Some Meaningful Games

Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

Talking a bit of brewers now here on Make the Call as we move along here on the weekend.

Milwaukee, of course, after splitting the series with the Cubs, finding themselves in a pretty good spot heading now into the home stretch here in September.

You know, we haven't done this a lot, Parker.

We haven't had a chance to really talk brewers in depth with a guest.

Um, we have talked minor leagues in depth.

We have definitely talked amongst ourselves quite a bit and, uh, you know, and we're smart, right?

We, we're genius.

You're good.

Great.

We're very insightful.

The brewers are best record, the MLB.

We're, we're still smart.

Yeah.

Gold stars for us.

But it's great to welcome aboard from Casasports Corner in southeastern Wisconsin.

Ken Kazuba who is joining us right now over the phone, which is great that we can do this over the phone because I didn't know this was even a thing we could do.

Ken, welcome aboard to make the call.

Hey, thanks for having me on.

I'm looking forward to the channel of brewers with you guys.

This is outstanding.

So I appreciate the invite.

Well, I'm going to start with this.

We are here in the final month of the season and just just from your perspective

You know, a lot of the things I'm seeing on social media are people asking, well, how could the Brewers have the best record in Major League Baseball?

How did they get here?

And I look at obviously the obvious things, the pitching staff, the, you know, the limiting of runs, just having a great bullpen, things like that, the obvious answers.

But I think there's something to it when outsiders are kind of looking at this, wondering, you know, you got the, you got the big spending teams, like the Dodgers and everybody, the Cubs and all these other teams.

And then here are the Brewers with.

relatively tiny payroll compared to that.

They've got the best record in the MLB.

How did this happen,

Ken?

Well, in my opinion, it starts and ends with management, right?

So when you have somebody like the GM, Matt Arnold, and you have the head coach, Murph, and those two are in lockstep with the owner, it makes life a lot easier when you don't have a lot of infighting, okay?

So once you have the captain of your ship, and he's able to relay his needs and wants,

And then you have your GM and your owner that collaborate and they go, we'll get those guys for you.

And they trust in Murph.

Murph spent with him when he was with council.

So with that being said, that clubhouse is incredible.

The demeanor in that clubhouse amongst these players, they have a bond that's second to none.

And when you had mentioned about teams spending a lot of money,

You know, we've seen this though with many teams throughout the years.

I mean, look at what happened with the Mets a few years ago.

I mean, look at the Padres.

They've spent so much money and they've gotten nowhere for lack of a better term.

So the Brewers with their farm club system going back to Matt Arnold and his team, they do a fabulous job.

I truly believe, and I believe ranking wise, they have the best farm club in the MLB.

You look at the players that keep coming up.

Look at the findings with Cooper Pratt.

You know, they signed him to a long-term deal, Cheerio, Luis Lara.

And they've got many, many more people that we haven't even seen yet in the big leagues like Andrew Fisher and Pena.

And there's so many that Maudet, they're waiting to come up.

But it all starts in my opinion right there.

Because once you have unity, you can overcome everything they have, such as all the injuries.

They've had so many injuries this year.

But yet, they're able to bring guys in, bring guys up, and they're able to overcome that, especially with pitching.

They have one of the best pitching staffs, thanks to Chris Hook and Murph, the way that they operate.

So just a few.

A few of the insights I truly believe that make this team special.

Ken, that pitching lab I think is something that we hear so much about because obviously there's some fantastic coaches that have been in this Brewers organization for a really long time.

But that pitching lab has been so good.

And no matter where you look, you can kind of find, I call them the keys to success with the veterans that are around there, right?

Murph has been around so long.

The guys in the front office have been so good for so long.

Somebody that I have been pointing to it, I think, honestly, it was a little critical at one point because it wasn't producing a lot.

Christian Yelich, but earlier this week, we were hearing about how good he's been in the clubhouse.

How key do you think Yelich is to the bird success as we get into these last couple of weeks of games here?

Yelich is going to be huge because he has been horrible in the playoffs, right?

So when we talk about good clubhouse guys, you can also bring in Brandon Woodruff, okay?

So he's another guy that they just love in that clubhouse, although injuries have kept him away.

And now they're talking about potentially having him back late in the season here, which I would be shocked.

But you know what?

I don't put anything past the way the Brewers operate.

You know, with Chris Hook and Chad Green, how they handle that pitching staff, when you talked about the pitching lab, and I'll get back to Yelich real quick,

When I was in Arizona for spring training last year and seeing how they operate, it is amazing.

If you've never been there, you've got to get down there to see it because each picture, the way that they handle them with every pitch and the way that they videotape and photo and talk, it's just how they go through the motions with each guy.

It's pretty incredible.

But back to Yellich.

Yellich is going to be key in my opinion.

Um, just for the simple fact that he's the highest paid guy on the team and all he has to do now is hit.

He doesn't play defense anymore.

He just has to focus on hitting.

So he's they're going to need him in the middle of that lineup.

I think that's where he really shines.

five, you know, in that five spot, four spot, five spot, six spot.

And that's what's going to be the key.

Yellich getting the bat on the ball and getting those guys in with runners in scoring position.

It's going to be a giant boost for this team come playoff time.

Talking to Ken Kazuba of Kazasports Corner, that's in southeastern Wisconsin.

Ken, I got to ask this because we, you know, we've talked about this all year.

I feel like things are a little different this year.

And the Brewers have had sort of disappointing finishes in the postseason as of late.

I feel like

things are a little bit different this year and it's largely because they've got top-end pitching and not just you know not guys that they've had to go out and mortgage the farm for to get but like guys they've developed and brought up and all of a sudden it seems like they've got a few elite arms that'll help carry them through a series.

Do you sense anything different maybe about what could happen in this year in terms of a play-up run just given the wealth of pitching they've got?

Yeah from the standpoint of how well

They manage a game, right?

So, Contreras, when you talk about pitching, Contreras, the way he manages the individual pitcher that night, that's starting, that's really a key to what they're doing.

And so, handling Harrison and Henderson, and you get drone, and several of the other guys that are in there, besides Miz, obviously, everybody likes to talk about Miz, and why wouldn't you?

I mean, he's incredible for what this young man has done in his second year.

But a lot of that I can attribute, I truly believe, their successes with pitching that goes to Contreras and Chris Hook as they work a game plan against each team that they play.

So they really, like I say, they really have their fingers on the pulse.

They know their guys.

And they know, if you've ever noticed when you're watching a game and you'll see, all of a sudden,

Contreras will go out there if he doesn't like something or Chris Hook will just stop the game and he'll go out there.

And they calm their guys down.

They tell him, hey, take it easy.

You know, you're okay.

Everything's fine.

I mean, look at what happened with Harrison the other night, right?

Murph goes out there after what, three and two thirds.

