JR Radcliffe on the Brewers and Baseball Analytics (Hour 1)

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From Washington to Hollywood and right back to Wisconsin.

It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Connecting the dots on the stories shaping our world with smart takes, sharp humor, and plenty of personality.

You know, I really expected more professional behavior from you.

It's news and culture without the noise.

Yeah, come on!

Here's Pete Schwabba.

Dude.

And Greg Bach.

Dude!

Alright.

Alright, welcome to Night Light, ladies and gentlemen.

Happy Friday!

I love getting the point from Don.

That means we're on the air and ready to roll.

Hope you're having a great day wherever you're joining us from across the state or parts beyond.

Welcome to Nightlight.

I am Pete Schwabba joined as always by Mr. Greg Bach.

Greg, how are you?

I'm doing

well.

And Pete, is that a haircut I see?

Did you get a

haircut?

No, I washed it.

Oh, well, still amazing.

I just took a shower

a little bit ago, so it still might be wet.

No, but I did not get a haircut.

I took a shower earlier today.

My hair is floofy.

Is it still wet?

No, it's not wet.

It's dry.

It's just floofy.

It's floofy.

Is floofy a barber term?

No, not at all.

It's just not made up.

It's what I mean.

floofy means like it's all like

It's sticking out.

It's almost like when people have, when there's humidity in the air and their hair starts to puff out a little bit, it's a little wavy.

That's what my hair is doing right now.

Okay.

I like that word.

I don't think I've ever heard it before though.

Fluffy.

That's right.

Get it in the lexicon.

That's what the kids are going to start saying.

I inspire Gen Z.

That's right.

And speaking of Gen Z, we are joined.

Once again, he took a brief hiatus.

He took a one day sabbatical

from

Pete and Greg.

He needed a break.

Also had to move down ladies and gentlemen.

How are

you buddy?

I'm doing pretty good.

I'm a little I'm a little tired from the move, but I'm I'm I'm happy You know, it's Friday the vibes are high and I'm I'm ready for a great show

ready for great And you guys

have you guys have great hair by the way.

All right, both you guys have a great hair today.

It's gonna be a good show

We can't give you a raise.

We don't have that power, so you don't have to do this.

Then

never mind.

And you're no slouch yourself, buddy.

You've got some good moss there.

I like it.

Jimmy Caesar's

rocking

a good mop of hair on that head.

Hey, it is a Friday, as Don mentioned.

It's casual Friday.

And we plan to celebrate casualty.

two of the best of our abilities tonight.

We've got a great question.

We've got a great guest.

We're going to play one of our, we're going to do one of Dom's quizzes.

And it's very exciting and it ties into the question of the night, which also ties into casual Friday.

So we'll get to all of that in just a moment.

Coming up at 535, our pal, Greg's pal really, and my new pal, I enjoyed meeting JR earlier, JR Radcliffe.

He is a sports reporter for the journal Sentinel.

We'll join us to talk about how those

Amazing brewers.

Just keep on winning, Greg.

How do they do

it?

They're confounding the statisticians.

They're confounding the MLB.

And, you know, they're doing it at a nice price, if I might add.

May I make a request, though?

A discount?

Yeah, absolutely.

We're in casual Friday.

But we're not officially there yet, Pete, though.

Oh, that's true.

My bad.

That's true.

We have to enter the gates.

And once we enter the gates, then we can officially casual.

EnzoM is the gatekeeper.

So let's roll, baby.

Friday's here and the week's in the rear view.

Whether you're still on the clock or already mentally

checked

out, Pete and Greg are here for you.

So kick back and grab something to snack on.

It's casual Friday with Pete and Greg.

I just had some apples and grapes.

Oh, that's a dynamite snack.

Granny Smith apple with some peanut butter.

Yes, apples and peanut butter.

The

first

time I heard that, I was like, get out of here.

Then I tasted it and it was really unbelievable.

Magnificent.

I've been wolfing down those little cute, cutie oranges or

halos.

Yeah,

those are good.

I can pound six of those things in one sitting.

Oh,

absolutely.

It's unbelievable.

So

we got that out of the way.

Yeah.

Awesome stuff and a

great snack.

Yeah.

So before we get, all right, is Casual Friday.

Yeah, we're going to talk brewers at 535.

We get the question and then I come up down.

I first I have to ask you.

It was weird.

I think that was your was that your first day off since we've been doing the three of us have been working together.

I

think it was with the three of us.

I think it was.

Yeah, it was OK.

Yeah, it was my move day.

It was it was really good.

It was really enjoyable.

I'm glad I'm into my new place.

Finally, it took a while.

I woke up at 8 a.m.

I got finished around like 7 p.m.

So it was a whole day.

Yeah, it was

and you had people coming.

You had other Italians.

coming up to Madison to help you, correct?

