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Promotion valid for first express delivery order, $50 minimum, subject to availability. Restrictions apply. Good morning, everybody. Welcome into the Winkler Verse. I'm Bart Winkler.
It's Wednesday, March 11th. Six years ago, today, the world shut down. And uh I think I think in time We're going to look back at Tuesday, March 10th. as a pretty awful day in sports history. As well, it was a crazy Tuesday.
It was the most random. of Tuesdays that you can have in sports. One thing that I have been doing still. is I will think about What I would be doing. If I still had the national show.
So I still think about. Whether it's during the day. or whether it's at night. How would I prepare? And how would I react?
to things that are happening. This was a You know It was a job, yes. And I'm not here to wax poetic or to woe is me. But it was a lifestyle. For two years.
I constantly was prepping the entire day. And then would go do a show. At night while things were happening. which I found to be exciting. But one of the things I worried about was, will something slip through?
The cracks. And Tuesday night, the 10th. There was so much going on. In the moment. That it would have been.
It was a tough night just to be on my couch. And watch these games. While sipping some drift. A courtesy, happy place, hemp, a courtesy, promo code, Bart, a courtesy 25% off. Every order Bart at checkout.
But I think the big story for most of Tuesday Was especially around dinner time, was it? was Max Crosby. Um is no longer going to be a Raven. The Ravens made a deal. Traded a couple of first-round picks, get Max Crosby.
They get him into Baltimore. They do a physical. And then they say, no. Not good enough. The legal tampering period is when this happens.
So they agreed to this thing on Monday. They find out on Tuesday they're going to say no. And free agency officially starts today.
So there could be a domino effect. Of things from this? Could Dallas say, oh no, now we want him, we're going to make a trade, and now we don't trade Rashawn Gary for a fourth and all this kind of stuff. See, I don't like the legal tampering period because one thing it does. It allows teams to hear the criticism of their move.
And if you got a really online you know, front office, and there are those out there. They could think a fourth round pick for Rashad Gary, but maybe we should call this off. Maybe we should pull back on this. Doesn't look like any of that other stuff is going to happen. We'll see.
And it's just the Raiders that are screwed. Although now they still have Max Crosby. Maybe Max Crosby has a change of heart. The Raiders have spent a lot of money elsewhere, including Quay Walker.
So I don't know how that's going to play out, but what I do know is. How do you trust the Ravens? Plenty of reports saying people in league circles. Do not find this to be on the up and up at all. Occam's razor, man.
Simplest solution is usually the easiest. Because the Ravens turned around right away and signed Trey Hendrickson to a long contract.
So they had Max Crosby. Potentially realize they could get Trey Hendrickson. And then thought, well, I mean, the guys are comparable enough that. If the salary is the same, we could get the free agent without giving up two first-round picks. Let's do that instead.
Let's say something. about his knee. Um I wouldn't deal with the Ravens after this, or at least there'd be attacks. Like, yeah, you want my guy, it's going to be more picks. But I don't know if this is more of a problem of the system.
with the legal tampering period. Or if it's a problem with the Ravens, two things can be true. Yeah. But I wouldn't trust the Ravens. At all.
If I was a Ravens fan, I'd kind of be pumped. I don't know that I would be like, well, what we did was illegal. Because I think in time, people forget about this kind of stuff. Once something happens where they need a player on the Ravens or the Ravens are the only willing trade partner, it will go back to how it was. I don't think this is going to be a stain that the Ravens wear on them for a long time.
We one have a short memory Culture. And two, I think, you know, there's only 32 teams. You can only blackball one team. for so long. And it usually only takes one other team to to plow through that um black balling.
If you will.
Some bullshit though. I mean it is some bullshit. It is some bullshit. If I was a Raiders fan, I think I'd be pumped. Looks like they're going to be able to work everything out from what I can tell.
But man, that is insane.
So that would have been the majority of the show. On Tuesday night, or at least what I would have planned. Talk about the Ravens, talk about the free agency thing. And then there were other things going on. Um there was first of all The World Baseball Classic.
And I've been into this. I've been watching. good parts of every game, Friday, Saturday, Monday. And then I knew they played Italy. On Tuesday, but I didn't.
plan to watch it. Because I didn't figure it mattered.
So they're up 3-0, and they're in a group, and you figure, okay, if you're up 3-0, you should be good. It's a five-team group, though. And I don't think what I thought was. Because a lot of group play, whether it's soccer or basketball or pool play or hockey, whatever. It's four teams.
This is five teams.
So there is the possibility that. Three teams in one group can be three and one. And so I had kind of assumed that they clinched. And then I saw somebody tweet. That Italy was up 8-0.
And I was like, oh, well. Yeah, USA probably doesn't care. And then the tweet continued to read: and they might get eliminated out of the tournament. What?
Okay, so Mark DeRosa. Really fucked up on this one. Mark DeRosa really, really made. Ah, mistake. This is on Hot Stove.
He's with some of his buddies. On a hot stove. And he's doing an interview with Vascurgeon and Harold Reynolds. In the day on Tuesday. And Marc DeRosa, see I mean, you can listen to it.
It seems pretty clear to me. That he thought they had already qualified. In fact, he says.
So as much. You got nine bodies ready to roll today, I would imagine. Absolutely. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to get some guys off their feet, no question about it.
I'd like to get Goldie a start. And, you know, he has been awesome, just a leader of men behind the scenes with Aaron Judge. I'd like to get him in there. I'd like to get Gunner in there again. Um, ton of respect for Italy.
It's it's weird. We want to win, we want to win this game, even though our tickets punched to the quarterfinals because. Mexico plays Italy actually tomorrow.
So this. The way the schedule lines up, this is an important game for us. Nolan McClain will start. He's on the bump and he's good to go. He's an absolute beast and I expect him to throw the heck out of me.
So he knew that Italy played Mexico. He knew of that. He knew it was an important game. But he is he is saying he said the words. He said, he said.
