Who is Hyped?

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, the Civic Media sports production.

Welcome

in.

It is Make the

Call,

part of the Civic Media radio network.

I'm Jimmy Cuska, and this week, we are talking a whole lot of football.

The preseason is underway.

We got to see the Packers the other night.

And we'll talk plenty about that coming up later in the program.

But we can't go anywhere without introducing the other two along for the ride and the two who are going to do their best to keep me in check this week.

And this week, we welcome back Parker, vertical Olsen to the fold.

What's up, Parker?

Howdy, boys.

I am proud to be part of the other two.

Yes, exactly.

It's totally billed as Jimmy Kuska and these other guys.

That's that's direct from upper management.

Right, Greg Gunderson.

I'd gray the third one, Gunderson, to you, Jimmy.

I think I'm think too.

Parker, you want to do a co-op on a Halloween costume this year?

Oh!

I've had an idea.

I like this.

I'll get up here.

We're just changing the show title for Make the Call to Jimmy and these other guys.

That's what we do here as part of the show.

And honestly, that's all we need to say today.

I think we've accomplished everything we set out to do in this program.

I'm

kidding guys.

We got a lot to talk about today.

We have factors preseason underway.

The Brewers are moving right along here in mid August on their path to October.

And of course, the NBA schedule is out.

So we have to talk a little box today as well.

Plus, Trinity Camp is underway, high school, college, NFL.

Everybody is going at his football season with some actual games being played already.

next week in Wisconsin High School football gets underway Thursday for some schools and Friday for the majority of schools next week.

So we are in football season, guys, and there's a lot to talk about.

But as we do in this program, we do a top eight at eight, and we do this for a couple more weeks in advance of our show becoming a little more structured with some more guests and a few more segments dedicated to the teams that we're covering here throughout the ball.

Um, but we had the top eight and eight and we need to talk sports or not sports for this first part of the show.

And I have to go off the board and not sports guys to start things off, especially with Parker back this week because at number eight, I was inspired in this question by watching Parker do a video for civic media this week from the state fair.

So now I got to ask you guys, what's your favorite food when you go to a fair, a festival, a carnival, whatever it is, what's your go to when you go to these things?

You know, I, uh,

I didn't have it on my radar.

I probably should have because it's so obvious.

The maple icing with bacon bits donut that I had was absolutely spectacular.

I 10 out of 10 recommend to absolutely everyone.

Usually go to for me, though, was like the roasted corn.

I'm a big fan of the roasted corn.

You would be a big fan here nearby where I live in Southwestern Wisconsin of the Cobb corn roast.

That's what they do.

It's all roasted corn.

It is also the hometown.

of both Greg and Jeff Gard, who are basketball coaches at Wisconsin and Platteville respectively here in Wisconsin.

There you go.

So eat a lot of corn, become a basketball coach.

Got it.

I see the formula.

It's written in the stars.

You've made me realize, Jimmy, by asking this, that I'm a beverage guy when it comes to fair situations.

I'll get a big old lemonade halfway through the day.

But if you know what comes to mind, and I know we're Wisconsin guys,

the Minnesota State Fair root beer opportunities that have popped up throughout the years, they've been incredible.

I'm a 1919 guy, and I'd love to argue about it.

Well, for me, it depends.

If we're going to any random fair or festival, I am finding the cheese curd trailer.

I don't care.

I mean, you can't go wrong with festival cheese curds.

You really can't.

It's deep fried cheese.

It's Wisconsin.

There are very few times that's ever let me down, but I will say my go out of the way

adventure, and I only make this adventure every few years, is when I hit up a rent fair, and sometimes to Chacoopee, Minnesota, if we're gonna talk about crossing state lines, but if I'm going somewhere, I look for the oversized drumsticks, the big biking size hunks of meat that you wheel around like a club, and I find one of those, because that to me is just amazing, to have one of those in your hand, you really do feel like you're living in a past era, right?

A peasant running around with a stick of meat the size of their arm,

That is to me the best part of some of those things.

So that's where I go.

I like all of our answers though.

We all definitely ignore any diet plans Ron and we go and enjoy ourselves, which is the whole point of a fair festival carnival.

What have you?

Let's talk a little sports.

And this one is still kind of not sports, but also kind of sports.

And at number seven at the top eight at eight, I asked this question because recently redid a couple of my living spaces in my house to make it a little more hospitable.

for watching sports.

So now I've got multiple screens.

I got share closer to a couple of outlets so I can have another one of the laptop or the tablet.

What's the ideal setup for watching sports?

I got to say I was really happy with the setup I had during college.

I had TV and then

a monitor hooked up to a monitor, so I could get three games very easily, not even using my phone yet, or going split screen at all on the monitor, so that was always a very fun time.

I think, honestly, you can't be having just one TV though and checking the scores on your phone though.

I'm very content with focusing on one game and checking on the scores on my phone.

I think you nailed both ends of the spectrum on that.

It sounds like between you guys, multiple screens is pretty important, but Parker, you specifically mentioned that one big one, I'm kind of, I wish I could watch a football game in a movie theater.

That's something that I think would just, or like an IMAX situation.

That would be pretty cool.

And now, just kind of rolling on that, that Las Vegas sphere, I think we could involve that somewhere.

These are theoreticals though.

For me, it's just a big TV in my living room, hooked up to a laptop though.

It's not actually a TV, it's a computer in disguise.

So, yeah, I'm gonna check the scores on my phone kind of guy with the Packers on the big TV.

I love going to stadium setups, but especially when we added a video board and needed to test it at a local venue here, I brought...

I brought a PlayStation, I hooked it up, and I played a couple of games on those big screens.

So I'm with you on that one, Gray.

I love the idea of just having the big screen, not just the large screen to do something.

There's a novelty to it.

It's hard long term to sit and have your neck like this, but there's a certain novelty and enjoyment to it.

Especially when there's other people.

If you have other people in a theater for a sporting event, if you've ever done that, that is actually really fun too.

when everybody gets up and cheers.

All right, we're way off track.

Let's talk some sports now on the show.

That's what people are listening to us for, unless it's my mom who's just listening to say hi.

And so, hi mom.

Number six in a top eight at eight, the NBA schedule has been released.

And on it, Yonatanakunpo is back in Milwaukee in January and March.

They will meet the Bucks and the Heat will meet before that.

But that is the NBA schedule.

I know that with the Bucks being where they are, there's not a ton of intrigue in this.

They only have two nationally televised games.

But I'm curious, guys, how hyped are you to see Yanis back in Milwaukee in a different uniform?

Maybe that hype's not the right word, but how interested are you in that?

Yeah, pretty.

I mean, I don't know.

I'm really just excited for the fans to be able to have that welcome back for him.

I think that's going to be what's most.

Not entertaining.

It's going to be the most heartfelt part about it, is going to see those emotions for not only Yanis, but the fans as well.

