Sports Time Radio

Now I know we mentioned it a time or two when we were doing the Sports Time Radio podcast, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned here that I used to be a professional wrestler. Now I was never a big star and I never made it to WWE, but I wrestled for a very long time, and I enjoyed my time in the business. I also don’t believe that I’ve ever written about professional wrestling here, but with what has and is going on in WWE I figure it’s a good time to change that.

Now in case you don’t know it was The Wall Street Journal that broke the story of WWE owner and CEO Vince McMahon paying woman to keep quiet about relationships that they had with him over the years. And when we’re saying paying these women were paid over a million dollars to not say anything. As of right now it’s unclear exactly how many women there were, but apparently there is still some more investigating being done.

Now since WWE is a publicly traded company it became clear that Vince McMahon would have to step away from any role with the company and he made what was looked at as his last appearance on television recently. Now all he did in this appearance was repeat the WWE tagline of Then, Now and Forever, but there was more to it that didn’t air on television. Reports came out that when McMahon got backstage from his last appearance he yelled “Fuck Them” multiple times in the backstage area. Now it’s unclear who he was referring to and he could’ve been speaking to quite a few different people, but it wasn’t anyone in the backstage area.

With it clear that Vince McMahon would have to be removed as CEO his daughter Stephanie will be taking over that role, but in what seemed like an odd twist Vince McMahon announced his retirement. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m very skeptical that Vince McMahon will actually be able to walk away from a company he built.

Obviously with his daughter in the CEO position and her husband, Vince’s son-in-law Paul Levesque apparently taking over creative control of the company would it really be that difficult for Vince to continue to run things behind the scenes through his daughter and son-in-law?

Interestingly enough Levesque was in charge of the WWE’s developmental territory NXT, but Vince changed the direction of that territory and while Levesque was never officially removed from his position there the brand was completely changed right underneath him by his father-in-law. That makes me wonder just how much creative control Levesque actually has.

Now depending on how old you are changes the way you look at what Vince McMahon did for professional wrestling. If you’re actually old enough to remember when there were territories, you might not like that McMahon either bought them out or just drove them out of business by signing their best talent. Now if you’re a little younger WWE might be the only wrestling you ever knew, so you’ll have to let me know what side of this you’re on.

You might remember that professional wrestling was a very guarded business, and it was Vince McMahon who admitted that it was in fact an act or fake as some people call it. While people always had their suspicions about professional wrestling McMahon was the first well known person involved in wrestling to admit to this.

So, tell me what you think. Is Vince McMahon really retired? Or do you think this is just what WWE had to announce to pacify their shareholders? I’m also interested to know if you think the creative direction of WWE will change. Just about a week ago WWE announced that their television shows are now PG-14, so will we see more adult content?

Please let me know what you think in the comments section.

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

With the emphasis being put on offense in Major League Baseball we frequently see teams reach double digits in runs scored. Just last night there were three teams that hit that mark. The Chicago Cubs put up 15 runs while the Arizona Diamondbacks scored 10 runs in their game last night, but there was one team that went above and beyond those two teams.

Last night in Fenway Park the Toronto Blue Jays scored 28 runs in their game against the Boston Red Sox.

The Blue Jays scored at least one run in seven of the games nine innings including putting up 11 runs in the Top of the 5th inning.

Every Blue Jays player who started the game scored at least two runs and Santiago Espinal and Danny Jansen each scored four times. Jansen was also one of four Toronto players who homered in the game, and he did it twice.

Every Toronto player that started recorded at least two hits and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tied a Blue Jays record by recording six hits in the game. As a team the Blue Jays recorded 29 hits.

Nathan Eovaldi made the start for the Red Sox last night. Eovaldi pitched 2 2/3rds innings giving up 8 hits and 9 runs while walking 2 and striking out 3. Eovaldi was tagged with the loss in the game as well. Austin Davis, Kaleb Ort, Darwinzon Hernandez and Jake Diekman followed Eovaldi to the mound before utility infielder Yolmer Sanchez came in to pitch the 9th inning. Out of the five actually pitchers the Red Sox used last night Diekman was the only one that didn’t allow a run.