You heard it. He said we have already qualified. for the quarterfinals.
So that started to circulate during the day. Or during the game at least. Because they're losing and everyone's like, well, wait a minute. We don't think Mark DeRosa Thinks that they have to win this game. He quote unquote clarified those comments.
Uh in the post-game presser, Mark DeRosa. Television interview today, um, you seem to indicate that you thought y'all had already advanced to the quarterfinals. Is that true? Yeah, I misspoke. I was on hot stove with a couple buddies today and completely misread the calculations.
We knew that. Mexico is going to play Italy and then run in all the numbers with if we lost tonight with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs.
So I I just misspoke. All right, so m I misspoke. Never true. Whenever somebody says people do misspeak. But When they misspeak, you can usually be like, oh, he must have misspoke.
When you actually have to say I misspoke. You normally did not misspoke. you normally fucked up. and are trying to cover Your tracks.
So, how did he fuck up in this case?
Well, they benched some guys. that they would have otherwise had in the lineup. I think Bryce Harper. Is the most obvious they ended up trying to make a rally? It was 8-6.
But Gold Schmidt got the start. He did have a hit. But Bryce Harper came in, had a chance, didn't do anything with it. Bryce Terang didn't start. Clement did instead.
Terang's been very good. in these mcclane pitched he did not pitch well Yarborough after that, he did not pitch well.
So they had some problems. And some issues and some errors. It was not a great night. Aaron Judge did have a moment to be the hero at the end. But it did not come to be.
So, USA could still advance. They're going to need Italy to beat Mexico. Otherwise, they're going to need some weird tiebreakers. I think if I was Italy, I'm losing to Mexico. I'm getting the USA out of this tournament.
That's what I would do. If I was Italy, I would lose to Mexico.
Now, you can then look at the quarterfinals and who you have to match up against and play the matchups there, but you just beat the United States. And yeah, it wasn't their A lineup, but it was maybe their A minus lineup, their B plus lineup, still a good lineup. They still, probably, with that lineup, had no business losing. Man, this is a stereotype to a bunch of plumbers. To a bunch of Plumbers.
Chechnya has an actual plumber or some guy.
Some guy took off work to pitch in Japan and he was he was lights out.
So that's pretty fucked up. We'll see tonight. How this plays out. I mean, I hope the USA can advance. But sometimes sometimes People should get punished for bad behavior and not rewarded.
So we'll see what happens to the USA tonight. If you want to watch Mexico, Italy, it will be on FS1. It was scheduled to be on Tubi. Which is free. But it's going to be, they switched it.
It's going to be on FS1. And then the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals will be this weekend with or without, I guess. the United States of America. We're brought to you by, as mentioned, Happy Place Hemp, promo code BART, 25% off each and every order. That's happyplacehemp.com.
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So you can check them out. Chris and Rob, happy to help you with anything. Or send some questions to me, or send some questions. Basically, they've got the products with the THC, and it's good to experiment. That's how I have been using it.
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And so I had to kind of discover how it works for me, how I like to use it. And boy, do I really like to. Do I really like to watch some World Baseball classic? With a couple of THC seltzers. And perhaps also, or instead, the gummies.
Happyplacehemp.com. Promo code is Bart. Shout out, of course, to Dan Shaney. Who has the YouTube stream? A lot of great content you can find there.
And Carl's place. As well with the golf simulators. Dan Shaney, by the way, if you do give him a shout out, let me know. I want to know. We had a lot of people, I'll say in Winkler verse 1.0.
He can look at your insurance rates, homework. business otherwise.
So, Dan can help you out there. It doesn't hurt to make a phone call, Dan Shaney. Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me. Let me ask you something. Do you think championship athletes got to the top by guessing?
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Yeah. Oh no, my coffee, Bronny! Here, new Bronny 3 ply is now more absorbent. Wow. Got a clean shirt?
Do you wear plaid? Rod. Summon the strongest. The other thing that would have been happening while all of this was going on was Bam had a bio. Had 83 points in a NBA game last night.
And when I first found out about this, I was trying to put my son to bed, and I got a text that he had like 50-some points. But that was just a forter. I didn't realize right away that he had 83. Then I saw he took a lot of free throws. 43 or no, 22.
No, 43, 43. He had 43 shots and 43 free throws. He was 36 of 43 from the line. He was seven of 22 from three. He was twenty of 43.
From the field, but he had 43 free throws. And that's pretty disgusting.
So, okay, you find out he had 83 points. Wow. Then you find out how.
Okay. Then I finally watched some of the video, and they are playing the Miami Heat. Are playing against the Washington Wizards. a team trying to lose. And the Miami Heat up 20-some points in the fourth quarter.
They are fouling the wizards. Upon entry. to the court. to get them to the line.
So that they can get BAM back to the line. That's what their effort was because then Bam would go take a shooting foul and get hacked again. It's gross. It is gross. It is gross.
And I saw the video, and they kept showing Eric Spolstra. Eric Spolstra, dude, he gotta wear this. Here's the problem with this, okay?
Well, the problem with this is that it's gross. But the problem with how they're gonna get away with it. Is It's going to be loud today that Bam had a buy on the Miami Heat. You know, they fucked around a little bit. And it's kind of bullshit.
But the further we get from this, the longer we go. The less we'll talk about that. Even with like Kobe's 81, you don't remember as much of it. You remember LeBron said, I think Kobe's going to go for 60, and then he got 60 and 70, and then he might as well get 80. But you don't remember much of the game.
At least I don't. Because it's further away.
So in 10 years, When Bam Edo Bayo still has 83 points. After Wilts 100. Which now we're gonna say is real 'cause we don't want Bam to have the real record. When it was Kobe, we questioned Wilt and said there was no video, but now it's Bam. But it's, I mean, this is gross.
This is gross. You know, you get 81 points in today's NBA. You're going to be at the line a bunch. But forty-three times. and intentionally following the wizards.
To get him the record. It is kind of tough with records. It is kind of tough with records. Records. You want people to do it the right way.
