Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 4, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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It seems like the weather is having some fun with the Major League Baseball schedule. I think we’ve had a game cancelled due to one weather related issue or another since the season opened. We’ve had games rained out. We’ve had games snowed out and we’ve had games cancelled because it was too cold out.

Now just about everyone has an idea on how to fix the schedule; so let’s take a look at some of them and see if any of them could actually work.

The obvious one you hear all the time is just have the teams that play in warm weather cities or have domes as the home team at the start of the schedule.

Now of all intensive purposes this idea should work, but is it fair to those teams that would be forced to start the season at home. How many games would they have to play at home to start the season? Would 5 games be enough or would it have to be 10 games or maybe even 20. You’d think that players and their families might like the idea of opening the season at home, but if you eat up those home games early it may result in longer road trips through the summer months. Attendance would also play a factor in this plan. While opening day is a big deal and will sell out for most if not all teams after that attendances drops off. Remember kids are still in school when the baseball season starts and not all parents are willing to take their kid out of school for an afternoon game or allow them to stay out as late as it might take for a game to end. This may be the most interesting of all the ideas purposed, but would they ever be able to even out the schedule for those teams that would have to start the season with long home stands.

Another one of the obvious suggestions is to just shorten the regular season schedule. Right now teams play 162 regular season games. What would be a good number of games to shorten the season to that would make this idea work. Also which games do you eliminate from the schedule. Do you reduce the number of games you play against the teams in your own division? Could they possible eliminate inter-league play to reduce the number of games? Of course there would have to be concessions from not only the owners, but the players. By reducing the numbers of games you cut into an owners revenue. Would the players union be willing to decrease the salaries of players if the number of games was reduced. You also have to wonder how many owners would be willing to give up the revenue from the games that would be removed from the schedule. It’s an interesting idea, but good luck getting everyone to agree to it.

One of the other suggestions out there is to just push the start of the regular season back. Of course this idea would work, but with 162 games on the schedule you’d also be pushing back the day that the season ends. The regular season is scheduled to end on September 30th, do we really want to push games back into early October and then have the possibility of the playoffs running into November; which may happen anyway. While it’s great that your favorite team makes the playoffs or hopefully the World Series the weather can turn ugly in some East coast and Midwest cities that time of the year. There is a way that this idea would work, but I’m not sure it’s something the players union would go for.

Here’s how this idea could work. You push the start of the baseball season back until some time in early to mid-April. Now you’ve still got to squeeze 162 games in by the end of September. If you added split or day/night doubleheaders to the schedule on Saturdays you’d be able to move the start of the season back. You wouldn’t even have to make that many adjustments to the schedule, you’d just be adding that second Saturday game.

Let’s take this seasons schedule to use as a guideline. If the season was pushed back and opening on Friday April 13th that would give baseball 24 Saturdays to figure out ho to make up the changes in the schedule. The season would start 14 days later than it did this season. I’m sure there would still be some weather issues here and there, but you’re going to get that every year.

Of course these would have to be split doubleheaders because just like in shorten the schedule there are owners that aren’t going to be willing to give up that game revenue. The biggest hurdle to over come in this would be working it out with the players union. Major League Baseball is already allowing teams to call up an extra player when they have a rescheduled game that becomes part of a doubleheader. Is it possible that there might have to be an extra roster spot added if say teams are going to play 10 split doubleheaders during the season.

Now I’m sure that each of these ideas would work in one way or another, but working out the logistics will be the biggest issues.

Do you like one of these ideas or do you have one of your own that you’d like to see Major League Baseball try. Maybe you actually like things as they are and you don’t want to see any changes to the game. Please fell free to leave a comment and let me know your idea.

Remember that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime, but the podcast also has a Twitter account as well @SportsTimeRadio.

The Sports Time Radio podcast airs live Monday thru Friday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on BlogTalkRadio.com. On Sunday the podcast expands to two hours and airs live from 10:00 a.m. til Noon. Now if you miss the podcast live it’s also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com

How was your week

Posted: March 31, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We’re two days into the Major League Baseball season and there have already been six extra inning games. There where three extra inning games on opening day. The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins 3-2 in 11 innings. Also in 11 innings the Oakland A’s beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 6-5. While the Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres 2-1 in 12 innings. Yesterday there where also three extra inning games starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Detroit Tigers 13-10 in 13 innings. The Philadelphia Phillies picked up and 11 inning win 5-4 over the Atlanta Braves last night and then in the longest game of these first two days the Miami Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 in 17 innings.

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t mind watching an extra inning game, but of course the problem everyone seems to have is the time it takes to play these games. Two of these extra inning games took over five hours to play with the longest of them clocking in at just under 5 hours and 30 minutes. Of course this has brought out ideas of how to get extra inning games to end quicker, but let’s face it they’re not that great.

At some of the lower minor league levels they’re actually trying the idea of starting an inning with a runner on 2nd base in extra inning games. I believe that this would actually start in the 11th inning of an extra inning game. Every since I heard this idea I thought it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard until last night.

Since I live in the Chicago area I was watching the Cubs/Marlins game and during commercial breaks or pitching changes things like that I turn on the MLB Network to see if I can catch highlights from the other games going on. While the game was headed to commercial during extra innings I flipped over to see if the MLB Network was taking a look at another game. They just happened to be looking at the Cubs/Marlins game and they where coming back to the studio as I was flipping over to their program.

I’m not sure, but I think it was MLB Tonight that was on. Greg Amsinger was the studio host of the show and had two former major leaguers with him; I think Harold Reynolds was one of them while I think that Dan Plesac might’ve been the other. Anyway as they get back to the studio shot Amsinger is the first ne to talk on camera and he happens to mention that the game is coming up on the five and a half hour mark and makes a comment to the effect that no wants to watch a game like this. Now I kind of stopped in my tracks after he said this because I kind of thought his job depends on these games, but of course he had an idea that would revolutionize extra innings.

Amsinger’s proposal was that when a game goes into extra innings teams would only be allow to have two players with their feet in the outfield grass. Now I thought putting a runner on 2nd base was a stupid idea, but this is easily the dumbest idea I’ve heard to speed up a baseball game. Amsinger went on to say that it would help bring athleticism back to baseball and would make like Jarrod Dyson more important. He mentioned another players name, but I forgot who he said.

