Archive for December, 2018

How was your week

Posted: December 29, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

It’s the final week of the regular season in the NFL and there are some games that actually mean something. Let’s see if we can find them.

The Baltimore Ravens control their own destiny in the AFC North. All the Ravens have to do is beat the Cleveland Browns and they’ll win the division and go into the playoffs as a 4th seed. If the Ravens lose they can still win the division if the Cincinnati Bengals can beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now if the Steelers win and the Ravens lose it will be the Steelers that win the division and head into the playoffs. There’s no fallback wild card spot for ether of these teams. One of them will win the division and head into the playoffs while the other one heads into their off season.

Over in the NFC all of the divisions are locked up, but there is still one wild card spot up for grabs. The Minnesota Vikings currently hold that last playoff spot and if the beat the Chicago Bears on Sunday they’ll take that last wild card spot. Now if the Vikings lose that opens the door for the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles to find their way into a wild card spot. The Eagles will need that Vikings loss and then they have to beat the Washington Redskins to get into the playoffs.

Now don’t think that the Bears aren’t playing for anything in their game against the Vikings. If Chicago beats Minnesota and the Los Angeles Rams lose their game to the San Francisco 49ers the Bears would be the #2 seed in the NFC and get a 1st round bye.

There is one more win and they’re in scenario and it’s for the final AFC wild card spot. The final game of Week 17 on Sunday night features the Indianapolis Colts at the Tennessee Titans. Both teams are 9-6 heading into this game and it’s a pretty plain and simple set up on who gets into the playoffs. Win the game and you’re in the playoffs; that’s it.

If you’re looking to put a wager on the game Indianapolis is currently a 3 point favorite with the over/under for the game being 43.5 points.

The biggest question heading into the Sunday night game is who will be the Titans quarterback. Marcus Mariota is listed as questionable for the game after suffering what was reported as a “stinger” in Tennessee’s Week 16 win over the Redskins. Mariota missed practice on Wednesday and was limited in practice on both Thursday and Friday as he was still bothered by his neck. Mariota is also dealing with a foot injury. Titans head coach Mike Vrabel mentioned that there’s a chance that Tennessee will have not only Blaine Gabbert active, but possible Austin Davis as well. This was if there is an issue with Mariota the Titans would have a back up for Gabbert. I’m sure that Mariota will be a game time decision; so you’ll have to keep an eye on the Titans quarterback situation.

There are a couple of other injuries that could affect this win and your in game. Titans pass rusher Brian Orakpo has been ruled out due to an elbow injury while Indianapolis’ two top receivers are listed as questionable for this game. T.Y. Hilton is dealing with a ankle injury and Eric Ebron is recovering from a knee injury and a concussion.

Hilton is the Colts leading receiver with 74 receptions and 1209 yards. Ebron is right behind Hilton in both of those categories with 62 receptions and 690 yards. Ebron has caught 12 touchdowns this season while Hilton has grabbed 6. Hilton has been playing through his injury for a few weeks now and you’d have to think in an all or nothing type of game he’ll attempt to play again. Ebron was forced out of the Colts Week 16 game against the New York Giants with his injuries and it hasn’t been reported if he has cleared concussion protocol.

There is one more Tennessee injury that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. Titans top receiver Corey Davis has been dealing with a hamstring injury. Davis leads the Titans in receptions (60) yards (843) and receiving touchdowns (4). Davis has a total of 17 receptions since Week 10 and it’s unknown what his status for Sunday nights game is.

Who do you think wins the Colts/Titans match up? If you want to know who we’re picking to win this game tune in to the Sports Time Radio podcast tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 10:00 a.m. cst to find out who Mr. Fantasy, Schaumburg Stu, Dan the Man and I and picking to in not only this game, but all of the Week 17 games.

Sports Time Radio is live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you don’t catch the podcast live it is also available for you to listen to whenever you want at TuneIn.com. Listen and find out how we do.

Now there have been a lot of signings in Major League Baseball so far this off season, but the two guys Bryce Harper and Manny Machado that everyone is waiting to sign still haven’t and I’m not surprised by that at all.

With Harper being represented by Scott Boras you had to know that his signing would be one of the last one made. This seems to be how Boras handles his clients even if it hurts them in the first year of their contract; see Jake Arrieta. I honestly believe that even if Harper knew where he was going to sign and had a contract in place that Boras wouldn’t let him announce it until a week before spring training was to start.

As for Machado I’m sure that he’d like to see Harper sign first; so his agent could compare salaries, but I don’t think that will happen. There seem to be  lot better fits with teams for Machado than there are for Harper; so if Machado gets a contract offer he likes from a team that he wants to play for he should sign. I fully expect Machado to sign before Harper, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I you’re on Twitter feel free to follow me @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 5, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

After a 20-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals dropped their record to 4-7-1 on the season the Green Bay Packers decided it was time to make a head coaching change.