Yes, I had

it.

They

closed down Jimmy John's across the Midwest to get Don's

family here.

Yeah, I had my parents as well as my uncle, and then my old roommate as well helped me a little bit too.

So it was a really good day.

It was a packed day, though.

Packed day, literally.

Did you provide libations and food?

No.

I didn't

know.

What?

Yes, we ended up going out to get some food, but I didn't

pay for

that.

I didn't pay.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, parents didn't pay.

Hey,

if your parents offered to pay, that's, I mean, do your thing, Jelly Bean, that's what I'm saying, but I'm just, I didn't want to know this.

When did the payment for moving someone, like, you know, you pay someone to move, you pay a good amount of money.

But whenever someone calls you as an individual, they're like, there'll be pizza and beer.

I'm like, that's not my price tag.

How about cash?

Yeah.

Greg wants cash.

At this age, beer is like

the standard.

If I'm helping you, no, I don't want pizza and beer.

I want

money.

Give me money.

I'm with you.

I don't want, at this age, I don't want a bunch of pizza.

I don't need an excuse to stuff my face with something I don't need.

I'm with you, but it is kind of, I would think it's like an etiquette thing.

We'd have to consult mismaners, but if you request cash.

Yeah.

I don't think I could do that to a friend.

You mean, well, I mean, that's how I get out of being asked then.

Do you want to pay me?

No, I'm cool.

Then you have your answer.

That's true.

And Don, remind us again, you got your own place now?

I do, yes, yes, one bedroom, one bedroom.

So I had to furnish it.

I still don't have a microwave.

I don't have a dining room table.

I don't have a coffee table.

I don't know, I'm gonna have to do some serious buying in the next few weeks.

Dude, get an air fryer.

You don't need a microwave.

I don't

have that either.

I mean,

I would go the air fryer out, it's healthier, it's fantastic.

If you gotta get a microwave, microwaves are nice to have, but if

you

can, air fry baby.

That's what I say.

Also, check your Facebook page.

Even though, like, early this week, I was lambasting Facebook Marketplace.

But look for neighborhood sales for those things.

Don't go buy expensive and new.

Just buy something that's right.

Get yourself something to toss on top of the coffee table or the dining table.

Just don't absolutely spend your brains out on that kind of stuff.

My uncle said, go to IKEA.

And I was like, I don't have IKEA.

I don't know how expensive

IKEA is,

but I don't know.

Ikea is all ranges of prices and I'm not I'm not paid by big Swedish furniture right now But you know, I bought a table.

There's tables there for 50 bucks.

There's tables for 500 bucks It's all in what you're looking for and really where you think you'll be in the next few years because you don't like again You don't want to spend something that's like a lot of money if you're not gonna keep it and just be sensible about it Also, do you have a birthday coming up?

I do I do when's your birthday?

When's your birthday June 17th?

Perfect gift cards

Give cards.

There you go.

Give cards.

June 17th.

Oh, and the other question is, what is your home address?

Go ahead, tell

everybody.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I already made that

mistake

once with my mom's phone number.

I'm not

doing that

again.

It's like you had to move.

Let's see if I can

trick you.

I agree, too.

And go to, like, if you see a table to eat on, you know, here's the deal, Dan.

Like, you're a young single guy.

I remember buying new stuff.

It's like, what am I doing?

Because you're gonna get married at some point.

You're gonna get rid of everything anyway and get new stuff.

I would keep it on the cheap.

I totally agree with Greg on that one.

All right.

Well, I'm glad it went well.

That's great.

We had the very capable hands.

We were in very capable hands with Aaron's armors, so it was good to see his armors, but we're glad you're back, pal.

And you have a quiz for us in hour number two.

I

do.

I do.

It's based off the question of the night.

I don't know if we want to go there yet, but if we do.

Let's do that then.

Let's do the question.

Then we'll tease the second hour, and then we'll get to some stuff that's going on.

This is

Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach, and Dom is about to play music that will tell you the question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay,

question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

You know, we just did a topping question, but this seems so apropos for tonight because it's casual Friday and it is National Pizza Party Day today.

So let's do it.

Let's roll.

How do you like your pizza?

Tell us how you like your pizza.

Um, and let's, let's, uh, let's pretend we're all eating pizza together, folks.

It's kind of like a happy hour here.

Right.

I just had a slice of pizza this afternoon.

Did you?

Yeah.

Okay.

Frozen pizza.

Very delicious.

Stuffed crust.

You can get stuff crust in frozen style now.

I can't do this.

You know, it's so weird, but I grew up, you know, the first part of my childhood in Chicago with the stuffed crust and pan.

I can't do it anymore.

I'm just, I give me the New York style with great

toppings.

Honestly.

But if you're talking, are you talking New York style as well as size with the slice?

