Sports Time Radio

The NASCAR season kicks off with what has been called their Superbowl of stock car racing the Daytona 500. The race is considered the most prestigious and important race on the NASCAR calendar. The race also carries the largest purse of the season. The race is also an anomaly as in most if not all other sports their championship is played at the end of the season.

Since 1997 the winner of the Daytona 500 receives the Haley J. Earl trophy in victory lane. The winning car is displayed in race winning condition for one year at the Daytona 500 Experience a museum and gallery adjacent to the Daytona International Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racings Denny Hamlin is the defending champion. Hamlin starts this year race 21st as he looks to win his 3rd Daytona 500 and become the first driver to win this race back to back since Sterling Marlin in 1994-95.

Rickey Stenhouse Jr. of JTG Daughtery Racing had the fastest qualifying time and will start on the pole in the #47 car. Alex Bowman starts 2nd in the #88 car.

“The King” Richard Petty has won the Daytona 500 more time than anyone else 7. Cale Yarborough has won the race 4 times while Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon have each won this race 3 times. There are also 7 drivers who have won the race two times each.

Joey Logano and Hamlin are the favorites to win this years race at 10 to 1 while Chase Elliot, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are close behind at 13 to 1.

Who do you think will win this years Daytona 500?

It looks like the Cleveland Indians have suffered the first major injury of spring training as their top starting pitcher Mike Clevinger suffered a partial tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee.

Clevinger is slated to undergo surgery and is expected to miss about 6 to 8 weeks according to what the team has been telling reporters. It also seems highly unlikely that Clevinger would be ready to open the season in the Cleveland rotation. The extent of his rehab will be determined following the operation, but even a return on the short end of typical meniscus timelines would leave Clevinger with little if any time to prepare for the season opener.

Clevinger was looked upon to be one of the tp starters for the Indians this season. He made just 21 starts last season due to another injury, but when he made his starts he was very good. Clevinger went 13-4 with an ERA of 2.71 in those 21 starts.

Clevinger has made 84 starts in his major league career and has appeared in 97 career games. He is 41-21 with an ERA of 3.20. You can see that when Clevinger is healthy he’s been a very good pitcher for the Indians. Now the question is; can he stay healthy?

Shane Bieber and Carlos Carrasco have two of the spots in the Indians starting rotation locked down, but with Clevinger out the Indians will have to fill in the other three. Zach Plesac and Adam Plutko each made 20 or more starts for the Indians last season; so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they filled in two of the other rotation spots for the Indians. If that is the case Cleveland will just need to find someone to fill the 5th spot in the rotation until Clevinger returns.

It looks like that final spot might come down to one of four pitchers. Aaron Civale might have the inside track as he made 10 starts last season and went 3-4 with an ERA of 2.34. Jefry Rodriguez made 8 starts for the Indians last season going 1-5 with an ERA of 4.63. Logan Allen and Scott Moss will also have the opportunity to compete for the 5th starter spot, but neither have made a start in the majors and would need a good spring training to win the 5th starter spot.

Luckily for the Indians Clevinger’s injury wasn’t more serious and t appears as though Cleveland might only need a fill-in starter for a short period of time.

The Arizona Diamondbacks also had an injury happen to one of the pitchers in their starting rotation.

Mike Leake suffered a fracture in his left wrist, but luckily that’s his non-throwing hand. Apparently this is an aggravation of an injury Leake had as a child. Leake hurt his wrist slipping and falling while chasing his dog.

The Diamondbacks plan for Leake is to rest his wrist for two weeks. He can still throw, but he will be unable to catch any return throws or swing a bat.

The Diamondbacks acquired Leake from the Seattle Mariners at the trade deadline last season. Leake made 10 starts for Arizona after the trade going 3-3 with a 4.35 ERA over 60 innings.

Leake’s injury shouldn’t affect how the Diamondbacks rotation sets up for the season. Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver return to the Arizona starting rotation and they’ll be joined by free agent signing Madison Bumgarner. It looks as though Zac Gallen will have the first shot at locking down the 5th starter spot for the Diamondbacks.

Gallen made 8 starts for Arizona last season. He went 2-3 with an ERA of 2.89 over 43 2/3rd innings. Gallen made 14 starts at Triple-A before being called up by the Diamondbacks after they acquired him in a trade with the Miami Marlins and he was excellent. Galen went 9-1 with an ERA of 1.77 over 91 1/3rd innings.

The Diamondbacks did acquire Corbin Martin as part of the Zack Greinke deal with the Houston Astros. Martin made 5 relief appearances with the Astros last season, but suffered an injury and had to undergo Tommy John surgery. Martin had surgery last July and it appears as though his 2020 season is in doubt.

While it looks like Gallen will get that 5th starter role the Diamondbacks still have Merrill Kelly who made 32 starts for Arizona last season, but it seems as though he’ll start the year in the bullpen. Kelly did make 32 starts for the Diamondbacks last season covering 183 1/3rd innings which was the most on the team. It was Kelly’s first year back in Major League Baseball after spending four years in the Korean Baseball Organization.

Do you see the Diamondbacks going with Gallen or Kelly as their 5th starter?

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