Mike McCarthy was in his 13th season with the Packers and had a very good record of 125-77-2, but last season was the first since 2008 that the Packers finished under.500 and missed the playoffs. Now this season the Packers can still finish over .500 by winning out, but making the playoffs looks like a different story.

I have to say that I was a little surprised by the reaction of the national media as most of the experts I saw thought that Green Bay did McCarthy a disservice by firing him with 4 games left I the season. Most thought that Green Bay should’ve just let McCarthy finish the season as head coach and then let him go, but I don’t understand that logic. If you’ve made the decision that you’re going to be letting the head coach go why wait until the end of the season? I think it’s better that the Packers and McCarthy went their separate ways now instead of waiting. By making the move now it allows McCarthy to start thinking about another coaching job if that’s what he wants to do and it also gives the Packers a head start in looking for their new coach.

Humorously this is the same national media that thought it was a great move when the Cleveland Browns fired Hue Jackson after Week 8 this season. Is it because Jackson doesn’t have the same resume as McCarthy that makes one a good move and one a bad move?

Joe Philbin was named interim head coach of the Packers. Philbin was serving as the teams offensive coordinator, but McCarthy was calling the plays for the offense.

This is Philbin’s second stint on the Packers coaching staff. He joined Green Bay in 2003 and was with them until 2011 in his final four seasons there he was the offensive coordinator. In 2012 Philbin was hired as the Miami Dolphins head coach. He spent three seasons plus four games as the Dolphins head coach amassing a record of 24-28 while there.

Philbin will be the 15th head coach in Packers history, but it hasn’t been said if he’ an actual candidate for the permanent job or if he’ll just finish out the 2018 season. Maybe if the Packers run the table Philbin would be considered as a serious head coaching candidate.

There was a second firing over the weekend, but this one was in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls decided it was time to move on from head coach Fred Hoiberg after the team started out 5-19 this season.

Hoiberg was in his fourth season with the Bulls and the teams record was worse ever season he was there. After starting out with a winning record at 42-40 in his first season, but not making the playoffs. The Bulls came back and went 41-41 the next year and managed to sneak into the playoffs. They where knocked out in the 1st round. The Bulls fell to 27-55 last season before getting off to such a bad start this season that they decided to make a coaching change.

This was Hoiberg’s first NBA head coaching job. Before getting the Bulls job Hoiberg was head coach at Iowa State University for 5 seasons. Hoiberg had a 115-56 record at Iowa State and made the NCAA Tournament five of the six seasons he coached their. Iowa State mad it to the Sweet 16 one time with Hoiberg as their head coach.

When the Bulls named Hoiberg as their head coach back in June of 2015 they also announced that he had signed a 5-year $25 million dollar deal; so it looks like the Bulls will be paying him not to coach for a period of time.

Jim Boylen will take over as the Bulls head coach in place of Hoiberg. This is the first time that Boylen will be a head coach, but he has many years as an assistant coach.

Boylen has an interesting coaching history. He started as an assistant with Michigan State University from 1987-1992. Then he went to the Houston Rockets from 1992-2003. He spent a year with the Golden Sate Warriors 2003-2004 and then a year with the Milwaukee Bucks 2004-2005 before returning to Michigan State from 2005-2007. Boylen then went to the Utah Jazz from 2007-2011. Then he was with the Indiana Pacers from 2011-2013. Then it was off to the San Antonio Spurs from 2013-2015 before landing in with the Bulls at the start of the 2015 season.

So I guess you can say that Boylen doesn’t have any head coaching experience, but as you can see he has a lot of coaching experience and has been on the coaching staff of three NBA champions.

Of course these won’t be the last two coaching fired in either the NBA or the NFL. These where just two teams that decided to make a change and thought it was better to make it now than wait until the end of or in the case of the NBA the middle of the season to make a move.

You just never know which teams are going to make coaching changes. Remember two of the NFL coaches that where “on the hot seat” Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens now have the respective teams in the hunt for a playoff spot. I don’t know if that might mean they’re safe as their teams could just as easily fall out of playoff contention, but sometimes you can’t push a coach out the door to quickly.

In the NBA there was some talk very early that Luke Walton’s job with the Los Angeles Lakers might be in trouble because he wasn’t LeBron James’ choice as coach, but that rumor has seemed to have went away. There was also some talk that the Washington Wizards would remove Scott Brooks as their head coach as the team has struggled badly this season, but as of right now Brooks is still their head coach.