Now in the end it’s just one game of a 162-game season, but the fact that the Blue Jays scored 28 runs made the game different for most. I’d be very surprised if we see another team put up that many runs in a game the remainder of this season.

The Red Sox will look to bounce back in Game 2 of the series this afternoon. Kutter Crawford gets the start for Boston. Crawford is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in 13 games four of which have been starts. While All-Star Alek Manoah will make the start for the Blue Jays. Manoah is 10-4 with an ERA of 2.28 in 18 starts.

These two teams wrap up their three-game series on Sunday.

Is there a rule in Major League baseball that when you show Los Angeles Angels highlights especially when they involve Shohei Ohtani that you’re not allowed to say anything bad about him?

I managed to catch the highlights of Otani’s start against the Atlanta Braves last night and they led with the fact that Ohtani struck out 10 or more batters in his fifth consecutive start. Oddly as the highlight was moving along, they seemed to wait as long as they possibly could before they mentioned that he took the loss and gave up six runs.

The Braves are the defending World Series champions and have a record of 57-38 this season. Atlanta has won seven of their last ten games and find themselves just a 1 1/2 behind the New York Mets for 1st place in the National League East, so it’s not a huge surprise when a pitcher has a rough outing against them.

It just seemed very strange to me that the highlights on the MLB Network seemed to not want to say that Ohtani gave up runs in his start last night. He’s pitched very well for a team that has been a disappointment this season. Even with the loss Ohtani has a record of 9-5 with an ERA of 2.80 in his 16 starts this season. Ohtani is racking up the strikeouts as he has fanned 134 batters in his 16 starts and has a Strikeout per 9 inning rate of 12.9. Ohtani ranks 6th in strikeouts overall and he is .02 percentage points ahead of Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox as the Strikeouts per 9 innings leader in all of baseball.

As always don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime.

Juan Soto turned down the Washington nationals offer of a contract that would pay him a total of $440 million dollars. Now there were two different reports on how long the contract was, but it was either for 11 years or 15 years. Either way it would’ve been a very good payday for Soto.

Interestingly now that Soto has turned down the Nationals offer Washington has made it known that they would now listen to trade offers for Soto. You have to wonder what kind of a package the Nationals would ask for in return for Soto and how many teams could meet their asking price.

Soto is only 23 years old and doesn’t turn 24 until October, but this is his fifth year in the major leagues. Adding to Soto’s asking price is the fact that he isn’t eligible for free agency until 2025. That means whatever team acquires him they’d have him under control for two full seasons. That would give Soto’s new team some time to try and sign him long term.

Obviously when a player like Soto comes onto the trade market every contender is interested in trying to make a deal for him, but which team has a strong enough minor league system to get this deal done?

When you start talking about teams with quality minor league systems the first team that seems to come up is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers were ranked 5th overall among minor league systems coming into this season. Would they be willing to part with a large number of their prospects to trade for a player like Soto?

Now of course there was talk of Soto being traded to either New York team be it the Mets or the Yankees, but I seriously doubt that will happen.

In the case of the Mets, I don’t think that the nationals would send Soto to another National League East team unless the package was just overwhelming and the Mets don’t have the farm system to do that. Coming into this season the Mets minor league system was ranked 20th, so there would be quite a few teams that could probably offer Washington better packages for Soto than the Mets will be able to.

The Yankees have expressed interest in adding an outfielder and Soto will easily be the best outfielder available, but can the Yankees find the pieces to make this deal? The Yankees farm system was ranked 13th coming into this season, so they’re in the top half of baseball. The Yankees seem to be loaded with top shortstops in their minor league system, so maybe they could put enough of them together in a trade to land Soto.

Now the teams ahead of the Dodgers rankings wise coming into this season are the Arizona Diamondbacks at #4, the Tampa Bay Rays at #3, the Seattle Mariners at #2 and the Baltimore Orioles had the top ranked farm system coming into this season.

