prep I Here so this is this is why you I have now made the connection here my friends Terex Google.

I am comparing this to CC subathia Okay, I wanted to check what was in the subathia trade The brewers traded away Matt Laporta Zach Johnson Rob Bryson

And Michael Brantley, I believe, is everyone that was involved in that trade.

That is what Google AI is telling me, if you choose to believe in AI.

One of these guys is put down as a future All Star, and the rest have no accolades next to their name in this immediate, really quick research.

Was that worth it, Jimmy?

Was C.C.

Sabathia worth it?

Because as far as I understand, this was 2008.

Sorry guys, I was not old enough to remember this.

Yeah, sorry, sorry.

I'm gonna

yell at you

for the

first time ever on this show, just so you

know.

Jimmy, that was worth it, right?

If you talk to somebody about the Brewers and getting to the postseason, everyone will say C.C.

Sabathia was the greatest player on earth for two months, right?

Well, you know when you pitch, you know a million complete games.

It's actually on his Hall of Fame plaque Yeah, the fact that he got the brewers to the postseason it is extremely notable It's one of the only times though I feel like a trade deadline trader for a rental has ever actually worked in the favor of the team making the trade I feel like a lot of times when you make these trades you have a world of expectations Somehow sabathe exceeded that a side young guy who exceeded the expectation that

That never happens.

I don't know if those lightning in a bottle would happen there, but that's about the trade absolutely 100% worth it But that that's one in a mountain of trades that have not worked and that's my fear in this is that if you get a guy like scuba who's had some major issues himself by the way He's had some major issues himself and you trade the farm and you bring him in for half a season or a season and a half or whatever it is I feel like then, you know,

I

don't know if lightning can strike twice in that aspect these trade deadline things especially with pitching

Man, you got to be absolutely locked in, sure.

And that's why I feel like they're going to go for a less expensive, maybe a higher leverage type of guy in a relief situation.

Whether somebody can get you a closing type deal, or maybe it's two or three innings after a starter can't get through a tough patch, whatever it is.

I just feel like if they're going to make a move with anything, it's going to be someone in the bullpen.

That's me,

though.

Yeah.

I think that's a good call.

I'm going to...

I think that is probably the most likely thing that they do.

And I will remain in the camp that they need a bat.

The problem in the post-season for the last number of years has been they've not had a power hitter that they could rely on.

And bats are also

really, really expensive

right now.

I know.

I know.

I just,

like, there was a guy, one of the guys, there were some, I don't even, can't even tell you the name, but they have, they've had like two guys now, a couple of these guys that they were seeing at the trade deadline and they're out because of injuries.

And it's like, oh, the trade deadline is gone now.

So it's really expensive to find bats, especially when teams like the Twins, the Minnesota Twins, they're buying at the deadline.

That means there's probably like two sellers left in all the baseball right now.

And that's what the expanded postseason has brought us.

And that's why we're at where we're at.

We are running short on time in this segment.

As of recording the show, the Brewers have not made any significant move.

So by the time you listen to this, if they've made a move over the weekend, our past selves would all like to say, awesome job if they do.

And if they don't, well, we just spent a segment talking about maybe what they could have done.

So there you go.

We're going to hedge all of our bets right there.

Next segment, we are going to wrap up with some of our final thoughts, and we're going to hear from Mike Bubbins, our sports weekend review from Training Camp in Green Bay.

That comes your way next year.

I'll make the fall part of Pacific Media Radio Network.

Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

Mike Clemens standing by with a sports week in review, but before we hear from him here on Make the Call, we would like to have our final thoughts segment and get in something in that we didn't talk about during the program today.

And we are going to skip upper management going first in this one.

We're going to go Parker first this time.

Oh, Parker vertical Olson with his nine foot six vertical.

What you got for

jumped right over him, Jimmy.

Jumped right over upper management.

Nine foot six means you're jumping just a few inches short of the basketball rim on a standard basketball.

He just keeps going up.

You

think I

can't dunk?

Come on now, Jimmy.

You're dunking with your ankles at that point.

A nine foot six vertical.

You're measuring it completely wrong.

Anyway, all right.

I'm done.

I'm

done.

And that's my thought.

No.

That's how we're running the show, everybody.

9 foot 6 verticals to every

foot.

No, I was just going to say, I'm getting excited.