But then, if you get to a point where you're so close, and this isn't even the record. It's 83 points, which is a lot, but seconds kind of become the new record because nobody saw 100. We just saw the picture. Which Bam of course recreated. which you have to.
But if you're bam, if you're bam and if you're the heat, I think you go for it. I really think you do. I think you know it's wrong. Not even wrong. You know it's bullshit.
But I think you gotta do it. If you get that far, you got to do it. And you wear the scars because the scars. will fade away. And you will get.
People will get over it, or they'll scoff at it, they'll say asterisks, but even like, The 2017 Astros. Who cares? Nobody nobody talks about them. Deflate gate, even though I still don't process how that helped. Nobody talked, I mean, it goes away.
When we say Tom Brady's got six championships, or when we're like Belichick has six championships, why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? Nobody says, oh, but deflategate. Oh, but Spygate. We don't we we get to a point where that fades through the cracks. And we don't talk about it anymore.
We might bring it up, but it doesn't. It doesn't stick with it.
So Bam's got 83 points, and that's what's going to stick when people see this in the record books. You're going to have to butt actually them and say, they were following. And at some point, that's going to get tiring for you to do, and you're just going to stop.
So It sucks, but this would have been happening. Like, I don't know how I would have juggled the show. I think I would have wanted to talk more about the World Baseball Classic, but I think people would have wanted to talk more about BAM. And I probably could have got some more engagement. On bam.
But man, what a night. What a crazy night. A not-so-random Tuesday in the world of sports. We'll see how it works with the WBC. Tonight.
Maybe you've watched it by now if you're listening to this later in the week, but Man, what a fuck up. What a fuck up. A lot of fuck ups. A lot of fuck-ups. We'll see how many people get rewarded for bad B.
Behavior. This is into the Winkler verse an old friend set to join us coming up. When we return. On wherever you are right now. Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, America's number one motorcycle insurer.
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Welcoming back. Into the Winklerverse. It's Steve Sparky Pfeiffer. Hi, Sparky. Hi, Bart.
How are you? Good. Did you take my head down yet or no? I don't know. I think it's probably down, but I don't remember if we took it down or not.
I don't keep track of the big fatheads in the hallways at work. I have no idea. Can I at least have it? Yeah, if I still have it somewhere, if it didn't get thrown out, I'll see if I can find it. Sure.
I had a big fat head at the studios and Some nights I would uh FaceTime my kid. Because he wanted to see where I worked. And I would show him around. He was fascinated with the kitchen. And he was fascinated with the giant heads.
Yes. Yes. My three-year-old comes in. When she comes in, she runs to the fat head on the wall and kisses it and says, Daddy, and then runs away from it. Yeah.
Yeah. My kid was like, who's that guy? Big head in real life, just like the fat head. Yeah. I'm like, ah, that's.
That's sparky. I want your thoughts on the teams. The Packers, the Brewers, the Bucks. Mm-hmm. I was thinking about how to ask you, would you mind?
Doing some confident, curious, and concerned. On each season. Yeah, sure. I do it on the Packers during the season.
So, sure. Why not? Let's do it. That all started with. Rami, I think.
Rami? I think Rami is the one that started Confident, Concerned, and Curious years ago. And then. After he left to go take his big-time job in Sacramento. Um, I just kept doing it even though Gary and Leroy hated it, um, and then.
Uh I I do it. uh during the football season now too.
So yeah. I don't I don't want to say I hate it. I learned to like it. Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's good.
Whatever. Doesn't matter. It's entertaining to me, Bart. That's all that matters at the end of the day. All right.
With not that I came up with anything better, but with, I was always like, What do you think the score is going to be? Nobody cares, nobody cares. We'll start with the Packers, since a lot's going on there. What are you confident, curious, and concerned about? With the state of the Packers right now.
Well, I'm confident that this offense is going to be okay, I think, at the end of the day. And part of my confidence level goes off of Mike Wall, the former Packers offensive lineman who we have on all the time. He seems pretty confident that the starting five they have, if given time, will turn out to be a pretty good starting five. Um So, we'll, I'm going to go off of that because I'm happy with Josh Jacobs. I'm happy with the wide receiving core.
I think Matthew Golden will have that bust out year that we thought was going to happen his rookie year. I think maybe that happens out this year with Romeo Dobbs officially gone. I'm happy there. Tucker Kraft obviously needs to be healthy on offense, and that's a big weapon for them with Christian Watson.
So, I'm pretty confident this offense is going to be good again this year. Hopefully, a bit more consistent and they don't forget how to score in the second half of games. But that would be more what I'm confident about. My concern is still the same concern I guess that I had last year, which is, I want some big, fat defensive linemen up front to stop the run. I do.
You know, weird, you know, that I do my mock drafts every night before I go to bed. It's kind of like my thing. You're doing that now? Oh, I started in January. Yeah.
Well, as soon as the Packers and Bears were done. That that night I was doing Packers mock drafts or full league Packers. Packer's my trash, but it's fully.
So if you go on ProFootballNetwork.com, they also have, I tried this the other day and really got myself all screwed up. I was like, I can't do this. I'm going to be up all night screwing around this thing. They have a real GM. Mock draft as well, where you make all the off-season decisions, you do all of that, then you do a draft, and then they simulate an entire season and show you the results of all of your decisions that you made, which is pretty cool.
But they also just have a normal mock draft.
So I do that.
So it's a whole league, and you get trade offers and all that stuff. You can go up, down. But last night I did it. I didn't take any trade offers. I just drafted just the second, third, and fourth round.
And I took a defensive tackle from Georgia, defensive tackle from Florida State. And then I took a cornerback with that pick in the fourth round. I don't know if they'll take two defensive tackles. I really think they're going to sign one or two in free agency here. They still have plenty of money to do that.
Everybody wants Javon Hargrave if he becomes available. I think Jonathan Allen is a guy that got released by the Vikings. That would make sense as a veteran to come in. I think that's where my concern level is: making sure they fix that. I think that's the number one thing: being able to stop the run and getting some more veteran experience in there.
