Are the White Sox tanking? Probably…

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.

Welcome to the show.

Seth and James here with you today, thanks so much for joining us on a Monday edition

of Playmakers, coming out of a very big sports weekend.

And I have that on my script, I can say that after every weekend.

That's sports nowadays, that is sports, all the time, all the time, never enough sports.

We're here to take your sports thoughts and feelings, give us a call, nobody made a

whole highlight from the sidelines, call up and join the conversation, 715-424-2600.

If you're listening on the Civic Media app, thank you so much for downloading the app, go

ahead and give us a call and join the conversation, we'd love to hear from you.

We will take the conversation anywhere you want to, everybody, and we're able to do that

thanks to our friends at Quality Post Pitching, getting your words out here in Rapids.

And we'll be joining us this Wednesday, we could also order Wednesday in our morning

show, run 845-I'll be sure to join us for that, everybody, and by local support, local

support those that support us.

We will talk rafters a little bit later.

The Jordan Love Contract drama that soap opera has ended, want to hear how you all feel

about it?

Also got some great things going on with other, of course, the Olympics and some of that.

But I want to start with the MLB trade deadline.

And what this means for teams, both buyers and sellers.

And I certainly want to get into what it means for the Milwaukee Brewers and that.

Seth, we're here now, and let's assume if anybody needs an update on the trade deadline

or moves or anything like that, that's perfectly fine, they call up and ask us and we'll

let you know.

Yeah, exactly.

But for you right now, Seth, assuming that our audience knows is an up to date on all

the trade deadline information and I thought I was coming in with some wicked hot news.

I was going to come in.

I have a great article from an upstanding sports writer about how the Milwaukee Brewers

are in the running and the number one team for Eric Fettie.

And then an hour ago, he goes to the darn Cardinals.

Got swiped.

Got swiped to the Cardinals.

In a three team deal, which included the Dodgers, and everyone looks like this one is more

everywhere.

Everyone got something they wanted on this one.

It really looks like.

Except white socks.

Except white socks.

Although they got a decent player in Vargas, he's a majorly ready player and then they

got three prospects as well, which is where the white socks are going right now.

I can guarantee they're going to be loading up on the farm system here.

And that's where I want to go.

Now I do think that there's some other interesting places and let's go ahead and find out where

you want to go.

Good afternoon.

You're on the air.

You're in the game.

Good afternoon, fellas.

I'm in the game.

All right.

How's it going?

Hey, you're just talking trade deadline.

I was looking stuff up, doing a little creative research before the call.

Apparently, the brewers are kind of eyeing up a Rocky's pitcher named Kel Cantrell.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Okay.

The latest thing that I saw, and I don't know if you had time to check it out, but about

a half hour ago, Baltimore Oreo named James McCann was hitting the face with the

95 mile an hour fastball.

Oh, yeah.

One of their catchers.

Yeah.

We did hear a little bit about that.

That's rough.

Hopefully he'll be all right.

Yeah.

Well, he got up and he grabbed his helmet.

They gave him a towel to take care of his bloody nose and he took first base.

Oh, yes.

Just incredible.

Guy loved these ball.

Tough guy.

Well, you know, to be fair, he doesn't get out there very often.

No, he's going to get his play in time.

He's going to get it.

Um, take any chance you can get, man.

I do want to, I do want to get your sports thoughts, but real quick, man, I do have to

thank you for the cards.

Uh, I'm glad you called up.

I had some cards waiting for me Monday when I came in and they were awesome, uh, pro set

cards.

I got a Walt Weiss here.

And I have not only a Jim McMahon, but a Randall Cunningham, and this may be my favorite

Randall card.

Oh, really?

There's like a couple of them with him in the run position like that.

That's a great.

They're an actual order and everything, man.

It's, oh, you made my day, brother.

Thank you so much.

No, hey, no, I knew, I knew you'd appreciate it, man.

I know you're a big fan.

Yeah, he's my guy.

He's my guy.

Uh, I still, I, I'm such a Randall believer.

I think he should be in the Hall of Fame.

That's how that's how we can make an argument.

You can make it argument.

Yeah, I don't think it's not first battle.

I'll be all rolled that boat with you.

There you go.

All right.

I appreciate it.

Uh, but what is your, uh, did you have any where direction you wanted to go today?

Anything on your mind as far as the sports calendar?

Uh, as far as the calendar, no, I got a fun stat and a couple fun questions for you guys.

All right.

Even better.

Well, I was just telling you about the guy that got hit in the face.

Uh, did you know that she called her with sack 250 times?

No, but actually, two, two hundred and fifty one, actually, uh, so I, well,

two hundred and fifty two after this conversation is going to say it's sacked again.

