Sports Time Radio

Earlier this week we had a three team blockbuster trade in Major League Baseball. Mookie Betts and David Price went to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kenta Maeda is headed to the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox received Alex Verdugo and Brusdar Graterol. Now there apparently seems to be an issue with this deal from the Red Sox end.

Reports are that the Red Sox had some concerns about an injury Graterol even though he pitched in 28 games last season. 10 of those games where with the Twins in September. Graterol is represented by Scott Boras who was quoted as saying “No doctor has told me that there is anything about his future going forward other than that it is very bright and he has no limitations”. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying the injury angle here at all.

What I honestly think happened is the Red Sox looked at the deal and decided that they weren’t receiving enough in a deal that contained a former MVP and a former Cy Young award winner.

As of right now these five players are in limbo as these three teams need to figure out how this deal will actually play out. Now not only does this non-deal affect these five players, but the Dodgers made another deal on the basis of this one with the Los Angeles Angels. In that deal the Dodgers sent Joc Pedersen, Ross Stripling and minor leaguer Andy Pages to the Angels for infielder Luis Rengifo.

With pitchers and catchers on the verge of reporting this is has to be quite an issue for these teams to be dealing with. Just to kind of add salt to Pedersen’s wound not only does he not know what team he’s going to be on, but he lost his arbitration case that ended up having to be against the Dodgers since this trade is being held up.

Are you buying the Red Sox injury concerns for Graterol or do you think there was another reason that they had concerns with this trade.

Not that it will be looked at as a big free agent signing it is a player that we root for on the Sports Time Radio podcast. Hunter Pence signed a one year deal to return to the San Francisco Giants.

Pence spent seven seasons with the Giants from 2012-2018 before joining the Texas Rangers last season. An injury cut Pence’s season short. He didn’t play in a game after August 22nd, but he played so well in the first half of the season that he was named to the American League All-Star team.

Pence played in 83 games last season spending most of his time at Designated Hitter, but he did play 16 games in rightfield and 8 games in leftfield. This obviously becomes something you have to look at since the National League doesn’t have the Designated Hitter just yet. Pence did hit .297 last season with 18 home runs.

Pence got a one year deal from the Giants. He’ll earn $3 million dollars with a chance to earn $2.5 million dollars in incentives. Pence can earn a $1 million dollar roster bonus as well as $1.5 million dollar bonus based on plate appearances starting with his 450th plate appearance.

San Francisco has also added another veteran outfielder as they signed Billy Hamilton to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

It appears as though Hamilton would be a 26th man option for the Giants on their roster. You’d have to think that he’d be used as a late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner, but Hamilton could challenge Steven Duggar as a left handed centerfield option.

Hamilton’s offense never really caught up to the threat that he is on the bases. Hamilton was hitting just .211 when the Kansas City Royals released him, but he did hit better after the Atlanta Braves picked him up.

Are you interested in the XFL? If you are they kickoff today. The opening game has the Seattle Dragons at the DC Defenders today at 1:00 p.m. The second game today has the LA Wildcats at the Houston Drillers at 4:00 p.m. There are also two games tomorrow starting with the Tampa Bay Vipers at the NY Guardians at 1:00 p.m. The second game on Sunday has the St. Louis Battlehawks at the Dallas Renegades at 4:00 p.m.

Do you have any interest in the XFL? If you do there are fantasy leagues as well as betting. I saw that the Dallas Renegades are the favorite right now to win the league championship. Since we’ve haven’t seen much of these teams I’m not sure how they’re coming up with these betting lines, but I’m sure there are people out there who will be betting on these games.

Bob Stoops is the head coach of Dallas and their quarterback is Landry Jones. Jones played his college football at the University of Oklahoma where Stoops was his coach. Jones is Oklahoma’s all-time leader in touchdowns with 123 and passing yards with 16,646. Jones has made 5 starts in the NFL and has played in 18 career NFL games. After Ben Rothlisberger was injured last season the Pittsburgh Steelers reached out to Jones, but he had already signed with the XFL an was unable to get out of his contract.

While Jones might be the most notable name out of the XFL quarterbacks, but there are some other names you’ll know taking snaps in this league. Cardale Jones is the starter for DC. Luis Perez is the starter in LA. Matt McGloin is the starter in NY. Jordan Ta’amu is the St. Louis starter. Aaron Murray is the starter in Tampa Bay. Brandon Silvers gets the start in Seattle while Philip Walker is the starter in Houston.

Walker actually gets the start for Houston over Connor Cook; so he may be the first starting quarterback to lose his job in the XFL.

I’ve decided that I’ll be watching these opening week games. I’m hoping for some decent football and while I’m not expecting NFL caliber play I’m hoping for something better than the Alliance of American Football delivered.

Will you be watching the XFL?

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