Now the Diamondbacks wouldn’t be interested in trading for Soto as they’re in the middle of a rebuild themselves, but the other three teams could be possibilities.

It’s doubtful Tampa Bay would be able to sign Soto long term for the kind of money he’ll be looking for, but is it possible that they might be interested in renting him for a couple of seasons?

The mariners were expected to win this season and it took them a while to get going, but they headed into the All-Star break on a 14-game winning streak. Seattle’s general manager Jerry Dipto always seems to be looking to make a deal, so maybe this could be Soto’s landing spot.

What about the Orioles? Baltimore has probably been the biggest surprise in baseball heading into the All-Star break. The Orioles are .500 at 46-46 and while they’re 18 games behind the Yankees in the American League East they’re just 3 1/2 games out of a wild card spot. Could parting with a large number of prospects to get and hopefully sign Soto be the move that puts Baltimore’s rebuild over the hump?

It’s going to be tough for Nationals fans to watch a player like Soto be traded, but if Washington can acquire the right players in return for Soto, they can turn things around quickly and contend sooner rather than later.

So let me know where you think that Soto is going to end up. Or is it at all possible that he plays the next couple of seasons in Washington and then tries his luck on the free agent market.

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Even though it doesn’t lead every newscast Covid-19 is still something we’re dealing with. Now every business handles it differently and there are still places were you still have to wear a mask. The same goes for countries as they all have their own rules. This is where sports and politics intersect.

If you remember during the NBA season when Kyrie Irving decided that he actually wanted to play he wasn’t allowed to play home games because of the Covid-19 rules in the state of New York. Irving also wasn’t allowed to enter the country of Canada either.

For Americans entering Canada they have to be fully vaccinated and this rule seems to have become more prevalent during baseball season.

Now earlier in the season there was a lot of talk about which New York Yankees would and wouldn’t be able to make the road trip to Toronto to play the Blue Jays, but with the season the Yankees have had that talk died down quickly. The Philadelphia Phillies just made a trip to Toronto, but their catcher J.T. Realmuto didn’t accompany the team as he is unvaccinated. Realmuto commented on how he wouldn’t be told what to put into his body, but this week the rules for entering Canada really stuck out.

This time it was the Kansas City Royals turn to take a road trip to Toronto to face the Blue Jays in a four-game series. As it turned out the Royals had 10 players that wouldn’t be allowed to enter Canada due to their vaccination status.

Catchers Cam Gallagher and M.J. Melendez, reliever Dylan Coleman, starting pitchers Brad Keller and Brady Singer, 1st baseman/outfielder Hunter Dozier, infielder Whit Merrifield and outfielders Michael A. Taylor and the Royals lone All-Star Andrew Benintendi won’t make the trip to Canada.

Now this has caused the Royals to place these 10 players on the restricted list and call up reinforcements from their Double-A and Triple-A teams. Now by being placed on the restricted list these players will have to forfeit service time and salary for the four-game series against the Blue Jays.

Unfortunately, I believe it was Merrifield who ended up not coming off well when he commented about not being vaccinated. Merrifield more or less mentioned that if he was playing for a contender, he probably would’ve gotten vaccinated. As you can guess that type of a comment didn’t sit well with a lot of people. While this doesn’t seem like the type of thing that will follow Merrifield around it just made him look bad.

Now the only player that this might have an effect on is Benintendi. As the trade deadline approaches Benintendi’s name has come up quite a bit in trade talks, but it appears as though with him being unvaccinated there’s one team that was linked to him that is no longer interested in dealing for him.

It’s been reported that the Yankees are in the market for an outfielder and Benintendi’s name has been associated with them. It came out this week that the Yankees would no longer pursue a deal for Benintendi because he isn’t vaccinated and wouldn’t be allowed to enter Canada for any series against the Blue Jays.