Yeah, yeah, I, I'm actually not a huge cutler hater, right?

But I, I also don't disagree with any of his hate.

It's just weird thing where I, and I felt that way when he was in Denver, too.

It's, I felt the exact, it's weird, too, because I felt the exact same way when he was in Denver,

as I did in Chicago about him, um, but I don't, I don't dislike him.

I didn't, I didn't like him.

I wasn't necessarily going to go to bat form and at the same time.

I, I also saw some skill.

It was a balancing.

Yeah, right, um, hearing him being sacked that many times.

That's a lot of sacks, man, but this, this made me happy.

In, in part, because in the NFL, when a team is bad, and if you have decent

management, not even good management, decent management, you can come back.

We see it all the time in the NFL.

And right now, as a Chicago fan, I have something in, in Halus Hall that I have

and had in, oh, maybe a decade or so.

I have hope.

I'm not saying it's good.

I'm not saying it's actually going to turn into anything or not, but it's a lot

more than most bear fans have had in a decade or two.

It's not necessarily optimism.

It's hope.

Yeah.

And I flipped that to the South side of Chicago, where the white socks are

training off talent left and right for a bunch of guys that we're basically

hoping for.

And you don't know, in major, in my biggest question at the major league

trade deadline, and I say this as a socks fan, obviously, I want to show my

bias completely in this.

But how often I, because I can't find any data on this, how often do teams

actually get better from being sellers, from eventually down the line,

these prospects work out, because that's what's supposed to be happening here.

It doesn't every other sport.

But in baseball, I'm racking my brain, trying to think of how many time, well,

I remember when they traded off their whole team and two years later, they won

the whole thing.

Who did that?

That's not an awful lot like the Marlins actually, except for they wanted,

then they got rid of their team.

Right.

Yeah, they do that twice.

Yeah.

I'm racking my brain, trying to think of anything, because otherwise,

all this feels like is the rich getting richer in the poor staying poor.

And that's baseball 101.

And it seems very lame and tired to me.

And that I cannot tell you how much I love the MLB trade deadline,

the NFL trade deadline, the hockey trade deadline.

I love these things, but this has got a real sore, like a nasty taste of my

mouth from this current MLB trade deadline, where I'm looking at this for the

first time in a long, big perspective.

And I don't know how much that if I'm a team of an Oakland fan, if I'm

if I'm one of the Toronto fan, if I'm a Southside fan, any of these things,

where I really, where's my hope?

Where is my, well, I trust this management to be making very good moves right

now and look at these these ace prospects.

Man, this three team trade in a granted Fed, he's not a number one

prospect or anything, right?

But they gave up Copac, they gave up him and the bringing in the number 17

prospect in the LA Dodgers farm system.

You know, where's the hope?

Where, where I don't know where you're supposed to go as a fan?

Not, not to change it up completely, but did you, I see that Prince Fielder's

son was signed to the Brewers?

No, I did see that.

Yes, that's like, yeah, that did see that.

That's really cool.

Yeah, that would be a rare three genera.

If he gets to the big leagues, that's a rare three generation.

That's only happened a couple of times.

So ripkins.

No, no, the Boons, the Boons, it was Ray, then it was Bob, and then it was

Aaron and Brett.

So not the Santiago's either.

No, no, no, for the Alamars, yeah, or the Alamars.

I was thinking of where they're going.

What were your other stats, bud?

Brett Farve was a sack 525 times.

I believe he ran into the sacks, man.

I believe it's the record.

I think it is.

Oh, but yeah, my two questions for you to ponder is at what point does

a jersey become a throwback jersey?

Is it when the team moves?

Is it when the player moves on from said team?

How many years do you get it?

Wonderful question.

That's a good one.

Wonderful question.

Yeah.

Yeah, and this one I might have already asked you, but both of you, it's for both

of you, would you rather throw out a bad first pitch or butcher the national anthem?

Oh, bad first pitch.

Excellent questions.

Oh, we're going to answer them so we can keep the phone lines open.

We appreciate you, man.

You take care.

You guys have a good Monday, all right?

You too, brother.

You too appreciate you.

And thank you again for the cards.

Best listeners and radio.

Phone lines are open 715 424 2600.

First question.

What were you going with that one, so well, the jersey thing.

I would say what it's the waters have been muddied because of

teams doing all these different uniforms now, doing all these kinds of throwback.

Yeah, different, you know, like, oh, look, we're the Brooklyn Dodgers now or we're,

you know, something like that.

So that that's muddied up for me a little bit.

I am always I'm always a fan of when they do the pan in the crowd of the fan

wearing the jersey of the player who's no longer there.

Yes, they still say, what jersey do I got?

Oh, I got this one.

Oh, well, it doesn't matter.