Well, I

like that too, but thin, thin crust, keep

it about

the toppings at this point in my life where it used

to

be, I'll still muscle down a piece of like Chicago deep dish.

I know there was an Eduardo's, I think in Milwaukee for a long time.

I used to go there, but

Yeah, I still like it, but I just can't eat a lot of it, you

know?

Well, this was a frozen pizza, so it was of a certain size.

And the slices were probably like, you know, they were not very big.

So I only had one slice and then I was out the door.

And that's why

I

packed like cottage cheese and apples and grapes and some hummus.

Like I'm like, I gotta, I cannot get down on the pizza.

I could have one slice and that's it.

Gotta get out of here and actually eat healthy today.

So.

I can't do one slice.

I can't do one cookie.

I can't do one drink.

I don't, I don't, I can't do it.

I'm in awe of people like you, Greg.

It took a lot of work and it's a, and I'm not kidding you honestly, it takes a lot of work and it's still a struggle to this day to manage that, that, you know, the consumption at angle of life where it's, whether it's drinking or eating and yeah, it's tough.

I get it dude.

I'm kind of exaggerating, but I am impressed by people who can do moderation.

Okay.

So that's our question of the night, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, civic.

Let us know how you like your pizza on Casual Friday, and you can text us on the app.

Or if you're watching the radio on the stream, drop us a stream comment.

And Dom, what are we going to do?

What's the quiz?

It's

called Slice Slice Baby, all right?

So it's OK.

I love the name.

And it's basically true or false, multiple choice.

And I'll just be asking you some questions about pizza.

It's related to pizza.

All right.

Simple as that.

I love it.

I love it.

All right.

That's our number two sports talk coming up after the news right now, though, Greg.

Yeah.

This made me laugh.

A New York Times reporter.

Where is where are my stories here?

A New York Times reporter today confronted Donald Trump, our president, and said, what would the use be in repeating the bombing you did for the last 38 days and did not get the political changes in Iran?

You said you wanted.

and the president lost it.

He said, he accused this guy.

He said, you should be tried for treason, for asking a question based on fact.

Here's what I think, Greg, because I know you want to weigh in on this too.

I don't think that's treason.

I don't think reporting on something that is happening is treason.

I'm stating the obvious, but the question was on Air Force One and...

Here's what I think is possibly closer to treason telling your vice president not to certify election results Seems

a

little closer to treason than a journalistic factual reporting, but this is Donald Trump's world and we live in

Maybe making a speech that inspires a couple thousand people to, you know, storm the

capital

and demand the death of people who, who don't agree with them and people being hurt and murdered.

I mean, that sounds treasonous as well.

In this deadline story that you shared, I think it's great because one full paragraph is dedicated to his quote, his response to this article or to this journalist.

And I would love to read it, but I don't have that kind of energy in me.

But it's just like, I got a total military victory, the fake.

news, guys like you, you're a fake guy.

And I love when they say, you should write or you should ask.

When they tell you, you should ask questions like this.

And what's funny is that it wasn't just a guy from the New York Times, he got into it with somebody from the BBC as well, who he is suing for five, wait for it, billion dollars for editing an interview, which

Didn't really come of anything but two people lost their job because of it because this yahoo here thinks that we're not gonna stop talking about the Epstein files

What now oh my god, I forgot about the Epstein files case

closed.

I'm

glad you guys are both real guys.

We're coming back We're gonna talk about a reality show that's about to hit the air and ball maxing.

Yes.

It's just

what it sounds like This is peach wabba and great.

Bye.

Thank you.

Dom on the civic beauty 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.

Alright, you get the Duffy story and we'll do the uh, and then we'll we'll kick it to dumb

Or I have a question is isn't the I thought the pre-record was in the second hour or in the it's in the first right?

Yes, okay.

It is okay.

So okay.

It's after the news.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah

I like Monica's

texts

I didn't see it.

Give me one moment here.

Wild

thing.

You got some vanilla ice music, Tom, for your quiz.

He's on the phone right now.

Oh, look at him making long distance calls on Civic Media's dime.

1-800-CAL-ACTA.

Call Collect.

Oh my god.

He's producing the show.

No big whoop.

I'm in a very rhythmic mood today.

I think it's because I'm feeling good for the first time in a couple days.

All

the

Nyquil is out of my system.

All the sick is out of my system.

I feel like a normal human being.

It's huge.

That's huge.

Huge.

10 seconds, guys.

Oh, nice of you to join us, Tom.

Hey,

welcome back.

Just dancing.

It's Friday.

It's casual Friday here at Nightlight.

I'm Pete Schwabbe joined by Greg Bach and Dom Lee.

We are the Outer Hate Triangle.

We were talking about Dom's moving before he spent all day yesterday moving.

Felt he needed a day off.

I probably would have gutted it out between his own.

