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03/15/14 How was your Week?

Posted: March 15, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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NFL free agency kicked off this week. Did your team sign a player you wanted them to? I woke up this morning (Saturday) to find out the Julius Peppers signed with the Green Bay Packers. When it comes to the years on these deals they don’t really matter; it’s the guaranteed money that’s important. The Denver Broncos signed the most well-known names this week. They added safety T.J. Ward, cornerback Aqib Talib and linebacker DeMarcus Ware. As Denver tries to build a defense to go with that #1 offense that went to the Super Bowl last season. Cleveland filled Ward’s spot by signing hard-hitting safety Donte Whitner and also added linebacker Karlos Dansby. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and new head coach Lovie Smith made a big splash in free agency this week. The Buccaneers added quarterback Josh McCown, defensive end Michael Johnson, cornerback Alterraun Verner, defensive tackle Clinton McDonald, center Evan Dietrich-Smith, plus tackle Anthony Collins. While Tampa Bay was bringing in all these new free agents they released cornerback Darrelle Revis after one season with the team. Revis went on to sign with the New England Patriots. Don’t panic if your favorite team hasn’t signed a free agent yet; their are still plenty of players on the open market. Does your team need a pass rusher? How about Brian Orakpo. Does your team need some help in the defensive backfield? How about two guys with the same last name. Antonio Cromartie and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie are available. Michael Vick is still a free agent if your team needs a quarterback with a bit of an injury history. Ben Tate is probably the #1 running back on the free agent market, but he comes with an injury history as well. If your team can’t find the player they want in free agency maybe they could make a trade. There where three made this week and the San Francisco 49ers were involved in two of them. The 49ers sent a 6th round draft pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for quarterback Blaine Gabbert and then the 49ers sent a 2015 conditional 7th round draft pick to the Miami Dolphins for Jonathan Martin. Yes that Jonathan Martin; he’s going to play for his old college football coach Jim Harbaugh. Martin won’t be asked to start for the 49ers and Harbaugh should be able to give him some protection from any bullying or any type of locker room hazing that might go on. Martin can play both tackle spots and should be a solid back up for the 49ers. In the other trade this week the Philadelphia Eagles sent a 5th round draft pick to the New Orleans Saints for running back Darren Sproles; who seems to be tailor-made for a Chip Kelly offense. Sproles is a good back up for LeShon McCoy and I’m sure jumped way up all the fantasy boards looking at next season all ready.

It’s getting close to playoff time in the NBA and the Miami Heat seems to be in a bit of a funk. The Heat lost last night (Friday) to the Denver Nuggets and the Heat have dropped five of their last six games. I don’t think Miami cares if they end up with the #1 seed in the Eastern conference. One expert mentioned that the Heat are on “cruise” control. Miami has dropped a couple of games to conference opponents Brooklyn and Chicago. A lot of talk seems to think that Brooklyn is the team if there is one that could get by the Heat in the playoffs. The Nets do have Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, but how much do the veteran players have left fun a playoff run. Garnett has played limited minutes this season and has taken games off just to be ready for the playoffs. Some where lost in all of this are the Indiana Pacers who right now are the #1 seed in the Eastern conference. You’d think the Pacers would be the team to knock off the Heat this season, but they’ve seem to have gone unnoticed these last few weeks. The Pacers where in a bit of a slump, but have seemed to came out of it with victories over Boston and Philadelphia. While the Celtics and the 76ers aren’t playoff teams they’re still on your schedule and you need to win those games. In the end will anyone be surprised if it comes down to the Heat against the Pacers in the Eastern conference finals. In other big NBA news Phil Jackson has agreed to a five year contract to become President of the New York Knicks. Jackson won 2 championships as a player with the Knicks. Jackson was also the head coach for 11 championship teams with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jackson has no front office experience; so you have to wonder if he’s the guy to turn the Knicks around. Jackson is scheduled to be introduced by the Knicks on Tuesday and you have to wonder if Mike Woodson’s job is in trouble. Jackson is an advocate of the triangle offense and no one knows if that will suit Carmelo Anthony’s game. Of course even more of a question is will Anthony still be with the Knicks next season. Jackson has his hands full with fixing the Knicks. The Knicks don’t have a 1st round draft pick and they don’t have any money to bring in a top-notch free agent. This will be a monstrous test for Phil Jackson and if he can find a way to turn this Knicks team around or at this point just become a contender he’ll ensure his legacy in New York forever.