I'm just going to put it on, you know, it's only better if it's a random player.

It's a guy that wasn't even an all-star or anything.

You just happen to have his jersey.

I don't know if this will help for the answer or not, but I will say one of the things

that I learned early on in my radio career at doing my own classic rock gig was a tech

in all technicality by the science of things that for the moment of song is released.

10 years later, it officially becomes classic.

Okay.

So that opened up the avenue for us to open up our playlist a little bit more in the classic rock genre and stuff.

I don't know if this counts for a jersey, but I would be fine with that as a, you know,

10 years old.

A jersey's 10 years ago are considered throwbacks, right?

Because let's be honest, I mean, the time is moving faster than it's ever moved,

even though it is not no different now than it was a hundred years ago, right?

But it is moving faster, right?

And and with the way that jerseys change as fast as they do now,

maybe there is a little more to that.

I've put way more time into this that our caller actually was asking for,

but you can't ask me any question to not get me to go deep on it.

How about one of those guys that like spent like two days with the one team?

Yeah.

And then those jerseys are the good ones.

Like Mike Piazza's Marlin's jersey.

He was there for like a week, maybe I got you on this one.

Yeah.

I wanted a, a, a,

a kangaroo feet junior white socks jersey.

I want to one of those so bad, so bad.

Maybe the only thing I wanted as much as that was a Bo Jackson white sock jersey for

a man.

I mean, he was actually for a couple years, but still everyone remembers him with the

royals. He actually had a decent time with with the white socks,

considering he had a robotic hip.

Yes, exactly.

Considering that, yeah, Bo Jackson did, even with that.

Yeah, I think that he had a decent everything.

Yeah, he wasn't what he could have been.

And the second question I kind of have to disqualify myself,

because I've actually thrown out a bad first pitch.

Okay, that's right.

You know, after now, again, shout out to the catcher because he got the ball.

He made me look good, but it was way high.

Yes, that was a ball, baby.

That was a ball.

If there's ever been a ball thrown in baseball history, so they made me look good.

The national anthem part, I, I, to me, I am too much of a homer.

I weigh too much of a lover of this country and stuff.

And I would never be able to look like my, my family in the eye afterwards and stuff.

But I would, in my defense, I would say, why did you put me out there?

Did you have nobody else?

Nobody.

The first rap version of the first spoken word version of it, because I would

be like, William Schatner.

I wouldn't want to dishonor.

Oh, say, oh, say, can you see?

Oh, say, can you see?

The dawn's early light.

I would, I would be back.

And during it, while I was doing it, I would be hiring a publicist and,

and apologizing to them at the same time, my phone, real sorry, I'm singing.

Real sorry about this.

Can, how to find publicist?

How to get yourself out of hot water?

All right, all right.

A couple of, a couple of things here.

Okay.

So the bad pitch only lasts for a little bit.

Now, it should, it should get some comedy, you know, after people were, it's been recorded

and people will play it back over and over and over again.

But hey, it's funny.

Rooting the national anthem, we have found not funny at all.

No, okay, remember the whole Roseanne bar that we still talk about that first thing.

I think of, and then the recent thing we had, the, the, the home render me.

So that, no, that's bad.

That's not a good thing at all.

So definitely, I'd rather throw it a poor, yeah, first pitch.

Absolutely.

Second thing.

So there was a twins radio announcer.

Dan was John Gordon.

He was him and her car Neil were together for many, many years.

And every time they, he mentioned the person who threw out the ceremony of first pitch,

he, of course, it was radio and he said, so and so throughout the first ball.

And it was a strike right down Broadway, every single time he would say that, of course,

we didn't know.

Yeah, yeah, it's radio.

But I love the ideas.

Every time it's a strike, you know, that's great.

That's good, that's like, that's a good analysis right there.

Two, when I was saying before about the MLB trade deadline, how much do these teams get better?

We already know in, in theory that the teams get, the buyers are going to get some, yes.

But do, do teams get better from these prospects, right?

No, certainly I tried really hard overnight, even this morning and even a little bit before we went on air,

just trying different search engines, just trying different reporters.

And I could not find any data on this.

So there is no, to be fair, no data to tell us one way or the other.

That's really hard to measure.

But yeah, I'm not surprised that there's nothing out there.

Yeah, it's a fair, even with baseball and it's how crazy it is about stats and numbers and everything.

It's not too surprising.

But it is still, I can't let go of the thought.

It's haunting me because I really love baseball.

And one of the things that I always thought was baseball, one of the things that keeps me from like

baseball being my number two sport or something like that is some of these things like the no salary cap.

How much is it true that any team can really truly be great?

Some of these other factors that I think we kind of almost, much like a lot of things in baseball,

these things that we just accept because well, it's always been that way.