Could you just see a game going into extra innings in San Francisco and you only get to send two outfields out for an inning in AT&T Park. That sounds like it would be an exciting time for those two guys.

Then I started thinking that maybe Amsinger had a long career in baseball and maybe it’s an idea that should be looked into. I couldn’t find any information on Amsinger ever playing an inning of baseball at the professional level or even working for a baseball team, but he has been working at the MLB Network since 2009; so I guess he thinks that entitles him to his opinion on baseball. Now f course this doesn’t, but he had no issue at all throwing this incredibly stupid idea out there. I was actually quite surprised that the two former professional baseball players sitting at the desk with Amsinger didn’t say anything about his idea. To be honest I didn’t stick around for more than another minute or so after that dumb idea came out of Amsinger’s mouth as I wanted to get back to the Cubs/Marlins game; so maybe one of them spoke up and told him what a moron he was.

I’m hoping that there is someone at the MLB Network that was able to inform Amsinger what a stupid idea he had was and that maybe he should just concentrate on doing his job.

Now one of the other problems Major League Baseball seems to have is getting young people to watch an entire game. Last night I think I cam e across something that might be an issue with that.

As the Cubs/Marlins game was headed into the Top of the 11th inning Cubs Broadcaster Len Kasper went with a joke that has been made millions upon millions of times. He used a line from the movie This is Spinal Tap. In the movie they’re talking about an amplifier because “it goes to 11”. Being an older guy I got the joke right away and knew where he was going with it. This is Spinal Tap was released in 1984. How many young viewers watching the Cubs/Marlins game at that time had any idea what he was talking about. Then just to make sure we got what he was trying to do when the game came back from commercial Kasper threw out another joke from that movie which is 34 years old.

Now I have to put up with Kasper and his broadcast partner good ole JD, former major league pitcher Jim Deshaies. Now a lot of times I’ll actually mute the sound on the television and listen to the Cubs radio broadcast because of these guys antics. They actually spend as much time talking about food and music as they do baseball and I’m just not sure if they can relate to a young audience that Major League Baseball is trying to attract.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have any issues with the way baseball is played today with the exception of replay taking so long, but I’m an older viewer and I’m not the target audience that they’re trying to attract. Of course being an older viewer I don’t really have any way for baseball to try and relate to a younger audience, but I’d be very interested in listening to your ideas. Do you have a way for baseball to get younger viewers to watch their game? If so feel free to leave it in the comment section and will discuss it on the Sports Time Radio podcast.

Speaking of the podcast it airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but it’s also available for you to listen to anytime you want on TuneIn.com.

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

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: March 28, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I always have to laugh when a team says that they’ll listen to offers on a player and then the media jumps all over it and they have that player out of town before the day is over. This is the case with the New York Giants and Odell Beckham Jr. Let’s see if we can review.

There was the video that came out of Beckham Jr. and a model that had some suspicious behavior in it. When Giants co-owner John Mara was asked about it he mentioned that the team was coming off a – season and that he didn’t believe any player was considered untouchable. Of course everyone in the media took that to mean that the Giants would be trading Beckham Jr. Mara has now said of Beckham Jr. that “he’s not on the (trading) block”. Mara also said “we’re not looking to get rid of him” and added “I’d like him to be a Giant”. Now obviously the Giants aren’t actively shopping Beckham Jr, but any team in their right mind is going to call and see if they can get a deal done.

Will the Giants trade Beckham Jr? They might if the offer is right. While Beckham Jr. is one of the best receiver in the NFL there’s a lot o baggage that comes with him. There’s the video I mentioned earlier that the NFL hasn’t commented on. Beckham Jr. has said that he won’t play this coming season unless he’s given a new contract. He is currently in the final year of his rookie deal, but he wants a new contract and to be the highest paid player in the NFL. So while you get a top player there are also some headaches in dealing with him and if a team came with an offer that just blew the Giants away shouldn’t they take it. Now there are very few teams that have the ammunition the Giants would be looking for in Return for Beckham Jr. You’d have to think that a deal would include multiple 1st round draft picks plus. Is there a team willing to give that up?

The Los Angeles Rams where the first team that appeared to reach out to the Giants about a trade for Beckham Jr. The Rams have the 23rd pick in this draft, but they don’t have a 2nd round pick. It doesn’t appear that the Rams don’t have what it takes to make this type of deal. You can’t blame the Rams for checking in on Beckham Jr. as he would be a huge addition to an off season that’s already been very good.

Where do you have Beckham Jr. playing next season? Will he still be with the Giants? or do you see him wearing another uniform?

We’re just a day away from the opening of the 2018 baseball season. I will be letting you know what are pre-season predictions are for this season on Saturday. All I’m waiting for is for Mr. Fantasy to send me his picks and then will be all set for 2018.

We had our fantasy drafts over the weekend for our auction league and our snake league style draft. Now our leagues are both 20 team leagues; so it’s very difficult not to mention time consuming.

When your leagues are as big as ours it’s very difficult to find anyone willing to go out on a limb and give you sleeper picks. Now you’ll see articles about “Deep Sleeper”, but in a 20 team league these guys aren’t sleepers at all let alone deep sleepers.

Now I can’t be the only guy out there looking for a little fantasy help in a big league. I found an article that tried to sell me on Mike Clevinger of the Cleveland Indians being a sleeper. Now it appears as though Clevinger is going to get a shot at being a regular starter; so that improves his draft position. The fact that he’s on a team that should win 90 plus games is also a positive. Is he really a sleeper though? I’ve been hearing about the Indians giving him a chance to make the starting rotation since questions about Danny Salazar came up early in the off season. Anyone in a big league knew who Clevinger was and what was going on with him in Cleveland. This article was no help at all to anyone who is in a league bigger than say 14 teams. Now I don’t want anyone to think that I’m singling out Clevenger. He was just the top name in the article that I found when I was looking for some fantasy help.