Baseball season is getting close. Mr. Fantasy and I have our first fantasy in eight days, but I know there are some people who have already had there drafts. I hope in one of these drafts you didn’t end up with Atlanta Braves pitcher Kris Medlen. Medlen left his spring training start last week with elbow pain and during his examination they found a torn ligament in his pitching elbow. Medlen will under go a 2nd “Tommy John” surgery and be out for the entire 2014 season. That’s one of the reasons I’ve never been a big fan of those early fantasy drafts. Drafting can sometimes be the best part of a fantasy season, but when you do them that early you can lose guys like Medlen before the season even starts. Hopefully soon will get a Mr. Fantasy draft list for you to follow.

So how was your week?

You can listen to Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I on http://www.blogtalkradio.com and http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was Your Week? 03/08/14

Posted: March 8, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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So if your Mike Woodson how do you feel that the New York Knicks offered their head coaching job to Phil Jackson. Jackson turned the job down, but the Knicks turned right around and offered him a position in the front office. Of course with the situation the Knicks are currently in I don’t know if the Zen Master himself can help them out. Carmelo Anthony is free agent after the season and while I fully expect him to resign with the Knicks, but by bringing Anthony back, will they have any money left to sign any other free agents. I know the Miami Heat have been able to bring players in with Pat Riley in the front office, but they had a better product on the floor then the Knicks have right now. Now Jackson hasn’t accepted any position with the Knicks right now, but the offer is out there.

It’s Mr. Fantasy’s favorite time of year; free agency in the NFL. Teams will start releasing players to get themselves under or close to the salary cap; so they can try to sign free agents. In the last two days the New Orleans Saints have released a couple of veterans. On Thursday it was being reported that after eight seasons with the Saints wide receiver Lance Moore was going to be released and then news broke yesterday that the Saints would also be releasing running back Darren Sproles. If your team is in need of a defensive back there are a few out there to choose from. T.J. Ward of the Cleveland Browns, Alterraun Verner of the Tennessee Titans and Aqib Talib of the New England Patriots are a few of the top defensive backs on the open market. Eric Decker appears to be the top wide receiver in free agency, but maybe your team could use a Hakeen Nicks or a Julian Edelman at receiver. Players can start negotiations with teams on Tuesday.

Spring training is fully up and running for all major league baseball teams. The Kansas City Royals announced that starting pitcher Luke Hochevar will miss the entire 2014 season because he needs to have Tommy John surgery on his pitching arm. In 1974 Dr. Frank Jobe came up with the surgery that took a tendon from pitcher Tommy John’s right forearm and replaced the damaged medial collateral ligament in John’s throwing arm. John went on to pitch 14 more seasons after this surgery. On Thursday Dr. Jobe passed away at 88 years old. They did a study in 2013 that 124 active pitchers have had “Tommy John” surgery. Before Dr. Jobe came up with this surgical procedure this injury was considered career ending. Pitchers like Stephen Strasburg, John Smoltz and now Hochevar will be able to come back and continue their careers because of the procedure Dr. Jobe invented. The baseball Hall of Fame has a wing for people who have contributed to the game. I’d like to see baseball put Dr. Frank Jobe in Hall of Fame for coming up with this surgery and saving countless pitching careers.