I think a lot of fans are going to be very happy to see him again.

And please, I've said this before, I think about William Domus.

Don't boo.

Please don't boo.

He did so much for your team.

Don't boo.

What are you doing?

Well, I agree with you too, by the way, Parker, the emotional moment or at least the opportunity for one.

I love when you get a positive welcome back for a star player coming back to what used to be home for them because I'm a sucker for those moments.

Absolutely.

It puts a lump in your throat.

It's one of the feel good moments of sports.

Hopefully, like you said, don't ruin it.

But I suppose how he returns has a lot to do with how the heat are doing maybe around that time.

Do you guys think the heat are going to be in shape to make it a bad time for Bucks fans who hope for a decent game at that point?

The

Bucks are going to make it in bad shape for it.

The Bucks are going to be not good this year.

I was

hoping for optimism.

I knew what I was going to get, but I was hoping for optimism.

Not happening here.

I mean, they got two nationally televised games.

There are, like, what, three teams that are getting two nationally televised games.

And that's kind of like the gentleman's sweep of national coverage, right?

Everyone gets one or two.

And nobody gets fewer than two in the NBA.

But the Bucks have gone from, like, what?

Like, 35 down to, like, two.

And then on the other side of that, the Heat have gone from, I think, five up to, like, 40 nationally televised games.

So that just shows you the draw, if you're honest or dead, it can fill.

But I am with you guys.

I hope that there's not a whole lot of booing happening.

There are gonna be some frustrated folks I think but it's just a reality of the NBA today when you've got you know salary caps and all that so just the reality the bucks really didn't have a lot that can do we've talked extensively about this there wasn't a lot that could do to build a contender There they're on the rebuild now number five in our top eight and eight This might be a quick question to answer for you, but I have spent the whole week being just inundated with paid ad sponsored posts

about Wisconsin Badgers football.

I mean, just last night in my algorithm on four different social media platforms, I got to watch a pick six by defensive linemen from the Wisconsin Badgers.

Maybe they're targeting me because whatever Badgers fan, whatever, but I've seen so much of it and all the media coverage seems to be pretty positive.

So are you guys buying the hype?

You think the Badgers are better this year?

Hopefully better, hopefully a little bit better at least.

I think no matter what happens, we're going to see them perform.

better results wise because the schedule is a bit easier this year than it had been in previous years.

How much better the team is?

Hopefully better, but I'm not incredibly confident.

I did see that clip though, Jimmy.

I always love me a big man, pick six.

Great, what about you?

I'm

buying a level of hype but not the level I'm being sold Jimmy I'm actually kind of in your camp and I haven't necessarily followed college football anywhere near as close as NFL but clearly something about the algorithm assigned to me thinks it's next on my plate for some reason and I saw the same exact clip recently but

I don't know.

I'm seeing predictions of eight wins.

I've seen people saying nine wins that I'm thinking, man, I'd love to see it.

I'd love to see it.

But why are we thinking so?

Because nothing's changed since people were predicting five to six or worse than that, at least that I can see.

I know things have happened since then, but not enough to justify that kind of swing.

That's what it is.

It feels like an upward swing, and I can't see a reason behind it.

Do you guys know, do you have any idea why the uptick?

I think predominantly because the schedule is so much easier than it has been in previous years.

When you have a conference with 18 teams in it and you don't play yourself, so 17 teams that you have a pool to pick from, chances are you're going to get a really hard schedule and you're going to get a really easy schedule most of the time.

I think that's mostly what we can attribute it to, although I will say there is a little bit more momentum with the Badgers actually getting like...

improvement, which is very, very much needed.

But I think it's a lot of operationally, like they seem to be connecting with alums better.

I don't know necessarily that the coaches are doing that much better.

Jimmy, maybe you

can shine a little more light there.

The best PR we've seen for a college football team in a while.

I mean, with the hires, with the press, I feel like it's just the best PR that anybody could have for this, because, uh, honestly, I don't know.

I don't know what's changed from last year, other than that, they're not in Platteville this year.

I mean, they're.

with the overlap in college football schedules, but I mean, I don't know.

I'm really interested in whether or not, I mean, yeah, I think by the schedule, they could be better, but I mean, they won four games last year.

So it's just, I'm not there yet with nine wins or just not.

I feel like there's a lot to prove yet there in Madison.

We only have about a minute and change here.

So I want to make sure I ask this question.

This is very important.

Near to me as a special teams football coach, number four in our top eight at eight, we'll talk a lot more about the Packers here in a bit, but

Did the Packers find a kicker?

Tray smack went four for four in the preseason game.

He had struggled a bit and can't be in missing kicks, but in the preseason game nailed a couple of 58 yarders and I don't know if they find a kicker gray.

I, I believe so.

I saw, I actually saw the stat line.

So he officially made three kicks, but that one was called back.

And so people are saying that he's four for three.

I love that, that kind of unofficial stat line.

It's got the right kind of tongue and cheek vibe to it.

But long story short, yes, it appears so.

And more importantly, perhaps we found an effective duo of kicker and special teams coach.

People are speaking very highly of Mr. Acord now that he's part of the team.

And I might have mispronounced that last name, but we still, it's preseason.

I'll get it right by.

regular season.

But I saw the demonstration that he did of what kickers do and wind in that two minute breakdown that he did with a pen next to the podium.

Mike Clemens even talked to me about that on Friday.

It was pretty awesome.

But they seem like they get along well.

And if they both are what they seem to be, I think we can finally stop talking about it for at least a game or two and worry about the position roles on offense and what the defensive backups did.

We can talk a little bit more about this coming up at the bottom of the hour.

We're also going to hear from Mike Clemens later in the show.

He is the most famous person we know.

I'll hear from him later in the show.

I know he loves me saying that, which is why I do it.

This is Make the Call part of the Civic Media radio network.

Welcome

back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

Welcome back.

It's Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network.

Kimmy Tuska, Greg Anderson, Parker Olson.

And we are in the segment where we're going to talk a little baseball.

We'll get to the football stuff here in about 10 minutes.

We're going to hear from Mike Clemens, about 25 minutes from now.

But right now, I'm going to talk about the Brewers because I've got a couple of questions about the team going into the homestretch here and heading towards the playoffs.

So number three at the top, 8-8.

And this is more of a question to include you in the discussion.

Parker Gray and I talked about this a lot last week and I hesitated.

Like, do I ask it again?

But I definitely want to get your thoughts on this.

Was it a mistake that the brewers didn't add a bat at the trade deadline?

Added some pitching, did not add a bat.

And just in the, you know, we can change since we have seen them have some offensive struggles at times.

Yeah, no.

And I hate to say that I was advocating to add a bat before the deadline, but.

I was advocating to add a bat before the deadline It's just yeah, I think it was a mistake.