Jewel.

Wow.

Jewel on the text line in the 920 says, bro, go to the restore.

Not a bad idea, Dom.

It's

a good idea.

People trying to help him out.

I appreciate

it.

And then Lisa says, we could hear you that whole time.

We know Lisa.

That's

the

super secret happy fun show that we

give

people.

And then we've got Daniel Barry Sports Highlights on the stream saying, what's up everyone?

Happy Friday.

Happy Friday to you, Daniel.

Great to have you with us tonight.

Our question of the night is, how do you like your pizza here on Casual Friday?

We're having a little pizza party.

Let us know.

Greg, this story, I just talked about reality TV with you before the show a little bit and how it drives me crazy.

I don't know if this is technically reality TV, but you found this kind of funny story.

Well, yeah, the current secretary of transportation, one time reality star, Sean Duffy, along with his wife, Rachel Campos Duffy, also a graduate of the MTV School of Reality Television.

are hitting the road.

Well, they did hit the road and they filmed a, what I think, a five or four part reality show about the great American, you know, whatever.

And they released a, by the way, a four minute trailer.

Come on.

four minutes and people are very, very upset about this because it looks as it looks like tone.

They're trying to wrap it in like it's America's 250th birthday and we want to be inspiring people to go on family road trips and see Wisconsin or to see America.

By the way, they don't come to Wisconsin, which is where they lived for a very long time.

And it's just being seen as tone deaf in a time of the war with Iran raise rising prices.

And it just absolutely looks awful.

Plus.

Guess who's paying for it?

The taxpayers well, they say they're not paying for the taxpayers instead This whole thing is being paid for by a group called the great American road trip comma ink

and it

includes such luminaries as Toyota Boeing Royal Caribbean and others It really really really looks bad.

I mean I cannot tell you how I am

I can't believe this is happening.

You know, honestly, though, I can.

I can.

I didn't even have a problem.

I was like, all right, drive around and film yourselves, but not if it's on the taxpayer's dime.

Yeah, that's an issue.

But to me, my first thing was, what a snooze.

I'm going to watch this guy showing his family.

Oh, here's the Grand Canyon kids.

Like I can do that with vacation and it's funny.

So whatever to each his own.

Yeah.

I just, the thing is is.

Is there's questions being raised?

Who's paying for this exactly?

Who is the great American road trip?

If he's doing country work, if he's doing work for the United States while on this trip, the taxpayers do pay for it because he's getting paid by it.

It looks so bad.

And then

he

has the nerve to be like, the disgusting miserable left don't want your kids learning about America.

I'm like, you're the guy's trying to change the school books and the history courses.

I don't think we're the problem here.

I think it's you, your wife and your nine kids, including one son-in-law who's running for Congress here in Wisconsin right now.

So yeah, tone deaf doesn't even begin to describe this calamity to me.

I

wonder if there's a moment where he says, I'll turn this car around right now and we will head home.

I doubt it.

I'm sure it's like perfect family type stuff, you know, but whatever.

That's television, I suppose.

Yeah.

Maybe you should quit their jobs and just go back to reality television.

Go back to MTV.

We have another story that, Dom, you brought this up earlier in the week, but we thought it was more of a casual Friday type of dealio.

And it's a little disturbing.

I'm not going to lie.

Lay it on us.

I'm sorry.

Give me one second.

I got to pull up.

I got to get to it real quick.

We can

talk.

Talk about it real quick.

Talk about

it real quick.

This story coming from foxnews.com.

Give a shout out for the fine crack reporting that's being done over on Fox and Friends.

This was shared by, again, by Dom.

And we all know the term looks maxing.

Pete and I learned about that in one of Dom's quiz.

Well, Pete, apparently that's not the only... I mean, there's being a maxanista because you love TJ Maxx, but there's a different kind of maxing out there that is catching the world by the storm.

By the storms.

You said Tom

yes Basically what it is and it's it's not the best look and I I don't preach this on anyone But like what Greg

said

what?

Clavicular did which is basically a guy that looks maxes he kind of shows off his face make sure he makes himself pretty There's

willing and is willing to smash

bones in his face to do that.

Yes, like he goes to extreme measures to do that extreme.

It's the same thing but

for, um, for, for genitals, pretty much.

You just gotta-

Your testicles.

Your testicles.

Yes, pretty

much, yes.

So-

What do they call it?

What do they call it, Dom?

What do they call it?

Say it out loud.

Let your mother hear this.

Ball maxing.

They-

Yep, ball maxing.

Ball

maxing.

That's pretty much exactly what it is.

They go to extreme measures to do these types of things.

And, um, yeah, it's very- Where can I get it done and how much is it?

That's my question.

That I do not

know.

I do not know how to do it.

So...

I'm disappointed in us.

I'm so disappointed.

