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Well, my predictions for Sunday went pretty well as I hit on three of the four, I made. That actually puts me two games over .500 at 11-9 for the NFL playoffs. I guess will have to see how it goes for the conference championship games.

I did have the Buffalo Bills winning their game against the Cincinnati Bengals, which was the one prediction I got wrong, but luckily, I took the Bengals and the points. In the second game I had the San Francisco 49weers to win and to cover which they managed to.

What I did find kind of strange was the way the media especially ESPN covered the San Francisco victory. Oddly they focused on the Dallas Cowboys losing the game more than San Francisco winning the game. As you may have noticed in the paragraph before this that I mentioned that San Francisco covered the spread which meant they were favored to win the game all along, but the way it was covered you would’ve thought that San Francisco pulled off an upset.

I understand that Dallas is “America’s team” and they’re always going to get coverage when they don’t deserve it, but if you think about San Francisco’s situation it’s pretty impressive that they’re where they are right now. The NFC West had the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams who had a very down season, but the division did have the surprising Seattle Seahawks team in it. You also have to remember that San Francisco is on its third starting quarterback this season and he’s a rookie.

It might actually be in San Francisco’s favor that the media isn’t making as big a deal out of their success as they should as it might make it just a little easier for them to sneak up on or maybe surprise teams a little. Of course, now that there’s only two teams left in each conference that will be a lot harder to do.

Both conference championship games are on Sunday, so I’ll make my picks in the Sunday blog, but here’s how the schedule is set up for Sunday. The NFC has the first game as San Francisco visits the Philadelphia Eagles. Philadelphia is a 2 1/2-point favorite right now. The game is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. and it’s on Fox. In the second game the Kansas City Chiefs host the Cincinnati Bengals. Right the now Bengals are a 1 1/2-point favorite, but I’m sure this line will move quite a bit depending on the injury status of Kansas City’s quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain but is expected to play in this game. The game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and it’s on CBS.

It appears as though the Boston Red Sox have made a decision on their shortstop for the 2023 season. The Red Sox decided to not try and sign Xander Bogaerts and he ended up signing with the San Diego Padres. With Bogaerts moving on it looked like Trevor Story would take over as the Red Sox shortstop. Story turned out to have an issue with his right elbow and needed internal brace surgery and will miss a significant part of the 2023 season. Story’s injury left the Red Sox with a hole at shortstop again. Yesterday it seems as though the Red Sox fill the shortstop position by acquiring Adalberto Mondesi from the Kanas City Royals for left-handed pitcher Josh Taylor.

Mondesi has appeared in parts of seven seasons for the Royals and was thought to be their starting shortstop last season, but injuries limited him to just 15 games in the 2022 season. Unfortunately, Mondesi has had a bit of an injury plagued career and will be looking to change his luck with the Red Sox. Tye most games Mondesi has played in a season is 102, but it appears as though the Red Sox will be hoping that he’ll be able to play more games this season.

Besides trading for Mondesi the Red Sox also announced that they have signed outfielder Adam Duvall to a one year $7 million dollar deal. With incentives Duvall could make $10 million dollars in total.

Duvall spent the last season and a half with the Atlanta Braves and was a member of their World Series winning 2021 team. Last season Duvall was limited to 86 games due to injury, so he’s another player the Red Sox will be looking to be healthy for the 2023 season.

Duvall is a Gold Glove winner who can play all three outfield positions, but it’s possible that the Red Sox will play him in Centerfield full time. Duvall hit a career high 38 home runs in 2021 and is expected to add that power to the Red Sox line up especially in Fenway Park.

Alright, if you’d like to feel free to leave me your picks for the conference championship games if you’d like to. If not feel free to wait until Sunday like I’m going to.

Remember to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.