And he tells him, he goes, hey, this isn't on you.

You know, we've had some issues, you know, defensive wise tonight.

But you know what?

We got a fabulous bullpen.

Just hang in there.

You're not going to get the win.

You're not going to get a decision.

But you're key to what we're doing down the stretch here.

And you pitched fantastically all year.

It's giving your guys that kind of confidence that I don't think many of the other teams have.

And that's going to be huge in the playoffs.

You know, you're talking about getting guys confidence there.

And something that I think has built a lot of confidence for the burrs this year is, for the most part, we're coming right off of a.

four game series against the Cubs.

The Brewers have done a really good job keeping those superstars down, right?

They're having like Shohei Otani.

I'm sure that he had a couple of pretty big hits against the Brewers this year.

But honestly, I don't feel like he made that big of a mark.

And I'm really looking at PCA right now because unfortunately, we've got coworkers here who are Cubs fans and they keep telling me how

good PCA is

and he's going to be the MVP.

And I'm sure that he is.

But I think against the Brewers, he's like,

three and three of 37 or something like that this year.

And one of them was against Andrew Vaughn.

So talk about how big that confidence is to have success against those superstars because

Obviously, we're talking postseason.

Brewers are going to the postseason.

Those

are the keys.

No two ways about it.

Yeah.

They're right now poised to be number one, the number one seed.

They have the best record in baseball, and they have it for a reason.

And it's how they pitch these guys, right?

They work the corners.

They force them.

Once you get ahead in the count, and that's one thing that our pitching staff is able to do with a lot of consistency,

is get ahead in pitch counts.

When you're ahead in pitch counts, you control the batter.

Once you control that batter, I don't care if it's PCA, I don't care if it's Otani, if it's Schwerber, whoever it is, you get ahead in that account and Contreras is in control and of helping his guy throw the right pitch.

They know what to throw.

They know what they're going to get him to go fishing for.

And you see it because PCA looks silly in the first few games until

last night's game when he came up with a big hit.

And so, would that be in the case?

You have to commend Chris Hook and the guys for how they work with their starters and their bullpen.

You know, this bullpen doesn't get enough credit for what they do.

And then, Murph, what he was doing earlier in the season, where he was basically closer by platoon,

using Uribe and McGill and flip flopping them back and forth before he's finally decided on McGill.

I mean, look early on when he was so mad about his closer.

We don't have a legitimate closer yet.

Here you got two of them sitting there, but this is the way Murph operates, how he keeps that clubhouse.

in check and his guys, I mean, from discipline, he does a number of disciplinary things, we've seen that, but this pitching staff doesn't need a ton of discipline.

They have things going in a manner that I think has many teams baffled, especially for a small market team.

This is just a credit to management.

Ken Kazuba of Kazus Sports Corner.

Ken, you have a couple of other things that you do kind of off to the side of all the coverage of sports you do too.

You've got some sports ventures there in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Can you tell us about those?

I'm an avid outdoorsman.

I don't know who isn't.

So I love my bowl hunting in the fall and things like that.

So I'm in lockstep with a number of groups that I work with.

I like working with kids groups too.

We like to get kids involved in hunting.

For a while there, I had a hunt club.

So we would have kids out for pheasant hunts and things like that.

So we had a lot of fun with that.

From a standpoint of sports, I played softball for so many years that I loved it.

And I've got a number of friends that are in the Hall of Fame.

I got a quick story, if I can tell it, just about, did you ever see the ESPN when they had those 30 for 30 episodes?

For sure.

Okay, one of them was called the Lost Episode.

This one was in regards to the very first episode that they couldn't find.

It was in 1979, but do you know what the very first episode was?

Softball.

Men's professional softball.

It was the Kentucky Bourbons versus the Milwaukee Schlitz.

That was in 1979 in Lannan, Wisconsin.

The owner of Milwaukee Schlitz guys asked for a copy of the Seven Game Series.

They sent them the original.

They didn't know it for over

40 years before they finally went back to ask him hey that tape we sent you could we see it and that's what the whole episode was about but it features a lot of players that are still alive that are you know in the Hall of Fame in the Milwaukee area and that's something that that's a cool thing that we talk about but sports related obviously in baseball and and um

with hunting and fishing.

It's a real passion for me on the side.

So I really enjoy that kind of stuff.

Well, can we appreciate having your passion here and talking about baseball and other things?

That's what we do here.

We like to talk about a little bit of everything.

Appreciate your time.

And we'll be looking forward to talking again here down the road.

Hey, well, thanks a lot, guys.

And Go Brewers, it's going to be an exciting weekend.

They play the Reds this weekend.

So let's see if we can't win another series because that's all this team's been doing.

And that's why they're at the win total that they're at.

I believe they're 87 and 54.

So, getting to that 99 to 100 with 21 games to go, it's well within reach.

So, go Brewers, hang in there, and thanks for having me, you

guys, looking forward to potentially doing some more within the future.

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, a Civic Media sports production.

Ah yes, it is the weekend, which means it's time for another Make the Call here on the Civic Media radio network.

I'm Jimmy Cusco, sports director here at Civic Media, and we have an absolutely loaded show for you today.

Coming up in about 15 minutes from now, we'll talk to Ken Kazuba, who is the proprietor of Kaz's sports corner.

We're going to talk rumors with him after getting a split with the series of the Cubs this week and holding a

pretty sizable lead going into the final few weeks here of the regular season.

Later in the program, we're going to hear from Jake Kokorowski, a Badger Observer previewing Wisconsin versus Notre Dame at Lambeau Field.

That comes your way Sunday.

We'll also talk some Badgers volleyball as well.

And Mike Clemens will have a sports week in review to cap the show as he does every week, and we'll have that coming up near the end of the hour.

But to get things started, it is me.

I'm Jimmy.

Hi.

How are you?

Hi, Mom.

If you're listening up in Chippewa Falls, I am

uh... by myself today uh... in the studio uh... i felt very lonely because i had great tell me upper management say i'm not available to speak as i'm so sorry but that i remembered

Parker vertical Olson to keep me in line today.

What's up Parker?

Hi.

Hi guys.

It's me.

It's Parker.

How's it going?

Great.

Great.

Great day.

I'm not

alone.

I'm not alone.

I have Parker today.

So Parker and I will take you through today's program and Parker.

I would be remiss if we didn't start by talking about the Packers because the roster cut downs have happened.

The 53 man is set.

And I think the biggest news isn't necessarily who made or didn't make the roster.

Although seeing J. Michael Sturdivant made the roster, made me very happy because he's a special teams guy, an effort guy.

And you love having that on the roster.

But the big news, obviously, is that Josh Jacobs isn't available to the Packers to start the year.

And so we've been asking this kind of in the preseason a bit, what are they going to do with running back?