Guy hits a home run, throws his bat.

Of course, he's going to get hit when he comes up next.

That's just baseball, even though it's stupid.

Oh, you just showed me up.

Well, I think the best way to handle this is to put you back on base.

That makes a lot of sense.

Right.

The corner of the unwritten rules, right?

Yeah.

And for the corner quote, logical game, oh, baseball, it's a lot smarter than football.

It's a lot smarter than other sports.

Yeah, that makes a lot of smile.

Wow, that's just perfect logic right there.

In fact, let me hit the next two couple of batters.

That'll really show us.

Let's have both teams come out of the dugout and just stand around.

I'm going to intentionally walk you.

That's how, ah, now you can't hit one off me.

That showed you.

Oh, wait, that's the logic of that.

That's the logic of that we're talking about here.

I marvel at a GM that has to sit there and think, well, I got to get something.

I got now, I think guys on a one year deal, I get that.

That's one thing.

But there's certain trades that, like for the majority of these, don't make any

darn sense to me.

I'm looking at these and I think that the jazz chism trade made a little bit of

sense for both parties, certainly.

Uh, I don't know because again, it involves prospects.

Exactly.

And I'm wide and jazz, it says an up to no near this year.

So who knows what even what the Yankees are getting for that.

But yeah, they're not even sure what position they're going to put in.

Exactly.

Uh, the only in granted, there's a lot of time left here in, in, you know,

trade news.

Yep.

The CUB Padre trade.

Mm hmm.

Or a Tampa Bay trade.

The Cubs in Tampa,

Vatres is the only trade that actually kind of made a little bit of sense to me,

even though I didn't like it necessarily because I didn't see either team getting

better and either team is really in a place to.

That was kind of weird.

Yeah, that was an odd trade.

Yeah, because I mean, yeah, it's not parades.

I would say at least right now is a better hitter than Christopher Morrell.

But what are the Cubs?

I mean, are they in it now?

Is that what they're, are they going for it?

They're at like 500.

Yeah.

Does that mean they're just going to try for the wild card?

I guess I don't know.

And that's a great, that's one of the big questions I have.

And especially with what the, the, the cardinals just made.

And yeah, the, the brewers have made, uh, they got that puck, uh, I believe, um,

there's a middle or lever they brought in, uh,

AJ puck for the, he went to Arizona, actually.

No, that's right.

Okay.

I thought they brought in somebody, uh, at least one pitch.

They did.

Yes, but I can't remember his name up to him.

Um, so they bring in that guy and they've got, um, that so far I still have seen,

I haven't seen one move that is bigger than having Devon Williams come back.

Exactly.

I am not sure.

Yeah.

Uh, I, uh, anybody, not the, uh, Randy Arosa trade, um, not, uh, including the

Mariners getting, uh, Justin Turner, um, the Yankees getting jazz, any of these

things, I haven't seen anything bigger than, okay, well, Milwaukee's getting the

best, maybe the best relief was second, third, top five, at least best

reliever in baseball coming back.

Yes.

That I don't see anything, anything bigger than that right now.

So if I'm the brewers organization, I do feel like I got to do something, but I

don't, I don't feel like it's at, if the trade deadline passes and we don't get

one of these guys or anything, I'm not as worried as I would be in years past

right because of the Devon Williams thing.

And you don't want to bet the farm either, literally the farm because you've

got a lot to really good young talent.

So you know, this, this whole thing that we're talking about here, it makes me

wonder in, in past years in baseball, they never called it tanking.

Yeah.

When a team would deliberately lose in order to get draft picks because it's like, wow,

it takes so long to develop them and you don't know what you're going to get

because it takes so long to develop college and high school players.

Okay.

We have seen teams do this and be successful.

The Houston Astros in 2013 and 2014 were terrible, but they did it on

purpose.

They, they did it so they could get the draft picks and it worked for them.

The Baltimore Orioles did the exact same thing.

They changed for a couple of years, got the draft picks.

And now they're like, where they are right now and they've got the best

triple A team baseball, right?

There you go.

There's some examples.

So there's some examples, but the problem is is that you have, you make your

fans suffer through those bad years for the chance to be able to do something.

But now worked out for them.

It doesn't always work out.

The Chicago White Sox are a great example of that.

They were in the same discussions as the Astros and the Orioles.

Look at these guys.

They've got all these young prospects and then it's going to be a great

lineup and they got some great pitchers and it didn't work out for whatever

reason.

Injuries, they players didn't perform like they were supposed to.

That sort of thing.

And now you're where they are right now.

And I'm kind of thinking they're basic.

They're back to tanking again.

I really think that's where they're going to be, which is going to stink for

the next two years because they're not going to be doing anything.