Maybe once your league gets to a certain size the term sleeper should no longer exist. Late in a 20 team draft you’re really taking a chance in a guy. If he works out you look like the smartest guy in the room. If it doesn’t work out, oh well you weren’t really expecting much from that player. Feel free to help me out and find a name for players picked late in larger leagues. Put your ideas in the comments section and we’ll see what we can come up with.

If you’ve been following Shohei Ohtani through spring training and where wondering when you’d get to see him pitch in a regular season game; the Los Angeles Angel of Anaheim answered that for you yesterday. Ohtani will make his first career start on Sunday against the Oakland A’s.

Ohtani threw just 2 2/3rd innings in spring training and he had some issues. Ohtani gave up 9 runs, 8 of which where earned on 9 hits while walking 2 and striking out 5. Ohtani’s spring training ERA was 27.00. With throwing such a small number of innings I spring training you have to wonder if Ohtani will go more than 5 innings on Sunday.

Now the Angels haven’t made it clear when will see Ohtani as a DH in their line up. Ohtani had his struggles at the plate in the spring as well. Ohtani  hit .107 going 3 for 28 with 1 RBI while walking 3 times and striking out 9 times.

Do you have Ohtani being a better pitcher or a better hitter this season?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available for you to listen to whenever you want at TuneIn.com.

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

How was your week

Posted: March 24, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now I was one of the people who thought that the San Francisco Giants would bounce back from a horrendous 2017 season. Now to be fair they still might bounce back, but it’s going to be difficult to get off to a good start with 2 out of the 5 pitchers projected to be in your rotation at the start of the season on the disabled list. Not only is it two starters for the Giants, but it’s their #1 starter and their #3 starter.

Jeff Samardzija had to come out of his last spring training start with an injury. That injury turned out to be a pectoral strain and will have to miss 3 to 4 weeks. An MRI done yesterday revealed Samardzija’s injury.

I’m not sure how many people look at Samardzija as a top starting pitcher, but he was the National League leader in innings pitched last season with 207 2/3rd. Samardzija made 32 starts last season and was 9-15 with an ERA of 4.42 while striking out 205 batters. Samardzija has made 30 plus starts in each of the last five seasons, but it looks as though that streak may come to and end as he’ll start the 2018 season on the disabled list.

Then yesterday the Giants starting rotation took another hit as Madison Bumgarner was hit by a line drive. Originally it was thought that Bumgarner had broken his hand, but it was later reported that he has a displaced fracture in his fifth metacarpal. In other words he has a broken pinky. Bumgarner will have surgery on the finger today. They’ll place pins into his pinky that will stay in for four to six weeks. Once the pins come out Bumgarner will have to build himself up into a starters role.

San Francisco is hopefully that Bumgarner will be back on the mound before the All-Star break. In 2013 former Giants right hander Ryan Volgelsong had a similar injury and missed 11 weeks.

Bumgarner was looking to comeback from a 2017 season where he was limited to just 17 starts because of injury. Bumgarner’s injury was actually self inflicted as he was injured while driving an ATV at his home. Bumgarner still did end up pitching 111 innings last season and posted a 3.32 ERA, but had a 4-9 record.

It appeared as though Bumgarner was going to have a big 2018 season. In 19 spring training innings Bumgarner had an ERA of 2.84 while striking out 27 hitters while walking just 3.

So how will the Giants filled these two big holes in their rotation to start the season? Johnny Cueto will be expected to lead the rotation, but he had his issues last season. Injuries limited Cueto to 25 starts last season and he hasn’t had the best spring training. In 9 1/3rd spring training innings Cueto has an ERA of 5.79. Now that is a small sample size and Cueto doesn’t have a quality pitching resume behind him; so he’ll be the Giants #1 starter coming into 2018.

So Cueto is at the top of the San Francisco rotation, but who next? The Giants where counting on Chris Stratton and Ty Blach to handle the back of their rotation. Stratton has 20 career starts while Blach has made 26 career starts with 24 of those coming last season. Stratton and Blach are both 27 years old and with Bumgarner and Samardzija in the starting rotation carrying two young starters wouldn’t be a big deal. Now with those two starting the season on the disabled list Stratton and Blach are going to be expected to fill a bigger role than originally planned.

So Cueto, Stratton and Blach will fill three of the five rotation spots for the Giants, but what about the other two spots?

Derek Holland was signed to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training this past off season and it’s looking like he’ll be filling one of those open rotation spots. Holland made 26 starts and pitched in 29 games for the Chicago White Sox last season. Holland pitched 135 innings going 7-14, but had a ERA of 6.20. This spring Holland has thrown  15 innings and his ERA is 4.20. Holland has spent his entire 9 years career pitching in the American League; so it’s not a surprise that his career ERA is 4.57. He’s a solid veteran starter who should be able to hold down a spot in the rotation until Bumgarner and Samardzija return.

That looks like it wraps up four of the five spots in the Giants starting rotation, but who’s the 5th starter?

The Giants top pitching prospect is Tyler Beede who was their 1st round pick #14 in the 2014 draft. Beede turns 25 in May and made 19 starts in Triple-A last season. While he has only thrown 8 1/3rd innings this spring his ERA is at 10.80. Will Beede be the Giants 5th starter come opening day?

The Giants did sign Chris Heston to a minor league deal the off season. Heston’s name should sound familiar to Giants fans as he made 31 starts for them in 2015 going 12-11 with an ERA of 3.95. Heston also threw a no-hitter against the New York Mets that season. Heston pitch in just 4 games for the Giants in 2016 before being traded to the Seattle Mariners in December of 2016. Heston pitched in just two games for the Mariners before being waived. He also made one appearance for the Minnesota Twins last season.

Those look like the top two choices that are currently on the Giants roster. Is it possible that the Giants might try to bring in a veteran pitcher? While all of the top free agent pitcher have been signed there still are some recognizable names out there. Could the Giants turn to a veteran like John Lackey or Scott Feldman? Jeff Locke is just 30 years old and is still unsigned, could he fill that spot? Will have to see if this is an avenue the Giants explore.