And Parker, I feel like this is a big question for the Packers given how they run their offense under coach LaFleur.

Yeah, running back is gonna be really interesting to see.

You've got Chris Brooks, you've got Kilb Johnson, newly signed, and Marshawn Lloyd, right?

These are, frankly, these are guys that the Packers have seen some flashes out of.

Marshawn Lloyd will probably be the starter there.

Honestly, I loved what I saw out of him in preseason.

I was excited about him.

I do.

Unfortunately, though, I do need to be worried about him because of the fact that he's been so injury prone over his career, right?

He hasn't really been able to stick it out as a backup for a full season.

So I like who we've got, I think, but I definitely have got my worries.

Again, though, you've got a couple of guys there that I think are all pretty solid, Jimmy.

And who knows how long the Josh Jacobs.

Will go on.

I

mean this could be four weeks.

It could be the

whole year, right?

Yeah, it's really hard to get a read.

I mean

that's Yeah, and honestly, I mean good on the NFL for dealing with it in this manner because it's very serious allegations You know like that's how they should address it not great

In terms of competitively, but I mean, there are bigger things in life than sports sometimes.

I know this is a sports show, but you know, I think we're all on the side of like, you know, if the allegations, you know, if there's a video somewhere that shows all this, I mean, things are not looking great there.

We're not judging jury.

We're not any part of that.

But the reality is Packers will be without Josh shake of the start.

The running backs that are coming in to kind of take the place.

It's not going to be one guy to be kind of an aggregate where it's like moneyball, right?

They're not replacing, you know, Giambi, they're replacing the production with

three different guys who kind of add up to all that.

And that's kind of what I see.

I don't see a 20 carry a game guy in that group.

Um, but, you know, on the other side of that, I think an area that the Packers and I know Gray isn't here to sit here and give me all the stats on it.

I think an area that the Packers right sneakily could be better this year is special teams, new kicker.

You got some guys on the print of the roster and special teams.

You got a great punter.

Boy, there was a long snapper battle.

I was really excited about, I'm saying all this Parker as a special teams coach.

I'm very excited for.

Packers special teams this year.

You are.

You're very excited.

You're giddy like a schoolboy, Jimmy.

It's a fun sight to see.

Yeah, I mean, I think we christened Cam Acord as the coach of the century pretty much after one preseason game, which might be one of the saddest sentences ever.

But honestly, the Packers haven't been excited about special teams in a long time.

Once Mason Crosby left, it was like, well,

Crap!

What do we

get?

But hey, we're accepting competency as like

progress.

So let's just take it.

I was thrilled in a preseason game when the Packers went more than like two kickoffs in a row without having a penalty.

I was shocked.

That was besides myself.

It was absolutely glorious, Jimmy.

All right, well...

You know, I'm very excited.

We're getting the season going.

There's a lot of things to look at.

We're going to break down all the Packers stuff by the way next week when Gray is back with us.

We will go through that week one matchup and we will actually be on this as part of the show, kind of an extension of the show.

We'll be recapping each Packers game as well on the Mondays or Tuesday or what Thursday or.

Whatever day the Packers play like five different days of the week this year.

It's bad Whenever it happens, we'll recap the Packers games as part of make the call in the civic media radio network with some special One-off episodes before we take a break for our first guest have to mention this Lambo field not only host to the Badgers this week and not obviously only host to the Packers throughout the season as always But they're also gonna host and we just talked about this last week Parker the the greatest kind of novelty sporting event.

They're gonna host

two outdoor hockey games in February.

This is amazing.

I'm so excited for the doubleheader here.

They're going to have the woman Badger women's playing against the Ohio State team as well.

Um, that matchup is absolutely incredible.

Those two programs account for the last seven national titles in women's hockey.

So really excited about that.

And then badger men, they're going to be playing against Michigan.

Honestly, I don't think I could pick.

any better competition at all.

This is going to be absolutely awesome.

And I don't know about you, but I'm a little worried that they might have to reschedule because there might be a Super Bowl parade, but we'll talk about that later.

Well, I'm excited because we've got outdoor hockey in Wisconsin again, and I couldn't be more thrilled for it.

But we got a lot to talk about on the show today.

We're going to talk Brewers in the next segment.

Ken Kazuba is going to join us.

Kaz's Sports Corner is what he does.

Also appears in a lot of radio shows.

We'll talk Brewers.

Later in the program, Jake Kokorowski will preview the Wisconsin Notre Dame football game this weekend and give us a read on Badger volleyball.

Mike Clemens, Sports Weekend Review, coming up by the end of the hour.

Jamie Kuska, Parker Olsen, it is Make the Call, part of the Civic Media Radio Network.

Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.

Halfway through here on Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network, getting you a chance to look at all sports from the week with Mike Clemens.

Our sports week in review comes up in about 15, 20 minutes from now.

Also, a look back on week three of the high school football season, give you a rundown of all the games that happened on Thursday and Friday night.

But right now, happy to welcome back to the program after

along summer vacation and now back with us as part of make the call.

You're going to hear from him pretty regularly as we go throughout the season.

That is Jake Kokorowski of BadgerObserver and BadgerObserver.com.

And I can't help but notice Jake that in my inbox every day, I've got not one, not two, but sometimes I got three or four articles from you recapping the volleyball match, looking at football positions, getting all the interviews.

You have stayed insanely busy this past month, man.

Yeah, I was gonna say what type of summer break you talking about my friend like it has been non-stop whether it's been football recruiting whether it's been trying to watch basketball practice the two open breath basketball practices we had Oh, yeah an athletic director that was hired in July and then big 10 media days in the fall camp and then preseason volleyball into the season then it now is non Stop at Badger Observer.

Of course as a quick plug two bucks

A month, $20 a year right now going on Badger Observer.

That's where you can get all the hard-working content from Badger Observer.

But I digress.

What you guys got for me?

Well, I want to start, obviously, with what's happening in the weekend.

And that's the big game.

Without an NFL game, if I can say words today.

To look at we're looking at Badgers versus Notre Dame in the Lambo field game coming up this weekend And I think that you know, I remember back, you know a decade when they had LSU in this event I was hosting on the Badger radio network the pregame show leading in

Um and just how much hype was going into that just an sec team Lambo field all the things and then the Badgers end up pulling it off and it was just an incredible victory That whole year it just felt like things were you know Like anything was possible going into games that year I know right now that people have certainly taken their shots and their licks with the Badgers With the last couple of years and how they've gone so I guess I'm curious just to start with this everybody's talking about betting lines and the fact that maybe wisconsin

and you know it's a what three touchdown whatever I don't do gambling so it's a pretty big spread in this game but a lot of people are kind of down on the Badgers going into this and I keep thinking you know there's a lot of weird things that happen in week one I went I don't know that they're gonna be you know run off the field or anything but what is your take as we go into this where what are some important things we should watch with the Badgers that they take on Notre Dame in this order opener

Yeah I mean it's one of those things and I'm taking a look right now too.