I don't They're gonna probably be alright

Again, this is kind of one of those situations where you're like, okay, what makes a good regular season team versus what makes a good postseason team?

The burrs haven't been a particularly good postseason team, and predominantly because they haven't had the bats.

You can get away with a slump like they have for years now.

During the regular season, if the bats go cold for a week or so, okay, you win.

That week you win maybe two games you lost on 500 your record got a little bit worse But you get hot and then you add those games back and obviously the burrs have got one of the best records in baseball That record is gonna be pretty good because they've been able to be so They've been able to be so good But yeah, I think it was a pretty big mistake to not add a bat because a they needed a power hitter because that's just how the postseason works and with what we're seeing right now

the biggest part of your payroll being Yewitch and Contreras, they're not really raking it right now.

And sure, Burr Baseball, the other night they were able to go single, single, single after a couple of walks to be able to scrape a win away from the Dodgers, but like, it'd be really nice if you didn't have to wait until the ninth inning for your

practically only offense of the game.

It's very frustrating, and especially when they all go cold.

It really sucks.

To me, it definitely was a mistake.

I'm curious.

I missed the show last week.

What did you guys say?

If I recall, I was basically leaning on Jimmy as I often do with baseball.

But what stands out to me right now, honestly, not to deflect this hard, but I've got to ask, does this question make even less like...

Do their moves make even less sense in the light of Bryce Terang's apparently nagging knee injury?

The way I've heard it put is that he's been sore for longer than just a day or two and that maybe even a week or two ago might have had something like this come to team attention and even still knowing that one of the best bats on the team had something beginning to go on, they didn't pull the trigger on a bat trade.

That's what I'm looking at right now and thinking, okay, I'm beginning to question if this was the right move or before I thought I trust this team.

We also look at just

the moves they've made since then I mean they bringing guys that were you know like career sub 200 hitters to just fill a spot while guys get healthy like you know They're had to have been a better approach to this but as I couched last week to in the program The cost might have been just been too high to find a guy Especially someone who fits positionally and what the viewers are trying to do because they are rock solid at certain positions And they don't need a lot of help there and they do have

a couple of guys who are absolutely raking this year.

So I don't, I don't know if it was probably a combination of things and we'll never know because we're not in the GM's office.

But I think to even the casual observer, people wanted a little more pop in the bats and they just don't have that top to bottom.

Who's the reliable guy that's going to, you know, if everybody's gone over, who's the guy who's breaking that up?

They don't have that guy.

You know, it's like you said, they strung together some singles.

They managed to scratch one out.

in that game late Thursday night, early Friday morning this week.

But yeah, I think that it was probably a mistake, not more directly addressing that, rather than signing career minor leaguers to take at bats.

Could they have found someone who could have maybe solved that need for him?

And again, the cost might have been too high.

The situation might not have been right.

The fact that they are in love with their prospects plays part into two.

And that's the other half of this, guys.

There's a lot of pounding on the table.

start those service clocks for some of their top prospects.

But I think part of this, and this is a much broader discussion and nothing we're going to do in the next two minutes that we have in this segment.

But I think some of that too is that if you start a service clock for somebody now, and there's not a next season, you've effectively wasted a whole year of control for one of these top prospects.

So, you know, there's the other part of it too that, you know, we might not have baseball next year.

And I don't know that you'd want to want to go that route.

Let's let's ask quickly, though, while we do have a couple minutes, we're two in our top eight at eight.

We had six weeks, seven weeks, whatever, to go here.

Yeah, you can do the thing.

Who's the most important Brewers player that is on the roster right now?

That's going to help them make that playoff.

But she was the most important guy the Brewers have that either they need to keep healthy or needs to keep doing what they're doing to make sure that they lock down that first round by the playoffs.

I mean, Jecton Churio has been very, very good of late.

I think

I think I went to the game on Sunday of last weekend and I think he had a lead off homer right there.

I think that was his third and four games or fourth and three games.

I don't remember exactly what the numbers were.

But yeah, I think he's somebody that you've got to see really execute with the bat.

And he's really kicked it up in the last couple of weeks.

I do want to, he's somebody who's going to be really important to be able to make the push to stay ahead of the Cubs and get one of those two buys.

I do want to say, though, I think that this is a really, really important couple of weeks coming up for William Contreras.

He's been kind of struggling with the bat for a good while now.

And also, I'm starting to hear a little bit from pitchers about the pitch mix hasn't been exactly what they need to be doing.

And he's the guy dropping the signs, right?

So my eyes are going to be on him for both his bat and for the decision making with the pitches.

So that's somebody I'm really looking at to kind of improve what they're doing in these next couple of weeks.

Greg, who are you looking at right now?

I'm afraid that I've got to go back to my question three answer again and say that a lot of things might depend on how Bryce Terang is able to hang in there and what comes of the second opinion that

And whether he's able to defy the impending potentially serious injury.

Hoping that he's able to keep in the lineup because his bat matters as much as his fielding skills and there aren't many players that you can necessarily say that about right now.

I think it's gonna be a really interesting

stretch here coming up guys.

I don't think there's any one right answer for this.

They just need to find some offense I think a bit and that pitching staff needs to just keep rolling.

We're going to talk football in our next segment.

We're switching gears a bit here, and we'll be back right after this.

You're listening to In Watching.

Make the call.

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Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

Halfway through Make the Call here on the Civic Media Radio Network, Jimmy Kuska, Greg Anderson, Parker Olson.

Parker, by the way, welcome back.

Glad to see you still vertical this week.

I am.

I'm back to vertical.

It was horizontal for a minute, but I am vertical, my friends.

And I still have that nine-foot vertical.

We actually thought about changing your middle edition gray, suggested not me, because I would never do something like this.

Although I did agree with it.

But we didn't think about going from vertical to horizontal, Olsen out there for a bit.

But we're glad to see you back.

And happy to have you back in the fold, man.

Last week, Gray and I did talk, obviously, a lot of football.

And it's preseason, so you have to look at it from that perspective that we're talking about guys that are practicing.

There's a lot of things that happen in preseason games that are literally just, can you do our base formation?

And if you can't, we're going to find someone who can.

There's a lot of trial and error.

There's moving guys around.

You got to look at preseason training camp with quite a bit of context, I think.

It's not simply just the stat lines.

Although seeing a kicker go four for three, as Grace said earlier, was pretty cool, right?

We all love special teams.

But I do got to ask this because they had their first preseason game this week.

We learn anything from the Packers preseason opener against the Steelers.

And yeah, this is total

knee-jerk reaction time, but I'm curious to be guys, if there's anything we learn, anything we're concerned about, and anything we got to pay attention to here, kind of going forward.

The positional battles we anticipated are those panning out.

We got a lot to ask here, so I will open the floor.

What did we learn from the Packers preseason opener in the 28-9 loss to the Steelers earlier this week?

I think I need to avoid dismissing the total stinkfest that took place for much of that game.