You can find Sports Time Radio on http://www.blogtalkradio.com and the show is also available at http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was Your Week? (3/1/14)

Posted: March 1, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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We didn’t talk a lot of Olympics on the show but yesterday (Friday) I made Mr. Fantasy play NHL owner while discussing the Olympics. If you’re the New York Islanders owner or a fan of the team; how are you feeling about NHL player going to play in the Olympics now? The Islanders are 23 -30 – 8 and in last place in the Metropolitan division of the Eastern conference. If you’re an Islanders fan you realize that they’re not going to make the playoffs this season, but you had a reason to go to the games and see one of the top players in the NHL John Taveras. While playing in Sochi for Team Canada in the Olympics Taveras tore the MCL and meniscus in his left knee and will miss the rest of the Islanders season. The 23-year-old Taveras was leading the Islanders with 66 points this season; he has 24 goals and 42 assists. Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit Red Wings), Mats Zuccarello (New York Rangers), Paul Martin (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers) where all also injured playing for their countries in the Olympics. Zetterberg has back issues and most report are saying he’ll miss the rest of the season like Taveras. Zuccarello has a hand issue and is scheduled to miss 3 – 4 weeks. Martin had surgery on his broken right hand and will be out 4 – 6 weeks. These are just some of the injuries that players suffered while playing in the Olympics. Will have to see how this affects the rest of the NHL regular season and if it will cause any of these teams trouble in the playoffs.

The New Orleans Saints put the franchise tag on Jimmy Graham yesterday as a tight end. I’m sure no one was surprised at all that the Saints used their franchise tag on Graham. The question all along would be if he would be tagged as a tight end or a wide receiver. Again it wasn’t a surprise that the Saints tagged Graham as a tight end. He’s been listed as a tight end ever since he’s been on the Saints roster. Of course this is a money issue as the value of the one-year franchise tender for wide receivers is $11.6 million, about $5 million more than the tag value for tight ends. Graham’s agent has already said that they’ll file a grievance on this position issue. Graham is a great player at tight end while being covered by linebackers, but when matched up against defensive backs he doesn’t fair as well. Graham doesn’t line up like a traditional tight end would, but the Saints are careful in getting the match ups they need to make him successful. This will be one of the bigger off-season NFL stories to follow.

Spring training has started for baseball and it’s time to look forward to the start of the regular season. You can never put a lot of stock into your teams won, loss record during the spring. You just have to hope that the players get there work in and that no one suffers any kind of injury. I’d have to think the biggest story starting off spring training was the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim giving Mike Trout a one (1) year deal for $1 million dollars with the hope of signing Trout to a long-term contract. This has brought out some big, big numbers on what a Mike Trout contract might be. I’ve heard numbers between $40 and $50 million dollars a season. WOW! It’s always difficult for me to discuss money when it comes to contracts. I fit in the category of these guys make way, way too much money as it is, but you can never fault someone for getting paid the most they can get. Trout is the best player in the game right now and I’ve said on the show a few times already that I believe that he’ll win the M.V.P. award for the upcoming season. They’ve been trying to give Trout the M.V.P. award for two (2) seasons now and I think this is the year that he’ll win it. I have no idea what Trout will end up getting contract wise or dollar wise, but it will far and away big the biggest deal in major league baseball history. What do you think Trout’s contract will end up being?

Not only can you still find Sports Time Radio on http://www.blogtalkradio.com the show is also available on http://www.ultimatesprotstalk.com

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

2/22/14 How was your Week?

Posted: February 22, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in Uncategorized
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On Thursday the Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 103 – 81. I think you could call it a statement game for the Heat but the main stream media got way, way to carried away with just this one game. I think they had to fight each other to get off the Oklahoma City bandwagon and give the MVP award back to LeBron James and crown the Heat as NBA champions. Now in the reality of the NBA both of those things could easily happen. James is the best player in the NBA and scored 33 points in the Heat victory. Miami is considered by many the best team in the NBA and hopefully they’ll get to prove it against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern conference playoffs. I think James is a great player but I’m baffled how one game made everyone either realize this or change their mind this season. There are 82 regular season games in the NBA and Miami winning 1 game against Oklahoma City doesn’t make that big of an impact. It was Russell Westbrook’s first game back from injury. Westbrook played close to 24 minutes and scored 16 points. He was 4 – 12 from the field and handed out 2 assists. Do you think it was a good idea for Westbrook”s first game back from injury to be against the Heat?