In Wisconsin, we are very fortunate to have the situation where there is a lot of very good division three football, and we're getting close to kickoff.

Jimmy, you know this is the broadcaster for UW-Platteville.

We're getting very close to kickoff, and I've been starting to see some stuff about how good this conference is.

It's the best in the country by a long shot, and I'm just

My nose is tingling Jimmy.

I can smell the football in the air and it's getting me very excited to go back to

D3 football.

Well, I just want half the WIC in the top 15 of a D3 football.com top 25 pole.

So, you know, I'm expecting the WIC to be okay this year as well.

All right, Gray, what you got?

Any 9.46 vertical stories for us or?

Well, I've got something.

9 foot 6 minus 5 foot 11 is 43 inches.

Now, if I hold my hand like this, we then subtract this,

this

distance right here.

So about, so that's what 15 inches, 43 minus, you have a 28 inch vertical, my friend.

I don't know how that stacks up, but it sounds kind of small.

I don't know.

The only thing I can measure against is combine vertical.

So at the NFL combine, you'd look like a guy.

That's

what

I got.

Hey, see

you got to have something.

If you're five foot eleven, I guess this is why I wasn't going to use not quite.

We're not even going to

talk about me, man.

I would.

Is it our negative numbers allowed?

I'd find a

sheet of paper is about my vertical.

We have to get out of the way.

Mike Clements is standing by with a sports week in review.

I make the call part of the civic media radio network.

West Coast trip for the crew.

Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with this week in Wisconsin Sports Baseball.

The Brewers in Anaheim this weekend for a series against the Angels.

The week got off to a bumpy start with the Brewers losing to the Giants in San Francisco.

Shout out four to nothing.

The Brewers looked flat that night.

It's because after beating the Rockies in Milwaukee Sunday afternoon, they sat on the team charter plane for five hours Sunday night in Milwaukee due to a delay and didn't arrive in San Francisco until early Monday morning.

They won game two, but then got clobbered 16 to three, losing the series to the Giants two games to one.

Jake Bowers thought he'd fractured his big toe after hitting a foul ball off his right foot.

I guess I felt the ball off it couldn't really move.

So it came out of the game, got an x-ray, showed a fracture line.

at the time they weren't sure if it was old or new.

Got an MRI and a CT scan this morning and the doctors came back and said that it was probably old and was already there.

On Friday night, Bowers did just fine.

Top of the fifth, two men on, against the Angels.

Two on, one away,

and that ball is hammered all the way back into right and gone for Bowers.

Number 19, Slider down and in, and Bowers hit that thing to Huntington Beach.

The Brewers went on to win that one, 6-2 over the Angels, thanks to another great pitching performance by Shane Droan, manager Pat Murphy.

He was fantastic.

He was in control.

This is a tough line-up for him to navigate with all the righties.

He did a great job.

And this kid has been, I don't know how many in a row, but this is probably six or seven in a row that he's been in the sixth.

And the month of July, there's

There's no bigger part of our team than

Shane.

Now baseball fans continue to watch for any trade news.

The deadline coming up Monday at 5 p.m.

Central time.

college football.

It was Big 10 Media Day in Chicago this week.

Luke Fickle has been the head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers football team for the past three years.

Could year number four be his last?

I'll be honest, like, right?

I mean, our guys feel those things as well.

They see, they feel, they hear.

And so that's a growth.

That's why we've talked about some of the changes that we've had to made about how we go about the season.

We've taken a deep hard look at how we train and we've had to adjust a little

bit.

NFL, the Green Bay Packers training camp, began this week with the shareholders

meeting, CEO and President Ed Policy telling fans on Monday that while the team finances are fine for now, some changes in laws and other factors has him concerned for the future.

The long term I feel good but I do think that there are some trends we're recognizing in the NFL and we talked about some of those that I think can pose a threat to our long-term financial health.

Packers tight end Tucker Kraft arrived to camp with still no new contract extension for him to sign and was asked how he felt about that.

Well um

I think the best chance for Green Bay to win a Lombardi is with me on the field as well.

Kraft will now be able to participate in practice after being taken off the PUP physically unable to perform last just nine months after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee.

The Packers other tight end Luke Musgrave though continues to be out

due to an injury in his fourth year with the team.

General manager Brian Goodekinst.