You’d have to think that any American League East team would back away from any deal involving Benintendi or any of the other unvaccinated Royals. Obviously, since Toronto plays in the American League East the other teams in that division make more trips to Canada than any other teams do. Plus, the Blue Jays are a playoff contender and would probably host at least one playoff game if they make the playoffs.

I’m sure there are plenty of teams that will still have interest in Benintendi as the trade deadline approaches, but you have to wonder if the news of his vaccination status has lowered his value on the trade market.

Player’s vaccination statuses aren’t revealed to the general public and they only way we can find out if they’re vaccinated or not is if their team has to play in Toronto. I know that teams have to exchange medical information any time a trade is made, but is a players vaccination status part of that? You’d have to think that any team interested in acquiring a player especially an American League East team would want to know if that player would be allowed to enter Canada if they had to play there.

Now on Thursday night the Royals with the reinforced lineup picked up a 3-1 win in Toronto. Last night the Blue Jays bounced back and beat the Royals 8-1. Who knows how the final two games of the series will go, but you’d have to think that Toronto will be the favortie to win both of those games. I’m sure there were a lot of people who didn’t think Kansas City would manage one win against the Blue Jays, but they actaully did that, so maybe they’ll find a way to win oine of the final two games and split this series.

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

We’re coming up on Major League Baseball’s All-Star break. Earlier this week the starters for the All-Star game as voted by the fans were announced along with the reserves and the pitchers for the game. Now any time there’s something like and All-Star game there are players that should’ve been on the teams that don’t make it and that’s the case this season.

I’ve seen some very long list from some very credible baseball reporters of players that should be playing in this year’s All-Star game but aren’t.

This situation is very much like the NCAA basketball tournament the field for that just like the rosters for the All-Star game have been expanded, but even with that you’ll still be able to find players or in the tournaments case teams that should’ve been in, but there just wasn’t room for.

Now with Major League Baseball or any other sport that has a fan voting for their Al-Star game you’re going to end up with players winning the fan vote that probably don’t belong in the game and that appears to be the case this year as well.

Let’s just take a look at a couple of starters that might not be All-Star’s if it wasn’t for the fans voting them in.

Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees would be the first guy I would ask about. Yes, Stanton does have 22 home runs, but he’s hitting .237 and has struck out 82 times in the 72 games that he’s played in. Stanton is one of six Yankees to make the American League All-Star team, but let’s face it if he wasn’t playing in New York would he be on this team?

In the National League William Contreras of the Atlanta Braves moved into the starting spot at Designated Hitter when Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies was injured and unable to play in the game. Harper beat out Contreras in the final fan voting to be the National League’s starter at Designated Hitter, but since he’s out injured the spot goes to the other person in the final voting and that was Contreras.

Right off the bat with Contreras is the fact that the Braves have played 89 games this season and Contreras has appeared in only 43 of them. that means he’s an All-Star who hasn’t even appeared in 50% of his team’s games. It’s not like with his limited playing time that Contreras is putting up out of these world numbers either. Contreras is hitting .273 with 11 home runs and 22 RBI’s. Are those really Al-Star numbers?

Now the Yankees have been the best team in baseball this season and the Braves are the defending World Series champions, so it’s no surprise that they ended up with the most All-Stars out of any teams. I mentioned that the Yankees led the American League with six All-Stars while the Braves led the National League with five All-Star selections.

I still think that you can question the selection of Stanton and Contreras, but if these are the players that the fans want to see then those are the players that should be in the game.

It’s also a nice story that this will be the first time since 2003 that brothers will be All-Stars. The last set of brothers to make an All-Star team where Brett and Aaron Boone in 2003. Now the last brothers to be starters in the All-Star game was in 1992 when Sandy and Roberto Alomar started for the American League. The Alomar’s where also the last pair of brothers to play for the same All-Star team in 1998 when they were both named to the American League squad.

as always, I’d like to turn the floor over to you. Who was your biggest All-Star snub? Feel free to have more than one if you choose to. I’ve seen multiple names come up in this category, so please feel free to name more than one player.