The NFL combined started this weekend. The big story to start out with was that Johnny Manziel wasn’t measured at 6′ feet tall. What they forgot the mention when they led with this story was that he was just 1/4 of an inch below 6′ feet tall. With the way the different media outlets led with this story you would’ve thought they measured him at 5′ feet 5 inches tall or something like that. It was 1/4 of an inch people. Drew Brees won a Super Bowl and he was under 6′ feet tall. Russell Wilson just won a Super Bowl and he’s under 6′ feet tall. If you’d like to go back in time Fran Tarkenton took the Minnesota Vikings to three Super Bowls and while the Vikings didn’t win any of them Tarkenton still got them their. By the way Tarkenton is also in the pro football Hall of Fame. Does it matter that Manziel is under 6′ feet tall; no it doesn’t. There’s no height requirement to play quarterback in the NFL; at least not that I know of. Will Manziel take a team to the Super Bowl and win it? who knows. Will Manziel have a Hall of Fame career? who knows. Maybe we should let his NFL career play out before we decide that he’s to short to be an NFL quarterback.

After going back and looking over what I’m writing today I realized that I’ve been tough on the mainstream media but sadly they deserve it. After the U.S. woman’s hockey team lost a heartbreaking gold medal game in overtime to Canada there was actual a story written about how sad the woman looked while they where receiving there silver medals. They lost a 2 goal lead with a little over 3 minutes to play. They had a tough penalty called against them in the overtime period. They gave up the gold medal winning goal on that very power play. How where they suppose to look? Do you believe that they wanted to be on the ice watching Canada celebrate a gold medal that Team U.S.A. should’ve won.

Spring training has opened and there are still a couple of free agents out on the market. While Ubaldo Jimenez got a contract with the Baltimore Orioles, but outfielder Nelson Cruz and pitcher Ervin Santana are still unsigned. Cruz has had talks with quite a few teams and I think will end up with a team before to long. Santana on the other hand has actually said he’s willing to wait for the contract he wants. At the beginning of free agency Santana said he wanted a $100 million dollar deal. You have to wonder how long Santana is willing to sit out. Would it help his career if he sat out the entire 2014 season? If he was out all season why would a team by interested in paying him big money in 2015. I guess when you’re a free agent you have to make sure you don’t over play your hand. Maybe Santana should talk to Kendry Morales about that.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

2/15/14 How was your Week?

Posted: February 15, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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I’m not a New York Yankees fan; I’m not a Derek Jeter fan, but I have respect for him. Jeter announced his retirement earlier in the week by posting it on his Facebook page. After a 2013 season where Jeter played in just 17 games do to injuries and also the fact that he’ll turn 40 years old during the coming season Jeter’s career is coming to an end. Right now Jeter is 10th all time in career hits with 3316. If Jeter can get 121 hits in the 2014 season he’ll move into 6th all hit on the hits list. The question that has come up through out the week is where does Jeter as a shortstop all time. I’ve heard experts who have him as high as 3rd all time and other who have him just outside of the top 10 all time. Those are all debatable issues and it’s up to you where you where you’d rank Jeter. You can say without a doubt that he’s a 1st ballot Hall of Fame selection and one of the greatest player in the modern era of baseball. We haven’t even brought up his legendary love life, but those are stories of a different blog. While the 2014 baseball season hasn’t even started yet and it’s way, way to early to even discuss this I brought up who would replace Jeter at shortstop for the Yankees. On a special Thursday edition of Sports Time Radio this week I mentioned that the starting shortstop for the Yankees in 2015 will be Starling Castro. The Cubs have Castro under a very good contract making him attractive to other teams. They also have top prospect Javier Baez very close to being ready for the majors. Now the Yankees don’t have the top prospects that Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer would want in this deal; so a third team would probably have to be involved. There’s no one in the Yankees minor league system ready to come up and take Jeter’s spot. They do have Brendon Ryan on the roster, but he’s proven though his major league career that while he’s a great fielder his hitting just isn’t what teams look for in a starting shortstop. It’s an interesting topic to discuss and I’m sure it will come up through out the season as Derek Jeter takes a well deserved 2014 victory tour.

