Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

How was your week

Posted: June 10, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I’m not sure if anyone is buying the Minnesota Twins as a contender, but they’ve found a way to hang into 1st place in the A.L. Central through about 60 games. Minnesota has a 1 1/2 game lead over the Cleveland Indians going into today’s action. How are the Twins doing it?

It seems as though the Twins get a win every time Ervin Santana pitches. Santana is 8-3 through 13 starts with 10 of those starts being quality starts. Santana has pitched 90 innings with an E.R.A. of 2.20 and already has 3 complete game shutouts this season. Santana is coming off of a 4 hit complete game shutout of the San Francisco Giants last night.

The rest of the Twins rotation has struggled this season with the exception of Jose Berrios, but he’s only made 5 starts. You have to wonder if Santana can continue to pitch at this level all season long and it looks as though the Twins will need him to if they want to stay at the top or close to the top of the A.L. Central.

Now Santana was expected to be a top of the rotation starter when he came up with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; so maybe he’s just reaching the potential everyone thought he would.

Another Twins player who appears to be establishing himself as a top player in the A.L. is Miguel Sano. Sani is Minnesota’s top offensive threat hitting .301 with 15 home runs and 46 RBI’s. Sano is the Twins leader in those three offensive categories. Sano is also the team leader in runs scored with 38 and has 9 doubles and 2 triples this season. Sano has struck out 84 times in the 54 games he’s played in, but no one cares how many times a player strikes out.

One of the bigger knocks on Sano was his defense and what position he’d end up playing. He spent some time in the outfield last season, but has moved back to 3rd base for this season. Sano has made 4 errors this season and has a fielding percentage of .963. That puts him 12th among all 3rd baseman and it’s good for 6th in the American League.

Sano is going to need some help on offense. Joe Mauer is hitting a solid .284, but has just 4 home runs. Brian Dozier is providing some power with 9 home runs, but is hitting .242 and it seems as thought top prospect Byron Buxton just can’t hit major league pitching. Buxton is a gold glove caliber defender in centerfield, but he’s hitting just .199 in the 54 games he’s played.

I don’t think anyone expects the Twins to stay in contention for the division title or even a wild card spot, but it’s fun to see the teams you don’t expect to do well play above their expectations.

On the Thursday edition of Sports Time Radio Dan the Man and I where discussing what the problems where with the St. Luis Cardinals. Apparently the Cardinals thought they had some issues as well as they made quite a few changes before Fridays game against the Philadelphia Phillies. A game they did win 3-2 to break their 7 game losing streak.

St. Louis designated 3rd baseman/Shortstop Jhonny Peralta for assignment. Which means they now have 10 days to trade or release Peralta. There where also quite a few coaching changes for St. Louis. 3rd base coach Chris Maloney has been reassigned within the organization. Mike Shildt will take over for Maloney. In addition, assistant hitting coach Bill Mueller will take a leave of absence, and Ron “Pop” Warner and Mark Budaska have been reassigned from the minor leagues to the coaching staff.

The Cardinals activated 2nd baseman Kolten Wong from the disabled list before Friday nights game. Wong started against the Phillies last night going 1 for 2 with a walk after missing 13 games with a left elbow strain.

Peralta was in the final year of his contract with St. Louis. Peralta signed a 4 year $53 million dollar deal with the Cardinals back in 2014. Injuries limited Peralta to 82 games last season and he has only appeared in 21 games for the Cardinals this season. Peralta was hitting .204.

The Cardinals are 27-32 after last nights win and find themselves 4 1/2 games behind the N.L. Central leading Milwaukee Brewers coming into Saturday’s games. Do you think these changes will help the Cardinals?

Before yesterday’s Cleveland Indians/Chicago White Sox game the Indians had scheduled former Ohio State football player and Bedford Ohio native safety Tyvis Powell to throw out the first pitch. Powell was with the Seattle Seahawks during the 2016 season and appeared in 8 games for them before the Browns claimed him off of waivers.

In am odd turn of events the Browns ended up waving Powell just hours before he was schedule to throw out the first pitch at the Indians game. The Browns say they were not aware that Powell was scheduled to throw out the first pitch until after the roster move was made.

 

Powell still supported a Buckeyes group event and threw out the first pitch at Friday night’s game once a rain delay was lifted. The Indians went on to beat the White Sox 7-3 in the game.