I actually have a second question for you this week. Will you be watching the Major League Baseball All-Star game? I feel it’s the closest to the actual game that it represents out of all the major sports, but that doesn’t mean people will watch or does it.

Don’t forget that you can still find me on Twitter @Burketime

Well, it ended up taking some time, but the Cleveland Browns were finally able to deal quarterback Baker Mayfield.

The big rumor was that the team interested in acquiring Mayfield was the Carolina Panthers and sure enough that’s where he ended up. Carolina will send either a 4th or 5th round 2024 draft pick to Cleveland. Depending on how much Mayfield plays for the Panthers will depend on what draft choice the Browns will get.

It seemed that the biggest hang up with trading Mayfield was his salary. Mayfield was scheduled to make $18.8 million dollars next season. The Browns are going to pay $10.5 million dollars of Mayfield’s salary while the Panthers will pick up $4.85 million dollars of the money. Mayfield agreed to have the remainder of the money on his contract into incentives to help make this deal happen.

Even though Carolina acquired Mayfield they didn’t come right out and say that he’d be their starting quarterback. The Panthers also have another former 1st round pick on their roster in quarterback Sam Darnold. It appears as though the Panthers will have some type of quarterback competition in training camp to decide who the starting quarterback will be.

It’s interesting that both Mayfield and Darnold were part of the 2018 draft. Cleveland took Mayfield with the #1 overall pick in the draft while Darnold was selected by the New York Jets with the 3rd pick of the draft.

Mayfield has started 59 games in his NFL career and has a record of 29-30. In 2020 Mayfield led the Browns to a wild card berth with an 11-5 record as a starter. Darnold has made 49 starts in his NFL career including 11 starts for the Panthers last season and he has a record of 17-32 as a starter.

Will have to wait and see which one of these former 1st round picks ends up as the Panthers starting quarterback come Week 1, but no matter which one it is they’ll be trying to fulfill the promise they had when they were selected as high as they were in the 2018 draft.

If Carolina can get one of these quarterbacks to improve, they’re in an interesting position. The Panthers play in the NFC South and the only established team in that division right now seems to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The New Orleans Saints have a new head coach for the first time since 2006 and their starting quarterback Jamies Winston still isn’t medically cleared to practice yet. The other team in the division is the Atlanta Falcons and it appears that they are still rebuilding their team.

I actually did hear some of the analysts say that they think that Carolina could get into the playoffs as a wild card team, but apparently that’s going to depend on how well whichever quarterback they end up starting plays.

Now interestingly the Panthers open the regular season on September 11th at home against the Browns. It’s possible we could see Mayfield starting against his old team in Week 1 of the NFL regular season.

With Mayfield out of Cleveland and the Browns awaiting a decision on the Deshaun Watson situation it appears as though Jacoby Brissett may end up being the starter in Cleveland when that Week 1 game against Carolina rolls around.

It appears as though there should be a decision rendered on Watson this week, but it’s unclear if or how long he’ll be suspended for. There are reports that the NFL has asked for Watson to be suspended for the entire season calling it an indefinite suspension while the NFL players union doesn’t think Watson should be suspended at all. I believe that Watson needs to get some type of suspension, but I really don’t have any idea how long that should be.

Let me know what you think about Watson. Should he be suspended? and if you think so, for how long?

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

As you know I’m not watching baseball this season, but I am participating in my regular fantasy leagues, so I try to keep up with what’s going on. I heard yesterday about a player who a couple of the analysts on the MLB Network said was having a good season. I went through my fantasy leagues and found that this player is on a team that’s not starting him, so I thought I’d do some research and then try to make a trade.

Well, here’s what I found. This player who is having a good season has 16 home runs and 45 RBIs in 61 games this season. So, the power numbers are there and I’m guessing that’s what makes this a good season for this player because he’s hitting just .207 and has struck out 73 times. Now maybe it’s just me, but I don’t consider those numbers to be good. What do you think?