With Micah Parsons on that defense. Uh curious. I'm curious to see. This cornerback room and what this looks like by the time we get to week one. I'm curious to see.
If they're actually going to Stay with Keyshawn Nixon and Carrington Valentine. with St. Juice behind them. Uh or are they gonna potentially allow a rookie? To start this season opposite of Keyshawn Nixon?
Or will they get aggressive here between now and week one? I make a trade for a legitimate cornerback and potentially give up more capital or more players. That position is interesting because. When Micah Parsons was going well and Rashawn Gary was playing well in the first half of the season, nobody cared about Keyshawn Nixon and Karen Valentine. They weren't a talking point because the Packers were getting pressure.
And then once Rashawn Gary disappeared into thin air and Micah Parsons got hurt, then they became a talking point again because now they were expected to cover for three and a half, four seconds. And they obviously couldn't do it.
So know if you get a pass rush those positions aren't as important and if Brian Gutikunds is like, we're going to get a pass rush. And if Jonathan Gann is like, we're going to get a pass rush based on who we have, they may not want to spend anymore at that position, which I think is scary to a certain degree.
So we'll see how it all plays out. I'm confident. The Packers will never win with Matt LaFleur. I'm concerned they won't realize it until it's too late. And I'm curious as to why he hasn't been fired yet.
I don't have as much issue with Matt LaFleur as you do. I know anyone. I know you don't like him. I know Ryan Horvod has not liked him forever as well. I'm well aware of that.
Him and I used to go back and forth on our Curtin Long podcast back in the day. That was a fun podcast. I missed too, Curtin Long. Bring it back. Yeah, it was fun.
We should. Horvot and I will do Curtin Long for you Sunday nights. I got all the graphics. I got everything, I think, still. But to me, I think LaFleur is a good play caller.
And I think LaFleur's guys, or I thought up until this NFL PA report card, I thought LaFleur's guys bought into him and liked playing for him. Micah Parsons praised him. And I talked about this through the FLPA report card as far as you know. His respect towards players, or whatever. This is such a young team, as we know, that's talked about every year.
That a lot of these guys, this is their first NFL head coach. This is their first NFL organization. They don't know any better.
So they potentially are comparing LaFleur to what their college coach was like. And oh, he's not like Nick Saban, or oh, he's not like Kirby Smart or whatever.
So, I think it's a little bit unfair. Micah Parsons has been through a couple of coaches.
So, he gets here, sees how this whole thing is run. It's like, oh, damn, this is awesome. Like, this is way better than what I had to deal with.
So, he's got some experience. I tend to lean towards these guys that have been around the league when they come in with their expectation. Having said that, Brandon McMaster has been around the league. Him and LaFleur got into a little banter in the media back and forth. And really, Bart, I think that's the only guy I can remember ever kind of going back and forth with LaFleur and kind of being, I don't know, not agreeing with LaFleur or hostile towards LaFleur.
I haven't really ever seen that before. Even when Rodgers was here and they were. You know, trying to figure out how to make all this work. I don't think Rogers ever really got hostile towards LeFleur either during that.
Well, because LeFleur didn't dare step to Rogers. Correct. Right. But they figured out how to work together, they made it work, got him some MVPs, and it all worked out at the end of the day. It just doesn't appear LeFleur is that hard to work with.
If anything, my complaint during the season was. Man, tell these guys you're not playing. Like, I'm looking out for you. You're coming off of injury. I know you want to go out there and play, but we're not.
You had Zach Tom at a game saying he doesn't even remember playing the second half. He was in so much pain. Then he blacked out. Why is he out there for in the middle of the season? That's where my issue is.
Jaired Alexander, a couple of years ago, you rushed him back. I'm on Wisconsin Sports Haley with Charlie going, I swear to God, if he gets hurt right away, I'm going to lose my mind. Boom, out right away, first game. And I was like, there you go. There was no reason for him to come back.
That's my number one issue, I think. And maybe it's an NFL issue. Maybe it's a professional sports issue. A lot of these coaches, instead of trying to convince their guys or just tell their guys, no, we're going to make sure you're 100% before you come back, just let the players come back. If, you know, the actors clear up, you're good.
Okay, I want to play. You're in pain? Yeah, but I'll be fine. Come back and then all of a sudden we're hurt again and we have to sit out and. We have more issues.
That's my biggest beef with Fauflo. I think he. is a little bit too much of a pushover sometimes with these guys in that locker room.
Well, speaking of terrible coaches, um I don't know because you did the Bucks post-game show for a long time. Yeah. I don't know that I mean, you had some bad seasons. You were doing that during some bad seasons. 15 wins, baby.
15 wins. Yeah. But even that, I don't know. This feels like this is, it's not the worst season ever, but it's very like. Apathetic.
So let me explain something quickly. Let me explain something. Those teams back then. In that organization back then. Knew how to lose, knew how important the lottery was, knew how to finish losing the correct way to ensure your chance to get a better lottery pick.
They didn't have Michael Red telling them, we must win or I leave, or Andrew Bogan, we must win or I leave. None of that crap.
So instead, you've got Giannis dictating everything, which again, I get, right? Best player I'll probably ever see in my lifetime in a Bucs uniform, one of the best of all time in the NBA. I'm not going to sit here and tell you you shouldn't bow down to Giannis. Do what you got to do. The issue is, is so instead of going full in like Utah, I'll pay a half million dollars if it gets me a chance to get one of these star players because you're not signing a superstar in Milwaukee without anybody else being here.
It's not happening.
So the next chance you have of getting a superstar in Milwaukee after Giannis is through the draft. This is legitimately the best draft class probably in 20 or 30 years. That is why Utah is doing what they've been doing and everybody else.
So, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to make Giannis happy.
Okay, fine.