Michael Sam is gay. The University of Missouri defensive lineman is looking to be the first openly gay man to play in the National Football League (NFL). Sam was named SEC Co – Defensive player of the year last season. He has been projected as a 3rd to a 5th round pick in the upcoming draft. Another topic that has come up on out=r show with this is if Sam’s draft stock falls how many writers will come out and say it’s because he’s a gay man. Sam may be a little under-sized to play on the defensive line in the NFL. He’s listed at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs in at 255 pounds. He did record 11 1/2 sacks last season for Missouri and if he can rush the passer might end up being a specialist along the defensive line. As you can guess there have been both positive and negative reaction to this. What I’m hoping happens is teams judge Sam on his football ability and not on his sexual orientation. For me I don’t care if he’s gay, straight or bi; if he can help an NFL team he should be on an NFL team. The NFL has the combines coming up this month and then the draft in May. I haven’t heard if Sam plans on attending the combines, but he should to try to improve his draft stock. Then will see where Sam is picked in the draft. I just hope the writers are smart enough to make this a football thing and not a gay issue. Sadly I think we all know they’re not.

On Friday’s show Mr. Fantasy and I talked about the release of Ted Wells report on the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin bullying claims. Wells pointed out that it wasn’t just Incognito bullying Martin but two other offensive lineman John Jerry and Mike Pouncey where also involved. This is a tough situation because even with the Wells report out it still more or less one man’s word against another. If you’ve played football at any level you know this kind of behavior right or wrong goes on all the time. I don’t know how far the three Miami Dolphins took this with Martin, but it was enough to make him leave the team. While I’ve never believed that bullying was the right way to describe what happened to Martin that’s the word they chose to use. I still find it hard to believe that a man of Martin’s size could be bullied; maybe harassed is a better term to use. I’m interested to see if and where Martin and Incognito end up playing in the NFL next season, but I’m pretty sure neither will be with the Dolphins. If you’re interested in hearing more of my opinion on this you can go into the archives of http://www.blogtalkradio.com to listen to them. The show title for Friday 2/14/2014 is “I got a new shirt”. If you’re having troubles find the show there you can go to http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com scroll down the right hand side and you can find Sports Time Radio listed with the other shows on the website.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? (2/8/14)

Posted: February 8, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Did the Super Bowl go the way you thought it would go? While I actually had the winner way back before the season started I had no clue the game would go the way it did. Most if not all of the experts I heard and even Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy where picking Denver. Schaumburg Stu finally sided with me and we had the Seahawks against the world. As we all know by now it was a blowout in the Seahawks favorite and no one had that. By now you’ve heard the Super Bowl analyzed every possible way; so I’m not going to do a breakdown for you. Right now I’m just a happy fan who’s team won.

Football wise I will address this video that is trying to prove that the NFC championship game between the Seahawks and the 49ers was fixed. The easiest way to explain this is the video was made by a 49ers fan. I don’t know if you’ve seen this video but I was dumb enough to waste my time and watch the entire thing. Plain and simple it’s a video that any fan with a lot more computer skills than I, could have put together after any NFL game. I actually understand where this guy is coming from. His team lost and he’s upset and he had to find a way to explain why his team lost. I would’ve been just as upset as this fan was if the Seahawks had lost the game but I wouldn’t have made a video claiming the game was fixed. The 49ers are a young team just like the Seahawks are and they are in the toughest division in the NFL. Seattle won the division this season. San Francisco won the division last season. The Arizona Cardinals had a better record than some NFC teams that made the playoffs and the St. Louis Rams are a young up and coming team. If these teams can keep their players and this is a big if this division will be a battle for the next few seasons.