I was just stuck for some reason listening to you and then also in the back of

my mind, thinking of that New York Met's starting rotation, starting a

pitching that they had back in the 2014, 15.

Yeah, it feels like it was yesterday that they had a syndigarred,

de gram, the dark.

Matt Harvey, man, hard.

Like, just in, okay, well, that's the team, the beat for the next couple of

years.

I really thought so.

I really believe that in 2016.

Yeah, same thing.

That was another team that I thought, wow, they're going to get to the

world series, at least, you know, one or more, maybe two times.

And that never worked out either, which to me screams more and more,

you have to win now.

Yes, there isn't a yet.

There is no tomorrow and baseball at least.

Yep, I would have been thinking about this.

I've been thinking about, interestingly, the Pittsburgh pirates, okay?

Paul Skins is on another level right now.

They have Jones.

They have the other guy who's amazing to really good starters.

Who knows how long they're going to last?

You got these two guys.

I say go in right now.

Pirate trade everything, get some bats, get something, go go for it.

Because you have no clue with pitching, especially how long it's going to be

until something bad happens to them.

What expert had the Rangers winning the world series last year?

You know, I mean, you just why if you get into the playoffs and almost

everybody gets into the playoffs now, it could be anybody.

It really could be anybody.

Absolutely.

Why not put the kid out there because it's triad.

Yep.

I am not wishing any of this.

But next year, either one of those kids, both those kids could be on Tommy John.

Yep.

Well, in this day and age, it's just we're just waiting for that to happen.

We've been doing this since Verlander back in the day when he was young.

And we just thought the same thing about him.

I remember them saying that about him.

I could not agree with you more, man.

There is the only tomorrow is for the white socks is for teams like that.

Yeah. If you've got talent, I mean, I'm not talking one guy, but when you're

talking about Pittsburgh there, I think is maybe one of the best examples of that.

The best example of this because it isn't just that you got crews at short.

You've got Brian Reynolds.

You got other really good players, but you're just missing a few things like a

couple of like power bats.

That's what you need.

Go for it, man.

And I understand that look, it can kill your team.

If you did, gut your front, your front system.

Next man up, if you got a good farm system, you can always find talent.

Look at, look at so many of the teams in the race, the perfect example of the Tampa Bay

race. Oakland keeps kicking out talent.

They got nothing.

They don't even have a stadium.

Their orders deliberately been to try to destroy his own teams.

So you get, you know, to move the kind of thing and they still have

taken out all star talent.

Like, I mean, you can do it.

I get rid of these prospects.

And it's not to make light of these kids or these prospects.

No, no, no, no, no.

But it's a business.

And the business is winning.

The business is the world series to do.

Get to the world series.

Do everything you can to get to that, especially with what you're talking about with

the young talent that you just don't know what's going to happen to.

No, especially pictures.

You don't know as Cub fans what they thought of Kerrywood.

Yeah.

Mark prior, Mark prior.

They had two of the best in the game.

They got to the playoffs one year and that was it.

We'll wrap up before we go to time out with our status.

The show and we're actually going to go in a little bit of a different direction

set as because when we come back, I want to talk a little Olympics and our

stat of the show is taking us back to Paris where Kevin Durant has never

dropped 20 points.

I 100% from the field in any half of his NBA career or his college career.

Not in regular season, not in post season.

He just dropped 21 on eight of eight shooting off the bench in the first half

against Serbia.

Incredible.

That's a great stat.

Definitely at the closer to the end in the beginning of his career.

Absolutely.

What are the greatest shooters in NBA history has never had a quarter like that in his

career.

I you don't do that if you're just phoning it in.

Oh, no, you don't do that.

Even if the talent level isn't necessarily what you're used to or anything.

You do that because you love ball.

You do that because you love this country.

You love being out there.

You want to represent it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, how cool is that to see these like it's it's one thing to see these four

year athletes.

These athletes are gunna for four years to get to this moment and everything to

see these million dollar athletes carrying maybe not as much or just as

much is always is never going to get old to me.

Like that's so cool to me.

Does does the here's a question for you?

Does the the and the basketball team for the US have the oldest Olympians?

Interesting question.

I don't think they do because I think there's some other sports in Olympics that

actually have older folks in them.

Sure, but still interesting.

I was going to say because it's they're not a lot of spring chickens on the

the the basketball team for the US this year.

A little longer the long of the tooth.

And we have normalized 40 year olds dominating in their sport with Tom Brady,

Leonel Messi, some are not messy, but some of these athletes and everything.

Let it not be lost on anybody that LeBron James and what he is doing at this age

and right now and what he's probably going to do in the NBA season and everything.

It isn't about liking or disliking the guy.