So now Giannis is out this last stretch and the Bucs are actually not playing so bad. They get Jenga to trade deadline. He plays for two games because Kuzma is out, playing really well. They come out of the all-star break. Kuzma's healthy and Jeng goes to the bench.
What?
Then he sits on the bench, plays 15, 20 minutes. Giannis comes back.
Now Zheng's back in the starting lineup again. Why? Because Zhang was playing three on three with Giannis in practice when they were trying to get Giannis ready. And now that's Giannis' guy.
So we're going to roll together, which I'm fine with because I like Zhang a lot.
So now we move forward.
Now they're not winning with Giannis either. And they won too much without Giannis prior to that.
So now, as usual, now you're in no man's land. You're not going to win enough to make the postseason. That's not happening. You're not going to get in the play-in tournament. And you weren't bad enough to really give yourself a legitimate chance to get in the top three.
Now, anything is possible, right? Obviously, they could get super lucky and hop back up there. When they got drafted, Bogot, I think they were sixth worst odds, and they ended up at one.
So, okay, maybe you get super lucky and you get up into the top top three or whatever. But They'll still get a good player. But it's not going to be DeMansta, BYU. It's not going to be any of these guys. By the way, did you see him?
He's talking about, I don't know if I'm going out. You know, my mama wants me to get a degree. I may stay. I like college life. And now, Darren Peterson just came out from Kansas, says he likes college life.
He doesn't know if he's coming out.
So who knows who's actually going to be in this thing? But if everybody comes out like supposed to be, Those are going to be some unbelievable type deals there. And then, if you're the box, I'll just throw it out there. If you have a chance to move Giannis to potentially get the kid from BYU. Do you do it?
Well, it did Giannis, it seems like this terrible team is worse with Giannis right now. He came back and they seem worse. Right. And I said that on my show when he came back. I said, I am concerned that when he comes back, it's going to be a lot of standing around and watching Giannis and waiting for Giannis to do everything.
And that's exactly what it is. Rollins has no idea what to do, dude. He's like confused. No. He doesn't know where to go with the ball or what to do.
And if they were all in at the trade deadline, Bart, they should have traded anybody they could have got something for. Every single person on this roster should have won. Anybody, there should have been no untouchables on this roster outside of Giannis. If that's if you're keeping Giannis, everybody else shouldn't have been available. Rollins, Porter, Turner, everybody should have been available to be moved.
Guarantee that when Giannis comes back, there's nothing in the coverage. Come back and play. I got rid of everybody. Good. Kind of like in Moneyball, right?
They don't want to play Billy Bean's player.
So Billy Bean comes out and goes, I'll tell you what, Carlos Pania? Yeah, he's gone. Yeah. Oh, you want to play Jeremy Giambi? Yeah, he's gone too.
I mean, that literally should have been how the Bucks should have gone about this to make sure they couldn't win.
Now, again, if Bill Ryder came on my show, who is the most anti-Doc Rivers fan. Walking planet Earth. Talked to him last week. Yeah. Bill Ryder goes, Sparky, the best thing the bus could do right now is.
Don't fire Doc Rivers. Yeah, you heard me. I don't want to fire Doc Rivers. If they fire Doc Rivers, they might win.
So if you want to get in the lottery, do not fire Doc Rivers. And maybe that's why John Horse and the Bucks kept Doc Rivers: it doesn't matter at this point, just play it up. Then I said on the air, if this is a full rebuild. He's going to walk away to retire. There's no chance.
Stephen A. Smith comes out a couple of weeks later and says the exact same thing. Then what happens? Bobby Portis comes out on Run It Back yesterday, day before, whatever it was, and says, Oh man, he ain't walking away from $15 million a year. Are you kidding me?
You may want to fire him, but he ain't walking away from that much money.
So we'll see what happens with Doc. I don't think it really matters who the coach is the rest of the way out. And if it's a rebuild, you want somebody cheap.
So if you can get Sam Cassell, At 3 million a year, something like that, you get Sam Cassell or Rayjean Rondo at 3 million a year, whatever the case may be. But I'm not paying $15, $16 million a year for a rebuild.
So what are your CCCs on the Bucs? I'm confident. That Jenga is going to be pretty good if given enough run here next season. And he's a restricted free agent, so I'll assume he comes back. I think if they let him be one of their top guys, I think he can be pretty good.
Pretty good meeting. I don't know 16, 17 a night, maybe six, seven boards, something like that. I mean, that'd be great next year, right? I mean, not all-star, but good, right? Be a contributor on this bad team next year, potentially.
Um concerned That Giannis now says, okay, I'm good. Let's roll. I'm concerned that maybe, I mean, did you watch the game, this last game? Did he look like he was all in? I mean, I don't.
I don't know. He's walking around. I, yeah, I struggle because I don't ever want to question Giannis' effort per se or whatever, but I don't know, it's just hard to watch.
So I'm concerned that maybe he now fully says, okay, I have a year left. I'm gonna kind of push my way out of here. And see what happens. And if he is going to do that. I'm curious to see when he does that.
Because if you love Milwaukee and you love the organization and all of that, then you tell them this as soon as the season's over. Yo Trade me at the lottery or trade me at the draft. Like, we don't need to hold this. We don't need to hold me here till August before you trade me. Like, if you can use me to go get a top two or top three pick, then go ahead.
Do what you got to do. Use me to get you another star here so this organization isn't horrible for the next 20 or 30 years. And then maybe at the end, I'll come back and play with whoever it is that you draft for the last year of my career and retire a buck or whatever the case may be. That. Would be the right way to handle this if.
If I'm giving Giannis advice to show your love to Milwaukee or whatever else.
Okay, fine, you want to leave. I get it. Let's not keep doing this through a whole other summer. When the season's done, walk in the office. Guys, I officially would like to be traded.
I'm pretty sure you could probably move me for one of those top players in the draft lottery. And if that's an opportunity, I'd love to see you do it to get somebody to come here to be a star that replaces me. That's what I would like. Curious. I'm curious to see what they're going to do with this backcourt long term.