With football over the NHL on it’s Olympic break and the NBA in what some players have described as the “dog days” of the season it’s time for pitchers and catchers to report. The Chicago White Sox are the first team to report in our area (next Saturday) while the Cubs report later next week. Now we all can sit back and wait for Mr. Fantasy’s first mock draft for fantasy baseball.

We talked some baseball on the show this week and the two free agent pitchers I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago are still on the open market. Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez haven’t been signed and I have to wonder if Santana especially priced himself out of the market when he made salary demands when he entered free agency. Both guys also have draft pick compensation attached to them if a team signs them. After the last time I mentioned these two pitchers someone asked me where I thought these pitchers would end up. I really think it’s in Jimenez best interest to return to the Cleveland Indians. He had good success their last season and it would be a good fit for him. Santana on the other hand could end up almost any where at this point. I think at this point Santana will end up with the Texas Rangers or the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In more baseball news. Yesterday Alex Rodriguez dropped his lawsuit against Major League baseball and the players union (MLBPA) and will sit out the 2014 season on suspension. I don’t think this was a case A-Rod could win and he just saved himself quite a bit of money by not following through with this lawsuit. A-Rod could refile the lawsuit at any time, but right now it looks like he has “exhaust(ed) all options” like he had said he would do. The Yankees will save $25 million if A-Rod doesn’t play in 2014 but he is owed a total of $61 million though the 2017 season. The question now becomes with the dropping of the lawsuit is A-Rod admitting some guilt and would this give the Yankees enough to void the remainder of his contract. I guess will have to wait and see where A-Rod goes next.

So; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

2/1/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 31, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Tomorrow is the Super Bowl; the Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks. Most of the experts I’ve heard make picks are going with Denver. Even Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man are picking Denver to win this game. I guess I am out on my own here going with the Seahawks to win. It’s the best offense (Denver) in the NFL against the best defense (Seattle) in the NFL. If you can believe it or not and with the way we make picks sometimes it might be tough. At the beginning of the season Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy picked Denver and I actually picked Seattle to win it all. Mr. Fantasy had Denver facing Atlanta while Dan the Man had them playing New Orleans. I had Seattle facing New England in the Super Bowl. Who was your pick?

Kevin Durant’s 30 plus points a game scoring streak came to an end last night. It wasn’t a great defensive effort on someone’s part. The streak actually ended because the Oklahoma City Thunder had such a big lead that Durant sat out the entire 4th quarter. Durant scored 26 points in 30 minutes last night as the Thunder beat the Brooklyn Nets 120 – 95. Durant is making his case for Most Valuable Player and with the absence of Russell Westbrook, due to injury has kept the Thunder 1st place in the Northwest division. LeBron James and LaMarcus Aldridge have also made strong cases for MVP but right now the award belongs to Kevin Durant. I remember that when I first started watching the NBA the finals where on tape delay. Then in 1984 David Stern was appointed commissioner now 30 years later the NBA is a world-wide league. I could’ve spent the entire blog today writing about what Stern has done to make the NBA the league it is today. He did have some help as Larry Bird and Ervin “Magic” Johnson where already playing in the league and then a player by the name of Michael Jordan was drafted. While it’s a players league and they where the faces that people saw Stern knew how to work behind the scenes and kept the league growing globally. Today is Stern’s last day as NBA commissioner. Starting tomorrow Adam Silver will be the commissioner of the NBA.

The NHL is getting close to going on a two week break for the Olympics. The Anaheim Ducks have pulled away from the pack a little with an 85 point total right now. The Chicago Blackhawks are next at 79 points while the Pittsburgh Penguins are right behind with 78 points. The St, Louis Blues are also right there with 77 points. The Penguins Sidney Crosby is leading the NHL in points with 75 and assists with 48. Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is the NHL’s leading goal scorer with 39. Matt Niskanen of the Penguins is the leader in the plus minus category with a plus 30. I don’t want to forget about the goaltenders.Josh Harding (Minnesota Wild) is the NHL leader in Goals Against Average. at 1.66. Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins) leads all goalies in wins with 29. Ben Scrivens (Edmonton Oilers) is the leader in save percentage at .937. Tuukka Rask (Boston Bruins) has the most shutouts for goaltenders with 5.