But what we learned, I think, if you want to put it in a short sentence, and I know that's a challenge for me on the best of days, is that a team of backups looks about as bad as a team of backups should.

And yes, I know they were going against a lot of backups too, but there's a notable separation in the stats here.

And it's from the first drive on offense, the first drive on defense, and the entire rest of the game.

Basically, when the starters were in,

versus when the starters were out.

And yes, it was a field goal, but the starting offense notched a scoring drive on their only real drive that they had as a unit.

The starting defense notched a sack and a three and out.

And from there, it all fell to shambles and drew LR look like Michael Jordan on a football field.

So like we have to

let go the fear that comes with a nasty performance like that?

Well, still recognizing that, yeah, there was a lot of stuff to improve on.

One thing that absolutely does need to be pointed out, and Jimmy, you touched on this, is that nobody was actually tipping their cards.

It was basic concepts.

It was the general, hey, if like...

If we need to come up with a play without actually calling one get into something like this formation and we might stand a chance You know is that kind of stuff because they're not doing stunts on the defensive line people aren't swapping positions Evan Williams isn't coming down into the box and disguising a

a drop back into coverage.

Are there two safeties or three?

These aren't questions that Drew Aller had to ask himself for a lot of the game yesterday.

And it's exactly the kind of stuff that will happen in the regular season.

Aaron Rodgers actually pointed it out in a conversation with Mike Clemens.

I believe that'll be featured later.

I don't want to bear too much.

But one of the things Aaron points out is that people don't tip their cards.

People don't show their stuff.

And Aaron's got a thorough and developed opinion on that that you can hear differently away from me.

But I agree with Aaron on that point.

There's some value lost.

The risk of injury is high, but that's not the question.

What did we learn?

Our backups don't look great as a unit.

The defense is hard to learn, but we knew these things were going to happen.

Is there a reason for fear?

What do you guys think?

I'll take it back from you real quickly.

First of all, I completely agree.

with Aaron Rodgers on the fact that these games are a lot more about tuning up and figuring things out.

We don't show all of our cards in a high school football scrimmage.

That's what I had to do yesterday in the evening.

We had a scrimmage.

We don't put out the plays that we actually want to run.

We run some very base

Setup kind of things just to make sure that we can actually execute like the fundamentals like can you block the guy straight across from you?

And if you can't we got to find someone who can or you know Hey, we have four pass routes that you have to learn.

Can you run those pass routes when we call them?

These are the things that are on a very basic level the NFL I would say if you're talking about on a scale of 10 of the difficulty of like learning a playbook Probably a 10 compared to the playbook that we run here in a mighty basketball, Wisconsin probably about a

0.1 out of 10.

We try to make things very easy for high school kids who have a lot of other things that are on their minds and are very easily distracted.

So, you know, I look at preseason through that too.

Like, what are they trying to accomplish with this?

And a lot of it is figuring out who can just do the job.

Like, there are guys that are playing in the preseason that are not going to be professional football players.

Like, this is kind of their one shot.

They might appear in a game or two.

They might play a quarter and that is their entire professional football career.

They get, you know, a couple grand and a pat on the back and they'll probably get to keep a helmet or a jersey as a souvenir.

But, you know, it is really tough to be one of the best in the world at playing the sport.

The active roster and they even week is in the 50s.

If you include all the different various lists you can be on and over the across 32 teams.

They ain't a heck of a lot of guys that are going to play professional football.

So I with you, Gray, I do think that there's a lot that is kind of not on the table for these guys.

And in terms of what you learn in a case in a preseason game, you know, I always go back to this guys.

And this is this is something I've said every preseason forever.

Tell me what the preseason record of your team was last year.

In fact, tell me who had the best preseason of any season ever in history.

And I guarantee you outside of maybe the footnote of

The Detroit Lions, the one year they went 0-in-16, but they had an undefeated preseason, which tells you a lot more than you need to know how much these games matter.

I don't think that you can really look at this as any kind of indicator of what's to come.

I think the Browns have a fairly similar mark there as well, that they have oddly good pre-seasons, but then absolutely terrible actual seasons.

And obviously we're talking about actual seasons when we think about what cares and what we're caring about.

Yeah, what we learned here, I, uh, first, Jimmy, I want to actually go into, you're 100% right, and you have to think too, there are fewer pre-season games now too.

There were, we've only got three now, we don't have four.

So that's kind of something that I'm thinking about.

I'm thinking about, what do each of these games kind of function as?

And game one is 100% making sure that we do have those fundamentals down.

Once you get into game two and three, you're getting into guys that are further down,

I'll call it the pecking order, who are really really really trying to prove themselves that they can make the plays to be a professional football player.

We're going to start to see a lot of that.

So I wouldn't be too worried about any individual performances from specific guys really, especially deeper down the depth chart at all right now.

Something that I learned, and this is kind of connecting back to what we're talking about in our first segment, special teams I think is

I can't believe I've been saying this.

It might be fixed, maybe.

Like, they didn't have penalties for a while.

Like, the first teamers, the guys that I'm worried about, they actually were pretty clean.

And obviously, as we talked about with Trace Mack, he was making kicks, and they've looked really, really good.

So that's, that is, honestly, probably the biggest thing that I learned is our special teams might be okay now.

Gray, obviously we've talked about that a little bit already, but special teams was such a pain.

for, oh, I don't know, always?

It's awesome to see it's good-ish now?

Well, Greg, you look nervous.

You do look nervous.

Well, see, here's the thing.

A kicker is not a specialty use unit, and it does look like Daniel Whelans holding things well and Trace Mac is kicking things well.

But you know where I worry about is like kickoff return coverage or kickoff returns, for example.

He's on Nixon.

popped up like a flare three years ago now and basically hasn't been seen since and we're trying a lot of guys at kickoff returner but also containing kickoff returns from other teams.

Hopefully we're doing a lot of that because that means we're kicking the ball off a lot and scoring a lot but it's been a problem just as much as the kicker position itself has and that needs to be mitigated or you're going to give away free points without ever getting your defense on the field.

You're not going to let the people who stop offenses do what they do best and you're still going to be losing games.

So

I'm thinking there's an opportunity for failure there that again you guys kind of nailed it I'm nervous about but Jimmy to your point I love the idea that there's a certain amount of decision-making happening I mentioned I was talking with Joel who's popped up here on the show a few times it's panning for gold when you grab a bucket of dirt you shake it and the gold settles out and NFL teams are the same they've got 90 guys on their roster right now

And I also want to touch on that they changed how the cut down works this year.

It's not a multi-stage cut down process to 72 and then to 53.

It's just that by August 30th, these teams need to be down to 53.

So there might even be some gamesmanship from teams about when they cut people.

I'm not sure what requirements even exist anymore for timing on that.

but by 6 p.m.

Eastern time, August 30th, it's down to 53.