Sadly, this is the evolution of baseball due to analytics. Batting average is no longer important even though it is still good to get guys on base and I’m not sure how they’re supposed to do that unless they have a good batting average.

Home runs are always exciting, but with the way baseball has changed it seems as though the home run is all that matters.

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees leads all of Major League Baseball in home runs with 29, but he’s also struck out 86 times. The National League leader in home runs is Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies. Schwarber has 25 home runs, but his batting average is just .219 and he’s struck out 101 times this season. Are these acceptable stats? Judge may have a large number of strikeouts, but he’s at least hitting a respectable .281 on the season.

Schwarber doesn’t even have the most strikeouts in baseball, he’s tied for 3rd with Chris Taylor of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Eugenio Suarez of the Seattle Mariners has struck out the most this season, 112 times while Patrick Wisdom of the Chicago Cubs is right behind him with 106 strikeouts this season.

It seems strange, but analytics has taken making contact out of the game of baseball. Even now if a player has two strikes on them, they generally don’t shorten their swing and try to put the baseball in play. Instead, they continue to swing for the fences and that produces a lot of these strikeouts.

I can’t be the only fan who has an issue with an at bat when there’s a runner on 3rd base and one out and the batter can’t even put the ball in play because that batter is swinging for the fences instead of just trying to make some contact and drive the run in.

It seems like the excuse for this change in approach is money. They claim that home run hitters get paid and single hitters don’t. Now wouldn’t a player who hits well over .300 with a solid number of home runs still get paid or does a player have to hit 35 plus home runs to get that big payday? I would think that a player who can get himself on base would still be able to make a decent living in baseball, but apparently that’s no longer the case.

The other problem with this new approach to the game is that it’s made it boring to watch. Yeah, it’s great when a player does hit that home run but watching players strikeout over and over it’s very exciting to watch. How fun do you think it was for fans of the Los Angeles Angels to watch their players strikeout 20 times in a game against the Houston Astros this past weekend?

Now it would’ve been one thing if it would’ve been the Astros starter who was getting these 20 strikeouts in a game on his way to a shutout or even a no-hitter, but it wasn’t. Instead, it was four Astros pitcher who combined to strikeout 20 Angels in a 4-2 victory on Sunday.

Don’t forget that the Angels lineup features two players that are considered among the best in Major League Baseball in Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Just for the record Trout and Ohtani each struck out twice in that game.

Now attendance for this game was 36,048 and fortunately for those fans even with all of the strikeouts the game only took 3 hours and 23 minutes to play.

I get that this is the way baseball is now and there’s nothing I can do about it until someone smartens up and makes a change that works. Of course, that doesn’t mean I have to like the way the game is played today.

I know this is a board topic here, but I’d like to know how you feel about the way baseball has changed. Do you like it? Or don’t you like it?

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

If you’ve read the blog before you know that I normally save the questions for the end of it, but today I actually have to ask ne to start off.

Are the Brooklyn Nets not only the biggest joke in the NBA, but in all of professional sports?

Right before free agency started Kyrie Irving made it official that he would be accepting his player option. That means Irving will make $36.5 million dollars for the 2022-23 season. Now Irving did give the Nets a list of teams that he would be interested in being traded to, but apparently the only team on his list that had any interest in him was the Los Angeles Lakers.

After the drama with Irving was wrapped up the drama for the Nets wasn’t over as Kevin Durant made it known that he would like Brooklyn to trade him. I don’t believe that Durant gave a reason for wanting to get out of Brooklyn, but apparently, he’d like to move on.

Durant is signed to a max contract that still has four seasons on it, so the team that acquires him will have him under contract until the end of the 2025-26 season.

There have been reports that the Nets received quite a few calls once the news of Durant interest in being traded came out, but right now the front runners seem to be the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns.