I think you know let's I'll just look at what fan duel right now just to see what the odds are right now and I'm looking at it yeah it's like 20 and a half point failure they're almost three touchdown favorites which that's why I've barely paid attention to it yeah it was Notre Dame is going to be favoring this without a doubt but yeah week one things can happen and everyone's talking about Notre Dame and

Yeah, they got a chip on their shoulder because they were left out of the college football playoff and they decided they elected not to go to a bowl game, right?

They they and yeah, they have I mean, I'll be honest.

Yeah, this is gonna be the toughest defense Wisconsin's gonna have to face and Leonard Moore is are gonna be a great NFL player and CJ Carr could be that Heisman finalist, but you know, yeah, I think Wisconsin also has improved now how much can they stay in this game and can they

Pull off an upset.

You talk about that game 10 years ago at LSU Yeah, LSU was top five ranked, but it was also that later that year I mean that was the end of the Les Miles era at LSU, right?

So you have that and I think that's gonna be I mean you have Notre Dame, I think ascending so it's kind of going in like different ways and passing but for Wisconsin they have to Play good defense, you know, I think this defense is gonna be really good

I think they continue to an elite level.

I think back to what we used to see during like the Jim Leonard era in my eyes, I think they have that potential.

Just the front solid, they have a three deep, a potential interior defensive lineman.

They have potentially a three deep on the outside edge.

And they, you know, you have Kuba Catalano and Mason Posa then in the middle.

And I think a revamped secondary, I think could surprise some people.

So you have to play tough against the run.

Make CJ car uncomfortably they're not to get turnovers.

That's just you mean that's a great equalizer right in these type of games Can you pressure the quarterback into making some bad throws?

Can you force some fumbles?

Wisconsin only had five interceptions last year can't happen again.

Offensively, they have to do something and you know Yeah, the defensive front for Notre Dame is gonna be really good.

Their second area is really good There's gonna be the toughest test probably arguably of the year But we also saw the run game get some things going against the first team defense during fall camp

I don't know if it's going to show up against Notre Dame, but I think there's opportunity.

And the offensive has to do something.

You can't have what happened to the defense last year, where three in-outs and inefficiencies and short fields, sudden change situations that you're throwing a defense into.

But, you know, it goes back to every great upset, right?

It is, you're looking at for Wisconsin, just try to force them to turnovers, win the turnover battle, field position on special teams.

And then, you know, yeah, and then also I think the other part too is just honestly just do you have to do enough on offense to have a shot

and I mean Whenever we talk about week one, you do kind of think of shocking upsets and Jimmy like you talked about with LSU What's not forget that we just saw a UMass win a game against a power conference point at the other night guys.

Come on.

That's huge.

It's never

Rutgers is borderline acceptable Rutgers

Come

on I

just I just say it like rockers is like barely

But statistically, yes

Technically you're

correct.

Um chick as we look at the Badgers Trying to take a shot in an upside here against Notre Dame.

What if the Badgers have

going for them.

Is there anywhere that you see that there could be just a little bit of an edge or maybe it's a close enough of a difference that the Badgers may just not get their teeth kicked in and still hang around in this game?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's defense.

I really feel, you know, people have pointed it out too.

Like the defense was okay last year.

They were a top five in rushing in the rush defense.

Now Notre Dame does not have

Jeremiah love urge Darian price who are for first round draft picks and you saw just how potent they were They do have CJ car who I think is gonna be a really he is a special quarterback I think you could take it to the another level this year too, but I think it's one of the things where this defense and The other injuries in Wisconsin's offensive line, but you know Sebastian cheeks was in the backfield early and often during fall camp He was my fall camp MVP if I ever had one because this he would you know

This extremely fast, elusive Matt Mitchell, the odds of land backers coach talked about him going, you know, going to the sack summit this summer and you saw things pay off and he had a lot of pressures last year.

He just didn't get home on him.

He didn't finish.

So I think that's going to be something where I think the defensive front could line up really well.

I think it could give Notre Dame some troubles.

And I think not just the pressure off the edge from cheeks or a Nick Clayton, but

Posa and Catalano, you know, blitzing up the middle and a gap type work or they could you know Yeah, or you know, we'll see just who else they send but I also think that D lines extremely deep and the one thing that's great about that is that You're going against the offensive lines.

That's starting five is usually out there the entire time you can rotate that defensive line and

get fresher bodies in and that can make a huge impact and the depth that they have right now I think is big.

So I think that's going to be a key if they can hold and then see what happens in special teams and the offense.

Again, I'm not predicting an upset, but I'm saying it can be closer than what people think.

And we talked a little bit about that old line.

Behind that old line, you're going to have yet another new quarterback for the Badgers.

And it seems like pretty much every year in the Luke Fickle era, we've had at least a fair amount of excitement about whatever quarterback there is that's going to be taking snaps.

Badgers, unfortunately, health-wise, haven't really been able to get any of those to work out yet.

But Colton Joseph is taking his turn this year trying to lead a Badger offense.

What have you seen from him in camp?

Um, what do you what do you think he could do for the Badgers this year?

Yeah, I think this is something with Colton that the immediate impact and people have asked me about it before but I think the media impacts with his legs and Yeah, that that means the run game.

He ran for over a thousand yards last year at Old Dominion Sunbelt offensive player of the year.

Yeah, he threw 21 touchdown passes, but He saw against Indiana that season opener.

He had 270 yard plus touchdown runs against what eventually became who eventually became the national champions and so during fall camp

I think you saw that on display.

And with the run game, there were explosive plays.

Part of that was because of the holes the offensive line was opening up.

But, you know, Jeff Grimes talked to us at the end of fall camp.

He also mentioned, hey, defenses have to take into consideration Colton Joseph and the other quarterbacks.

And there are a couple, there are runs during fall camp where you wonder, like, if that plays not blown dead, is he going all the way?

And I think so.

So.

I think with what Wisconsin can do with Joseph, one, the design quarterback runs to the read options and making defenders guess.

Now, I know in order to accept extremely athletic there, so that may be a moot point.

But I think those are big things.

But also in the passing game and the secondary, again, Leonard Moore, great cornerback, could be very difficult.

But Joseph has the ability to extend plays with his feet in the passing game.

I think that's going to be the other part of it.

Can Joseph, you know,

scramble one when the initial plays ball bottle up or two, just create enough of his legs that he can get a pass off.

There's enough separation for a receiving target to make a play downfield.

But I think first and foremost, it's going to go back to the run game and he has 4.5 second 40 yard dash speed, according to Brady Collins, who's the Wisconsin director of football strength and conditioning.