So how much scrambling will there be right before?

That day might be absolutely wild.

We might have players on the team right now who are gone and who are on other teams right now who are going to be Packers.

So it's worth pointing out that if you spotted a gap yesterday, it may not even exist in a month's time.

I think they've been very aggressive too in seeking out help, especially on the edges of receiver and defensive back.

But they've also, you know, you talk about like running back or any of the other spots and

offensive line, you know, where there's a lot of competition, not just for starting roles, but backup roles.

And it really just kind of keeps bringing me back to defensive back because you mentioned Tisha Nixon and he has been the subject for a veteran or mostly worse, a whole lot of training camp videos of him getting absolutely torched by Packers receivers.

So either the Packers receivers have all gotten very, very good and the offseason losses don't matter a lot.

And the receiving core is just making that jump or the Packers are in person hurt when they get to play.

defense and they're not able to cover other receivers not not not just the top receivers but even the guys that are you know three four slot whatever they are that's the part that I think if I'm watching it right now and I'm trying to learn anything about this team who are some guys maybe in the secondary that can step up and help

They've got pieces they got safeties they got guys in the slot But I just worry that who are the shutdown guys who are the guys that are gonna have to face 15 targets a game that you know They can't figure it out.

You know, there's gonna be problems

Well, the answer to that is still a question, I'm afraid, because of recent acquisitions and because of the poor performance of players like Keisha Nixon.

But when somebody who's that close to the top of the corner list alongside Carrington Valentine, they made up one of the worst duos in the league in the second half of the year last year.

So I'm not surprised to see that we drafted two corners and have acquired more, notably Benjamin St.

Juist, who I've already clearly made a favorite player without ever having seen him take a snap, really.

So I do have to contain my excitement there.

But what I love to see

is that Green Bay has added corners and the open secret I'm guessing is that hey you might see notable names like Carrington Valentine drop further in that rotation and he's been a backup before it wouldn't be weird to see Carrington but what if we see somebody being the more favorited

the more favorite to target against tight ends, for example, for St.

Juiced with his big body.

There might be reasons that Nixon suddenly starts to fall, and he'll be loud about it if it happens.

I have no doubt that we'll hear frustrated opinions from Keishaan Nixon.

But at this point, Mr. Nixon, that's what I want to hear, because we need to light a fire under him.

Like I said, he was awesome.

He was way too good to be just a kickoff returner about three years ago, and since then, he's been on a milk carton.

I think I did notice Nixon pretty deep into the game on Thursday.

It's good to see, right?

It's good to know that there are other guys that they think A could take over for him, but B there are other guys who can scare him into being

Oh god, I need to be really good right now, or I might be the four-stringer.

If I'm the four-stringer, I'm hardly playing at all, and oh gosh, I'm only one step from Luke and going off the team, right?

Like, it's kind of funny, the mental game, and great, you mentioned the gamesmanship a little bit with the cuts this year, with it only being you have

to

have the roster down to 53, or 53?

Yeah, 53.

I can't remember if we were 52 or 53 for a second there, I got worried.

Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see, and I don't.

I don't know.

It'll be, it'll be fun because there are guys that you kind of wouldn't mind seeing fall further down and have somebody newer pick them

up, right?

One thing that is worth mentioning, knock him as I will.

Keyshawn Nixon is one of, I believe, the three longest standing members of the Packers on defense right now.

The leadership in the team, I mean, right now the longest, the most experienced player is Javan Hargrave.

fresh addition to the team.

After that, I think Kishan Nixon is right there alongside Zayir Franklin for the most experienced players on the team.

Xavier McKinney's up there too.

So we basically need defensive backs to step up, not just in play, but in personality this year.

It's a must, twice over.

Well, it sounds like we've learned quite a bit, but we have two pre-season games to go.

There's a lot to be decided yet in Green Bay.

We're going to get a full recap of the preseason game, too, with Mike Clements, who joins us next for a sports week in review here on Make the Call part of the Civic Media radio network.

Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

It is Make the Call.

It is Civic Media here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

I'm Jimmy Cuska and with me, the other guys.

There's two random beats here here.

Parker and Ray.

What's up guys?

I know, I'm kidding guys.

We got a chance here for some final thoughts.

We got two minutes left on the show.

We are going to go see Parker because he decided to skip out on us last week.

Parker, you get to go first.

I needed Greg.

I haven't had enough time in the last week to think of anything to say here.

Geez.

Oh, you've had two weeks for this, man.

Now, weirdly, I have a critique thought, actually.

So I work for the Mass Mallards.

It's a Northwoods League baseball team.

And they were in the playoffs.

And this is not a critique of the fact that they lost.

Playoffs?

We're talking playoffs.

This is a critique of the fact that the Northwoods League's playoffs is really weird.

It's a first half and division half champion for your division, which is

I think a little funky, but fine, I understand for what this is.

They play each other in a three game series to determine who goes to the next round and then the round after that as the championship.

Three game series, next round is one game, and then the other round is one game.

What are we doing?

Why is baseball one game series for playoffs?

What?

Well, you have the week.

to get these kids out and I'm back to their college roster.

They're

making a short

season.

It's weird.

I will

not waver.

I will not waver.

Great.

Final thought, minor league baseball, sub major league baseball has very odd season structures.

I

like it.

How about you, Gray?

I think you're talking about the game where stadiums are different sizes and fields are different sizes and home runs don't have to go as far in some places.

And like you point that out, it's like, yeah, that seems like baseball to me.

For me, I've got three words, which are it's actually two words.

football tape.

It exists.

We've got fresh off the press material for me to feast my eyes upon.

So I'll probably end up distracted by many other obligations over the weekend because when do we actually get time for our hobbies, right?

I see that you've already got the spreadsheets printed and taped up in the video here that we do to the side of the radio broadcast.

So I know he's hard at work.

It's always fun.

Looking forward to covering the packages here with you, Gray.

Parker, great to have you back this week.

All joking aside, this is a three-part show.

and it doesn't work without you guys as well.

So glad to have all of you guys here for make the call on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Now it's time for the most famous person we know, Mike Clemens with a sports week in review.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

The Brewers and Cubs battle, heating up.

Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with the Wisconsin Sports Weekend Review.

Baseball, the Brewers' West Coast trip, wrapping up this weekend with the completion of their four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Now the Brewers were swept, losing each night in a three-game set in San Diego to the Padres before taking on the Dodgers.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs able to close the gap in the National League Central division by winning eight of their last 10.

And just behind Milwaukee by three games,

As the weekend began, the Brewers finally getting a much-needed night off on Monday night before returning to home to American Family Field this Tuesday night against the Seattle Mariners.

Injury-wise, the Brewers outfielder, Sal Freelick, is making progress from his shoulder injury, beginning a rehab stint with the AAA team in Nashville.