So, we had the Irving news and then the Durant news, but that’s not it for the Nets. There have also been multiple reports that the Nets would also like to deal Ben Simmons who hasn’t even played a game for them. Simmons was acquired last season from the Philadelphia 76ers in the deal that sent James Harden to Philadelphia. Due to injury Simmons never played a game last season even though there were quite a few reports that he would return in last year’s playoffs, but he didn’t. Simmons is signed through the 2024-25 season, so if he is traded that team will have him under contract for three seasons.

So, the Nets spent all of this money to build a “super” team and what did they get for it? They didn’t win an NBA championship even though they’ve been everybody’s pick the last couple of seasons. The Nets have made the playoffs the last four seasons but have only managed to win one playoff series with the likes of Durant and Irving in their lineup. This past season the Nets were swept out of the playoffs in the 1st round by the Eastern conference winners the Boston Celtics.

I’m not sure what teams would be willing to give up acquiring a player like Simmons, but a player like Irving could bring the Nets some quality players or draft picks in return and a trade for Durant could be the key piece to a quick rebuild for Brooklyn. You’ve already seen multiple 1st round draft picks traded in deals for players that aren’t the same caliber player as Durant.

Of course, any trade for any of these three players would have to meet the NBA’s salary cap standard rules, so the Nets would probably have to take some big contracts back in return.

Oddly if the Nets make the right deals, they could still end up being a playoff team in the Eastern conference and they might even manage to land a higher seed than they did this past season when they went into the playoffs as a 7th seed and had to go into the NBA’s play-in portion of the playoffs.

As we watch teams try to align themselves with what everyone says you need to win a title “The Big 3” the Nets could be a precautionary tail for those teams. Brooklyn didn’t win anything when they had Durant, Irving and Harden as their Big 3 and Simmons never even took the court for them, so we never saw if the Big 3 of Durant, Irving and Simmons would’ve put anything together.

I guess it’s time for teams to start asking themselves if they really need a Big 3 to win a championship or can they get by with two stars and the right amount of role players.

Since I already asked you a question all I have to do is remind you that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Have a safe and Happy July 4th.

Now the major sports league always like it when the big market teams are good, especially the New York teams. That explains why the majority of the focus in Major League Baseball has been on the New York Yankees with the New York Mets also getting their share of attention. While this is all well and good, it’s just how the media works. Unfortunately, when they do this, they miss out on other teams.

Is the media sleeping on the Houston Astros?

The Astros just finished a homestand that wrapped up with a two-game sweep of the Mets. The Astros then went to New York and split a four-game series with the Yankees before moving over to Citi Field to face the Mets in a two-game series.

In the last seven games against the New York teams the Astros are 5-2 with one game left in New York against the Mets before heading home to host the Yankees for one game.

After tomorrow the Astros only have two more games against the Yankees. Houston will host the Yankees for a doubleheader on July 21st. If the Astros were to face the Yankees again it would have to be in the American League playoffs, and they won’t face the Mets again unless they meet in the World Series.

Now you might not think that a split against the Yankees is that impressive, but both of the games the Astros lost went into extra innings, so that means they used that incredibly stupid runner on 2nd rule. If things would’ve went a little bit different in New York for the Astros, they could’ve won three of four from the Yankees or possibly swept them.

I’m sure a lot of the media that talks about the Yankees and only the Yankees hasn’t seen much of the Astros since they’re in the American League West and their games are generally on at 9:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m. East coast time.

In case you’re wondering the Astros are 46-27 and in 1st place in the American League West. Houston has a 10-game lead over the 2nd place Texas Rangers, so it looks like the Astros will cruise to their 5th American League West title in six years.

Now it’s easy to dislike the Astros since they had the cheating scandal after winning the World Series in 2017 and while there are still a few players remaining from that team on the current Astros roster it is probably time to let that anger go.

While we’re on Astros vs. Yankees there’s a chance another battle these two teams will have might be over the American League MVP award.

It seems clear right now that the media is favoring Aaron Judge of the Yankees as the MVP favorite, but Yordan Alvarez of the Astros might not be too far behind him.