You know, what's really funny is that it's coming from the same group of dudes who are going to be, who are like critical of anybody trying to, whether it's gender affirming care or it's a therapy or just feeling emotions.

They're like, oh, that's disgusting.

But man, I want to, and it's to make them bigger, which I don't understand.

I don't understand

that either.

Like that, that's not really.

This is tough to really get into this and break it down, but I don't I don't understand it either why like You might need a tuck when you don't jump the gun here guys and you're right, right?

If they're judging other people, but then they want to have their balls done.

I don't know what what you know

It's all in the search of

having bigger schnutz because

Because people think it somehow leads to manliness.

It somehow leads to masculinity.

And none of that is true.

First of all, as a construct, none of that actually exists.

We made it up to make ourselves feel better.

And second of all, it's just because literally they will not go to therapy or just realize that their dad will never say, I love you.

Just move on.

Alright, I'm not doing it.

Thank you guys.

I needed that This is nightlight on the civic media network.

We are coming back to talk brewers with our pal JR Radcliffe from the Milwaukee Journal set.

Oh, it's casual Friday

Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bogg here on the Civic Media Network.

You can always get in touch with us.

Call or text.

The number is the same.

855-752-4842.

855-755.

Civic leave a comment on that live stream.

We're currently streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform we still call Twitter.

It's our casual Friday question of the night is National Pizza Day.

So what do you like on your pizza?

Let us know.

We'll be talking more about that in the second hour.

So stick around for that.

But right now, I'm so excited to be introducing our first guest for the evening.

He is

is a writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He is a dear friend.

He is a sports guru.

Mr. JR Radcliffe is here on the show.

Good evening, Mr. Radcliffe.

How are you doing?

I am doing fabulous, Greg Bach.

It's good to be back with you.

Good to see your face again.

Welcome.

I don't know if you've ever been on nightlight before.

No, this is the first time, first time.

Welcome to the beauty of nightlight.

Pete Schwabba and Dom Lee are here with us tonight as they always are.

And we're very excited to talk about

Sports in general, but specifically the brewers specifically a story that we found in the wall street journal, the title, the baseball team that baffles MLB stat wonks and every projection model written by Jared Diamond.

And as soon as I saw just the headline, I was like, JR Radcliffe, he's the guy to talk to about this.

So let's just open up real simple.

What's the secret?

Well, Greg, I know that you're a fan of a little bit of, and I told you so, a little shot in Florida when people get the brewers wrong and over the last few years.

And this is not a problem that's been going on for like decades here.

Just over the last few years, what you see out of preseason projections, typically thinks the brewers are gonna be just a little bit better than a 500 team.

Also my brain unrelated to the projections usually thinks the brewers are gonna be like a 500 team.

So also wrong in the long run.

And the brewers have been confounding that for a few years.

So, you know, Wall Street Journal isn't the first to try to look and figure out, okay, what are they doing that allows them to go against the data?

What doesn't the data understand about the brewers that, you know,

plays out when they actually play these games.

And there's a lot of answers.

There is no one secret.

You know, some of it is mystery.

The Brewers have built themselves differently from other teams for a long time where they really go defense first, speed and athleticism as well.

But like primarily they are building a team of great defenders and letting the offense kind of fall where it does with one or two exceptions in the lineup usually every year.

And that has worked.

It's worked really, really well.

I always thought they were doing that to stay cheap, you know, most people pay, most teams pay for the offense.

Well, you don't have to pay as much for defense.

So maybe you can field a team that's good on the other side of the ball and not have to pay as much when you're the brewers and you, you know, are in this tiny market.

But I really do think there is more to that that we maybe don't understand how they're able to continue winning with that format.

The other thing they do.

better than almost anybody is that they really develop guys at the big league level.

So you can project what Quinn Priesters is a really good example last year.

He had not had a good big league career.

All projections are going to say Quinn Priesters is going to be bad again because he'd been bad.

And the Brewers made him good.

And that's not the first player they've done that with.

It's players in their own organization.

It's players from other organizations.

They do these quick turnarounds on guys, especially pitchers, especially pitchers, and turn them into not completely different players, but

Modified players that are contributing to the bottom line way more than projections could ever imagine see the projections They're looking at the last few years and they there aren't many players that go from terrible to All-Star There are players like that, but there aren't many so if you have a couple players that do that It really dramatically changes the calculus.

That's Bryce.

Terang is a really good example.

He went from

unplayable offensively a couple years ago, three years ago, to one of the best players in baseball.

We don't even talk about how big of a jump that is.

That's crazy.

It's almost unprecedented how he was able to make that transformation.

Well, projections see the last few years and they're like, yeah, it was good last year, but we still like, it's still kind of a bad player in there somewhere.

Well, you know, maybe not.

And maybe the Brewers have something to do with that.