Because I don't think you can win with KPJ, Ryan Rollins, and Cam Thomas. I just don't think that's right. They need a legitimate shooting guard and then figure out who the point guard is going to be. Those three. Cam Thomas obviously is a bucket getter, as they like to say and all that.
But of those three, I take KPJ, of those three, as far as pure talented individual that can kind of do everything. He can dish. He can be the assist guy. He can stop taking shots. He can get deflections and steals, lead fast breaks.
He can be instant offense when you need him to be, all of that. I think he's come a significant way. And if the next head coach is a legitimate point guard like a Cassell, like a Rondo, something like that, that can continue to help him grow, I think that might be your answer there. And Rollins, I think on a really good team is, I don't know, seventh guy, eighth guy, probably seventh guy. On a really good basketball team.
I don't know if he's a championship caliber starting guard. I mean, you've seen it in games where like Miami's kind of gone after him and stuff. He doesn't know what to do with himself.
So that would be my thing on Rollins. What's bothering me about Giannis right now is it seems like Basketball is his second priority. I didn't mind like he showed up at that WWE event, but They were in Chicago anyway. When he was at the Super Bowl. And they weren't anywhere near the West Coast.
I didn't understand what was going on there. Then like he's showing up, you know, when they come in the tunnel. Just he's showing up in but he's like I'm showing up to advertise my freak gummies or All this drama. Oh, by the way, I'm a partner of Kelchy. It's very like he's getting the bag and basketball is just like.
Like me doing the dishes. I'll do them. I don't want to. Yeah, I think there's a couple of things. Number one, when you're hurt.
And major league baseball, NBA, NFL. Most of those guys don't travel with their teams when they're hurt. And a lot of times, depending on how long you're out, they are not at home games either. They're rehabbing, they're away from the team. And that's why it sucks to be hurt and go through a long rehab process because you lose touch with your guys.
I know Giannis has caught flack over the course of time for not being on the sidelines of home games when he was hurt, or being at the Super Bowl, and all of this type of stuff. I think what's happened is Giannis has become like all the other superstars. He's just, he's figured it out. He figured out his way of, you know, money is very, very important, which I think it has been to him the whole time. Um But now the popularity and everything that can come with that, and all of that now has officially set in.
You know, maybe he'd look at you and me and be like, I haven't changed.
Okay, maybe. But I think he has. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. We all evolve. I'm not the same person I was when I started here 20 years ago at the radio station.
I promise you that I'm a much happier person, a lot less angry person than I was back then. I've changed. Kids, they change you. You know that. Kids change everybody.
So he's changed, man. And I don't think it's for the better or the worse. He's just a different dude in a different part of his life, different aspect. And wherever life takes him next, it's fine, but I'm not rooting for his ass. I don't care where he plays.
Me neither. No, unless he goes to Golden State, I'll root. I'm not.
Well, that's because your brother's there, but I'm not. I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't really, I'm not going to root actively against him. Like, I'm not going to boo him when he comes back to Pfizer or form or nothing like that. But I sure the hell I'm not buying a Giannis. Uh, Miami Heat jersey or a Giannis, whatever jersey he ends up wearing.
I'm like, there's no chance that's happening, and I'm not turning it on to watch Giannis. That's not happening either. But I'm certainly not booing Giannis. Let me be very clear: I'm not rooting against Giannis, and I'm not booing Giannis. But I know some of the people that are watching, listening to this right now, are going to go buy his jersey.
Of the next team he goes to are actively going to be watching all of his games and rooting for him and all of that, kind of like we went through with Brett. The difference is, I don't think anybody's ever going to boo Giannis. And Brett deserved to get booed. And I don't think Giannis is there. Think of Giannis's, like, let's say he leaves in his first game back.
Mm. I don't know that that's going to be like the hottest ticket in town. I don't know. I mean, I think that's a fair question. I think apathy.
Like I said, I think it's extending to like the fans. I think we're just like, we're not mad. We're not, we're just do what you just make a decision, dude. The other part about this that's going to be key in all this is how he speaks of the organization and of Milwaukee after he leaves Milwaukee. Right.
I mean. The traitor in Chicago, the stuff that he said after he left, definitely was poking at everybody here, right? And he knew what he was doing, obviously.
Well, you pretended like he never even lived here. Yeah. Oh, things are a lot nicer here, all that type of stuff. Like, okay.
So, I mean, if Giannis does that type of stuff, okay, well, then maybe you'll get boot. But if he just stays respectful and humble and be like, hey, man, appreciate my time with the box, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Looking forward to learning my new teammates, learning a new city, all of that. Let's go. I don't think anybody boots him.
I think everybody's happy with Giannis. They're going to build statues, statues. I don't know. Maybe they build numerous statues around the city at some point for him. His jersey is going to be up in the rafters.
Probably greatest buck ever. I mean, I guess people could argue Kareemo Dual Jabbar if they wanted to. I'll take Giannis.
So yeah, I think that's how it goes. Triple C's on the brew crew. Oh, happy times. Happy, happy times. Uh I think From a confidence level, I think this offense is going to be better than last year.
I think some of these guys are going to start to take some jumps. I will. Be surprised if Cherio doesn't get to 30 home runs. I think. Cheerio gets to 30 home runs.
I think Bryce Terang gets to 30 home runs. Um, so I'm confident, I think Contreras. Probably has a better year than he did last year. He was battling that thumb fracture, whatever he was dealing with.
So, I think there's going to be a lot of steps forward offensively with this team.
So, I'm confident this offense will be better this year than it was last year. Concerned that Quinn Priester is going to miss the hole here. That's That's my concern. We had somebody call up as we were explaining. The issues.
And he said, I think it was a buddy of his or whatever else. And they've still played baseball, whatever, obviously older. But that was like a nerve issue. And the guy didn't play for like a year and a half after that.