Yeah, big, big year for me.

We're working through it to see if it's going to be something long term or not.

You know, we've always around here with head, necks, and hearts.

It's a little bit more sensitive than some of the other injuries, right?

You got to take that a little bit slower and make sure that what you know is what you know.

This is a neck injury, so we'll take our time and make sure we know what we know before we put it in a kind of risk.

In 2024, the Packers used a third round pick in the draft to select U.S.

see running back Marshawn Lloyd, but he's had a number of injuries, including at the end of his rookie year, an appendectomy.

I asked Lloyd if he realized that they've been waiting two years for him to be the backup running back to Josh Jacobs.

Honestly, I do know that I can be a good help to the team.

And I know what I'm able to do and what they think of me.

I think I can really do something really special.

So as far as the RB2 and what position, I'm not really thinking about where I'm going to be at, but I just know that.

I'm going to be on the field somehow and wherever they want me to be, if it's anywhere, I'm ready to go.

The Packers wrapped up their first week of training camp practice in Helmetson Shorts.

On Monday they put on the pads.

I asked Jordan Love as he heads into his seventh NFL season.

what he hopes to accomplish before the season opener during these practices.

Yeah, I mean, I think there's always goals you have as a player and then I think as a team, it's just every day is a new install.

Do these receivers come to you with questions or do you have to get

after my game?

I think as a receiver, you want to be on the same page with the quarterback.

You want to get the ball as much as possible.

So anytime there might be, you know, we might be seeing stuff different, you know, we're talking right after the play.

Hey, this is what I saw right here.

This is kind of what I want you to do.

Make sure we're on the same page and that's how it's supposed to be.

That's Packers quarterback Jordan Love.

With this week in Wisconsin Sports, I'm Mike Clemens.

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

It's time for Make the Call, a weekly discussion on the top Wisconsin sports stories of the week.

You can listen to the show anytime on the free Civic Media app.

Download it now on your device's app store or at civicmedia.us slash app.

Now, it's time for Make the Call, the Civic Media Sports production.

It is the weekend, and indeed, it is another edition of Make the Call here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I am Jimmy Cusca here in the Triplus area of Wisconsin.

That's Western Wisconsin.

And along for the ride today, we head to the North Woods with Gray Gunderson, who is our representative of upper management.

What's up, Gray?

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's a good morning, hopefully, for you too, Jimmy.

And in our capital city, it is.

Parker Vertical Olson.

What's up, Parker?

Jimmy, I feel like I am required to tell you this.

I was at the shareholders meeting in Green Bay.

We went up on Monday.

And in doing that, we also went into the Hall of Fame.

And I don't know if you've been to the Packer Hall of Fame before, Jimmy, but they have the vertical test thing there.

And you better believe I did it.

I don't think I need to disclose my number.

However, I will tell you I did it.

Obvious follow up to that is we have to know the number now, right, Grant?

We have to know the number.

I don't see how you can avoid it now.

You made this bed now laying it.

As a, as a, I want to say 511 man, I had a nine foot six, I think is what it was.

Well, that's not how you measure vertical.

You measure vertical from standing.

Nobody's going off.

Hey, don't worry about it.

Hey, nine feet, six inches, Jimmy.

That's all I need to know.

I can jump that high.

Okay, so Parker vertical Olson has a nine foot six vertical jump, which is not the way you measure it, but we'll go with it

for the sake of the fact that it's radio and it's theater of the mind.

You can do whatever you want.

We are going to move along to the sports, not sports topics of the week.

Later in the show, we will have Mike Clemens join us.

He is in Green Bay where Parker was at the Hall of Fame, right?

But we have Mike Clemens in Green Bay covering Packers Training Camp, which got underway this past week with all the news and notes coming your way.

And a sports week in review coming up about 40 minutes from right now.

Later in the program, we're going to do a deep dive on the Brewers, headed of the Trade Dead

which comes your way Monday.

And we'll ask the very simple question about what they have or have not done to make themselves World Series contenders.

We'll do that coming up later in the program.

But through that point, we do what we like to call the top eight at eight.

And that's because the show airs in the morning on many of these civic media radio stations.

We do the eight top sports stories or not sports stories of the week.

So

Let's start with number eight.

And this one, inspired by the Brewers using a position player to pitch this week.