As always I have to ask you; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 1/25/14

Posted: January 25, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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So it turned out to be the New York Yankees who signed Masahiro Tanaka. It took a seven year contract for $155 million to get the deal finalized. Then of course there’s the $20 million posting fee that the Yankees now have to pay to Tanaka’s Japanese league team the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. It had been reported that Tanaka had narrowed his choices to the Yankees or the Chicago Cubs. There was actually a report that another team had offered Tanaka more money than the Yankees did but they never said if that team was the Cubs. A lot of scouts have been saying that Tanaka is a #2 rotation type of pitcher but the Yankees paid an awful lot of money for a guy to be a #2 starter. Of course we won’t know anything until the regular season starts and we see how Tanaka matches up against major league hitters. After the Tanaka signing it was being reported that Matt Garza had signed a four year, $52 million dollar deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers came out and said they hadn’t signed Garza and he needed to pass a physical before they could agree on a deal. We’ll see if the Brewers end up with Garza or if it turns into a Grant Balfour type of situation. Balfour by the way agreed this week to a two year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays for $12 million dollars. Now we start to look and see where pitchers like Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez end up signing as we get closer to the start of spring training.

The NBA announced the starters for the All Star game. The Eastern conference starters are LeBron James and Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat. Paul George of the Indiana Pacers. Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Western conference starters are Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers. Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Stephen Curry of the Golden State warriors and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. This is the fan voting and these are the players voted to start by the fans. Bryant is injured and probably won’t play; so he’ll be replaced as a starter. You also have to wonder if wade will be ready to go by the All Star game as he has missed the last four Heat games with a knee injury. With every All Star game where the starters are selected by fan voting there was some complaints about the starters. For me I think the biggest omission from the starting line up is LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trailblazers. While I’m sure Aldridge will make the All Star team it would’ve been nice to see him get the fans votes to start the game. Aldridge is an M.V.P. candidate and the Trailblazers are 32 – 11; two games behind the Thunder in the Northwest division. I’m sure you have your own snubs. Who do you think should start the All Star game?

It’s the NFL’s week off before the Super Bowl and this season they’re playing the Pro Bowl on the week off. They had a draft to pick the teams and I tried to watch it and just couldn’t. It’s an idea they stole from the NHL where two captains pick the teams. In this case it was Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders picking the Pro Bowl teams. While the NHL has stream lined their draft and it runs quickly and smoothly the NFL’s was a lot of fluff and way, way too much time between draft picks. I hope the NFL noticed the issues with this set up and can get it corrected by the time they do this next season. I doubt it will make any difference at all in the Pro Bowl itself as the game isn’t taken seriously by the players. Oddly the Pro Bowl still does very good ratings. While I’ll flip over to the game from time to time, but can never watch the entire game. Do you watch the Pro Bowl?

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

01/18/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The Anaheim Ducks are on a roll right now. Even with a 4 – 2 loss last night (Friday) to the Chicago Blackhawks the Ducks have won 18 of there last 20 games. Anaheim has 77 points and are in 1st place in the Pacific division. They are 11 points ahead of the 2nd place San Jose Sharks. The Ducks are also 1st overall in the Western conference 4 points ahead of the Blackhawks. Ryan Getzlaf leads the Ducks in scoring with 56 points. Corey Perry leads the team in goals with 27; Getzlaf leads the team in assists with 32. Francois Beauchemin and Hampus Lindholm both lead the team in plus/minus with a +25. Perry has 8 game winning goals for the Ducks while Getzlaf is right behind him with 7 game winning goals. On Wednesday Anaheim put up 9 goals against Vancouver. The Ducks play tonight (Saturday) for the second night in a row against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are 3rd in the Western conference standings with 69 points and it’s a home game for St. Louis.

There’s been some talk of who will be the MVP in the NBA this season. If you where up a little late last night you got to see two guys state their case. The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors 127 – 121. Kevin Durant set a career high in scoring with 54 points for the Thunder while Stephen Curry scored 37 points for Golden State. Durant was 19 for 28 from the field including 5 of 9 q from behind the three-point line. Durant was also 11 for 13 from the free throw line and added 4 rebounds and 6 assists. Curry was 37 of 57 from the field hitting 6 of 10 from behind the three-point line. Curry was also 9 of 11 from the free throw line adding 3 rebounds and 11 assists. Two pretty good nights to get yourself into the M.V.P. conversation.

I didn’t forget about it or anything like that. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the conference finals to see who goes to the Super Bowl. 11:00 a.m. Mr. Fantasy and I will make our picks. You can listen live at BTR the show can also be found on Ultimate Sports Talk. Last week in our picks Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy where 2 – 2; I was 4 – 0. For the first two rounds of the playoffs Mr. Fantasy and I are 5 – 3 while Dan the Man is 4 – 4. It’s the Seattle Seahawks vs. the San Francisco 49ers to see who represents the NFC in the Super Bowl. Over in the AFC it’s the Denver Broncos vs. the New England Patriots. Seattle and Denver are the home teams for these games; so will see if that helps either team. Who are you picking?

Clayton Kershaw signed the largest contract in baseball history for a pitcher. The Dodgers signed Kershaw for 7 years and $215 million. It’s always a risk to sign a pitcher to a long-term deal, but Kershaw might actually be worth the risk. Kershaw was 16 – 9 with a 1.83 E.R.A. last season. Kershaw won the Cy Young award last season; his second. Kershaw also won the award in 2011. Do you think this is a good deal?

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 01/11/14

Posted: January 11, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Today (Saturday) starts round 2 of the NFL playoffs. In our picks last week Mr. Fantasy grabbed a one game lead at 3 – 1. Dan the Man is right behind him at 2 – 2. Sadly my week didn’t go as well as I ended up 1 – 3. Our first game today has the New Orleans Saints going to Seattle to take on the Seahawks. On the show last night (Friday) we all picked Seattle to win this game. This is a rematch of a week 13 game that Seattle won 34 – 7. The second game today has the Indianapolis Colts traveling to Massachusetts to take on the New England Patriots. Mr. Fantasy and I have taken the Patriots to win this game, but Dan the Man believes the Colts will pull out a road win. Sunday’s games have the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Carolina Panthers and the San Diego Chargers vs. the Denver Broncos. To get out picks on these games and a review of Saturday’s games you can listen to Mr. Fantasy and I at 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning on http://www.blogtalktradio.com.

The Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes officially got under way this week when Tanaka had his first meeting with a major league team. In a bit of a surprise the Chicago White Sox where the first team to make their pitch to Tanaka. Living in the Chicago area the talk was more that the Cubs where the team that was going to go after Tanaka and the White Sox where hardly even mentioned. I’m sure this is just the start of team after team making their pitches to try to sign Tanaka.

The Hall of Fame added three more members this week as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas won election into the hall. All three where on the ballot for the first time. Craig Biggio missed getting into the Hall of Fame by just two votes. The sad part of this is that there hasn’t been a lot of talk about how great Maddux, Glavine and Thomas are, but of the stunt that one voter pulled. Dan the Man and I went back and forth about this on Tuesday’s show; so I don’t want to get into all of the details here. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the voting process, but my question is what do you think they got wrong? Is there someone in the Hall of Fame that shouldn’t be or is there someone not in that should be.

There was a story out there this week that the NHL may stop sending players to the Olympic games. While it’s nice to see the various NHL players go to the Olympics and represent their country, but what you have to understand is this happens during the regular NHL season. No other sport shuts down its regular season games to allow players to go and play for another team even though it is the Olympics. I enjoying watching the Chicago Blackhawks play for their countries in the Olympics, but I understand why the owners don’t want to continue to let them go and play. I think the bigger question might be if the NHL players stop going to the Olympics will hockey continue to be an Olympic sport.

So how was your week?

You can follow me @Burketime

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