We’re just a win away from possibly crowning champions in both the NHL and the NBA; so I guess that means it’s time to look forward to the NFL. Now the Golden Nugget Casino really jumped into this as they listed the odds for all 256 potential Super Bowl match ups.

The best odds right now have the New England Patriots facing the Dallas Cowboys at 7 to 1. At 8 to 1 you can get the Patriots against the Green Bay Packers. If you’re interested in seeing a Super Bowl rematch you can bet the Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons at 10 to 1. Now maybe you like the long shot and if you do you can bet that the New York Jets will face off against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl at 5000 to 1. That is roughly equivalent to what some sportsbooks set the odds that Leicester City would win the Champions League in 2015-2016.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: June 7, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Did you start Scooter Gennett of the Cincinnati Reds in your daily fantasy league last night? Better yet did you start Gennett in any of your fantasy leagues? I’ll be honest; I saw Gennett for $2000 on FanDuel last night, but didn’t use him. If I would’ve used him or if you had him in your line up you would’ve gotten points for a player going 5 for 5 with 4 home runs and 10 RBI’s. It’s the first time since 2012 that a player has had a 4 homer game and the 17th player to do it in baseball history. Gennett had just 3 home runs coming into last nights game. He had 38 career home runs and one 2 home run game in his career.

Now Gennett doesn’t even play on a regular basis for Cincinnati. Just last week when the Atlanta Braves came into town former Reds player Brandon Phillips was unhappy that Cincinnati had issued Gennett his old #4. I believe Phillips used the term “slap in the face” to describe the way he felt about Gennett getting issued #4.

Gennett’s night started off without a lot of fanfare as in his first at bat he hit a bloop single to leftfield off St. Louis cardinals starter Adam Wainwright to drive in Billy Hamilton. Gennett came up against Wainwright again in the 3rd inning this time with the bases loaded. With a 3 & 2 count Gennett hit a grand slam to left center for his first home run of the night. Gennett came back up to the plate in the 4th inning again with the bases loaded, but this time against Cardinals reliever John Gant. The count again went to 3 & 2 before Gennett hit his second home run and grand slam of the night to centerfield. Gennett came up against Gant again in the 6th inning and this time he hit a 3 & 1 pitch the opposite way into the leftfield seats for his third home run of the night. Gennett final at bat came in the bottom of the 8th inning against Cardinals reliever John Brebbia. Down in the count 0 & 2 Gennett hit a line drive into the rightfield bleachers for his fourth home run of the night.

The Reds picked up Gennett in spring training after the Milwaukee Brewers surprisingly cut him. Gennett was the Brewers starting 2nd baseman in 2016 playing in 137 games for them.

The Reds face the Cardinals again tonight with Lance Lynn starting. Do you think Gennett will be in the Cincinnati starting line up tonight?

The Washington Nationals picked up a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, but after the Nationals ended up having another heated exchange with an N.L. West team.

With runners on 1st and 2nd Washington;s closer Koda Glover struck out Yasiel Puig to end the game. After getting the strikeout Glover shouted in the direction of home plate which Puig took exception to. Puig attempted to towards the mound and it appeared as though he was trying to ask Glover what he said.

In response Glover took off his cap and tossed aside his glove as players from both teams quickly intervened to keep the two separated. Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman pulled Glover away, and nothing escalated before the squads headed off the field.

“Tempers flared a little bit,” Glover said. “It is what it is. I don’t have any hard feelings toward him. He was staring at me, and I didn’t like it.” While Puig did not speak to reporters after the game.

Remember just last season the Dodgers took a tense divisional round playoff series between the teams last year. The series went five games before the Dodgers advanced.

The Nationals have won both games between the teams so far this season, with the finale of their current series set for Wednesday afternoon. Steven Strasburg is scheduled to make the start for the Nationals while it will be Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers.

Washington is still holding a huge lead (12 1/2 games) in the N.L. East while the Dodgers have dropped 2 games back of the Colorado Rockies in the N.L. West.

It’s time for organized team activities or OTA’s in the NFL. While I’ll never understand why these just aren’t called practices the bigger stories from these are the players who don’t show up for them. While they are voluntary NFL teams like to have all of their players attend.