So I think that's where you're going to see the first immediate impact for Joseph on the Wisconsin offense.

Jake Kokorowski of Badger Observer and BadgerObserver.com and we'll give you a chance to talk about what you've got in terms of insider access here in just a moment.

But before we wrap this segment, I have to ask about Badger's volleyball.

And I know people are going to look at the three and three record and like, wow, they've been kind of up and down.

But I would point this out, they're facing like every single team and not even a joke, every single team in the top 10 to 12 in the nation.

They've played an incredibly difficult schedule and they still have

a very, very tough road to go, especially in the Big Ten, including a matchup with number one Nebraska later on.

They're off until next Friday, but what can, what did we learn about this year's team in this early going against some of the top teams in the entire nation?

I mean, it's

a team that's got some depth that has some moxie to it.

I think it's the big first couple of points on the, especially on the outside where, you know, we didn't see Grace Egan, a veteran upperclassmen outside hitter.

you know she had a great performance in Florida and then less than 24 hours later she was out and unavailable due to an undisclosed injury according to Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield so that but then you see Madison Quest step up in that place you see you have a bunch of young freshmen that I mean this Kelly Sheffield in Wisconsin signed a fantastic one of the best if not the best 2026 scholarship recruiting class and so let's say let's go back to last night

You know Hallie Thompson who didn't practice here.

I'm sorry.

She didn't play against Florida plays against Auburn and you know has 11 kills and 11 digs and she brings energy on and off the court along with her on court prowess She's got a fast swing She can athletic enough lateral enough where she can and does a great job passing there and she's only gonna improve You know going as a freshman to now but

Um, I think then, you know, Audrey Flanagan, you know, they're kind of on a more freshman, not just Thompson, but Audrey Flanagan's could be the, you know, along with Thompson, the next big things for Wisconsin in terms of breakout players.

You have Charlie Furbringer, the setter who's all American.

She is the leader of the team.

You see that she can dish it out to different people.

Um, but, you know, I think the other part too, like in the middle, like Jail August is not the transfer middle blocker, all American.

has missed the last four matches.

Well, you have freshman Lenny Tarnau, the best middle blocker in the 2026 class, according to PrepDig.

She's looking the part early.

She's still growing in terms of development, but she has a hard swing and she blocks well up front.

You have Natalie Wardlow at a great game against Auburn.

So it's a team that right now has not been at full strength and you want Wisconsin to get healthy, but you're seeing players and they're mixing and matching right now.

And they're all they're still three and three and they're doing again like you mentioned jimmy some again against some of the best In the nation.

Yeah, you go up against pit Louisville Kentucky Those are all top five teams and Wisconsin was a one and three record and they moved up a spot and the AVC rankings last week from six to five You know and then they beat Florida at home, which was ranked 17th and I think Florida if that mistake can beat number 11 Minnesota a day prior so

And then next week, they're going to Texas A&M, the defending national champions, and then they face Texas.

So those are top 15 programs in their own right.

But this is, you know, it's baptism by fire for a lot of these new players, nine new freshmen that includes Desley's champion, the 2027 recruit who reclassified, who could be an international star basically for Puerto Rico.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's a lot going on with volleyball.

They're still finding their way.

But this team, I mean,

I thought this from the start.

It's going to be a team that they can get all the pieces together.

They're going to be a team to reckon with like they were last year.

Well, and all these early experiences too, when you're facing like you said next week, they get.

Texas A&M, which is number eight, and Texas is number two right now in the nation.

So it's not like they have any cupcakes coming up here in the near term.

But Jake, we are short on time.

Just one last chance here real quick, though.

I was just telling people at the start of the segment about getting a bunch of emails from BadgerObserver.com.

Tell us about what you got going on there and how people can get a little bit of insider access to what's happening at UW.

Yeah.

Yeah, I said I'll have some more football preview stuff up.

leading up to the game Sunday.

I will be up at Lambeau Field Badger Observer dot com.

Subscribe.

They should be the one year special should apply to everybody.

It's our one year anniversary because it's already been on now 13 months really, where 20 bucks a year $2 a month football volleyball recruiting men's basketball.

That's what we do here at Badger Observer and give us a shot.

And like I said, if you're, here's the thing, we're like 30 away from 1000 total subscribers.

Become a free subscriber.

I do give some free content out there, like in post game interviews, a couple other things.

But hey, the cool thing about that too, you also get five paywall articles per month.

So hey, that's a fresh way to give us a

try.

Sounds good.

Talk to you soon.

Y'all have a

great

weekend.

Jake Kokorowski again right there.

And when we return, we're going to take a look at the sports weekend review with Mike Clemens and get a look back on week three of the high school football season.

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 time now to take a look at high school football scores from week number three.

On our Civic Media stations, it was three likes Phelps defeating Schwab against 64 to nothing on WPFP.

Staying in Park Falls, Hurley defeated Phillips 22-6 on WCQM.

WRCO's broadcast in Southwestern Wisconsin saw Fenimore defeat River Valley 42-7.

It was Rippin' over Adams Friendship 44-6 on WRPN.

On WFHR, it was Stevens Point defeating Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln 42-12.

And on WRPQ, it was Baraboo 40, Touma 34.

Defending state champions in action, McDonald lost to Spring Valley 44-42 their 1-2 on the year.

Kenosha St.

Joseph defeated living word Lutheran 5614.

Darlington over mineral point 27 to six.

Mayville beat Winnebago Lutheran 34 to 19.

Winneconny all over Shawno 34 to seven.

Grafton shutout West Bend East 49-0.

West Depear defeated Depear 35-12.

And in a matchup of number one versus number one, Arrowhead took down Catholic Memorial 34-14.

Top 10 teams in action, according to Bound Wisconsin, Amherst shutout Colby 35-0.

Another shutout, Mosquigo over Brookfield Central 53-0.

Glenwood City blanked Boysville 7-0.

New Glaris defeated Cuba City 26-7.

Hamilton over Economalock 35-20.

Iola Scandinavia took down North Crawford 14-6.

It was Gilman over Owen Withey 36-6, Northwestern defeating St.

Cry Falls 32-14, and West Salem upended Aquinas 35-26.

It's time now for a Sports Week in Review with Mike Clemens.

You've been listening to Make the Call on the Civic Media Radio Network.

The Brewers in the Queen City.

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

The Brewers in Cincinnati this weekend against the Reds, wrapping up a road trip.

On Friday night, the Brewers got past the Reds 10 to 7, despite a lackluster performance by Shane Drone and a late arrival on the team playing from Chicago.

Manager Pat Murphy,

you know, it's a game that you get into in the morning.

You don't take any pregame per se.

It's emotional series off the Cubs and the Reds had just beaten the Cubs too.

They're a very talented team.

We know that.

Very capable.

They know us well.

Played good in this yard.