Judge is hitting .289, Alvarez is hitting .321. Judge has 28 home runs and 57 RBI’s while Alvarez has 23 home runs and 56 RBI’s. Judge has an OPS of .992 while Alvarez is at 1.081. Judge is Slugging .629 while Alvarez is at .667.

Any way you look at it these two are neck and neck. Of course, Judge is going to have that East coast media behind him and I’m sure if they stay this close with their numbers Judge will win the MVP, but I hope the voters are smart enough to look at what Alvarez has done before they make it a slam dunk for Judge.

Now it’s time for you to chime in. Do you feel that the Astros have been overlooked? Looking at it right now do you think that either the Astros or the Yankees will be the American League’s representative in the World Series?

Of course, I want to know what you think about the MVP debate as well. Right now, would you vote for Judge or Alvarez? Maybe it’s possible you’re not leaning towards either of those players. If that’s the case let me know who your front runner for American League MVP is.

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

The NBA draft was held on Thursday night and while there was no clear cut #1 pick there are forecasted to be players throughout this draft that will be able to help teams.

There were three players whose name was associated with being the first player drafted, but in the end the Orlando magic decided to select Paolo Banchero of Duke with the #1 pick. With the 2nd pick the Oklahoma City Thunder selected Chet Holmgren of Gonzaga and that left the Houston Rockets to select Jabari Smith of Auburn.

In days leading up to the draft it appeared as though that Magic would take either Holmgren or Smith, but early in the day on Thursday there was more and more talk that Banchero was moving up teams’ draft boards. In the end that’s the route the Magic went with their pick.

Now the team that seemed to draw the most interest during the draft was the New York Knicks, but not for the players they drafted, but for the trades they seem to just keep making.

The Knicks used the 11th pick in the 1st round to select Ousmane Dieng. Now in the NBA you can’t trade the actually draft picks, so you have to select the player and then deal. That’s what the Knicks did here as Dieng went to Oklahoma City for for three 2013 protected 1st round picks. The Knicks where then involved in a three team deal where they didn’t receive anything, but they were able to move Kemba Walker and his salary to the Detroit Pistons. In this deal the Pistons also received Jalen Duran while the Charlotte Hornets picked up a 2025 1st round draft pick that was originally property of the Portland Trailblazers.

These were some very odd moves by the Knicks, but being able to move Walker’s salary from their books might open up something in free agency for them. There are quite a few rumors out there that the Knicks are going to target Jalen Brunson when free agency starts at the end of the month.

Interestingly Brunson’s father is currently an assistant coach with the Knicks and Brunson’s agent is related to Knicks President Leon Rose. I’m not sure if this will give the Knicks an inside track to signing Brunson, but it makes for an interesting set up for it to happen.

Since this was supposed to be filled with a lot of quality players it will be interesting to see if one of the players who was selected later in the 1st round or maybe even a player who was picked in the 2nd round end up being one of the players who breaks out from this draft class.

As I mentioned free agency starts for the NBA at the end of the month and there are quite a few players who will have to decide if they’re going to accept their player option and stay with the team they’re currently on or if they’ll go out into the free agent market and see what kind of deal they can get.

It’s possible that James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal could be free agents if they all choose to decline their player options, but it’s very doubtful that any of them will.

Even though the NBA has moved away from pounding the basketball inside to the big man there are a couple of young big man free agents out there. Mo Bamba and Deandre Ayton are both just 23 years old and seemed to bright NBA futures. There’s also 22-year-old Bol Bol whose career hasn’t quite went the way a lot of people thought it would, but if he signs with the right team maybe he gets back on that track.

Once the end of the month gets here will start to see who signs where, but before free agency starts will know if any players have opted out of their player option and are headed into free agency.

Now when it comes to signing free agent the Pistons have the most cap room and you have to wonder if they’ll try to sign a veteran or two to go along with the young core of players, they’ve put together from the last two drafts.

After the Pistons it’s the Magic, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs and the Trailblazers with the most cap room among NBA teams.

Do you think that any of these teams will spend money and sign a top name free agent?

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