And I have to ask you guys, what's the equivalent of that in another sport where you take somebody out of position to do something like pitch?

I want to ask this question to speak because it is fascinating that we see guys be doing things in professional sports that they wouldn't otherwise be doing.

Wes Welker, when players have to kick.

And Wes Welker is the one who immediately comes to mind.

I know there's other examples, but hey.

Oh, geez.

I repressed that memory.

But yeah, Wes Welkers, who I choose to remember there.

You went the exact same route that I went gray.

I was also thinking letting your emergency kicker just do for giggles.

I can't remember.

Didn't Tom Brady do a drop kick one time, too?

No,

Doug Flutie did.

Doug Flutie was allowed by Bill Acheck to do a drop kick, I think, in one of his final games.

It was his final season.

It was a farewell thing.

There you go.

I have a high

school.

player that did a drop kick in a game.

We went 0-9 that year, 0-10 actually, but he did a drop kick in our final game.

And we got it.

He made the Dan Patrick show, which was pretty awesome.

So I took a video of it from the sideline and he had a drop kick and he kicked that thing.

I mean, in practice, he was maybe 50%.

He mostly did it at the Goop around.

We did it in a game and he kicked it like through good.

over the, over the scoreboard, over the fence, out into the street.

I mean, that thing would have been good from a hundred yards.

It was crazy.

And it was amazing.

Um, my, my nomination for this is that in the NHL, they have a really odd rule where they have an emergency goal tender.

So in most, this happened like four or five years ago where they had some guy who was just like a wreck league goalie who was like managing ticket sales.

It was like 40 something years old.

And, and after the first two go down, he has to come out and be the emergency goal.

For the team that he against the team that he works for which is crazy So the team that pays him had to go on goal and then he made all the saves and got the win which is just insane to me This literally playing in rec leagues comes in and he plays emergency goaltender in an NHL game That is incredible.

So I just inspired me to think when you have a position player pitching, you know, like something like that could happen.

It's just awesome

I actually remember that, and I'm not the hockey guy here by any means, but I remember the story.

I did some quick googling.

He was the Zamboni driver and arena operator David Ayers for the Hurricanes against the Maple Leafs.

What a story.

That's so awesome.

All right, we got to keep this thing moving.

Number seven in our top eight at eight.

We've talked about all these.

fun things this summer, right?

And now that it's August, we started thinking about fall, but I have to ask you with a month to go and what most people consider summer, not meteorologically and anything like that, but just what we have realistically left if you track summer by June, July, August, if anything left on your summer bucket list to get done.

I would like to get out to a couple more baseball games.

I really want to go to another brewery game or two.

I don't know if I've been to one with the roof open yet.

That's kind of the goal.

I don't think I've been to one with the roof open yet, so there you go.

Mother Nature, please help me.

Have a nice day for a brewery game, I'm at.

I haven't been to one of those either this year, but I usually don't get to one in a given year because, you know, living this far away, it's a little bit of a treat to make that happen.

It always involves a hotel stay and it's a pretty made to do thing.

So for me, I got to keep it

stable.

Complain, complain those managers, I swear.

But what I actually haven't accomplished is to go fishing yet somehow.

It's a little a little absurd this late on.

The temps have been bad for a lot of the fish in the area.

So you got to be gentle on them.

I got to at least get a worm on a hook and I haven't pulled that off.

I have not gotten onto a boat yet this summer.

I hate to admit it.

I live in an area with a ton of rivers.

I grew up on lakes, so I was always on a boat.

I spent whole summers on the boat.

I slept overnight on boats.

This summer, I have not made it onto one, and that's really weird for me.

But in my old age, living where I do, there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for that.

Unless I want to go on the Wisconsin River and end up

like 80 miles downstream somewhere in Iowa on the Mississippi River.

So I have to make it onto a boat this summer.

That's what's left on my summer bucket list.

All right, let's talk some sports though.

All right, we're halfway through the first segment.

So let's talk a little sports.

This four show, after all, number six at our top eight and eight is this, the Badgers and the rest of the big 10 had their big 10 media days for football this week.

Luke Fickle got to speak, got to hear from a few of the Badgers players as well.

And just wondering, you guys have any takeaways about the Badgers?

Does anything sad make you feel any different about what's coming up this season?