Oddly for me I had just put in my 2018 season predictions, but I haven’t posted them yet. I had the Giants taking one of the two National League wild card spots. While not wanting to give too much away I also had a couple of their players winning some awards. I’m not sure if I should or can change this now. Would it be considered cheating if I make changes?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: March 21, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, basketball, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Alex Cobb waited and waited and while he was the last bigger named free agent to get signed he finally did get a deal. Cobb signed a four year $57 million dollar deal with the Baltimore Orioles; pending a physical of course.

There was talk through the off season that the Orioles would be looking at add starting pitching. Cobb will join the returning Chris Tillman, free agent signing Andrew Cashner as well as Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman in Baltimore’s rotation. Of course what order these pitcher will start in is yet to be determined, but it won’t be long before we know that as well.

The question now is how long will it take Cobb to be ready to make his first start. The Orioles open the season with a three game series against the Minnesota Twins starting next Thursday March 29th. My guess is Gausman, Bundy and Cashner get those starts with Tillman probably getting the start at the home opener April 2nd against the Houston Astros. Is there any chance at all that Cobb would be ready to start the second game of the Astros series? If Cob doesn’t start against the Astros the New York Yankees are the next team that comes to Baltimore. Maybe that’s the series Cobb gets his first start in.

Now Cobb has never been a pitcher who goes deep into games. He has three career complete games in 115 career starts. You have to wonder if he’ll even be able to get through five innings in his first couple of starts. Now you’ll heard that he’s been working out and that he’s in great shape, but he hasn’t faced a live hitter yet and that’s a big deal.

Cobb didn’t quite get the $20 million dollars a season like he demanded when free agency started, but he will get $14.25 million dollars a season.

While the addition of Cobb improves the Orioles starting rotation is it enough to make them a playoff contender? The American League East looks top heavy with the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox expected to compete for 1st place. It’s also expected that the team that doesn’t finish in 1st place will end up with one of the American League wild card spots. If that ends up being the case the Orioles will have just one wild card spot to play for against the rest of the American League. Do you see the Orioles grabbing that other wild card spot?

With the retirement of Danica Patrick there are currently no female drivers in either of the top two NASCAR series. Jennifer Jo Cobb has competed in some Camping World Truck Series events, but her team is underfunded and they don’t run a full time schedule. I’m not sure if Cobb has shown enough behind the wheel of a truck to move up to the Xfinity series which would be the next step before reaching the top level Monster Energy Series.

Now it’s unclear how long it will be before we she another full time driver in one of NASCAR’s top two series, but when the time comes that driver might be Hailie Deegan. Deegan is just 16 years old and has been racing in the K&N Pro Series. In the K&N Pro Series West opener last Thursday at Kern County Raceway in California Deegan came home in 7th place just three spots behind Kevin Harvick, yes that Kevin Harvick.

If her last name sounds a little familiar to you it’s possible you know her father, X-Games Motorcyclist Brian Deegan. Deegan has a list of career achievements including and X-Games gold medal. When asked about his daughter making it into NASCAR he used the terms “time” and “hard work” in his answer.

Hailie is currently driving the #19 car a Toyota Camry for Bill McAnally Racing. How will Hailie do in the next K&N Pro Series West event in Tucson Arizona on May 5th? Then down the road will she be the next full time woman behind the wheel in one of the top two NASCAR series?

Led By James Harden’s 42 points the Houston Rockets ended the Portland Trailblazers 13 game winning streak last night with a 115-111 victory. The win was also the Rockets 6th in a row and that is currently the longest winning streak in the NBA. Chris Paul was the only other Rockets starter to score in double figures with 22 points. Eric Gordon added 18 points off the bench while Luc Mbah a Moute also reached double figures coming off the bench with 13 points.

The Trailblazers winning streak cane at a good time as it pushed them into 3rd place in the Western Conference. The playoffs race in the Western Conference is really bunched up with the exception of the top two spots.

With just 11 games left on their schedule the 4 games ahead of a banged up Golden State Warriors team it appears as though the Rockets will ne the #1 seed in the Western Conference. Even though their dealing with quite a few injuries right now the Warriors are still 9 games ahead of the Trailblazers in the standings and should stay in the #2 spot. Now from 3rd on down it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Portland is currently holding that #3 spot, but the Oklahoma City Thunder are just 2 games behind them with the New Orleans Pelicans and the San Antonio Spurs just 3 games out of 3rd place. The Minnesota Timberwolves are in 7th place, but they’re just 3 1/2 games out of 3rd place while it’s the Utah Jazz who have that 8th and final playoff spot right now. The Jazz are 4 games out of that 3rd place spot, but they are also just 2 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets who are the first team out of the playoffs right now. Even the Los Angeles Clippers have to be considering a playoff contender as they’re in 10th place, but are just 2 1/2 games out of that final playoff spot.

With the way the Western Conference standings are right now it’s going to make these final 10 plus games interesting for these teams.

Quickly over in the Eastern Conference it looks as though there eight playoff teams have been decided. The Milwaukee Bucks currently sit in 8th place, but they have a 6 1/2 game lead over the 9th place Detroit Pistons. While mathematically the Pistons still have a chance to get into the playoffs they’re going to need Milwaukee to go on a losing streak down the stretch.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

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

How was your week

Posted: March 17, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, College Basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The NCAA men’s basketball tournament started on Thursday and last night there was history made. For the first time in tournament history a 16th seeded team beat a #1 seed.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County or UMBC beat the #1 seeded University of Virginia 74-54 in 1st round tournament action last night. Not only was Virginia a #1 seed, but they where the #1 overall seed in the entire tournament.

The game was tied at 21 all after the 1st half and it looked as though the game was setting up the way Virginia likes to play. UMBC scored the first six points of the 2nd half and they where on their way to building a double digit lead. With 16:24 left to play Joe Sherburne hit a 3-pointer to give UMBC their first double digit lead at 36-24. Virginia was never able to get the lead under 12 points after that. As the game went on UMBC slowly added to their lead and in the end they picked up a 20 point win74-54 over Virginia.

Senior guard Jairus Lyles was the games leading scorer with 28 points for UMBC. Sherburne added 14 points while K.J. Maura had 10 points for UMBC. Arkel Lamar had a double-double for the Retrievers scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome each scored 15 points to lead Virginia in scoring. Seven players in total scored for the Cavaliers.

