Oates is away, which means it’s the perfect time for Lucas to bring in his old friend Bill Brophy, former sports editor with the Wisconsin State Journal, to talk about the state of Brewers baseball. While it’s been a while since he’s worked for the State Journal, Brophy has been working with Badger Hockey, high school, and even heading south for MLB Spring Training. While it’s been a while since he’s covered sports for the Journal, he’s still as sharp as ever on the state of Wisconsin sports.

While covering spring training, Brophy spent most of his time working with the Cubs. That doesn’t mean he could see just how bad they’d be playing at this point in the season. The problem, Brophy says, is that they have all complimentary players and no stars. Pair that with a weak bullpen, that’s how a team can end up 11 games behind the Brewers.

Speaking of the Brewers, they continue to dominate the league. While they’re pretty likely to see the playoffs, Brophy says, they’ve been working their bullpen hard. On Monday night, the team utilized their 15th starting pitcher. Even Brophy hasn’t heard of these guys, and he covered them in spring training!

Lucas then moves to pick Brophy’s brain to get his take on everything from the changing nature of baseball and college athletics, to Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, to his memories of Willie Mays.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.