Maybe Terrang is just a unicorn.

I don't know.

But that can shift your projection like three wins all by itself, just Bryce Terrang, let alone all these pitchers, let alone the winning on the edges that they're able to do.

So.

There is a lot.

I mean, there's more about the minor leagues too that is a little complicated.

But for the sake of simplicity, that's kind of the basics.

They are just really good at developing talent.

They get guys, again, from their own org, from others, and they turn them into gems.

I don't know why anybody would deal with the Brewers right now, because all they're doing is winning every trade and getting guys that you think are fringe contributors and turning them into really valuable contributors.

It's really crazy.

JR, you kind of just answered my question, but I'm going to find a nuance here.

In the Wall Street Journal article, they said that the Brewers would win an average of 80 games over the past 10 uninterrupted campaigns.

In reality, they've averaged closer to 88 wins.

You said they're great at developing or maybe the scouting department, but how much of that, if any, do you think

is managerial, like they've had Craig counsel, Pat Murphy, they've been managed well.

Does that account for any of these extra wins?

That is a great question.

I don't think a lot of it.

And that's not a great answer because you know, Pat Murphy is our guy right now and he's one back to back manager of the year awards and Craig counsel before him seemed to find every advantage.

It's definitely not zero.

There is an art form as with any profession to managing

You know 26 personalities at any given time and making that function the bullpen decisions that a manager makes do matter What I think is funny about that particular aspect is I think Craig console and Pat Murphy have very different interpretations of how to do that just completely different philosophies, but it's worked for both of them You know, I certainly value what they bring to the table I don't know if we have any there's really no data that says this manager

can take a team that would be like an 80-win team and turn them into a playoff team, there's no calculus that's going to tell you that.

That's a huge leap.

I think you could say a manager is worth maybe one win, maybe two over the course of a season if he's really good.

But most serious stats analysts, they just don't believe in the manager as being that big of a difference.

I do think you can have a manager who's

bad and who loses a team and causes things to spiral out of control and keeps people from being on the same page.

I do think that can happen.

Certainly Murphy and counsel have been great and deserve the accolades, but I guess I wouldn't lay it at their feet.

I think that they are good, but not like difference makers.

Would it be more of the fact that like, you know, it's the inspiration, the attitude and the energy and then also who the managers picked to put in charge of like, you know, Chris Hook and those types of individuals, it's about who he staffs for his players.

That can give them more of the advantage than, than just having the person in the role.

Unquestionably huge value.

You're absolutely right.

I mean, Chris Hook seems like a guru at this point because ever since he's been in the organization, the pitching has been really great.

I would say this organization has had a lot of really good guys and lost them and the beat still goes on.

So it's almost hard to figure out who the brains of the operation is, you know?

Like, what is the essence?

You know, David Stearns was here and he's gone and the manager has changed and coaches have changed.

Like, who is the guiding this bus?

And on the other hand, there are a lot of guys in the Brewers organization who have been here a long time.

Their farm director, Tom Flanagan, has been there.

One of the assistant GMs, Carl Muller, has been here forever.

There is some continuity behind the scenes.

And the coaching staff is a really good component.

And they've experimented with the coaching staff, with the size of it, and different positions, and different people.

They've got like three hitting coaches now, you know, major league baseball kind of in general has gone up.

It used to be there was one hitting coach.

That's not the case anymore.

And so I think they're trying to find the right alchemy, like the number of people, the number of voices and having them all be on the same page is, is hard to do.

So that's again, where the manager comes in.

But yeah, like having Chris hook, Jim Henderson, I mean, nothing but success with those guys.

Pitching coaches are huge.

You got to figure that's a huge part of this.

Um,

I didn't realize that Milwaukee was the smallest market in baseball, or at least that's what it said in the Wall Street Journal.

I always put them kind of on the same level as St.

Louis or Pittsburgh, two other really good organizations.

How do you get from where the Brewers are now consistently good?

It's kind of the same with the Packers always making the playoffs every year, although they've won a Super Bowl, but how do they take that next step?

Cause I would think getting back to the World Series would be a remarkable feat.

And probably tougher than it was to do an 82 if you're a small market team without spending like the Yankees of the Dodgers

Yeah, that's absolutely right.

It requires you to be lucky quite honestly like if you are consistently good like the Brewers and they are They get go to the playoffs all the time David Stearns was ripped up and down for saying bites of the apple as an Idiom to describe what he was trying to go for when they traded Josh Hader and where everyone perceived that they

lesson to their team now with the idea of strengthening them consistently down the road.

You know, but he isn't wrong.

Like when you cannot spend like the Yankees and Dodgers, you will inevitably not have certain avenues of talent that you have that they have.

So you've got to get into the playoffs all the time, which they do.

And one of these years, things will probably break for them if they continue to do it.