Of course with the win UMBC advances to the 2nd round of the tournament. On Sunday they will play the Kansas State Wildcats. Kansas State advanced to the 2nd round with a 69-59 victory over the Creighton Blue Jays.

Of course one of the first questions that’s going to come up with you and your friends after this upset is, how’s your bracket? Well here’s what I think is a humorous story about my brackets.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know and or watch a lot of college basketball, but like a lot of people I enjoy filling out a tournament bracket. Now one of the things I always do is just fill out one bracket. While I understand that the more brackets you fill out the better chance you have to be right I just can’t handle filling out more than one bracket. Accidentally this year I ended up filling out two. I joined the group I was in last year and set up e reminder for myself so I could go in and fill out the bracket. When I got the reminder I clicked the link and it brought me to a blank bracket; so I filled it out. What I didn’t realize was the link to me to a generic bracket and not the one I had set up earlier. Since I was to lazy to go in and delete the work I had just done that I decided to just go ahead and fill out the second bracket.

Now it’s time for me to show off my college basketball knowledge. In the first bracket I did I had the Virginia Cavaliers winning the whole thing. Yes, you got it the same Virginia team that was just upset by the #16 seed last night. My other three Final Four teams Houston, Michigan State and Purdue did all advance, but my champion in this bracket was gone.

Now admittedly I took a few more chances with my second bracket because I didn’t want it to look to similar to my other bracket. After listening to some of the experts who have been watching college basketball all season I thought that the University of Arizona would be a good choice to win it all in my second bracket. Well on Thursday Arizona was beaten 89-68 by the University of Buffalo. Now again my other three Final Four teams Xavier, Villanova and Michigan State (again) all advanced.

As you can clearly see my college basketball knowledge really helped me out in picking a tournament winner. So as you can guess my bracket is a bit of a mess. Feel free to let me know how your bracket held up through Round 1.

We’re inching closer and closer to the start of the baseball season and there are a few teams out there still adding some of the lingering free agents.

There had been reports that the Washington Nationals where interested in added one more veteran starting pitcher. It seemed as though Jake Arrieta was going to be their target, but they where waiting for his asking price to go down. After the Philadelphia Phillies locked up Arrieta with a three year $75 million dollar deal the Nationals had to start looking elsewhere. Of course the first name to come to mind would’ve been Alex Cobb, but the Nationals went with some one else.

The Nationals chose to go with former 2011 American League Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson, who they signed to a minor league contract with and invitation to the major league side of spring training. Hellickson made 20 starts for the Phillies last season before they traded him to the Baltimore Orioles where had made 10 starts. Over those 30 starts Hellickson was 8-11 with a 5.43 ERA covering 164 innings.

Hellickson pitched well for the Phillies in 2016, but didn’t have any luck on the free agent market then either and re-signed with Philadelphia for the qualifying offer of $17.2 million dollars. After what was a down year in 2017 Hellickson will be given a chance to earn the 5th starters spot with the Nationals.

Are you worried about Shohei Ohtani? In an inning and a third against the Colorado Rockies Ohtani gave up 7 runs on 7 hits. Now this was just his second spring start, but in his first start he also pitched 1 1/3rd innings. His numbers weren’t that much better in that start as he gave up 2 runs on one hit which was a home run.

I’m not sure if panic would be the right word to use here, but there has to be some concern from the Angels as Ohtani hasn’t hit particularly well this spring either. In 20 at bats Ohtani has 2 hits and has struck out 7 times.

I’m sure if you could get the Angels to comment on Ohtani they’d tell you that they expected their to be a learning curve, but with the season getting under way in less than two weeks you have to wonder how they’re really feeling.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can also listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

Remember to look for me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: March 14, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Is anyone else confused with the way the NFL handles free agency? Or is it just me. There where reports of this player going here and that player going there and while all of this is going on none of these moves can be official until free agency starts this afternoon. Why doesn’t the NFL either start free agency earlier or just not allow teams to have contact with free agents until the actual date they can sign them. By the time free agency starts this afternoon there won’t be any actual free agents left to sign. Well let’s take a look at who’s going where.

As expected the hot position was quarterback with all three Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks from last season finding new teams. Case Keenum will be joining the Denver Broncos while Sam Bradford is headed to the Arizona Cardinals and Teddy Bridgewater is going to be with the New York Jets. The Jets also decided to bring back last years starter Josh McCown; so you have to figure him and Bridgewater will compete to be the starter. It was announced yesterday that McCown is the starting quarterback right now. I don’t know why they need to announce a starting quarterback in March, but the Jets did. Even though it was reported that Drew Brees was offered $60 million dollars in guaranteed money from a “mystery” team he choose to re-sign with the New Orleans Saints. Now the big quarterback on the free agent market was going to be Kirk Cousins. After being hit with the franchise tag two seasons in a row by the Washington Redskins Cousins was allowed to go out on the free agent market and every team that will sign a quarterback today was in on Cousins. So where did Cousins end up you ask, he will sign a three year deal with the Vikings for a guaranteed $84 million dollars. It’s the third highest amount of guaranteed money in a contract in NFL history. So that’s who’s going where today as far as the quarterbacks are concerned.

Interestingly I expect almost all of these teams to take a quarterback in the upcoming draft to develop as their future starter. Even though the Jets have five quarterbacks on their roster adding McCown and Bridgewater to Bryce Petty, Christian Hackenberg and Joel Stave I fully expect them to select a quarterback with their 1st round pick. The Cardinals not only added Bradford, but brought in Mike Glennon to back him up since Bradford hasn’t played a full 16 games since 2012. Arizona is currently sitting with the 15th pick in the 1st round of the upcoming draft. It wouldn’t be a shock at all if they moved up or took their future quarterback with that pick. The Broncos have the 5th pick in the 1st round and there are reports that General Manager John Elway is attending Baker Mayfield’s pro day at Oklahoma. If the Broncos decide that Paxton Lynch isn’t their future guy at quarterback they could take that guy at #5. I wouldn’t expect the Saints or the Vikings to spent their 1st round pick on a quarterback unless they see him as the best player on the board, but I wouldn’t be to surprised if they added a young quarterback with one of their draft picks.