Pitcher, Abner Uribe though, is now out on the 15-day IL with a sore right forearm.

And they'll recall reliever Grant Anderson, shortstop Cooper Pratt is wrapping up his time on the IL, but Bryce Terang still day to day with that knee injury.

Now Brewer's manager Pat Murphy was asked this week on what changes he's seen from slugger Jackson Churio, both in his play and left field, and hit 17 home runs so far this season at bat.

He just turned

the volume down a little bit, you know, the, the, the, gotta, I wanna, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta turned into, I can.

He just, the temperature seemed to come down, not as much movement, just simple.

It just got really simple for him.

And that's what I saw.

And when he's that way, careful, really good.

And you see some of those tough sliders he took.

Now we're moving in the right direction.

So now we gotta rinse and repeat.

Women's College Volleyball, the Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team off to another great start.

They played the Butler Bulldogs at home in the UW Fieldhouse and beat them in four straight sets.

College football.

The Wisconsin Badgers have a new chancellor, a new athletic director.

As Luke Fickle begins his fourth year as the head coach of the Badgers football program, Coach Fickle was asked at practice about holding a training camp right on campus.

a little different for me.

This is probably the first time in, I don't know, 10 or so years that I've, you know, I've coached on campus as far as to start a camp and in much a camp.

So we've been very fortunate to last few years obviously to go to to go to Platteville and then even my time at Cincinnati, we were gone for most all of camp.

And so this is just a little bit unique and different.

Hey, we got to challenge one another as leaders and we got to make sure that we do that every single day.

NFL, the Packers kicked off their preseason in Pittsburgh Thursday night with a

28-9 loss to the Steelers, head coach Matt LaFleur after the game.

All right, I thought it was great to get back out there and play some football.

Certainly a lot of good tape to evaluate.

Obviously, a lot of things that we need to clean up moving forward, but I was pleased with the effort.

We just got to execute a little bit better and find ways to take the ball away and not give up as many explosive plays as we did.

Now, there were some injuries reported after the game, but so far, none of them sees an ending.

On Wednesday, Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers held a Zoom call

press conference to take questions from reporters that had covered him

while

but the games are all worth something.

What do you think should be?

Is there one or two

ideas you could leave them with?

First of all, change prices.

I mean, some of the prices for these preseason games without a lot of starters playing seems a little exorbitant, but you know, an old teammate of mine, Brady Papenga, I remember said this years and years ago, but it's basically what I said yesterday.

To me, the most important evaluation film should be a practice film because you're going against

you know, if you're in the one group, you're in the two groups, sometimes you're going against some ones, but you're running the entire playbook.

There's so much fear around the league of competitive advantage in these pre-season games, nobody's running anything.

It's to see how guys react under the lights, you know, when it becomes real, when there's actual tackling.

But what's the value of it?

I don't think it's super high, because in 15, we lost our all-pro wide receiver.

And, you know, we still went 10 and 6 out of the year and won a playoff game.

But if you remember, at the end of that season, you know, like the last play, we had Jeff Janis, Jared Aberderis, and James Jones running down there to catch a Hail Mary, because Tay was banged up all year and Cobbie punctured as long in the game, and Jordy was out since preseason.

There's not a tremendous amount of value that I see in it, but I'm not sure what the right thing to do is with that.

They would probably, the league would say, well, we'll take one away if you just give us an extra regular

season game.

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 its civicmedia.us slash app.

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

Welcome in.

It is Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network.

I'm Jimmy Cuska, and this week, we are talking a whole lot of football.

The preseason is underway.

We got to see the Packers the other night.

And we'll talk plenty about that coming up later in the program.

But we can't go anywhere without introducing the other two along for the ride and the two who are going to do their best to keep me in check this week.

And this week we welcome back Parker, vertical Olsen to the fold.

What's up, Parker?

Howdy, boys.

I am proud to be part of the other two.

Yes, exactly.

It's totally billed as Jimmy Cuska and these other guys.

That's that's direct from upper management.

Right, Greg Anderson.

I'd gray the third one, Gunderson, to you, Jimmy.

I think I'm think, too.

Parker, you want to do a co-op on a Halloween costume this year?

Oh!

I've had an idea.

I like this.

I'll get up here.

We're just changing the show title for Make the Call to Jimmy and these other guys.

That's what we do here as part of the show.

And honestly, that's all we need to say today.

I think we've accomplished everything we set out to do in this program.

I'm

kidding, guys.

We got a lot to talk about today.

We have backers preseason underway.

The Brewers are moving right along here in mid August on their path to October.

And of course, the NBA schedule is out, so we have to talk a little bucks today as well.

Plus, training camp is underway, high school, college, NFL.

Everybody is going at his football season with some actual games being played already.

next week in Wisconsin.

High school football gets underway Thursday for some schools and Friday for the majority of schools next week.

So we are in football season, guys, and there's a lot to talk about, but.

As we do in this program, we do a top eight at eight, and we do this for a couple more weeks in advance of our show becoming a little more structured with some more guests and a few more segments dedicated to the teams that we're covering here throughout the ball.

But we had the top eight at eight, and we get to talk sports or not sports for this first part of the show.

And I have to go off the board on not sports, guys, to start things off, especially with Parker back this week, because at number eight, he was inspired in this question.

by watching Parker do a video for Civic Media this week from the State Fair.

So now I gotta ask you guys, what's your favorite food when you go to a fair?

A festival, a carnival, whatever it is, what's your go-to when you go to these things?

You know, I didn't have it on my radar.

I probably should have because it's so obvious.

Maple icing with bacon bits donut that I had was absolutely spectacular 10 out of 10 recommend to absolutely everyone Usually go to for me though was like the roasted corn.

I'm a big fan of the roasted corn

You would be a big fan here nearby where I live in South Buster, Wisconsin of the cob corn roast That's what they do.

It's all roasted corn is also the hometown of both Greg and Jeff guard who are basketball coaches at Wisconsin and Platteville respectively here in Wisconsin.

There you go

So eat a lot of corn, become a basketball coach.

Got it.

I see the formula.

It's written in the stars.

You've made me realize, Jimmy, by asking this, that I'm a beverage guy when it comes to fair situations.

I'll get a big old lemonade halfway through the day.

But if you know what comes to mind, and I know we're Wisconsin guys, the Minnesota State Fair root beer opportunities that have popped up throughout the years, they've been incredible.

I'm a 1919 guy, and I'd love to argue about it.

Well, for me, it depends.

If we're going to any random fair or festival, I am finding the Cheese Curd trailer.

I don't care.

I mean, you can't go wrong with festival cheese curds.

You really can't.

It's deep fried cheese.

It's Wisconsin.

There are very few times that's ever let me down.

But I will say my go out of the way adventure, and I only make this adventure every few years, is when I hit up a rent fair, and sometimes to the Shakopee, Minnesota, if we're going to talk about crossing state lines.