It's just about like if you love sports,

what he is averaging, what he is doing at it,

we're averaging a double double in all these things at his age.

It's one thing, but it's also LeBron started out in the biggest light on him was

while he passes in the last seconds of the game.

Oh, he's not that guy you can count on in the last seconds of the game.

His legacy is going to go down as a closer as the guy that you want the ball in his

hands at the end of the game.

Not just because he might make the shot like Jordan,

but because he's going to make the right decision in that moment.

Exactly.

Much like Jordan did passing to Kerr or some things like that.

It's, I'm not a, I'm not a big James guy.

I'm not a big LeBron guy or anything, but I am enjoying these,

these last years of his career because much like it's similar to how it was with Kobe.

I liked Kobe when he came out.

I thought Kobe was fun and exciting.

And I, and as a, a kind of dark horse, Laker fan,

I kind of liked some of the things that were going on there.

And then he to be blunt with everybody gets in trouble with the rape

allocations and everything.

And that is not, that's a line in the sand for me.

Yeah, I don't cross that.

You do something like that.

You're done to me.

I'm done with you.

But then last year of his career and he's, he's, he's very,

he's owning a lot of these things and conversations about what happened and,

and being very honest about it.

He's becoming slowly like the face of like women's young athletics.

And stuff in basketball and everything being a coach and with his daughters and some of that stuff.

And as a player, I'm enjoying like, well, dang it.

He was good because there was a guy that was fun to watch.

And he goes and pulls 80 points in the game.

And it's just like, man, that's guy's fun to watch.

I'm, I'm feeling that with LeBron right now where I'm not,

I'm not the guy I want to go out and have a beer with.

Not necessarily one of my favorite players or anything,

but you have to just marvel at greatness sometimes.

You do 100% and he's, and it's one thing if he's doing it in the NBA season to try

to get the Lakers to another championship and him another one on his resume and all that.

Doing it in the Olympics.

That's, that's different, man.

That's something else.

There's something else to it.

Yeah, it gives, it's fun part of the game.

We're going to take our first time out.

Well, he got one more left.

We'll come back.

We'll have some more fun.

We're able to do that.

Again, thanks to our friends at Quality Plus printing,

getting your words out here and what's got some rapids.

Welcome back, everybody to WFHRs Playmakers.

Seth and James here with you.

Thank you so much for joining us, everybody.

Phone lines are wide open.

Call up and join the conversation.

715-424-2600.

Love to hear from each and every one of you.

Your sports thoughts, your sports feelings,

getting the game.

Call up and join us.

Just continuing to kind of wrap up our baseball talk,

at least for now, unless you guys want to talk some more.

Yep.

Burr is of course still in first in the NL Central six games up on the Cardinals.

Pirates, Cubs, Reds, all teams to look at,

especially if, I don't know if this is lost on anybody,

but with counsel in Chicago,

one thing I certainly seemed to remember with Milwaukee

being a second half team.

I don't know if that's going to carry over

to the north side of Chicago or not,

but it's going to be interesting

got Cody Bellinger coming off the injury list

in some of those things.

So we'll see what happens.

But all I mean is you can make an argument

for any of these teams being a challenge to the Brewers.

How do you feel out there as brewer fans?

Are you worried about any of these teams?

I would imagine that St. Louis is a team

that none of us ever count out.

They are the monster at the end of the movie.

You need to empty the clip.

You need to make darn sure that that monster

is not getting back up.

Yeah, and they just made a decent move too

with get Fettie and to get Tommy Fam,

which is kind of lost in the shuffle there, but yeah,

they have improved.

So what's up, Brewers?

What's what you get to do?

We got some time left before the deadline,

but I am curious to see them do something.

I don't think you can just rest on Devin Williams coming back.

Do you think you have, or the moves that they have made?

The big change for me is, Yelich,

we have no idea how long he's going to be out

and that's the problem.

You need, he was such a big part of the offense.

You need someone one or two people to help at least.

As long as the White Sacks are probably not going

to be getting back any of these,

any prospects that I can really hang my hat on

or build hope on, I'd love to see them trade Roberts

or Crochet to the Brewers.

If anything, just to see the Brewers get some guys like that

and to see those guys actually flourish and do something,

I will say one thing I'm looking forward to

is seeing Michael Copack in the playoffs.

That kid is awesome.

Like, he's in much.

I know he's a really middle of reliever and stuff,

but I'm a fan of his and his perseverance.

His story is interesting to me and to see him pitching

very well right now.

I had an Immaculate inning not that long ago.

It'll be interesting to see him in playoff contention.

Much like we talk about with other players,

oh, it'll be cool to see them actually in the playoffs.

Well, he's not the guy at the duck with the Dodgers.