Who do you think got the best end of the quarterback signings?

Now of course there will be many other moves made today, but the quarterbacks have been the big focus of the off season; so I wanted to stay with that position.

I’m sure there are some people out there rejoicing that when the New York Mets reassigned some players to minor league camp that Tim Tebow was one of them. I’m not sure why, but there are a lot of people who are very excited to see Tebow fail.

It wasn’t any real surprise when the Mets reassigned Tebow to minor league camp since he went 1 for 18 in spring training. Tebow also struck out 11 times in those 18 at bats.

Tebow was hampered a little bit this spring with a sprained left ankle. It was a very strange injury as Tebow hit a sprinkler head and turned the ankle, but he didn’t use that as an excuse.

Tebow isn’t on the Mets 40-man roster, but can still appear in games for New York he’d just have to be brought over from the minor league side.

Now on the Sports Time Radio podcast I like to tease Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu as Cubs fans about the first big free agent signing Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer made for the Cubs. That of course was right handed pitcher Edwin Jackson who got a 4 year $44 million dollar deal from the Cubs in January of 2013. Jackson never played out of full contract with the Cubs as he was released by the team in July of 2015, but believe it or not he’s still in baseball.

Jackson was an All-Star in 2009 when he was with the Detroit Tigers. He was also a member of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals that won a World Series. Don’t forget that as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks Jackson threw a 149 pitch no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Jackson made his major league debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 9th of 2003. While Jackson never pitched in more than 8 games in a season for the Dodgers it was the start of a career that now sees Jackson with the Washington Nationals for a second tier of duty. In between Jackson has appeared in the major leagues for 12 different teams.

Jackson is just one team away from tying for the major league record of most teams played for. Jackson is currently tied with Mike Morgan, Ron Villone and Matt Stairs for 2nd place behind only Octavio Dotel who pitched for 13 major league teams.

Jackson has had a solid spring for the Nationals and has a chance to end up in their bullpen. Jackson has appeared in 4 games covering 9 innings. He’s given up 3 runs while walking 3 and striking out 8, his ERA this spring is 3.00. Do you think Jackson finds a spot in the Nationals bullpen? and if not could he be on to his 13th team to tie that record?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget the podcast is also available for you to listen to whenever you want at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: March 3, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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As we get closer to opening day, we also get closer to our two fantasy drafts. Now we have two leagues that we run through Yahoo. We have a straight up snake style draft league and then we have an auction league. We do have some openings in these leagues, but not too many. If your interested in playing in one or both of these leagues send us an e-mail to SportsTimeRadio@Hotmail.com and will send you the link to sign up for the league you’re interested in. It is free to play, but I have to warn you these are deep 20 teams leagues; so you have to be a serious fantasy player to get into these leagues.

One of the things that you have to find in our leagues are those middle of or back of the rotation starters that are going to give you some innings and hopefully add up some other stats as our leagues are category leagues. With the addition last season of the 7-day DL teams aren’t afraid to out any player on there let alone a pitcher with a minor issue. With this being the case you have to look closely at any pitching injury that comes up and there where a few late in the week that didn’t look like a big deal, but you never know.

Drew Pomeranz of the Boston Red Sox left his last start with what was described as forearm tightness in his pitching arm. Pomeranz himself told reporters that he’s not concerned about the injury being serious, but at this point of spring training it’s better for the Red Sox to be cautious with him.

Pomeranz made 32 starts for the Red Sox last season going 17-6 with an ERA of 3.32 over 173 2/3rd innings. Those where all career highs for Pomeranz and he also posted the second best strikeout total of his career with 174. It was a big bounce back year for Pomeranz after he started just 13 games, appearing in 14 games in 2016 due to injury. Look for Pomeranz to be slotted as the Red Sox 4th starter where he could get some good match ups and with the backing of the Red Sox offense could put up a good number of wins this season.

Bud Norris made a spot start for the St. Louis Cardinals filling in for Carlos Martinez who missed the start do to a personal matter. Norris lasted 2 1/3rd innings in the start before having to exit with hamstring spasms after allowing 5 runs. It’s unclear right now if this will be an injury that could linger for Norris or if it’s just an early spring training bump in the road.

Until last season Norris had always been a starting pitcher, but after signing with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for the 2017 season a myriad of injuries forced Norris into the bullpen. Norris ended up pitching in a career high 60 games last season, but only 3 of those where starts. Norris went 2-6 with an ERA of 4.21, but did pick up 19 saves. It appeared as Norris could fill a significant role in the Cardinals bullpen; so you’ll have to monitor his injury.

While it’s unclear right now what type of injury Los Angeles Dodgers right hander Tom Koehler it could be the most serious of the three we’re talking about here. Koehler was pulled in the middle of the inning in his last appearance and is scheduled for an MRI. Koehler suffered from shoulder bursitis last season which limited him to just 72 2/3rd innings.

Koehler has been a starter for the majority of his career, but the Dodgers where hoping to plug him into their bullpen as a full time reliever. Koehler did have some success coming out of the bullpen for the Toronto Blue Jays last season. The Blue Jays acquired Koehler in August of last season and he made 15 appearances for them with 14 of them as a reliever. Koehler went 0-2 in those 15 games covering 17 innings, but had an ERA of 2.65. It looks like will have to wait for the results of the MRI before we know where to rank Koehler.

Are the Philadelphia Phillies going to try and upgrade their starting rotation? There have been reports that the Phillies talked to Jake Arrieta, but they where only willing to go three years on a contract with him.

The Phillies where also in touch with free agent Lance Lynn, but it doesn’t appear that talks went very far. It’s seems as though the Phillies didn’t want to meet Lynn’s demands of $50 million dollars guaranteed in a contract.

While it hasn’t been reported, but you have to wonder if Philadelphia also checked in on Alex Cobb. Cobb recently said that he’d accept on contract of 4 years at $70 million dollars with $50 million dollars being guaranteed. Cobb has originally stated that he wanted $20 million dollars a season in his contract; so his demands have come down a little, but have they come down enough for a team to sign him.