Now, it's very easy to see why Brewers fans might not feel that way.

They just had their best team ever.

They got to the NLCS, they did everything right, like everything right.

And the Dodgers were healthy and they just crushed them.

And that's because the Dodgers were healthy.

The Dodgers, when they're healthy, are better than the Brewers and better than every team in baseball.

Maybe the Yankees have an argument there, but they needed breaks to happen that just didn't happen.

Now, I'll go back and say that series was a lot of close games.

It was a really low scoring series.

So ultimately, the Brewers still performed.

Their pitching still performed, but they were unable to break through.

I do think they need more home runs.

easier said than done.

That's just not something you can get, especially the way they build their team with defense first.

Those two things don't often go hand in hand.

So I think in the playoffs, you need that instant offense that they haven't had, but they're just not going to build that way.

They're not going to sell out for that component because they do believe it hurts them in the long run to not have that consistency every year, hoping that one of these playoffs things are just going to break their way.

They're just going to get everybody playing well at the same time.

It's tough to like

throw, you know, throw the glitter in the air, just hope.

But that's kind of, that's kind of how baseball has always worked.

Even for the really good teams, you know, it's, you wouldn't want to be the Mets right now.

The bets can spend on better than anyone under the sun, other than the top couple.

And it's not working for them.

So they do have something that puts them in the conversation.

They just, just need some breaks when they get there.

And speaking of payroll, the brewers have always been a team that's hovered around the middle, a little above, a little below, depending on the year.

Right now they're still kind of a little bit below than the, the, the,

the average of the MLB.

But one is, is that the, you know, the reason what the ways they build a team is that why they stick to that payroll time, that, that payroll amount, because you just mentioned the Mets and we just beat the Padres and we just beat the Yankees.

And these are, those are three top tier spending teams.

Are any of those teams trying to look at maybe like maybe we spend less money and do what they're doing or do they just say, no, just keep on writing checks.

Let's see where it goes.

Cause it doesn't make sense.

We spend between a hundred to a hundred and 13, $15 million a year and they're spending 350 and we're still beating them in series.

Not every time, but still it's so it shows that money doesn't always buy you wins.

Yeah.

I mean, some of that is just major league baseball.

The worst team can beat the best team somewhat regularly, you know, maybe 40% of the time, 35% of the time even.

So there's some of that baked into it.

The Padres, you kind of skated past them, but they're really, really interesting case study because they are a small market.

They're almost as small as Milwaukee.

I know people wouldn't think that, but San Diego is pretty small and they have splurged, you know, like not all the time, but they've gone for it where they've headed out some massive contracts.

And you know what?

They're a playoff team.

They're

They're not as good as the Brewers, and they are, I would say they probably haven't liked the success factor for what they've spent, but they're kind of interesting.

They are able to get to the playoffs, and you figure a team that good with those many stars could break through one of these times.

They lost against the Cubs last year.

The Brewers almost played the Padres in the NLDS.

There's more than one way to this.

The brewers just have this system though.

They found a way to make this work for them consistently.

And I think, I don't think they're going to shy away from that as long as they know they can consistently be in that position at the end of the year.

And then maybe, you know, maybe they do trade for that big bat once in a blue moon, or maybe they do have things go right and they're able to, you know, kind of power their way into the postseason.

We're going to keep the conversation going with a journal Sentinel sports writer, sports guru and friend, Mr. J. R. Radcliffe about the Brewers, Wisconsin sports and other things we may think of, depending on what it is, you just got to stick around to find out.

But more of that coming up on the other side of the break you are listening to and or watching nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

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Still ahead in the second hour, we talk about your answers to the question of the night, which is schedule Friday.

It's national pizza day.

What do you like on your pizza?

No answers are too controversial.

All are accepted.

We promise we love you and we believe in your journey, but we're going to keep talking to our guest right now.

He is a sports writer for the journal Sentinel.

He's also a good bud.

He is here talking about the brewers, Mr. JR Radcliffe.

And we were talking a lot about, you know, the mechanics within the house, you know, within MLB, but this, the story in the Wall Street Journal also talked about how the brewers record and style and pattern.

are influencing the way that static stats are being written and being interpreted specifically for Picotta.

I think I'm saying that correctly.

Picotta, Picotta.

But I mean, it's not just, I mean, and not only that too, like there was a couple of years ago that what the brewers were doing as far as like Craig council switching pitchers so many times, the MLB adapted to it and changed things, but the brewers seem to be doing their own thing.

And they don't, they, it's kind of, you know, people are kind of coming to them and fixing their ways around their habits as.

That's a very long-winded way of saying they just do their own thing.

Yeah, I think, I mean, every team does their own thing.

You know, when these projections come out, I think there are a lot of people who love them.

And then there's a lot of people who are like, why are we trying to project 162 games?