He's just another one in the bullpen.

I think that's going to help him a lot.

Yeah, that arm rested.

I can't imagine.

He isn't up to carry the load for the entire bullpen.

I think you make the argument and no sport

doesn't matter more, a player wanting to be there

then in baseball.

It's a grind.

It's a long haul.

There is no short games.

You've got to enjoy where you are.

I guarantee you, you are going to see a happier jazz chism

than you may have ever seen in his career.

A much more complacent playing along,

working well with others kind of player.

A lot of those things you're going to see.

Actually, Labor Torres is the guy who's acting

like a jerk right now.

He's probably not going to make it to Wednesday.

And you talk about a guy who, in a contract year,

who needs to, who's got more heirs at third

than any other player in baseball right now.

And he's acting like he's an all-star.

And he should be given some kind of like that.

You have some self-awareness here, man.

Those are the Yankees.

You think they're going to come on.

They're going to get rid of you as soon as they can.

They will find a way to move you around

to get rid of you, especially, like you said,

in that organization.

But I am curious from Brewer fans out there

if you're nervous or wonder about any of these teams

coming up.

I'm kind of curious about that.

Call up, let us know what you're thinking.

And certainly, your trade deadline thoughts,

if you have any.

Otherwise, moving on to Raptor News.

Raptors, of course, no game today.

Very well-deserved day off.

That's probably just for just as well.

Considering the weather.

Yeah, very true.

Yeah, very true.

Good point.

Looking at the Great Lakes West Division,

no real changes from last time we joined you.

Walsall Woodjucks in first place at 17 and 6.

Madison Mallard's in second at 16 and 8.

And your Raptors in third at 14 and 11.

We'll keep an eye on the Rockers because they are 8

and 2 in their last 10 and playing very well right now.

Right.

But the Raptors have a chance.

They've got a bunch of chance here right now.

They are only four games back and that

is almost nothing in baseball.

They're taking on Walsall two games starting tomorrow.

You have your future in your hands in these couple of games here.

Again, how are you feeling about the Raptors?

How are you feeling about how things are looking for them?

These next, every game is a playoff game

for the Raptors going forward.

There's no getting around that.

And then there's a lot of turnover right now.

A lot of guys having to leave and stuff.

So there's that as well.

You've got to keep that in mind for the last couple of weeks.

We want to thank Tyler, heading us like in the first two

weeks of the season was talking about how

he felt about the second half because a lot of our players

were staying when a lot of other teams weren't.

Shout out to him on that.

Could have a big effect.

Impact, yeah.

We're going to find out starting tomorrow

because our Raptors are in Walsall

to take on the Wood Chucks.

First place, Wood Chucks in the division.

And then having them at home on Wednesday.

The Wood Chucks are having a heck of a year.

I mean, their whole season has been very good.

I like to talk a little trash back and forth

because of the rivalry.

Shout out to them in that market.

It's great to see any of our teams doing well.

Exactly.

And credit to that front office too.

And the work that they're doing over there.

And on Thursday, we're going to be hosting Calamazoo

with a back-to-back Knightswall host Calamazoo on Thursday

and Friday, Saturday, 2.50 game at Green Bay, Sunday,

12.50 game in Green Bay.

And then on Monday, hosting Minnesota

at 6.20 right here at Winterfield.

Well, they threw a random game at the end of the season.

They're in a different division, which is really weird.

Hey, whatever.

You know, it's weird there.

It's also weird to have Christmas in July,

but it's one of our favorite things and favorite promotions.

Christmas in July coming up this Wednesday

as we take on Wassa at home.

It's also winning Wednesday.

Keep those things in mind.

Oh, yeah.

I think I'm going to the game on Wednesday.

It's going to be a fun one.

Yeah, it should be good.

And I do want to send a shout out to our rafters.

We are obviously homers around here.

We love the rafters.

We've played every game the rafters have ever played

right here at this station.

That's right.

We're really proud of that.

And we're going to keep doing that.

And part of why we're proud of that

is not only a 2006 ding championship

or every year it feels like we're in the running,

every year it feels like it.

I can't remember years where,

well, they're O and 20.

And you got no chance or anything.

It just feels like this organization

just does a good job getting kids to come to this area.

And speaking of those kids,

when is the last controversy you had

with any of these kids?

None, not at all.

Not just now, but in the history of the rafters.

That's really saying something.

It truly is, and we do kind of normalize it,

but it's really amazing to think of.

And then there are things like the rafters do

when they work with local nonprofits,

where we have, of course, the United.

We can event that we look forward to every year

and stuff like this.

The rafters organization have several promotions

that will help us celebrate some of the heroes

in this special community.

The first heroes recognize will be

those working in health care.