It's a very offensive yard tonight.

Yeah, we just kept pecking away.

The kid robs Alba Homer.

Great catch.

They're playing with looseness and freedom.

you know, it's tough game to win.

Drone didn't have good stuff tonight.

He couldn't execute pitches, but, you know, he did go out and throw up a zero and fourth.

Patrick gave us two.

Ashby sends in McGill.

That's a lot of five innings of relief again.

Can't keep doing that, but it isn't May.

We're proud of the guys for pecking away

against the Cubs last week.

The Brewers split the four game series two games apiece.

On Wednesday, the Miz Jacob Mizorowski gave up five runs and just four innings.

His fastball 102 miles per hour, but he couldn't keep it over the plate in the strike zone.

You start second guessing everything, you know, start trying to make pitches too big and you know, it's chart trying to make things too spot on.

So, you know, start leaking places and you know, you got to calm yourself down and figure out a way to get through it.

It

was hot and humid down on the field at Wrigley with the dew point in the midst.

obviously

felt soggy the whole time, you know, weather played a factor in that.

So lost grip, but you know, had to make it

work.

Cubs manager Craig Council says he could see that his pitcher Clay Holmes and the Brewers Chad Patrick having trouble with their grip on that baseball.

It was a tough night to pitch.

I think you saw it was like it was.

and I think you saw like Patrick have a hard time with the grip and and clay even expressed like it was it was hard getting a grip on the baseball at times and you saw both all pitchers like sweating really bad.

So clay kept it together and he pitched a really, really nice game.

So the miss says.

in those kinds of humid conditions.

It's hard for him to keep steady on the mound as he plants his front foot at 6 foot 7 in height.

The Brewers went on to win that night, though 9 to 5 in Chicago.

Thanks to some clutch hits in key moments, despite the weather conditions.

I mean, everyone's hot.

Everyone's sweaty.

No one wants to be out there.

You know, it's not a fun game to play in, but that's what we could do.

You know, we have to figure out a way to win, and, you know, we're team.

You've got to figure out a way to, you know, have everyone win.

Miss, this seems like something that has come up now, your last couple of road starts.

You want to do one of these road starts?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot we can do.

You know, there's stuff that I can't tell you guys, and I really don't want to, but our guys over here are trying their best and trying to make everything come out the best, back in better.

Jacob, can you talk about your teammates picking you up?

Yeah, I mean, that's all I want to talk about.

Really, I don't care about my pitching.

That was electric.

That was awesome.

You know, have the guys come up behind me, just put up run after run after run was awesome.

It's all I can ever ask for in a big game like this.

It really helps out.

Brewers pitcher Dustin May is going to need to turn things around quickly here after giving up too many runs or getting hit by a comeback hit ending in back to back losses.

It sucks to be sucking right now, but glad to get him out of the way now to get on a roll later.

Women's College volleyball is back.

The Badgers able to cruise past Auburn this past week in straight sets at three and three.

Wisconsin's off to a slow start this season.

Head coach Kelly Sheffield says they've been dealing with some injuries here at the start.

It's not fun missing some people.

You like to be at full strength, but that just doesn't happen.

And so.

I don't know how football coaches do it.

Every time that you go out and take the field, it's like the Revolutionary War or something like that.

It's people down and you've got to get the next people up.

We've had a few and we've had to deal with it, but on the other side of that is opportunity.

College football?

It's the Wisconsin Badgers and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame on Sunday night football on NBC from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, head coach Luke Fickle on the challenge of being a 20 point underdog to Notre Dame and not sure exactly who his starters are on the offensive line.

We know this is a huge game in game one and kicking off the way we're kicking off in Lambeau against Notre Dame.

But we also understand there's a journey here.

You know, there's a part of this thing that we got to make sure that as we get closer towards game time, we do the things that are going

be best for us for this entire journey.

And so there aren't decisions made completely on a lot of guys just yet.

And we'll have to figure that thing out as we get closer to game.

With the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review, 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 its civicmedia.us slash app.

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

Ah, yes, it is the weekend, which means it's time for another Make the Call here on the Civic Media radio network.

I'm Jimmy Cusco, sports director here at Civic Media, and we have an absolutely loaded show for you today.

Coming up in about 15 minutes from now, we'll talk to Ken Kazuba, who is the proprietor of Kaz's sports corner.

We're going to talk rumors with him after getting a split with the series of the Cubs this week and holding a

pretty sizable lead going into the final few weeks here of the regular season.

Later in the program, we're going to hear from Jake Kokorowski, a Badger Observer previewing Wisconsin versus Notre Dame at Lambeau Field.

That comes your way Sunday.

We'll also talk some Badgers volleyball as well.

And Mike Clemens will have a sports week in review to cap the show as he does every week, and we'll have that coming up near the end of the hour.

But to get things started, it is me.

I'm Jimmy.

Hi.

How are you?

Hi, mom.

If you're listening up in Chippewa Falls, I am

by myself today in this studio, and I felt very lonely because I had

Great.

Tell me upper management say, Oh, I'm not available to speak guys.

I'm so sorry.

But then I remembered a Parker vertical Olson to keep me in line today.

What's up Parker?

Hi.

Hi guys.

It's me.

It's Parker.

How's it going?

Great, great, great.

I'm not alone.

I am not alone.

I have Parker today.

So Parker and I will take you through today's program and Parker.

I, I, I would be remiss if we didn't start by talking about the Packers.

Cause the roster cut downs have happened.

The 53 man is set.

And I think the biggest news isn't necessarily who made or didn't make the roster.

Although seeing J. Michael Sturdivant make the roster made me very happy because he's a special teams guy, an effort guy, and you love having that on the roster.

But the big news, obviously, is that Josh Jacobs isn't available to the Packers to start the year.

And so we've been asking this kind of in the preseason a bit, what are they going to do with running back?

And Parker, I feel like this is a big question for the Packers given how they run their offense under Coach LeFleur.

Yeah, running back is gonna be really interesting to see.

You've got Chris Brooks, you've got Kilb Johnson, newly signed, and Marshawn Boyd, right?

These are, frankly, these are guys that the Packers have seen some flashes out of.

Marshawn Boyd will probably be the starter there.

Honestly, I loved what I saw out of him in preseason.

I was excited about him.

I do.

Unfortunately, though, I do need to be worried about him because of the fact that he's been so injury prone over his career, right?

He hasn't really been able to stick it out as a backup for a full season.

So I like who we've got, I think, but I definitely have got my worries.

Again, though, you've got a couple of guys there that I think are all pretty solid, Jimmy.

And who knows how long the Josh Jacobs.

Will go on.

This could be four weeks.

It could be the whole year.

Yeah,

it's really

hard to get around.

Yeah, and honestly, I mean good on the NFL for dealing with it in this manner because it's very serious allegations, you know, like

That's how they should address it.