I'm always pretty cautious when I hear what they're saying in media days, but it seemed like the pretty much a consensus among the beat writers and everything that I've seen.

is that this is the most confident that they think that Fickle has sounded since perhaps year one.

It seems like he actually kind of feels like there might be something this time.

And I do believe I was seeing some stuff on social media that Melvin Gordon was at media days as well.

That tells me that the Badgers are actually like investing and using those names, those people who have been part of the program previously and actually know what the program is, which is something that Luke Fickle kind of forgotten his first year or so, forgot what Wisconsin football was.

So

I kind of, I hate to say this.

They might be roping me back in, Jimmy.

They might have just got my attention for another season, for at least a little bit of the season to watch them and go, Oh, you know, those badgers, they might not be too bad guys.

Hmm.

Just a little

bit here real quick, just real quick.

They did invest in bringing alumni in as part of it.

They hired Brady Ewing to be their alumni rep, you know, and he's formed a badger.

He's from Richland Center.

So they've got him working with some of the alums.

So there you

go.

That was actually the same moment of the speech that stood out most for me.

I still am trying to figure out how I feel about it, but his optimism about that hire of Ewing and his optimism in general regarding in-state recruiting, when that has been absolutely hot button lately, you know, it's not like I expected him to say, we need to do better still after that was the tone they took last year.

But I don't know, am I optimistic?

What do you guys feel about that?

Were you reassured?

I don't know if I was.

Cautiously.

Very cautiously.

That's all

I

got on that.

Their schedule is easier this year.

That's going to help the record.

That should get emboeligible.

They should get six wins out of this.

So they should be better just by virtue of not having a stack schedule.

They don't have a month like they had last year where they're playing a top 10 team every week.

So I think just by virtue of easier schedule, just the record should be better.

And winning solves a lot of problems, to be honest, guys.

And I know this because if we ever won a game at the high school football team, I coach, it would solve every problem we have.

We just need to win a game and we'll all be happy again.

But that's the thing.

That's what solves problems with sports.

You win games, people in your fans, your players, your coaches, boosters, alumni, administration, everybody's happy.

So that's all you gotta do.

Just win, right?

It's easy.

Yeah, Davis, just win.

All right, number five in our top 888.

This one I threw in overnight last night because I thought.

You know, I've seen all these stories this week.

The WNBA had a post about two players that made kind of a joke wager on a game.

It's kind of, ha, ha, ha, funny, whatever, Warner bucks wins, whatever.

And then they deleted it and then had to put out a very lengthy statement in which no punishment was offered.

And it's got people up at arms about just kind of the state of professional sports in general.

And I was thinking earlier this summer, we heard about Michael Beasley and him, you know, fixing steps.

products and games like getting a certain number of rebounds or whatever.

We see there's a big piasco in the NCAA with a quarterback who spent, it was gambling on other games and stuff like that.

And I'm just wondering with all the advertising by gambling services and like having the spread put in every like bottom line crawl in ESPN, do we need to rethink sports gambling?

Do we need to

you know because I just think that you know 10 years ago all of this stuff was unthinkable and all of a sudden today it's so widely accepted.

I'm just wondering if we need to reconsider like how we approach sports gambling whether it's professional or college sports.

That's a really tough topic, Jimmy, but I'm glad that we've got it on the show this week because it is something that's on the minds of a lot of people.

I think about it a lot.

I know I generally have a pretty negative reaction to gambling in general, so I've got to keep that in mind when I think and talk about this kind of stuff.

But without getting political, over-regulation is its own problem.

So stopping things entirely, aside from being unrealistic, is going to present its own issues.

When you've got something like this, I think you've got to create a clear and concise system of addressing the issues where they pop up.

But I don't know if we can paint the whole scene with the brush of the issues that do pop up.

They're going to be ugly when they happen because these people who are betting on their own games, they have a lot of money or they're in positions where it's especially egregious if it happens at all.

But...

Those stories are going to get a fantastic amount of attention and against the backdrop of a mostly honest sporting community, at least how it feels right now.

I don't believe in the slippery slope quite yet.

Do I think about it a lot?

Am I worried?

Yeah, totally.

And I hope the people who struggle with gambling get the help they need.

But I don't know.

I don't think it's necessarily as serious as every story and the level of seriousness those stories have individually might make it seem.