Now, obviously, professional baseball players are gonna get back sooner than average Joe, right, playing in their league on the weekends or whatever. Uh but I I don't I don't like how this is all going. Like, oh, we've seen a couple of specialists and so forth. Man, you had this going through the end of last year. He pitched through it.
You had a whole off-season arrest, and it's still happening. I would have to imagine at some point, somebody's like, nah, surgery might fix this. And maybe they don't want the surgery. I don't know. But if surgery is not the answer to this problem and he's going to deal with this going forward.
That's not a good thing for Quinn Priestro. Either. I just think at some point, Um, they're just gonna be like, okay, we're gonna have to have surgery, whatever the issue is, because they still haven't said necessarily what the official diagnosis is of this dude. And then they move forward. How long they wait on this, I don't know, but I'm concerned that he potentially misses the whole year.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope they figure this out. Uh curious. I am really curious to see what. I am really curious to see what Garrett Mitchell.
does in a full season if he's healthy. I really am curious to see what kind of numbers Garrett Mitchell puts up if he can stay healthy. In my mind, when he was coming up, I thought Gary Mitchell was a 275, 280 hitter, hit 20 homers, steal 20, 25 bags, somewhere like that. Which would be a significant upgrade offensively over Blake Perkins.
So, if you have that in center field, Freely doing his thing in right and in Cheerio, and then Yelich, who put up the best year he's had in years last year, if he's able to stay healthy, and I think part of the reason he stayed healthy was because he wasn't in the field at all really last year. They were able to keep him healthy on the bench and take some wear and tear off of that back as a DH. If he could do similar stuff with power. This team's going to be good, man. They really are.
And they've got so much depth. Like Adam McKelvey has his projected starting lineup and roster out. Kurt Hogue of the General Central has his projected roster and lineup out. You just look at how deep they are. And you feel really good, I think, to yourself as a brewers fan, like, man.
They are in a really good position. And part of the reason you feel good is because Chris Hook is your pitching coach, and you've got young guys like Harrison, Sprode, and Henderson, and these guys. And you just feel like, eh, that's fine. Chris Hook will make them good and they'll be fine throughout the year. And then we see what happens from there.
I'm pretty excited. Number one, farm system and baseball, all of that. They can literally go get anybody that they want. And we talked about this on Wisconsin Sports Daily, Charlie using it myself. I brought Spencer Jones.
Who had a monster year last year in the miners for the Yankees? And he's 24, he's going to be 25. An outfielder, six foot seven, stole like 24, 25 bags, had like 30, 35 bombs, all of that, hit like 280. He's blocked with the Yankees. Go make a deal, man.
That's the one area this farm system doesn't have a lot of is a lot of power outfielder hitting outfielders. They don't have a tremendous amount of depth at the top of this farm system right now. And if you're able to go find a guy that you have control over for a number of years that can hit 30 bombs a year and hit 275 or 280 to put out there, you know, with Mitchell and Churio. And then if Freelick ends up going somewhere else, whatever, fine. But that would be a big thing to add another impact bat in the middle of this lineup, I think, is the one thing that I still wish they went and added.
They didn't add power at third base again. And I still think that eventually is going to bite him in the butt, but. 27. I think Made is up, and I think Andrew Made and Fisher both, I think, are up in 27 to start the season on the left side of that infield. If there's a season.
Well, okay, yeah, fine. If there's a season based on the CBA, correct? There might not be a season, but I'm just saying, I think they're viewing the left side of that infield this year as a gap year, as you would say. You know, a buck's term and saying we'll just play out this year with what we have. If it works, great.
If it doesn't, fine. But we're not blocking anybody long term with Made and Fisher coming behind these guys. And we have Brock Wilkin at third two. That also might be a possibility if it's not Fisher.
Well, I'm mad at the Brewers right now because you know how many times I was in that lot. You know how many times I was in that locker room? I made like no connections with anyone. The only guy that ever smiled at me was Jeremy Jeffers when I handed him a check. For being on Bill's show.
And then I do a QA with Caleb Durbin. And we hit it off, I thought. We got along. And then they trade him. Because they realized that you and him were friends.
See you. Bye-bye. Way to go. I think there's a non-zero chance. Yeah, that happened.
Can I throw you a curve of all balls?
Okay. There's a curveball. Confident, curious, concerned. About me. Huh, you as a dad?
Very, very confident. My career, my career. I'm confident in you as a father. I've always thought, I've always said you'd be a good dad. As long as your kid played soccer, I thought everything would be fine.
I don't know, man. Curious to see what's next, I guess, for you. kind of going forward here. Things got it kind of derailed on you there at the end.
So I don't know. I'm anxious to see where you go with this. Obviously, this Into the Winkleverse podcast is something that you were growing prior to landing that national gig. And now you can continue to grow. Obviously, you have a big fan base.
You probably grew your fan base, I would assume, by leaps and bounds doing a national radio show, like you were. Um But I don't, yeah, I'm curious to see where this all goes for you myself. What was the other one? Concerned? Concerned?
Yeah. I'm concerned about how angry you get about Matt LaFleur. I get concerned about that. You really get yourself worked up over poor Matt LaFleur. Yeah I get concerned.
I don't like him, but I think the standards have changed in Packer country, and that bothers me, Steve. I don't think they have. I think Part of this is you have a guided ed policy. Who's been in that building the whole time? He was part of the interview process with Matt LaFleur.
He was in the room. Was part of it, saw it, heard it. They knew he was going to be the guy long before anybody in the public talked about it.
So he was a part of the process. He's around the building. He sees how those guys work, all of that. I don't like the idea of everybody reporting to him. I wish they would have gone back to the old school way of doing it, but clearly they feel it works.
So they're going to continue to move forward with it. He had to be the guy that signed off of the Micah Parsons trade. There's no chance, no how Goody makes that deal without getting signed off from the president of the organization.
So he had to be. In on making that move, what I'd like to know is: did he push the chips on Goody to go make that move? Was he the one saying, hey. Let's go take a swing here. Let's go get a big impact player here and let's go be aggressive.