Of course these things can change quickly; so who knows who might be the next head coach to go or wat league that coach will be from.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but you can also listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: December 1, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

Coming into Thursday night there where a lot of people predicting that the New Orleans Saints would represent the NFC in the Super Bowl while the Dallas Cowboys seemed to be finding themselves, but weren’t considered in the same class as New Orleans. The teams met on Thursday night on Dallas and what happened? Of course the Cowboys held the Saints to a season low 10 points and picked up a 13-10 win. What we have to figure out now is was it just a rough night for the Saints? Or are the Cowboys going to be a serious contender?

We know all of the stats about the Saints. They came into Thursday’s game on a 10-game winning streak and had looked like they where unstoppable. Now the Cowboys came into this game on a modest 3-game winning streak, but they had been playing better and had taken over 1st place in the NFC East.

Even though the Cowboys won this game the question just kept coming. Was it just another fluke game on a Thursday night? Would the or could the Cowboys do this same thing had the game been played in New Orleans? Along those same lines there are people asking if the Cowboys could repeat a performance like this in the playoffs. Now of course we can’t answer any of those questions and it’s really just a way for the people who picked the Saints to win the game to cover up the loss.

Now to be fair I had the Saints winning this game as did Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu. I never got a pick from Mr. Fantasy; so he gets the automatic “L”. Hopefully the rest of our Week 13 picks go better.

Now I’m sure that everyone fully expects the Saints to bounce back next week as they travel to Raymond James Stadium to face the only other team they’ve lost to this season the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

How about the Cowboys though. They’ll be hosting the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles next week and while the Eagles haven’t played anywhere near as well as they did last season they’re still a threat. Philadelphia could actually do the Cowboys a huge favorite this week if they can beat the Washington Redskins on Monday night. Dallas is in 1st place because of tiebreaker, but an Eagles win would give the Cowboys an actually one game lead in the NFC East. That win would also be huge for the Eagles as it would get them back to .500 and out them right in the race in the NFC East.

Now after the Eagles game the Cowboys have a tough game in Week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts, but they have two very winnable games to close out the season. I Week 16 they’ll host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before finishing the season on the road against the New York Giants. While these look like two games that the Cowboys should win they’ll have to play good defense as the Buccaneers can put points on the scoreboard and the Giants feature two of the best players at their respective positions in wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and running back Saquion Barkley.

How do you see the Cowboy season ending? Do they win the NFC East and make the playoffs? Or do they struggle down the stretch and end up on the outside looking in?

While the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets work on a blockbuster deal that could get Robinson Cano’s salary off of the Mariners books they did make a smaller deal to keep the rebuild moving along.

Seattle sent reliever Alex Colome to the Chicago White Sox for catcher Omar Narvaez. Colome appeared in 47 games for the Mariners after he was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. Seattle brought Colome in to set up for closer Edwin Diaz and he did a solid job. Colome ended up going 5-0 with the Mariners while posting an ERA of 2.53. He did pick up 1 save, but more importantly in the set up role he had 30 holds. Colome had been the Rays closer since 2016 and led MLB in saves with 47 in 2017. Colome made $5.3 million dollars last season, but is head into his first year of arbitration; so his salary is expected to take a big jump up.

In return for Colome the Mariners get a catcher in Narvaez who has been playing in a platoon situation for the past two seasons. Narvaez played in 97 games last season for the White Sox and hit .275 with 9 home runs. Narvaez also threw out 24% of runners trying to steal against him. Remember that the Mariners traded their starting catcher from last season Mike Zunino; so it looks like Narvaez will get his first opportunity get a full season of at bats.

Now the Mariners deal that is getting the most attention features Robinson Cano along with closer Edwin Diaz heading to the Mets for a package of prospects. The hang up right now is which players the Mets would be sending to Seattle in this deal.

Some of the names that have been thrown out there are former 1st round draft picks Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Kelenic was the 6th pick in the 2018 draft while Dunn was selected with the 19th pick in the 2016 draft. David Peterson’s names has also came up; he was the Mets 1st round pick 20th overall in the 2017 draft.

Now there has also been some talk of current major league players being included in this deal. Names like Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak and Jeff McNeil have been mentioned. Bruce and Swarzak would be in the deal to help even out the salaries, but the inclusion of McNeil might just be the fat that him and Cano play the same position and there wouldn’t be a spot for him with the Mets. At first there was talk of Domenic Smith being included in this deal, but as of late I haven’t seen his name mentioned.

It does appear as though this deal will happen as reports are saying that the teams picked up “significant momentum” in trying to get something done.

Do you like the idea of the Mets acquiring Cano and Diaz? Or are they other player you’d like to see them target in a trade?

Don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but remember the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime.