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The free agent position players seem to be signing fast and furious, but with the exception of Justin Verlander and Jacob deGroom there are still quite a few starting pitchers still out on the free agent market.

We can scratch one more position player off the list as shortstop carols Correa has agreed to a 13-year $350 million dollar deal to join the San Francisco Giants.

Now if a team is in the market for pitching there’s a lot of them still out there. It does appear as though the only starting pitcher that could be looked at as a top of the rotation #1 type of starter would be Carlos Rodon, but there is still enough talent to fill out your starting rotation.

I’m sure there are teams that could use a starting pitcher like Noah Syndergaard or Nathan Eovaldi in their rotation. Michael Wacha had what was probably his best season in 2022 and he’s still available. Johnny Cueto really saved the Chicago White Sox rotation last season, so maybe there’s a team willing to take a chance and see if he can repeat his performance from last season. There’s even 43-year-old Left hander Rich Hill out on the free agent market. Who knows if managed right and kept healthy Hill could be a solid starter at the back end of a rotation.

As for Rodon there are reports that the Giants are still interested in bringing him back, but over the past two days they’ve added Ross Stripling and Sean Manaea. Stripling and Manaea each signed identical two-year $25 million dollar deals with San Francisco. Apparently, the New York Yankees have also shown some interest in Rodon, but reports are there’s a large gap between what the Yankees have offered and what Rodon is asking for. There are also some reports out there that the St. Louis Cardinals and the Minnesota Twins are interested in Rodon. With Correa moving on from Minnesota it might give the Twins the money to make Rodon an offer he’s looking for. As for St. Louis it’s said that they are prominent players for Rodon, but no reports about a contract offer have been mentioned.

It appears as though Rodon is looking for contract that would pay him right around $30 million dollars a season. It’s unclear what Rodon has been offered by any of the teams with reported interest but will see if any of them can get close enough to his asking price to sign him.

With Correa now a member of the Giants it leaves Dansby Swanson as the last free agent shortstop standing. There were some reports that the Giants had talks with Swanson, but obviously they decided to sign Correa instead.

What could be Swanson former team the Atlanta Braves made a trade yesterday. It ended up being a three-team deal with the Braves, Oakland A’s and Milwaukee Brewers. The Braves acquired catcher Sean Murphy the Brewers received catcher William Contreras, Joel Payamps and Justin Yeager while Oakland ended up getting four players in the deal, catcher Manny Pina, Kyle Muller, Esteury Ruiz, Freddy Tarnok and Royber Salinas.

There seems to be little interest by the Braves in re-signing Swanson and there have been reports that the two sides have had very little contact this off season.

Swanson will be 29 years old at the start of next season and is coming off what has to be considered his best offensive season. He hit 25 home runs drove in 96 runs while hitting a career-high .277 and add 18 stolen bases, also a career high.

If the Braves do end up deciding to move on from Swanson it appears as though Vaughn Grissom would take over as their everyday shortstop. Grissom played in 41 games for the Braves last season, playing 10 innings at shortstop. Over three minor league seasons Grissom played 161 games at shortstop and had a fielding percentage of .945.

One thing the Brav

There seems to be little interest by the Braves in re-signing Swanson and there have been reports that the two sides have had very little contact this off season.

Swanson will be 29 years old at the start of next season and is coming off what has to be considered his best offensive season. He hit 25 home runs drove in 96 runs while hitting a career-high .277 and add 18 stolen bases, also a career high.

If the Braves do end up deciding to move on from Swanson it appears as though Vaughn Grissom would take over as their everyday shortstop. Grissom played in 41 games for the Braves last season, playing 10 innings at shortstop. Over three minor league seasons Grissom played 161 games at shortstop and had a fielding percentage of .945.

One thing the Braves have going for them is Ron Washington who is their 3rd base coach but is also considered the best infield instructor in baseball. If Swanson isn’t re-signed Washington would be given the task of teaching Grissom the ins and outs of playing shortstop at the Major League level.

I guess time will tell if Swanson ends up back in Atlanta with the Braves or if another team ends up making him the contract offer he’s looking for and he moves to a new team.

What do you think, any predictions on where Swanson might end up playing in 2023?

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime

The Major League Baseball winter meetings wrapped up and there was quite a bit of action. Even though there’s still a lot of down time before spring training gets started there was enough that went on to talk about until then. Plus, there are still a few name players out there that still have signed.

With a lot of money and a lot of years being handed out I did notice one thing about these meetings. It seems as though it’s the same teams that are pursuing the top free agents that are on the market. Obviously, you hear the reports that just about every team is interested, but when it comes down to it it’s the same teams that are spending the money and giving out the years to top players.

It seems as though both New York teams the Mets and the Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Texas Rangers seem to be the teams that are always involved with whatever top free agent is available.

There are exceptions to this rule every now and then as the St. Louis Cardinals signed the best available free agent catcher and last year the Colorado Rockies handed out a big contract, but for the most part and especially this off season it seems as though those six teams were talked about offering all of the bigger free agents’ large contracts.

While this is obviously good for the players as they’re getting their money you have to wonder if it’s good for the game of baseball. Now there are always going to be smaller market teams that aren’t going to give out large contracts, but there are quite a few teams that could’ve been involved in signing a big-name free agent that just never seemed to even make an offer and these teams have holes to fill.

If this type of a situation continues it will start to look as only five or six teams will have a chance to win the World Series every year. Of course, every now and then a young team or a team that gets hot at the right time would grab a World Series title, but more often than not it will be those teams that are loading up with talent winning.

Signing a talented free agent doesn’t mean that player development isn’t important for teams it just means that they’re adding to a position that might be a little down in their minor league system or they might just add a top player in the game. It seems as though if this trend continues will end up with a big separation between the teams.

What I do find curious is to why some of the bigger market teams stayed away from a lot of the top free agents this off season. The Dodgers had mentioned that they wanted to be more luxury tax friendly this season, so that may have precluded them from handing out another big contract, but even without making a big signing they’ll still be a top team in 2023. The other teams however never really gave a reason for either not making an offer to a free agent or not trying to sign them.

Humorously here in Chicago, the Cubs have been telling fans that they would be big players in the free agent market this off season and even mentioned that they might sign multiple free agents. I guess to be fair the Cubs did make two free agent signings they signed pitcher Jameson Taillon and outfielder and former National League Most Valuable Player Cody Bellinger. I’m not sure that these were the two big signings Cubs fans were looking for especially since there was a report that came out earlier this week that the Cubs would be involved in trying to sign both Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson. Now it’s possible that the Cubs might still sign Swanson, but Bogaerts signed an 11-year $280 million dollar contract with the Padres.

Now I’m sure other fans from other teams have heard the same reports about the team in their area and then had nothing had happened. I just happen to live in the Chicago area, so the Cubs and the White Sox are reported on more heavily than other teams.

Of course, in the end baseball is a business, but if you’re a fan of a team that isn’t or doesn’t get involved in the free agent market will it make it harder for you to watch them or even harder to go to games if you’re looking at a team that doesn’t appear to have a chance to win. Now there are a couple of bigger name free agents left on the market, but do you honestly see the team you root for singing them?

I’d be interested to know what you thought of your favorite baseball teams off season so far. Have they made a big signing? Or are they one of the teams that seem to be on the outside looking in this of season?

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, @Burketime.

It was just a few weeks ago that a picture of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones showed him blocking six black students from entering a high school in Arkansas that was trying to become desegregated. This photo was from 1957 while Jones was a sophomore in high school. I don’t want to go too much into that situation, but I wanted to kind of discuss the odd way Lebron James handle this situation.

After one of the Los Angeles Lakers game James kind of chastised reports for not asking him about the Jones photo. It was an odd way for James to handle this and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but he tried to compare it to being asked about Kyrie Irving when Irving tweeted about that movie with racial overtones in it.

Now James and Irving aren’t necessarily friends, but they were teammates and did share a locker room with each other. To my knowledge Jones has never played in a National Basketball Association game or owned an NBA team. As a former teammate of Irving’s and someone who’s spoken out on subjects before it would make sense for reporters to ask James about a former teammate.

You also have to take into consideration that these were NBA beat reporters, so there’s a chance that they may not have had all of the information on Jones’ situation to ask James about what he thought. These reporters are pretty much focused on following whatever NBA team they’re assigned to and may have tunnel vision which could explain why they didn’t ask James any questions about Jones.

Now we know that James is a Cowboys fan and may have even sat in the owner’s box at a Cowboys game, but that doesn’t mean he had any conversations with Jones except possible about the game or football as a whole.

I’m not sure if James knows Jones well enough to supply much information on him. That would mean if a reporter had asked James about the Jones photo, he would’ve just been giving his opinion and not really any inside information on Jones himself. Now in the situation with Irving James actually knows him on a personal level even if they’re not the best of friends.

Obviously, it’s clear that James had an opinion on the Jones photo and wanted to share it, but he has a television show that he can do that on. The question will be if he does address the Jones photo will he address the Irving tweet situation?

I guess the other question could be, does James have the credentials to answer the type of questions that would’ve been asked about the Jones photo? I would guess that he like almost everyone else think it was wrong, but could he provide more insight than that? There are plenty of reporters out there that have the credentials to write about the Jones photo that could probably be able to give more insight than James could.

Now I’m fine with James or anyone else expressing their opinion on the Jones photo or the Irving tweet situation, but I don’t really need those opinions forced on me. I’d like to think that anyone interested in the situation would be able to find the information they were looking for.

I’m not sure how abreast you are with this whole fallout with James since it was a week or two ago, but I’d be interested to know what you think about the way he handle himself.

With the Major League Baseball winter meetings up and running there has been a lot of activity. I’m not going to go through every contract, but the big news this morning is that Aaron Judge is staying with the New York Yankees on a 9-year $360 million dollar deal. Also, this morning the Boston red Sox signed closer Kenley Jensen to a 2-year $32 million dollar deal. The San Francisco Giants missed out on Judge, but they did sign outfielder Mitch Haniger to a 3-year 43.5 million dollar deal. We’ve also seen three starting pitchers get signed. Jose Quintana signed with the New York Mets; Andrew Heaney signed with the Texas Rangers while former Mets pitcher Tajuan Walker signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for 4 years while Jameson Taillon got a 4-year deal from the Chicago Cubs.

As you can see the signings seem to be happening hot and heavy, so I’m sure there will be more as the day goes on. Please let me know what you think of these signings and if one jumps out to you as being the best signing.

Don’t forget to check me out on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

Baseball’s winter meetings are getting ready to start and in general there is always some big news that comes out of those meetings. In some cases, it’s a big trade or in other cases it’s a huge free agent signing. Well before the winter meetings get started the Texas Rangers started things off early by making a big free agent signing.

On Thursday the Rangers came to a contract agreement with free agent pitcher Jacob deGroom. The deal is for five years, and $185 million dollars and all of that money is guaranteed. deGroom’s deal also includes a sixth-year option that would bring the total dollar amount of the contract to $222 million dollars.

Now the option year of deGroom’s contract has some interesting clauses in it. The 2028 conditional option is worth at least $20 million dollars, but that number jumps to $30 million dollars if deGrom pitches at least 625 innings during the life of the contract or finishes in the top five in Cy Young voting.  Should he pitch at least 725 innings and record at least three top-five Cy Young finishes, the option will be worth $37million dollars.  If deGrom doesn’t meet these specifications in 2023-26, the option can still be worth $37million dollars in 2028 if he pitches 160 plus innings in 2027, has a top-five Cy Young voting finish, and is judged by an independent doctor to be healthy heading into 2028.

deGroom won the Cy Young award in back-to-back seasons 2018 and 2019 but has made just 38 starts over the past three seasons because of injuries. Obviously a healthy deGroom is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball.

There was a lot of talk that the Rangers were looking at add a big starting pitcher to their rotation and they landed the one that could be considered the best starting pitcher on the free agent market.

deGroom will lead a Rangers rotation and as of right now should have Jon Gray, Martin Perez, Jake Odorizzi and Dane Dunning following him.

Gray was last season’s big off season pitching signing and he was solid. Gray went 7-7 with an ERA of 3.96 in 24 starts. Perez was also signed as a free agent and had a breakout year for the Rangers. Perez made 32 starts going 12-8 with an ERA of 2.89. Odorizzi was recently acquired from the Atlanta Braves and brings another veteran presence to the starting rotation, but the Rangers will need more out of him than he showed last season. Odorizzi made 22 starts last season and went 6-6, but his ERA was 4.40. At 27 years old Dunning would be the youngest member of the Rangers rotation. Dunning made 29 starts for Texas last season and went 4-8 with an ERA of 4.46.

While that’s what the Rangers starting rotation would probably look like to start the 2023 season don’t forget that Texas has a couple of big-time pitching prospects in their minor league system that should be in the starting rotation while deGroom is still under contract with them.

Jack Leiter was the 2nd pick of the 2021 draft and is expected to pitch at the Double AA level this season. The Rangers also took a chance and selected Kumar Rocker in the 1st round of last year’s draft with the 3rd pick.

Rocker was originally drafted be the New York Mets in the 1st round of the 2021 draft, but the two sides couldn’t come to a contract agreement because the Mets had some injury concerns about Rocker. It’s expected that Rocker will pitch in Class-A ball after doing some pitching in the Arizona Fall League.

The Rangers starting rotation could be quite interesting down the road if Leiter and Rocker could join deGroom in it. Of course, we know how prospects go, so will have to wait and see on those two pitchers.

It’s possible that there might be another interesting player on the move this off season as it’s been reported that Bryan Reynolds has asked the Pittsburgh Pirates to trade him.

Reynolds has been long sought after by other teams and since he still has two years of arbitration left, he’d probably bring back quite a haul if the Pirates actually decide to deal him.

Pittsburgh offered Reynolds a deal that would’ve made him the highest paid Pirates player in history by total dollar figure, but it was mentioned that the two sides hit an “impasse” causing Reynolds to ask for a trade.

Pittsburgh has said that they have no plans of trading Reynolds as he’s signed for the 2022 season and then has those two years of arbitration after that. Will have to see how this plays out, but with the Pirates history you’d have to figure that somewhere down the road Reynolds will be traded.

So, jump in here and let me know what you think. Will deGroom be worth the money that the Rangers are paying him? How much closer do you think this gets them to catching the Houston Astros and the other teams ahead of them in the American League West?

I’d also like to know your take on the situation with the Pirates and Bryan Reynolds. How much longer do you see him being with Pittsburgh?

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

Just when I mentioned that it was a slower time in the Major League Baseball off season there were a couple of signings of players of some note. If you’re a baseball fan at least it will give you something to discuss.

The Houston Astros decided to allow Yuli Gurriel and Trey Mancini to enter free agency, so they were in the market for a 1st baseman and on Monday they signed one. Jose Abreu now formerly of the Chicago White Sox will take over as the Astros 1st baseman. Abreu signed a three-year $58.5 million dollar deal to join the Astros.

Abreu will turn 36 years old in January and has spent his entire nine-year career as a member of the White Sox. Abreu has been a proven run producer in his career but had a bit of a down year last year. Abreu hit just 15 home runs and drove in 75 runs. With the exception of last season and of course the Covid-19 shortened season Abreu has always hit 30 home runs and driven in over 100 RBI’s.

In that Covid-19 shortened 2020 season Abreu played in all 60 games for the White Sox. Abreu hit .317 with 19 home runs and drove in a league leading 60 RBIs on his way to winning the American League Most Valuable Player award.

Now, the White Sox made a signing as well, but it wasn’t a 1st baseman to replace Abreu. Instead, the White Sox brought in an arm for their starting rotation.

Chicago signed right-handed pitcher Mike Clevinger to a one-year $8 million dollar deal. The contract will become official once Clevinger passes a physical.

The White Sox have some familiarity with Clevinger as he spent the first four seasons and parts of his fifth with the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland dealt Clevinger to the San Diego Padres during the 2020 season and Clevinger missed all of the 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Clevinger made 22 starts for the Padres last season and appeared in 23 games total. He went 7-7 with an ERA of 4.33 over 114 1/3rd innings. Clevinger made two post season appearances, both in relief for the Padres in the 2022 playoffs. He pitched a total of 2 2/3rds innings and ended up with an ERA of 28.63.

Clevinger has posted double digit win totals in three seasons, but has only pitched 200 one time in his career.

There was one more signing as Carlos Santana will start his 14th major league season as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Santana signed a one-year deal worth $6.725 million dollars.

Pittsburgh will be Santana’s fifth team. He spent 10 seasons with the Cleveland Indians, two with the Kansas City Royals and one each with the Philadelphia Phillies and last season he was a member of the Seattle Mariners.

Santana is known as having a good eye at the plate and has led the league in walks two times during his career. He has also drawn over 100 walks in a season four times. Santana is a career .242 hitter and has hit 278 career home runs.

For a while now the Western conference of the NBA has been looked at as the better of the two conferences. It can be tough to get a Western conference playoff spot, so if a team gets off to a slow start, they could be in trouble come playoff time.

The Dallas Mavericks are just .500 through 20 games, so to hopefully help them improve the Mavericks signed a former All-Star.

Yesterday the Mavericks announced that they’ve signed Kemba Walker to a one-year deal. Walker’s prorated minimum-salary cap hit will be $1,392,895. He’ll earn $2,204,438 if his salary becomes guaranteed for the season.

Walker has been looking for a new team since he was waived by the Detroit Pistons after he was traded to Detroit on draft night by the New York Knicks. When Walker and the Pistons couldn’t agree to a buyout Detroit waived him, so Walker will be paid $9.17 million dollars this season by the Pistons.

Due to some knee injury issues Walker only played in 37 games for the Knicks last season and averaged a career low 11.6 points per game. I’m sure that the Mavericks are hoping for Walker to score closer to his 19.5 points per game average through his career.

Since the Mavericks are 20 games into this season it may take Walker a little time to get into game shape, but on the plus side Walker won’t be expected to be the lead ball handler as MVP candidate Luka Doncic handles those duties for Dallas.

As we wrap up this blog let me know what you think of those MLB free agent signings. I’d also like to know what you think of the Mavericks signing of Walker.

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

We’re at the time of the year in the baseball off season when there isn’t very much going on. I guess you could call it a dead period or something like that. It’s not really a surprise that this is happening because it goes on pretty much every year and while we might get a few minor trades and some what would be considered lower tier free agents might find new teams the bigger name free agent won’t sign with anybody until closer to spring training.

Of course, writers still have columns that they have to produce, and the MLB Network has television time to fill, so we’re going to hear a lot of reports about how this team or that team is interested in a top free agent. Now everyone one of these reports have to be taken with a grain of salt because when they say this team is interested in a free agent well of course they are he’s the top player or pitcher on the free agent market.

It makes complete sense that every team would be interested in a Aaron Judge coming off the season he just had. Justin Verlander is another player who’ll be linked to every team and that makes sense since he just won his 3rd career Cy Young award.

Now the first thing you have to look at is which team or teams are they saying are interested in said free agent. Very rarely a top tier free agent signs with a non-contender, so when you hear that a team that just finished at the bottom of their division wants to sign the best free agent on the market you have to think if that player would actually go there.

Now I’m not saying that a top free agent won’t sign with a team that was under .500 last season, but it’s doubtful that will happen. Remember just last off-season Kris Bryant signed with the Colorado Rockies, but it took a 7-year $182 million dollar deal to get him to join the Rockies.

Unless that certain player grew up in that set area or the team that is pursuing him offers way over market value and way more years than any other team was willing to it’s very unlikely will see a major free agent sign with one of those teams.

Now that doesn’t mean those teams can’t get better and eventually sign a top free agent. All it means is that they’re going to have to add those lower tier free agent and develop their young players to become surprise contenders very much like the way the Baltimore Orioles did last season.

There were some interesting players added to the free agent pool when their current team decided to non-tender them. Basically, non-tender means that the team didn’t choose to offer that player a contract and they won’t go to arbitration to settle the issue. Once a player is non-tendered that player is free to sign with any team.

The biggest name that was non-tendered was Cody Bellinger by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bellinger is a former Rookie of the Year and MVP award winner but has struggled since winning that MVP award in 2019. Bellinger played in 144 games last season and did hit 27 home runs, but his batting average was just .210 and he struck out 150 times.

Bellinger wasn’t the only player that was non-tendered that will draw some interest as a free agent. Some other non-tendered players were Alex Reyes by the St, Louis Cardinals, Brian Anderson by the Miami Marlins, Luke Voit by the Washington Nationals, Dominic Smith by the New York Mets, Jeimer Candelario by the Detroit Tigers as well as Adam Engel by the Chicago White Sox just to name a few.

I’m sure that any team who signs one of these non-tendered players hopes that they have the same kind of success that Kyle Schwarber has had since he was non-tender by the Chicago Cubs after the season.

For whatever reason the Cubs decided that Schwarber couldn’t play against left-handed pitching, but given a chance by the Nationals, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies Schwarber has hit 78 home runs over the past two seasons.

So, let me know if there’s a non-tendered player that you’d like to see your favorite team take a chance on? Feel free to find a player that I didn’t list or maybe one of those players is the one you’d like to see signed.

As always don’t forget to look me up on Twitter while you can, I’m @Burketime.

The National Hockey League season is only about 20 games old, so there’s still a long way to go, but three teams got the season off to a good start.

The Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils and the Las Vegas Golden Knights are hot right out of the gate. The Bruins have the best record in the NHL at 17-2 and are currently on a 7-game winning streak. The Devils are currently the hottest team in the NHL as they are on a 13-game winning streak and have a record of 16-3. The Golden Knights are right there with them as their record is 15-4.

Now most of the people making NHL playoff prediction had the Bruins and the Golden Knights in the playoffs, but the Devils have really been an early season surprise. Of course, it’s unclear if any or all of these teams will be a factor once the playoffs roll around, but they’re on the right track to start the season.

Boston has been led by David Pasternak who has 29 points while Patrice Bergeron and Hampus Lindholm each have 18 points. The Devils have three players that have scored over 20 points this season. Jesper Bratt leads the way with 24 points, Nico Hischier has 22 points and Jack Hughes has 21 points. Las Vegas is led in scoring by Jack Eichel with 24 points while Alex Pietrangelo has 20 points.

It might come as a surprise to you, but the only player out of the seven leading the way for their teams’ hot start that leads the NHL in a statistic is Lindholm who leads the NHL in plus/minus at +20.

Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers leads the NHL in goals with 16 and points with 35 while Nathan MacKinnon of the defending champion Colorado Avalanche leads the league in assists with 21.

New Jersey will try to extend its winning streak tonight as they face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Devils beat the Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime six days ago. During their 13-game winning streak New Jersey has won three overtime games. Extending their winning streak won’t be easy for the Devils as the maple Leafs bring a record of 10-5 into tonight’s game. It should help the Devils that they’re playing at home.

The Bruins also have a chance to extend their winning streak tonight as they are on the road against the Florida Panthers. This is Boston second seven game winning streak of the young season. Coming into tonight’s game the Bruins have won 14 of their last 15 games and that one loss was to the Maple Leafs on November 5th. Florida has a 9-8 record on the season.

As for the Golden Knights they’re on ice as well tonight facing off against the Ottawa Senators. The Golden Knights have struggled as of late as they are 2-3 in their last five games but are coming off of a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks two days ago. Before these five games the Golden Knights had won 9 games in a row. Ottawa comes into tonight’s game with a record of 6-11.

Well, what do you think. Will Boston and New Jersey continue their winning streaks tonight? Alos let me know if you think that the Golden Knights get a win over the Senators tonight.

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving that means that Week 12 of the National Football League season get started with three games. The first game has the Detroit Lions hosting the Buffalo Bills. Oddly this will be the second week in a row that the Bills have played in Detroit. Their game last week was moved from Buffalo to Detroit due to weather issues. The second Thanksgiving game has the Dallas Cowboys hosting the New York Giants in an NFC East battle. Thanksgiving football wraps up with the Minnesota Vikings hosting the New England Patriots.

With Week 12 kicking off tomorrow there have already been two quarterback changes announced by teams that don’t play their game until Sunday.

After quite a bit of talk about it in the media this week the New York Jets have benched Zack Wilson and will start Mike White against the Chicago Bears. Not only was Wilson benched, but he will be the Jets 3rd quarterback as Joe Flacco will back up White on Sunday. The Jets where 4 1/2-point favorites in this game, but you have to wonder if a change at quarterback will make that betting line move.

The other team that is making a change at the starting quarterback position are the Houston Texans. Kyle Allen will take over as their starting quarterback this week against the Miami Dolphins in place of David Mills. Texans head coach Lovie Smith declined to name a starting quarterback at his press conference today, but the NFL Network is reporting that Allen will get the start on Sunday.

Alright I hope that you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and as always don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime.

Now like a lot of sports fans I also play fantasy sports. I play in season long leagues for Baseball, Basketball, Football and Hockey. As well as those leagues I also play daily fantasy on FanDuel. I’m sure a lot of you do the same thing as I do, and I’d like to know if you’re involved like I am.

Now in general I do very well in my season long fantasy leagues, but for some reason when it comes to FanDuel I’m just not as competitive and I’m not sure why. I’m much better in baseball and oddly NASCAR than I am in any of the other sports. To be fair I’m not a big enough fan of the NBA to play daily fantasy too often, but every once in a while, I put a line up in.

Like a lot of you I’m an avid sports fan and I follow along with everything that’s going on. I’ve tried watching the fantasy shows and checking out the fantasy websites, but when it comes to football, nothing seems to make me competitive.

We’re in Week 11 of the NFL season and in the first ten weeks I don’t think that any line up that I’ve entered on FanDuel has even won my money back. To be fair I never bet more than $1 or $2 on a line up, so it’s not like I’m betting everything I have on NFL games, but it would be nice to see some kind of a return or at least get my money back, I’m to the point where whatever I win in the other daily fantasy sports I play gets me through the football season and I’d like to change that.

Humorously one of the worst seasons I ever had not only in my yearly leagues, but on FanDuel was when I was listening to the fantasy Sports channel on Sirius XM on a regular basis. I followed along with a lot of what they said, and it sure didn’t work out for me. I knew I was in trouble with that station when I heard one of the host completely deny some advice, he had given the week before to a caller. That’s when I knew it was time to move on and find someone else to listen to when it came to fantasy sports.

I guess I’ll try again this week and see if I can manage to get my investment back, but I’d be willing to listen to any advice if you have some for me.

We’re headed to the end of the college football season and there’s a lot of talk about what teams are going to make it into the college football playoffs.

Coming into this week’s games there were four undefeated teams occupying the top four spots in the polls. Georgia was #1, Ohio State was #2, Michigan was #3 and TCU was #4. Michigan and TCU had very close games, but both ended up winning on late game field goals. It will be interesting to see if that affects their rankings even though both teams did win their games.

I know people have their favorite teams be it where you went to college or if it’s the college that’s in your local area, but the one thing you have to remember when it comes down to the college football playoff is it’s about money and only about money. It doesn’t really matter what team or teams deserve to be in the playoffs it’s all about what teams can deliver the television ratings and bring in the most money.

More or less what this is leading up to is the fact that the selection committee is trying as hard as they can to justify getting a two loss Alabama team into the college football playoffs. With the way Notre Dame is playing recently if they didn’t have three losses, you’d probably hear their name mentioned in the college football playoff conversation.

The playoffs start on New Year’s Eve with the semi-final games. They’re still considered bowl games, so one will be the Peach bowl and the other will be the Fiesta Bowl. The championship game will be played on January 9th, 2023.

At this point we just have to wait and see who the committee ends up voting in and if they’ll take a team with a loss or two over a team that is undefeated. No matter who gets into the college football playoffs there’s always a lot of discussion about who should and shouldn’t be there.

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter while it’s still there, I’m @Burketime.

There where 14 players offered qualifying offers by their teams to start the Major League Baseball off season. yesterday was the deadline for those players to make their decision on if they’d accept or turn down the $19.65 million-dollar qualifying offer and try their luck on the free agent market.

Out of those 14 players 12 of them decided to turn down the qualifying offer. Joc Pedersen decided to accept the qualifying offer from the San Francisco Giants and Martin Perez accepted the qualifying offer from the Texas Rangers.

The 12 players that turned down qualifying offers where Aaron Judge, Willson Contreras, Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson, Jacob deGroom, Carlos Rodon, Brandon Nimmo, Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bassitt, Nathan Eovadi and Tyler Anderson.

With maybe the exception of maybe Nimmo and Anderson it’s no surprise that the qualifying offers were turned down. Now, Anderson has already signed a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Angels. Anderson will receive $39 million dollars over those three years.

Rizzo was another player who turned down the qualifying offer, but he has already re-signed with the New York Yankees. Rizzo signed a two-year $40 million dollar deal to remain with the Yankees and the contract also has a third-year option.

Now if one of these players signs with a different team than the one that extended them the qualifying offer their former team stand to receive draft compensation if that player signs elsewhere. The value of the compensatory pick depends on a team’s status as a revenue sharing recipient and/or whether they paid the luxury tax in 2022.

So, as it sits right now the Los Angeles Dodgers will receive some type of compensation for Anderson signing with the Angels, but it’s unclear as of right now what they’ll receive.

Yesterday we also saw Teoscar Hernandez traded by the Toronto Blue Jays. Hernandez is headed to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for right-handed reliever Erik Swanson and pitching prospect Adam Macko who’s left-handed. There were some rumors that the mariners had been shopping outfielder Jesse Winker and you have to wonder with the acquisition of Hernandez if will now see Winker dealt.

With the winter meetings going on it will be interesting to see if we have any more trades get done or if it will just be some groundwork being laid for moves that will happen a little later.

Now the Los Angeles Rams are the defending Super Bowl champions, but currently with a 3-6 record the Rams find themselves in the cellar of the NFC West and there’s a very good chance that they won’t make to playoffs and have a chance to defend their Super Bowl title.

Injuries have been part of the Rams struggles as Matthew Stafford just missed last week’s game and it was announced yesterday that their top wide receiver Cooper Kupp would need surgery on his ankle that he injured in Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals 27-10 and will be placed on Injured Reserve.

It seems as though the Rams’ running game has just disappeared and even their head coach Sean McVay has said that he feels like it’s a waste for him to call a running play, but there are a lot of other teams that are having success running the football.

Los Angeles’ leading rusher is Darrell Henderson with 274 yards in 9 games. Coming into the season it appeared as though Cam Akers would have a bigger role running the football, but there were quite a few rumors that the Rams wanted to trade him at the deadline, and he sat out two games as they tried to find a deal. In the 7 games he’s played Akers has gained 176 yards, but averages just 2.8 yards per rushing attempt.

Stafford is currently in the NFL’s concussion protocol, but reports are that he’ll be cleared to play this week in the Rams game against the New Orleans Saints. Even if Stafford does return you have to wonder if it’s too late for the Rams. After the game against the Saints, they have a tough match up against the Kansas City Chiefs and then a division match up against the surprising Seattle Seahawks.

So, jump in here and let me know what you think. First off is there a player who didn’t accept the qualifying offer that you think should’ve? Then let me know if you think that the Rams can somehow find a way to get into the playoffs and have a chance to defend their Super Bowl title.

As always remember to look me up on Twitter @Burketime.

I’m sure that you noticed there was no blog posted yesterday, so we’re going to start this week’s blog off with an announcement. Starting today the weekend blog is going to be posted on Sunday morning. Due to my work schedule being changed it will be easier for me to sit down and write on Sunday morning rather than Saturday morning like in the past. I know this isn’t a huge change, but I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of it in case you were wondering why there wasn’t anything posted yesterday.

Now it is Sunday and we’re still waiting on word if Josh Allen will start at quarterback for the Buffalo Bills today in their game against the Minnesota Vikings. Bills officials, however, have been tight-lipped all week and have declined to reveal who is starting and want to keep it secret until after Sunday’s NFL actives/inactives list is released. The list has to be released by 10:30 a.m. CST, so it won’t be too much longer until we find out if Allen will be active against Minnesota today.

Bills officials spent intensive time this past week leaning on and listening to their doctors and other arm specialists, and the team was reassured that Allen is not at any added risk to make the injury worse if he plays Sunday against the Vikings, sources said. With this in mind, the sources say the belief is that Allen will start Sunday, but the team has declined to confirm any final decisions and insists it is taking it “minute by minute” and doesn’t want to give the Vikings any competitive advantage by naming a starting quarterback.

Allen is dealing with a right elbow injury to the ulnar collateral ligament and related nerves. Allen has not missed a game since 2018, when he missed four games with a UCL injury in his right elbow.

We do have a Week 10 game already under way. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks are playing first ever regular season National Football League game in Germany. The game is currently in the 1st quarter and there is no score as of yet.

Yesterday the National Hockey League announced that Washington Capitals forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel has been suspended for three games.

Aube-Kubel suspension is a result of an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Callan Foote.

The hit in question happened partway through last night’s game between the Capitals and Lightning in Washington. As Foote received a pass and dumped it in near center ice, Aube-Kubel, who was skating parallel to Foote, cut to his right, skating across and in front of Foote, where he delivered the hit. Aube-Kubel was assessed a match penalty.

The three-game suspension is interesting, considering Aube-Kubel’s prior discipline history consists of just two fines over 178 career games, this constituting a substantial jump up in punishment. Worth noting though, beyond the nature of the hit, is the fact that Foote was injured on the play.

Matthew Tkachek of the Florida Panthers was the last NHL suspension. Tkachek suspension happened about a week ago and it was a two-game suspension for a high stick on Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick.

The incident happened at 19:22 of the third period during Florida’s 5-4 loss to the Kings. As Quick froze the puck, Tkachuk stuck his stick blade inside the goaltender’s mask. Tkachuk was assessed a two-minute penalty and a misconduct on the play.

Well good luck with your fantasy football games this week and don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.