You don't even know who's on the roster yet.

Anything injuries, anything can happen.

You know, there's a fair amount of poo-pooing.

And that's fine.

That's fair.

I understand why people would feel that way.

But teams do this too.

Like they, they project.

how their team is going to do.

They are interested in these pre-season projections.

They want to know what the data says, and they're interested in what their opponents in the division are going to do.

And if it doesn't reflect reality, then you go back and tweak and figure out why it doesn't.

And Picota would be a really good example.

I know they're working on trying to figure out, OK, why do the brewers keep confounding us?

What aren't we seeing that we need to figure into our numbers?

Because their goal is to be as correct as possible.

They're not trying to, like,

you know, slam anybody or, you know, criticize it off season.

Like they legitimately are trying to get to the bottom of that.

And Pekota and everyone else who does these acknowledges right up front.

Like these are projections based on paper, based on the track records of these players, based on what we think is going to happen today as the roster stand today.

Obviously a lot can change.

I think what you find is adding a good player or two doesn't actually change your number all that much.

Usually it's usually, um, it's usually pretty consistent.

So.

Teams like the Brewers have their own systems, their own mechanisms.

They see things none of us see and they've been right because they keep winning.

So like whatever they're doing, they should keep doing that.

It is definitely paying off and it's definitely working.

It's up to sort of these independent guys to kind of arrive at their own conclusions and figure out how do we get closer to what actually ends up being reality, I guess.

Our guest is JR Adcliffe.

He is a sports writer and sports reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel doing great work there.

JR, I enjoyed your article about Sam Decker.

I hope I can jump off the brewers here for a second.

He took an assistant coaching job with South Carolina.

I have a kind of a weird question for you.

My heart is still broken over the two 2015 Badgers and that horrible Duke game.

If Decker didn't leave a year earlier,

Would they have been back in the final four?

So you're asking if Decker had not left in after 2015 or had left in 2014, even before?

No,

no, no.

He left in 2015.

He had another year, I remember.

And they still had Nigel Hayes.

I'm like, come on, what are you

doing?

Like they could still be competitive, you know?

Right.

Well, the 2016 team was really good because they were, they ended up going to the suite.

You know, of course, you got Bronson Kanig hitting, hitting that shot against Xavier and Nigel Hayes.

Or is that the Villanova one?

I get those years confused.

Um, yeah.

They went through, they went to the second weekend with those guys.

If Decker comes back, yeah, of course they're.

contenders to go to the final four.

That tournament is so random though.

I mean, honestly, the fact that those two journeys in 14 and 15 were so similar is honestly to me, the outlier, that's just crazy to me.

I mean, they beat, you know, they saw Baylor both years.

They saw, or not Baylor both years, Oregon both years.

They saw Baylor both years, Arizona both years, right in the elite eight, you know, a one-seater, two-seater.

They were out West, like all of the stuff aligning like it did, seeing Kentucky in the final four.

was wild.

So I would say, yeah, probably, but with the caveat that it's so random, who knows.

But I think it's cool that Decker is in an assistant coach now working with former Badgers assistant Lamont Paris, who's on staff for that 2014-2015 team.

And Pete, I will comfort you in knowing that my parents live in Lexington, Kentucky.

They're big Kentucky Wildcat fans.

They have tickets.

My dad

actually texted me after reading the Decker thing and he said, thanks for reminding me how 2015 went.

We're

still

not over it.

So as bad as it is for Badger's fans, Kentucky fans remember it too.

They are also very much pained by how that ended.

That really hurt.

They had to be, I mean, I, I took my kids to Madison with me for that big gay.

We watched it in the hotel room and Grayson Allen to this day.

Oh man, it hurts.

So thank you for the answer to Kentucky.

I was in Kentucky with my parents watching that unfold.

That's the amazing thing about sports fandom is like, as you guys are talking about these things, I'm now just thinking about like, you know, the NLCS last year and then the NLCS, you know, back in 20, what was it?

2018 when I may have had way too much red wine watching the brewers losing game seven.

But yeah, it's, it's, and then, but I will say this, I've talked to more than one person who after the Badgers lost when they, you know, after like 24, 40 hours of coming down, I mean, okay, they were like,

I'm going to root for high point now.

Like there's this thing about Wisconsin saying, we're not in it.

Okay, that sucks.

But I like this scrappy team that beat us.

Let's see what happens.

And then I watch them lose.

I'm like, Oh man.

Once they're out, I'm usually checked out of the tournament.

You know, it's like, congrats to my point, I guess.

Well, you can check out JR Radcliffe by going to JS online, check out all of his stories.

And thank you so much JR for coming by and talking Brewers and Wisconsin sports has always loved talking to you, having you here and hanging out.

You bet, guys.

Let's do this again sometime.

We'd love it.

Absolutely.

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