I don't know if that was him, if that was Goody that came to him. I'd love to know who initiated that whole conversation and how that whole conversation kind of went going forward. I do think Ed Policy realizes the importance of Super Bowls. Don Carmen was in San Francisco, man. I mean, same type of deal where Super Bowls are everything and that.
And I think there is a definite fear. Like there is probably in a lot of organizations when you're holding a standard of. Making a change, see the Badgers, and then all of a sudden going the absolutely wrong way, like the Badgers football team has with Luke Fickle.
Now, it appears maybe he's turning around this offseason based on in-state recruiting, based on all the money they spent in the transfer portal. Maybe he turns it around. If they're not a bowl team this year, he's gone. I'll just tell you that right now. Their schedule is as easy as it gets that they've had.
If he doesn't go to a bowl game this year, I don't see any way they will allow him to stay. But I think they'll get to a bowl game and be better. And I think that's probably part of what Ed Policy is looking at here: okay. We're going to play this out. Jordan Love has three years left on his deal or whatever it is.
And by the time this gets towards the end, if we still haven't gotten to where I thought we're going to go, then I make a change at quarterback. I make a change at coach. I make a change at GM and we overhaul this thing and try and get it right because I think the floor is tied to Jordan Love. And I think if. Policy decides he's moving on from LaFleur at some point, then more than likely that means they're probably going to move on from Jordan Love, too.
That would be my guess.
Okay, one one more, uh dad related. And thanks for the nice words. Yes. So I have this question. Yesterday with my kid, you know what he had me do?
He has all the baseball helmets.
Okay. And we put them on the floor in order of record last year. And then he had me start at the beginning of spring training. and read each score. And when a team lost, they went down in the helmet standings.
And if they won, they win up. And that took about an hour to go through six days.
So we're doing it again when he gets home from school. And he loves sports so much. Maybe too much. But there's only like one of his like 30 buddies. That likes sports at all.
Do you find that? First of all, Like I said, you're a great dad. I'd have no patience to ever do that with my kid. No chance, no how. I do it twice, be like, you finished it.
Tell me how it figures out. I got stuff to do.
So I would never have patience to do that.
So, God bless you for having the patience to do that with your kid. Secondly, Um So My 10-year-old Um has friends that play sports, yes. But of his friend group. He's pretty much the only one that plays sports video games. He's like, Yeah, my kid's playing 2K, but that's it.
Right. So, he has like all the different sports games. He's got MLB, NFL, NBA. He's got WWE. Talk about a dumb parenting decision.
We'll take the fall on this one because I don't want him watching wrestling or anything of the sort. Yet, I then advocated to let him have the game.
So, I let him have the game, and now he is. Dow telling me all of the stuff that's going to be. He doesn't watch every wrestling broadcast.
So, no, he still hasn't watched a single one. I don't want to watch. I took him to a show when he was four. Oh my God. Right.
So, no. But my 10-year-old now is on, you know, he has YouTube, obviously, so he can keep himself updated on what's going on just based on YouTube or whatever.
So that was Judgment Day split up. Did you? That was it. Yeah, that's a mess.
So, anyways, so. My point is, none of these kids that he's friends with really play sports. And I will not allow him to play any of the shoot'em-up games.
So, no Fortnite, none of that stuff. I don't like that. My two older kids, I let do that crap. GTA and all that stuff, I let him play it. And after a while, I'm like, that was a bad decision.
Like, I'm not doing that going forward. And so, I'm not letting him play. Maybe when he gets to be a little bit older, I'll let him get into that realm. But right now, I'm not.
So, a lot of his friends are still playing roadblocks and that type of stuff. And he'll play that on his phone with them from time to time. But as far as your take on sports, yeah, I mean, He's the only one that watches sports, and he's probably the only one that is playing sports games from what I can tell. I'll tell you what the problem is. They have to bring back those quarter pencils and quarter folders.
Because I had an Emmett Smith folder I bought for a quarter. And then the school was like. I don't sports pencils are for sale and we all flock to 'em. No, I don't think that's. I mean, I mean, I guess it could be.
But I mean, I think the bigger part is. Most of these parents just aren't big sports fans. Like they just, a lot of them will casually watch the Packers, right? Or hear about a Bucks thing and they'll bring it up to me because they know what I do. But, like, they're not like watching every Bucks game.
They're not watching every Brewers game. They're not watching every Packers game. And when I grew up, we always had every Brewers game on in the house. We always had every Packers game on. Like, that's what I grew up with.
And that's kind of how it is in our house. But I realized that in these other houses, it's just, it's not a thing, just not.
Well, I guess we're better dads than everybody else. Oh, no, no. Nope. Everybody has. But I'm not a hashtag girl, dad, so I'm not a real dad.
Well, I have a girl, dad. You're a real dad. You're a real dad. Congratulations. That three-year-old is doing bowling league on Saturday mornings, bumper bowling right now at three.
She signed up for a Disney dance class that she's been doing for the last couple of weeks.
So, yeah, I'm not the dance dad life or any of that yet.
So. I'm hoping she goes sports. But we'll see. Steve Sparky Pfeiffer, the Wisconsin Sports Radio Network. 105-7 FM, 1250 a.m.
in Milwaukee. Sparky, thank you for stopping into the Winklerverse. Got to plug my Brewers coverage. Leadoff show with Tommy Wurtz before every Brewers game. Post-game show with the best guy doing Brewers coverage.
The franchise, Tim Allen, with Tommy Wurtz after every Brewers game throughout the season. You'd be a little bit maybe of a hiccup early on in the season because we are carrying NCAA tournament games on the fan in Milwaukee.
So we'll be carrying like the nighttime games during the week, and then we'll be carrying the weekend games.
So they may get bumped for NCAA tournament games. But once we get through that little rig of Morello, then it'll definitely be every game all season long. Appreciate you, buddy. You betcha. Support for this podcast comes from Progressive, America's number one motorcycle insurer.
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