Not great in terms of competitively, but I mean, there are bigger things in life than sports sometimes.

I know this is a sports show, but, you know, I think we're all on the side of like, you know, if the allegations, you know, if there's a video somewhere that shows all this, I mean, things are not looking great there.

We're not judging jury.

We're not any part of that.

But the reality is Packers will be without Josh shake of the start.

The running backs that are coming in to kind of take the place.

It's not going to be one guy to be kind of an aggregate where it's like Moneyball, right?

They're not replacing, you know, Giambi, they're

you're replacing the production with three different guys who kind of add up to all that.

And that's kind of what I see.

I don't see a 20 carry a game guy in that group.

Um, but you know, on the other side of that, I think an area that the Packers and I know Gray is in here to sit here and give me all the stats on it.

I think an area that the Packers right sneakily could be better this year is special teams, new kicker.

You got some guys on the print of the roster and special teams.

You got a great punter.

Boy, there was a long snapper battle.

I was really excited about, I'm saying all this.

Parker as a Special Teams coach.

I'm very excited for Packers Special Teams this year.

You are.

You're very excited.

You're giddy like a schoolboy, Jimmy.

It's a fun

sight to see.

Yeah, I mean, I think we christened Cam Acord as the coach of the century pretty much after one preseason game, which might be one of the saddest sentences ever.

But honestly, the Packers haven't been excited about Special Teams in a long time.

Once Mason Crosby left, it was like, well.

Crap, what

do we get?

But hey, we're accepting competency as like progress.

So let's just take it

I was thrilled in a preseason game when the Packers went more than like two kickoffs in a row without having a penalty I was shocked that was besides myself.

It was absolutely glorious Jimmy

All right, well

You know, I'm very excited.

We're getting the season going.

There's a lot of things to look at.

We're going to break down all the Packers stuff by the way next week when Gray is back with us.

We will go through that week one matchup and we will actually be on this as part of the show kind of an extension of the show.

We'll be recapping each Packers game as well on the Mondays or Tuesday or what Thursday or.

Whatever day the Packers play like five different days of the week this year.

It's been so whenever it happens We'll recap the Packers games as part of make the call in the civic media radio network with some special one-off episodes Before we take a break for our first guest have to mention this Lambo field not only host to the Badgers this week and not obviously only host to the Packers throughout the season as always But they're also gonna host and we just talked about this last week Parker the the greatest kind of novelty sporting event.

They're gonna host

two outdoor hockey games in February.

This is amazing.

I'm so excited for the doubleheader here.

They're going to have the woman Badger women's playing against the Ohio State team as well.

Um, that matchup is absolutely incredible.

Those two programs account for the last seven national titles in women's hockey.

So really excited about that.

And then badger men, they're going to be playing against Michigan.

Honestly, I don't think I could pick.

any better competition at all.

This is going to be absolutely awesome.

And I don't know about you, but I'm a little worried that they might have to reschedule because there might be a Super Bowl parade, but we'll talk about that later.

Well, I'm excited because we've got outdoor hockey in Wisconsin again, and I couldn't be more thrilled for it.

But we had a lot to talk about on the show today.

We're going to talk Brewers in the next segment.

Ken Kazuba is going to join us.

Kaz's Sports Corner is what he does.

Also appears in a lot of radio shows.

We'll talk Brewers later in the program.

Jake Kokorowski will preview the Wisconsin Notre Dame football game this weekend and give us a read on Badger volleyball.

Mike Clemens Sports Weekend Review coming up by the end of the hour.

Jamie Kuska, Parker Olsen, it is make the call.

Part of the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

Welcome back to Make The Call on Civic Media.

Talking a bit of brewers now here on Make the Call as we move along here on the weekend.

Milwaukee, of course, after splitting the series with the Cubs, fighting themselves in a pretty good spot, heading now into the home stretch here in September.

And we haven't done this a lot, Parker.

We haven't had a chance to really talk brewers in depth with a guest.

We have talked minor leagues in depth.

We have definitely talked amongst ourselves quite a bit.

And we're smart, right?

We see brewers do good.

Great.

We're very insightful.

The Brewers are best record in the MLB.

We're still smart.

Gold stars for us.

But it's great to welcome aboard from Kansas Sports Corner in southeastern Wisconsin.

Ken Kazuba, who is joining us right now over the phone, which is great that we can do this over the phone because I didn't know this was even a thing we could do.

Ken, welcome aboard to make the call.

Hey, thanks for having me on.

I'm looking forward to the channel of brewers with you guys.

This is outstanding.

So I appreciate the invite.

Well, I'm going to start with this.

We are here in the final month of the season and just just from your perspective

You know, a lot of the things I'm seeing on social media are people asking, well, how could the Brewers have the best record in Major League Baseball?

How did they get here?

And I look at obviously the obvious things, the pitching staff, the, you know, the limiting of runs, just having a great bullpen, things like that, the obvious answers.

But I think there's something to it when outsiders are kind of looking at this, wondering, you know, you got the, you got the big spending teams, like the Dodgers and everybody, the Cubs and all these other teams.

And then here are the Brewers with.

relatively tiny payroll compared to that.

They've got the best record in the MLB.

How did this happen,

Ken?

Well, in my opinion, it starts and ends with management, right?

So when you have somebody like the GM, Matt Arnold, and you have the head coach, Murph, and those two are in lockstep with the owner, it makes life a lot easier when you don't have a lot of infighting.

Okay.

So once you're, once you have the captain of your ship and he's able to relay his needs and wants,

And then you have your GM and your owner that collaborate and they go, we'll get those guys for you.

And they trust in Murph.

Murph spent with him when he was with council.

So with that being said, that clubhouse is incredible.

The demeanor in that clubhouse amongst these players, they have a bond that's second to none.

And when you had mentioned about teams spending a lot of money,

You know, we've seen this though with many teams throughout the years.

I mean, look at what happened with the Mets a few years ago.

I mean, look at the Padres.

They've spent so much money and they've gotten nowhere for lack of a better term.

So the Brewers with their farm club system going back to Matt Arnold and his team, they do a fabulous job.

I truly believe, and I believe ranking wise, they have the best farm club in the MLB.

You look at the players that keep coming up.

Look at the findings with Cooper Pratt.

You know, they signed him to a long-term deal, Cheerio, Luis Lara.

And they've got many, many more people that we haven't even seen yet in the big leagues, like Andrew Fisher and Pena.

And there's so many that Made, they're waiting to come up.

But it all starts in my opinion right there.

Because once you have unity, you can overcome everything they have, such as all the injuries.

They've had so many injuries this year.

But yet they're able to bring guys in, bring guys up, and they're able to overcome that, especially with pitching.

They have one of the best pitching staffs, thanks to Chris Hook and Murph, the way that they operate.