But if I'm going somewhere, I look for the oversized drumsticks.

The big

Biking size hunks some meat that you wheeled around like a club and I find one of those because that to me is just amazing to have one of those in your hand You really do feel like you're living in in a past era, right?

peasant running around with a stick of meat the size of their arm That is to me the best part of some of those things.

So that's where I go I like all of my answers though We all we all definitely ignore any diet plans run and we go and enjoy ourselves Which is the whole point of a fair festival carnival.

What have you?

Let's talk a little sports.

And this one is still kind of not sports, but also kind of sports.

And at number seven at the top eight and eight, I asked this question because recently redid a couple of my living spaces in my house to make it a little more hospitable for watching sports.

So now I've got multiple screens.

I got share closer to a couple of outlets so I can have another one of the laptop or the tablet.

What's the ideal setup for watching sports?

I got to say, I was really happy with the setup I had during college.

I had TV.

and then a monitor hooked up to a, or excuse me, a laptop hooked up to a monitor, so I could get three games very easily, not even using my phone yet, or going split screen at all on the laptop and the monitor, so that was always a very fun time.

I think, honestly, you can't be having just one TV though and checking the scores on your phone though.

I'm very content with focusing on one game and checking on the scores on my phone.

Gray, what about you?

I think you nailed both ends of the spectrum on that.

It sounds like between you guys, multiple screens is pretty important, but Parker, you specifically mentioned that one big one, I'm kind of, I wish I could watch a football game in a movie theater.

That's something that I think would just like an IMAX situation.

That would be pretty cool.

And now just kind of rolling on that that Las Vegas sphere.

I think we could involve that somewhere.

These are theoreticals, though.

For me, it's just a big TV in my living room hooked up to a laptop, though.

It's not actually a TV.

It's a computer in disguise.

So yeah, I'm going to check the scores on my phone kind of guy with the Packers on the big TV.

I love going to.

Stadium setups, but especially when we added a video board needed to test it at a local venue here I brought I brought a PlayStation I hooked it up and I played a couple of games on those big screens So I'm with you on that one great.

I love the idea of just having the having the big the big screen of not just the large screen to do something There's a novelty to it.

It's hard long term to sit and have your neck like this, but

you know, there's a certain novelty and enjoyment to it.

Especially when there's other people.

If you have other people in a theater for a sporting event, if you've ever done that, that is actually really fun too, when everybody gets up and cheers.

All right, we're way off track.

Let's talk some sports now on this show.

That's what people are listening to us for, unless it's my mom who's just listening to say hi.

And so, hi mom.

Number six in a top eight at eight, the NBA schedule has been released.

And on it, Yonatan Kudpo is back in Milwaukee in January and March.

They will meet the Bucks and the Heat will meet before that.

But that is the NBA schedule.

I know that with the Bucks being where they are, there's not a ton of intrigue in this.

They only have two nationally televised games.

But I'm curious, guys, how hyped are you to see Yanis back in Milwaukee in a different uniform?

Maybe that hype's not the right word, but how interested are you in that?

Yeah, pretty.

I mean, I don't know.

I'm really just excited for the fans to be able to have that welcome back for him.

I think that's going to be what's most.

Not entertaining.

It's going to be the most heartfelt part about it.

I'm going to see those emotions for not only Yannis, but the fans as well.

I think a lot of fans are going to be very happy to see him again.

And please, I've said this before, I think about William Domus.

Don't boo.

Please don't boo.

He did so much for your team.

Don't boo.

What are you doing?

Well, I agree with you too, by the way, Parker, the emotional moment or at least the opportunity for one.

I love when you get a positive welcome back for a star player coming back to what used to be home for them because I'm a sucker for those moments.

Absolutely.

It puts a lump in your throat.

It's one of the feel good moments of sports.

Hopefully, but like you said, don't ruin it.

But I suppose how he returns has a lot to do with how the heat are doing maybe around that time.

Do you guys think the heat are going to be in shape to make it a bad time for Bucks fans who hope for a decent game at that point?

The

Bucks are going to make it in bad shape for it.

The Bucks are going to be not not good this year.

So I don't know.

I was hoping

for optimism.

I knew what I was going to get, but I was hoping for optimism.

Not happening here.

I mean, they got two nationally televised games.

There are, like, what, three teams that are getting two nationally televised games.

And that's kind of like the gentleman's sweep of national coverage, right?

Everyone gets one or two, and nobody gets fewer than two in the NBA.

But the Bucks have gone from, like, what?

Like, 35 down to, like, two.

And then on the other side of that, the Heat have gone from, I think, five up to, like, 40 nationally televised games.

So that just shows you the draw, if you're honest, it's out of control.

But I am with you guys.

I hope that there's not a whole lot of booing happening There are gonna be some frustrated folks I think but it's just a reality of the NBA today when you've got you know salary caps and all that so just the reality the Bucks really didn't have a lot they could do we've talked extensively about this there wasn't a lot they could do to build a contender There they're on the rebuild now number five in our top eight and eight.

This might be a quick

question to answer for you, but I have spent the whole week being just inundated with paid ad sponsored posts about Wisconsin Badgers football.

I mean, just last night in my algorithm on four different social media platforms, I got to watch a pick six by defensive linemen from the Wisconsin Badgers.

Maybe they're targeting me because whatever Badgers fan, whatever, but I've seen so much of it and all the media coverage seems to be pretty positive.

So are you guys buying the hype?

You think the Badgers are better this year?

Hopefully better hopefully a little bit better at least I think no matter what happens.

We're gonna see them perform better the results wise Because the schedule is a bit easier this year than it had been in previous years How much better the team is Hopefully better, but I'm not Incredibly confident.

I did like I did see that clip though Jimmy.

I always love me a big man pick six great.

What about you?

I'm

buying a level of hype, but not the level I'm being sold.

Jimmy, I'm actually kind of in your camp and I haven't necessarily followed college football anywhere near as close as NFL, but clearly something about the algorithm assigned to me thinks it's next on my plate for some reason.

And I saw the same exact clip recently, but.

I don't know.

I'm seeing predictions of eight wins.

I've seen people saying nine wins that I'm thinking, man, I'd love to see it.

I'd love to see it.

But why are we thinking so?

Because nothing's changed since people were predicting five to six or worse than that, at least that I can see.

I know things have happened since then, but not enough to justify that kind of swing.

That's what it is.

It feels like an upward swing, and I can't see a reason behind it.

Do you guys know, do you have any idea why the uptick?

I think predominantly because the schedule is so much easier than it has been in previous years.

When you have a conference with 18 teams in it and you don't play yourself, so 17 teams that you have a pool to pick from, chances are you're going to get a really hard schedule and you're going to get a really easy schedule most of the time.

I think that's mostly what we can attribute it to, although I will say there is a little bit more momentum with the Badgers actually getting like...

improvement, which is very, very much needed.