The Phillies are coming off a disappointing 66 win season in 2017. Right now the average age of their projected starting rotation is just under 26 years old. Jerad Eickhoff is the oldest projected start for the Phillies and he’ll turn 28 in July.

If the Phillies aren’t able to come to contract terms with Arrieta, Lynn or Cobb maybe they could bring back Jeremy Hellickson who was with Philadelphia the past two seasons and was their opening day starter last season before being traded to the Baltimore Orioles at the trade deadline. Hellickson turns 31 in early April; so while he’s not that much older than the projected rotation guys he does have 8 years in the big leagues.

Speaking of the Orioles it’s being reported that they’ve shown some interest in Lynn and Cobb along with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Minnesota Twins. It does appear as Minnesota’s interest in Lynn may be waning. There where some contract talks between the too early, but the Twins offer was considered well shy of what Lynn was looking for in a deal.

We’re slowly running out of time and before you know it opening day will be here. How much longer will it be before Arrieta, Lynn or Cobb sings with a team. How much of a possibility is it that  they could all still be looking for contracts when the season starts?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available for you to listen to anytime you want at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 28, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The new NFL season doesn’t start until March 14th and right out of the gate the big free agent will be Kirk Cousins. There should be quite a few teams interested in Cousins, but what will they be willing to pay him?

The New York Jets have made it clear that they will be strong players for Cousins. Josh McCown made 13 starts for the Jets last season and played well, but they view McCown as their back up plan if they can’t sign Cousins. Bryce Petty did make 3 starts for the Jets last season, but Christian Hackenberg who was a 2nd round pick in the 2016 draft has yet to see the field. Does an add like Cousins make the Jets a playoff contender? Cousins could have some weapons to throw to as Robbie Anderson looked like he was developing into a big play threat towards the end of the season. Jermaine Kearse is a solid #2 type of receiver and if Austin Seferian-Jenkins is a good tight end as long as he can keep himself on the field. The thing that might keep Cousins away from the Jets is the fact that he’ll probably be looking for a team that can get into the playoffs and even with him at quarterback it’s unclear if the Jets could make that leap.

The Denver Broncos used three different starting quarterbacks last season and while the reports are they’re interested in Sam Bradford you have to think they’ll take a look at Cousins. While Bradford and Cousins may be similar Bradford has a history of injuries that Cousins doesn’t have; so that may put him at the top of the Broncos quarterback choices. While the Broncos don’t have a strong receiving tight end they do have two very good wide receivers in Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders to throw to. The Broncos also still have a top defense that could help them get right back in the thick of the playoffs. Also remember the Broncos had a 1000 rusher in C.J. Anderson; so there’s a running game to help Cousins out. Will see if the Broncos are set on Bradford or if they’ll take a look at Cousins.

The newest team to seem to be interested in Cousins are the Minnesota Vikings. All three of the Vikings quarterbacks from last season are free agents; so they’re going to have to find someone. Case Keenum played very well for Minnesota last season going 11-3 in 14 starts, but the Vikings have announced that they won’t use the franchise tag on Keenum and he’ll be allowed to become a free agent. Minnesota has on one of the better defenses in the NFL and if it’s weapons Cousins is looking for the Vikings have them as well. Adam Thielen had a breakout season in 2017 catching 91 passes for 1276 yards. Stefon Diggs missed a couple of games due to injury, but still caught 8 touchdowns passes and don’t forget tight end Kyle Rudolph. Rudolph also had 8 touchdowns catches to go along with 57 receptions. The Vikings will also have Dalvin Cook returning from injury to be their feature running back. Cook was averaging 4.8 yards per carry before he got hurt in Week 4. The Vikings may have the best set of weapons for Cousins plus the fact that they just went to the NFC Championship game might be enough to get Cousins to sign there.

With the retirement of Carson Palmer it’s clear that the Arizona Cardinals need to find themselves a quarterback and you have to think that they’ll also check in a Cousins. Even juggling three different starting quarterbacks the Cardinals managed to finish 8-8 last season. Where could they have ended up had they had one solid starting quarterback? Larry Fitzgerald has decided to return after there was some talk he might join Palmer in retirement. Fitzgerald is coming off a 109 catch season while gaining 1156 yards. Now the Cardinals need to find that 2nd receiver to compliment Fitzgerald and they have a group of guys that they could find him from. Jaron Brown, J.J. Nelson and John Brown can all fill that role it’s just which one will step up to take the spot. The most important thing for the Cardinals and something that could be a factor in Cousins coming to Arizona is the return of the David Johnson. Johnson played just one game last season, but he’s a duel threat out of the backfield and is looked at as a Top 5 running back in the NFL when healthy. With a veteran core of players and a returning top running back could the addition of a quarterback like Cousins get the Cardinals into the playoffs?

Depending on What Cousins is looking for he could get the most money from the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have the most salary cap room in the NFL this off season, but is this some place Cousins would be looking to play. Running back Duke Johnson was the Browns leading receiver with 74 catches as the team doesn’t really have a true #1 receiver. Rashard Higgins and Ricardo Louis tied for the most receptions by a wide receiver with 27. Corey Coleman the 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft played just 9 games last season due to injury. He’ll be look at to establish himself as the #1 receiver. The Browns took tight end David Njoku with the 29th pick in the 1st round in the 2017 draft and while he was looked at as a talent that still needed to learn the game he did catch 32 passes an led the team with 4 touchdown receptions. Now Cleveland doesn’t appear to be a landing spot for Cousins and all the talk is that Cleveland will draft a quarterback with either the 1st or 4th pick in the upcoming draft, but it’s something to be looked at because the Browns have the money to offer him.

We’ve got to see a little bit of Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher and a hitter early in spring training. By hitting and pitching this season it will make him an interesting fantasy player. Now we use Yahoo to run your leagues and they’ve told us that he’ll be considered as two separate players. You’ll be able to draft Ohtani the pitcher or Ohtani the hitter. I have to see a few more at bats from Ohtani  before I’ll be able to figure out what kind of a hitter he might be. With that being said I think if I had to choose between them I’d take Ohtani the pitcher over Ohtani the hitter. Of course there is still quite a it of spring training left; so that could change. It will also help to know just how many at bats he’ll get when he’s not pitching.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available for you to listen to whenever you want to at TuneIn.com.