So just a few of the insights, I truly believe, that make this team special.

Ken, that pitching lab, I think, is something that we hear so much about, because obviously there's some fantastic coaches that have been in this Brewer's organization for a really long time.

But that pitching lab has been so good.

No matter where you look, you can kind of find, like, I call them the keys to success with the veterans that are around there, right?

Murph has been around so long.

The guys in the front office have been so good for so long.

Somebody that I have been pointing to.

I think, honestly, it was a little critical at one point because it wasn't producing a lot.

Christian Yelich, but earlier this week, we were hearing about how good he's been in the clubhouse.

How key do you think Yelich is to the Berger's success as we get into these last couple of weeks of games here?

Yelich is going to be huge because he has been horrible in the playoffs, right?

So when we talk about good clubhouse guys, you can also bring in Brandon Woodruff, okay?

So he's another guy that they just love in that clubhouse, although injuries have kept him away.

And now they're talking about potentially having him back late in the season here, which I would be shocked, but you know what?

I don't put anything past the way the brewers operate.

You know, with Chris Hook and Chad Green, how they handle that pitching staff, when you talked about the pitching lab, and I'll get back to Yelich real quick, when I was in Arizona for spring training last year and seeing how they operate, it is amazing.

If you've never been there, you've got to get down there to see it because

Each picture, the way that they handle them with every pitch and the way that they videotape and photo and talk, it's just how they go through the motions with each guy.

It's pretty incredible.

But back to Yellich.

Yellich is going to be key in my opinion, just for the simple fact that he's the highest paid guy on the team, and all he has to do now is hit.

He doesn't play defense anymore.

He just has to focus on hitting.

So they're going to need him in the middle of that lineup.

I think that's where he really shines.

five, you know, in that five spot, four spot, five spot, six spot.

And that's what's going to be the key.

Yelich, Yelich getting the bat on the ball and getting those guys in with runners in scoring position.

It's going to be a giant boost for this team come playoff time.

Talking to Ken Kazuba of Kazasports Corner, that's in southeastern Wisconsin.

Ken, I got to ask this because we, you know, we've talked about this all year.

I feel like things are a little different this year.

And the Brewers have had sort of disappointing finishes in the postseason as of late.

I feel like

things are a little bit different this year and it's largely because they've got top-end pitching and not just you know not guys that they've had to go out and mortgage the farm for to get but like guys they've developed and brought up and all of a sudden it seems like they've got a few elite arms that'll help carry them through a series.

Do you sense anything different maybe about what could happen in this year in terms of a play-up run just given the wealth of pitching they've got?

Yeah from the standpoint of

how well they manage a game, right?

So, Contreras, when you talk about pitching, Contreras, the way he manages the individual pitcher that night, that's starting, that's really a key to what they're doing.

And so, handling Harrison and Henderson, and you get drone, and several of the other guys that are in there, besides Miz, obviously, everybody likes to talk about Miz, and why wouldn't you?

I mean, he's incredible for what this young man has done in his second year.

But a lot of that I can attribute, I truly believe, their successes with pitching that goes to Contreras and Chris Hook as they work a game plan against each team that they play.

So they really, like I say, they really have their fingers on the pulse.

They know their guys and they know, if you've ever noticed when you're watching a game and you'll see, all of a sudden,

So go out there if he doesn't like something or Chris Hook will just stop the game and he'll go out there and they calm their guys down.

They tell him, hey, take it easy.

You know, you're okay.

Everything's fine.

I mean, look at what happened with Harrison the other night, right?

Murph goes out there after what?

3 and 2 thirds and he tells him he goes, hey.

This isn't on you.

You know, we've had some issues, you know, defensive wise tonight, but you know what?

We got a fabulous bullpen.

Just hang in there.

You're not going to get the win.

You're not going to get a decision, but you're key to what we're doing down the stretch here and you pitched fantastically all year.

It's giving your guys that kind of confidence that I don't think many of the other teams have and that's going to be huge in the playoffs.

You know, you're talking about getting guys confidence there and something that I think has built a lot of confidence for the Brewers this year is for the most part, we're coming right off of a four game series against the Cubs.

The Brewers have done a really good job keeping those superstars down, right?

They're having like Shohei Otani.

I'm sure that he had a couple of pretty big hits against the birds this year, but honestly, I don't feel like he made that big of a mark.

And I'm really looking at PCA right now because unfortunately we've got coworkers here who are Cubs fans and they keep telling me how

good PCA

is and he's going to be the MVP.

And I'm sure that he is, but I think against the birds, he's like.

three and three of 37 or something like that this year.

And one of them was against Andrew Vaughn.

So talk about how big that confidence is to have success against those superstars because

Obviously, we're talking postseason.

Brewers are going to the postseason.

Those

are the keys.

No two ways about it.

Yeah.

They're right now poised to be number one, the number one seed.

They have the best record in baseball, and they have it for a reason.

And it's how they pitch these guys, right?

They work the corners.

They force them.

Once you get ahead in the count, and that's one thing that our pitching staff is able to do with a lot of consistency,

is get ahead in pitch counts.

When you're ahead in pitch counts, you control the batter.

Once you control that batter, I don't care if it's PCA, I don't care if it's Otani, if it's Schwerber, whoever it is, you get ahead in that account and Contreras is in control and of helping his guy throw the right pitch.

They know what to throw.

They know what they're going to get him to go fishing for.

And you see it because PCA looks silly in the first few games until

last night's game when he came up with a big hit.

And so would that be in the case?

You have to commend Chris Hook and the guys for how they work with their starters and their bullpen.

This bullpen doesn't get enough credit for what they do.

And then Murph, what he was doing earlier in the season where he was basically closer by platoon,

using Uribe and McGill and flip flopping them back and forth before he's finally decided on McGill.

I mean, look early on when he was so mad about his closer.

We don't have a legitimate closer yet.

Here you got two of them sitting there, but this is the way Murph operates, how he keeps that clubhouse in check.

And his guys, I mean, from discipline, he does a number of disciplinary things.

We've seen that, but this pitching staff

doesn't need a ton of discipline.

They have things going in a manner that I think has many teams baffled, especially for a small market team.

This is just a credit to management.

Ken Kazuba of Kazus Sports Corner.

Ken, you have a couple of other things that you do kind of off to the side of all the coverage of sports you do too.

You've got some sports ventures in southeastern Wisconsin.

Can you tell us about those?

I'm an avid outdoorsman.

I don't know who isn't.

So I love my bowl hunting in the fall and things like that.

So I'm in lockstep with a number of groups that I work with.

I like working with kids groups too.

We like to get kids involved in hunting.

For a while there, I had a hunt club.

So we would have kids out for pheasant hunts and things like that.

So we had a lot of fun with that.