But I think it's a lot of operationally, like they seem to be connecting with the lums better.

I don't know necessarily that the coaches are doing that much better.

Jimmy, maybe you can

shine a little more like that.

The best PR we've seen for a college football team in a while.

I mean, with the hires, with the press, I feel like it's just the best PR that anybody could have for this, because honestly, I don't know.

I don't know what's changed from last year, other than that, they're not in Platteville this year.

I mean, they're

with the overlap in college football schedules, but I mean, I don't know.

I'm really interested in whether or not.

I mean, yeah, I think by the schedule they could be better, but I mean, they won four games last year.

So it's just I'm not there yet with nine wins.

It's just not.

I feel like there's a lot to prove yet there in Madison.

We only have about a minute and change here, so I want to make sure I ask this question.

This is very important, near to me as a special teams football coach.

Number four in our top eight at eight, we'll talk a lot more about the Packers here in a bit, but.

Did the Packers find a kicker?

Tray smack went four for four in the preseason game.

He had struggled a bit and can't be in missing kicks, but in the preseason game nailed a couple of 58 yarders and I don't know if they find a kicker gray.

I, I believe so.

I saw, I actually saw the stat line.

So he officially made three kicks, but that one was called back.

And so people are saying that he's four for three.

I love that, that kind of unofficial stat line.

It's got the right kind of tongue-in-cheek vibe to it.

But long story short, yes, it appears so.

And more importantly, perhaps we found an effective duo of kicker and special teams coach.

People are speaking very highly of Mr. Acord now that he's part of the team.

And I might have mispronounced that last name, but we still, it's preseason.

I'll get it right by.

regular season.

But I saw the demonstration that he did of what kickers do and wind in that two minute breakdown that he did with a pen next to the podium.

Mike Clemens even talked to me about that on Friday.

It was pretty awesome.

But they seem like they get along well.

And if they both are what they seem to be, I think we can finally stop talking about it for at least a game or two and worry about the position roles on offense and what the defensive backups did.

We can talk a little bit more about this coming up at the bottom of the hour.

We're also going to hear from Mike Clemens later in the show.

He is the most famous person we know.

We'll hear from him later in the show.

I know he loves me saying that, which is why I do it.

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Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic

Media.

Welcome back.

It's Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network.

Kimmy Tuska, Greg Anderson, Parker Olson.

And we are in the segment where we're going to talk a little baseball.

We'll get to the football stuff here in about 10 minutes.

We're going to hear from Mike Clemens about 25 minutes from now.

But right now I'm going to talk about the Brewers because I've got a couple of questions about the team going into the home stretch here and heading towards the playoffs.

So number three in the top 8-8.

And this is more of a question to include you in the discussion.

Parker Gray and I talked about this a lot last week and I hesitated.

Like, do I ask it again?

But I definitely want to get your thoughts on this.

Was it a mistake that the brewers didn't add a bat at the trade deadline?

Added some pitching, did not add a bat, and just in the, you know, we can change since, we have seen them have some offensive struggles at times.

Yeah, no, and I hate to say that I was advocating to add a bat before the deadline, but I was advocating to add a bat before the deadline.

It's just, yeah, I think it was a mistake.

I don't.

They're gonna probably be alright.

Again, this is kind of one of those situations where you're like, okay, what makes a good regular season team versus what makes a good postseason team?

The burrs haven't been a particularly good postseason team and predominantly because they haven't had the bats.

You can get away with a slump like they have for years now.

During the regular season, if the bats go cold for a week or so, okay, you win.

That week you win maybe two games you lost on 500 your record got a little bit worse But you get hot and then you add those games back and obviously the burrs have got one of the best records in baseball That record is gonna be pretty good because they've been able to be so They've been able to be so good But yeah, I think it was a pretty big mistake to not add a bat because a they needed a power hitter because that's just how the postseason works and With what we're seeing right now

the biggest part of your payroll being Yewitch and Contreras, they're not really raking it right now.

And Sherburr Baseball, the other night they were able to go single, single, single after a couple of walks to be able to scrape a win away from the Dodgers, but like, it'd be really nice if you didn't have to wait until the ninth inning for your...

practically only offense of the game.

It's very frustrating, and especially when they all go cold.

It really sucks.

To me, it definitely was a mistake.

I'm curious, I missed the show last week.

What did you guys say?

If I recall, I was basically leaning on Jimmy as I often do with baseball, but what stands out to me right now, honestly, not to deflect this hard, but I've got to ask, does this question make even less like...

Do their moves make even less sense in the light of Bryce Terang's apparently nagging knee injury?

The way I've heard it put is that he's been sore for longer than just a day or two and that maybe even a week or two ago might have had something like this come to team attention and even still knowing that one of the best bats on the team had something beginning to go on, they didn't pull the trigger on a bat trade.

That's what I'm looking at right now and thinking, okay, I'm beginning to question if this was the right move or before I thought I trust this team.

They also

look at the moves they've made since then.

They bring in guys that were career sub 200 hitters to just fill a spot while guys get healthy.

There had to have been a better approach to this, but as I coached last week too in the program, the cost might have been just been too high to find a guy, especially someone who fits positionally in what the brewers are trying to do because they are rock solid at certain positions and they don't need a lot of help there and they do have

a couple of guys who are absolutely raking this year.

So I don't know if it was probably a combination of things and we'll never know because we're not in the GM's office.

But I think to even the casual observer, people wanted a little more pop in the bats and they just don't have that top to bottom.

Who's the reliable guy that's going to, you know, if everybody's gone over, who's the guy who's breaking that up?

They don't have that guy.

You know, it's like you said, they strung together some singles.

They managed to scratch one out.

in that game late Thursday night, early Friday morning this week.

But yeah, I think that it was probably a mistake, not more directly addressing that, rather than signing career minor leaguers to take at bats.

Could they have found someone who could have maybe solved that need for him?

And again, cost might have been too high.

The situation might not have been right.

The fact that they are in love with their prospects plays part into two.

And that's the other half of this, guys.

There's a lot of pounding on the table.

start those service clocks for some of their top prospects.

But I think part of this, and this is a much broader discussion, and nothing we're going to do in the next two minutes that we have in this segment.

But I think some of that, too, is that if you start a service clock for somebody now, and there's not a next season, you've effectively wasted a whole year of control for one of these top prospects.

So there's the other part of it, too, that we might not have baseball next year, and I don't know if you'd want to go that route.

Let's ask quickly, though, while we do have a couple of minutes.

We're two in our top eight at eight.

We had six weeks, seven weeks, whatever to go here.

Yeah, you can do the thing.

Who's the most important Brewers player that is on the roster right now?

That's going to help them make that playoff.

But she was the most important guy the Brewers have that either they need to keep healthy or needs to keep doing what they're doing to make sure that they lock down that first round by the playoffs.