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

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 21, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We’re coming off NBA All-Star weekend and while the game itself is clearly the worst out of any of the major sports All-Star games there was some interesting talk about the league itself.

How would you like to see an NBA where there are four divisions and no conferences? In this format the best 16 teams record wise would make the playoffs with the four division winners getting the Top 4 seeds.

This type of format has been talked about quite a bit especially when the Western Conference was clearly the better of the two conferences. At one point there where teams over .500 or close to it in the Western Conference missing out on the playoffs, but in the Eastern Conference teams under .500 where getting into the playoffs.

It is a little odd that the talk of this really seemed to heat up during this All-Star break when right now there aren’t too much difference in the standings. Right now the Miami Heat hold down the 8th and final Eastern Conference playoff spot with a record of 30-28. If you where to take the Heat and move them into the Western Conference they’d be tied for 9th and one game out of the final playoff spot. There are still about 25 games left in the regular season for this to shale out; so will see how much the standings change, but right now there’s not a huge difference.

It’s an interesting idea for the NBA and it’s something I’d like to see them do. It could also give them a chance to finally move the Memphis Grizzlies out of the Western Conference. Would you like to see the NBA go away from the Eastern and Western Conferences and go to this four division set up? Or do you have another idea for them to get the best teams into the playoffs?

While I do think this is a good idea for the NBA to do it doesn’t change the fact that there are only three or four teams that look like they can win the NBA title without a major upset taking place.

In the Eastern Conference the Toronto Raptors currently have the best record, but I’m not sure how many people believe that they’re a threat to win the NBA title. The Raptors have won their division three of the last four seasons, but have only been to the conference finals one time. Toronto needs to prove it can win in the playoffs before they will be taken seriously as a title contender.

The Boston Celtics have the 2nd best record in the Eastern Conference right now, but after looking like the team to beat early in the season there have been some questions about them. The Celtics where a little flat coming into the All-Star break dropping three straight games and people are starting to think they might be running out of gas. These final 23 games will be a test to see where and how this team looks heading into the playoffs.

Of course you can’t forget about the new look Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland had won four games in a row heading into the All-Star break and looked like a true contender after their big trade. You have to wonder if the trade just energized the team for a few games or if it’s the turning point to their season. Again this is something will find out as the team plays out the regular season. Of course the Cavaliers are and always will be considered title contenders as long as LeBron James is wearing their uniform.

Believe it or not it was the Houston Rockets who had the best record in the Western Conference heading into the All-Star break not the Golden State Warriors. Now to be fair the Rockets only have a 1/2 game lead over the Warriors, but it’s something different and it looks like the Western Conference is a two team race.

The Rockets took two of three from the Warriors in the teams season series; so that may help them get over any kind of a mental hurdle they could have facing a team that’s won two of the last three NBA titles. Houston appears to be the only team in the NBA that can score with the Warriors. Golden State currently scores 1.7 points a game more than the Rockets do. Are the Rockets the team to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals this season?

Of course you can never write off Golden State as they’ve been to three straight NBA Finals winning two of them. The Warriors not only lead the NBA in pints per game, but they’re also the best 3-point shooting team in the league. Golden State is shooting 39.2% from behind the 3-point line. Something you don’t hear a lot about, but the Warriors are also the best free throw shooting team in the NBA at 81.1% and that could come into play in the playoffs. Do you have the Warriors going to a 4th straight NBA Finals?

Are these the five teams you have at the top of your list to win the NBA title? Or do you see a team like the San Antonio Spurs, Minnesota Timberwolves or maybe even the Washington Wizards being a surprise team in the playoffs this season?

We had a three team trade in Major League Baseball yesterday and here’s how it shakes out. The New York Yankees receive Brandon Drury. The Arizona Diamondbacks receive Steven Souza and Taylor Widener while the Tampa Bay Rays receive Anthony Banda and Nick Solak. It’s also been reported that the Diamondbacks will receive two players to be named later as part of this deal.

Looking at this deal it appears as though the Rays are going into rebuilding mode. In just the past week the Rays have traded Souza and pitcher Jake Odorizzi and designated outfielder Corey Dickerson. Add those players to the earlier traded Evan Longoria and the fact that they’ve allowed both Logan Morrison and Lucas Duda to become free agents and while both are still available the Rays have shown no interest in bringing either player back. If you’re a Rays fan you have to wonder how longer it will be before you see Chris Archer traded.

The Yankees had expressed some interest in Drury early in the off season, but couldn’t get a deal done with the Diamondbacks. The plan is for Drury to take over at 3rd base for the Yankees as their infield will feature a couple of new players. Starlin Castro and Chase Headley where dealt in the off season and while it looks as thought top prospects Gleyber Torres will be given a chance to win the job as the everyday 2nd baseman with Drury at 3rd. There was talk that Miguel Andújar would be given a shot at the 3rd base job it makes sense for the Yankees to bring in a younger veteran like Drury. Andújar has just 5 games of major league experience and Torres has never played in the majors. While Drury has played just 41 games at 3rd base in his major league career he does have two full years of major league experience. There was some talk that the Yankees would sign Mike Moustakas to play 3rd base for them, but with this move it looks as though the Yankees might be set. The Yankees had made it a point this off season to try and stay under or around the luxury tax line and signing someone like Moustakas would push them past their goal.

The Diamondbacks where trying their best to find a way to bring back J.D. Martinez, but he decided to sign with the Boston Red Sox; so they’re turning to Souza to help fill the power void Martinez left. It was a bit of a surprise for the Diamondbacks to add Souza. They had just signed Jarrod Dyson to a two year deal and they have a pretty solid outfield in place with A.J. Pollock, David Peralta and Yasmany Tomas. Now Pollock will be a free agent after this season and Tomas hasn’t quite lived up too his contract, but it’s going to be tough for Arizona manager Torey Lovullo to find enough at bats for these guys. Who knows maybe Arizona has another deal planned that would move one of the outfielders they had on their roster.

What do you think about this deal? Who do you think got the better end of it?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com.

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

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