And August 1st, health care workers

get into the rafters game free by showing their badge.

Very cool.

Fans will also be treated to a special health care worker,

Roscoe Bobbillette at 6.35.

I love the theme, Roscoe.

Bobbillette's is awesome.

Yeah, we need more of them up here.

We don't have enough, man.

We need more after a collection up here.

We need more of those.

And of course, there is August 6th, which is,

or I'm sorry, I want to do this in order here.

Other special ones, August 2nd,

heroes in youth baseball, players, coaches,

and umpires with rafters, youth sports association,

get in free fireworks at the end of the game.

Very nice.

August 5th, military Monday,

honoring our retired and active duty military

with free entrance into the game, as well as free hot dog,

special military jerseys will go on auction,

and keep in mind those, they've done this differently now

where you can start auctioning on the online.

As soon as they open up, you can get down on those bits.

Yeah, I love those special jerseys.

Those are very good.

It's a sucker for those.

And earlier today on Midday Magazine,

we had Detective Dovenin with us.

We were talking with Eric about National Night Out,

honoring our local law enforcement,

doing it a little different this year.

And if you asked me and Eric and I were thinking,

man, this is a pretty cool way to do this.

This has done throughout the whole country,

National Night Out, all of our local police departments.

Why not combine our rafters with this

and be able to have not only a really good time

but bring some awareness and some attention

to those wearing the badge.

This is a great night where we got to honor

the local law enforcement, attend the National Night Out

festivities in the parking lot prior to the game,

three to six, and receive free entrance

into the game for doing so.

Wow.

Fans will also be treated to a special police officer,

Roscoe Boppel had to get one of those, man.

I want to say a shout out to Gamber Johnson

for sponsoring this event and helping with the ticket sales

and with some of that.

This is why we encourage you to buy local support,

local support those that support us.

I'm not just talking about WFHR when I say support us.

I'm talking about our community.

That includes the rafters and things like this.

That's a point organization doing this,

a shout out to them for doing so.

That's pretty cool.

We'll talk more about this as we get closer to it.

Also, on August 7th, celebrating our heroes in education,

teachers get into the game free by showing their badge.

They will honor the Skyward Unsung Hero of the Year,

Janine Clemen from Lincoln High School.

Ooh, yeah.

The teacher over there, shout out to Janine.

Fans will be treated to a special

our teacher, Roscoe Boppelette.

There will be random prize drawings at each hero's game.

There will also be more details to come.

They do a great job with these with promotions

and soda and food deals.

There's so much to find out at northwoodsleag.com,

northwoodsleag.com.

And if you can't make it to the ballpark,

keep in mind, ever hit every pitch,

every winner rafter baseball right here

where it belongs at WFHR.

Yes, indeed.

Gonna be a fun, no matter what happens,

it's gonna be a fun marathon to the end of the season.

Yeah, sure it is.

I feel very confident saying that this team

is going to be competitive running to the end of the season.

Yeah.

And we're at least gonna be in the running.

I don't see that changing.

And we got some talent out there.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Man, I forget his name, but there's a guy who's been on a tear.

He has an OPS of 1 over 1100.

I know exactly who you're talking about.

And in 27 games, he's been on fire.

I mean, this kid is, wow.

Yeah.

You've got a lot of fun players there.

I have a feeling that we may be looking back at this team

and some of the talent on this team

and being like, oh, I remember when they played here.

Yep.

It's gonna be pretty fun to see.

It's a couple of the bigs right now,

as a matter of fact, yeah.

That's right.

It's right.

Follow along at northwoodsleague.com,

northwoodsleague.com.

We will take our final time out,

but that's okay.

I think we can make it to the end of the game

with one of the time-outs.

I think we're not wasting a mental thing.

We'll find out.

Coming up on Playmakers,

probably brought to you by Quality Plus Printing.

Welcome back, everyone.

Two Playmakers on WFHR.

Time to rock.

Time to rock.

Oh, well.

Time to rock.

We, nobody's perfect.

We appreciate you being back, everybody.

Judges gave you that one, 8.5.

And the French Judges zero.

Come on, yeah.

Come on.

I want to talk a little Olympics before we wrap up.

We are going to take you to the top of the hour.

I'd rather talk to you.

Call up 715-424-2600.

Join the conversation.

We'd love to hear from you, everybody.

We can not finish our show without mentioning

that Jordan Love's contract has been signed.

Our National Day of Drama is over.

It does look like with...

You give it a rich man.

With the timing of it, it does seem like that,

if not, this was the case.

It was just a coincidence,

which I have a hard time believing,

but waiting for the two a deal to get done

and kind of going above that.

They had the same representation.

Yeah.

I'm thinking there wasn't.

Yeah.