Now the big player missing at New York Giants OTA’s was wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (OBJ) who is looking for a new contract. Beckham has no financial bonuses in his contract tying him to any OTA appearances.

Now back in May Beckham did say that he would attend mini camp with the Giants when the time comes. Beckham was actually quoted as saying “for sure” when asked about being at mandatory minicamp; which starts next Tuesday.

Beckham has clearly out played his contract as he is scheduled to make $1.8 million this season under the terms of his rookie contract. The Giants recently picked up his fifth-year option for 2018 at what is likely to be around $8 million.

Beckham, a three-time Pro Bowler who had 101 catches for 1,367 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Don’t forget he also was fined at least six times for a variety of infractions. Through three NFL seasons Beckham has caught 288 passes for 4122 yards; averaging 14.3 yards per catch with 35 touchdowns.

Beckham pretty much re-wrote the Giants record book as a rookie, but has now went on to be the first Giants receiver to have 75+ receptions, 1200+ yards and 10 or more touchdowns in three straight seasons.

While Beckham gets a lot of negative attention for some of his antics it’s clear that he is one of the top receivers in the NFL. When Beckham’s $8 million dollar contract kicks in that would make him tied for 20th among wide receivers in pay. He’d be tied with Kenny Stills of the Miami Dolphins and Marvin Jones of the Detroit Lions. Out of those three receivers; which one do you want your quarterback throwing to? At $17 million a season Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers is the highest paid wide receiver coming into the 2017 season.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com, but you can also find the podcast on TuneIn.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: June 3, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We’re into June and a little over 50 games into the Major League Baseball season. Is it time for a contender to make a trade and fill a need? It might depend on who you think the contenders are; so let’s take a look.

The Washington Nationals are cruising in the N.L. East, but there are some questions with the team. I think if you ask most people they’d say that they need a closer. The Nationals have five different pitchers with at least one save led by Koda Glover with 7. Glover has taken over the closers role and has converted his last five saves chances, Glover is and in his first full major league season, but he has around 110 games to fit into that role and if he can the Nationals could look somewhere else for help. Where else could the Nationals look for help; how about centerfield. They acquired Adam Eaton inn the off season., but he’s out for the season with an injury. Michael Taylor has been a top prospects in the Nationals organization for a while now and he’s been playing the majority of the time in center. Taylor is hitting .271, but still has some issues with strikeouts. He’s fanned 47 times in 42 games or once every 2.8 at bats. Would the Nationals make a move for a rent a player type since Eaton will return next season. How about a deal where the Nationals pick up someone like Lorenzo Cain from the Kansas City Royals. If they went after a deal like that could it be expanded to include Royals closer Kelvin Herrera.

Who are the contenders in the N.L. Central? The Milwaukee Brewers are currently leading the division, but are you believing in them? Milwaukee is in the second year of a rebuild and I’d be surprised to see them throw that all away to try to bring in the pieces they’d need. The Brewers would probably need to find multiple starting pitchers to contend and they’d have to move quite a bit of the young talent they recently acquired to get that. Do you see them making those type of moves? While they’ve been a fun story I don’t think they’ll be there in the end.

The St. Louis Cardinals are in 2nd place in the Central, but they just .500 at 26-26. St. Louis hasn’t plated well to start the season and they’re not normally the type of team to make a big in season trade. The everyday line up looks solid as does the starting rotation; so if the Cardinals make a move it could be for a bench piece or for some bullpen help.

The Chicago Cubs are easily the biggest disappointment of the 2017 season. They’re 26-27, but still appear to have the best everyday line up in the division. The Cubs might have too may guys that could be considered everyday players. The starting rotations numbers are way off from last season; so maybe they’d be looking to add some help there. Wade Davis was added to handle the closing duties and he done his job, but they’ve had trouble getting him the ball with a lead. Maybe a bullpen piece could be added. The question might be how long before the line up starts to hit?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken over 1st place in the N.L. West this week. Now the Dodgers have done this with their starting 3rd baseman and centerfielder on the disabled list as well as losing one of their platoon leftfielders for the season. They’ve used their minor league system to fill the holes and those players have some through for them. Any rotation with Clayton Kershaw in it is going to be good, but this might be the area where the Dodgers make a move. Alex Wood was h pitching well, but is currently on the disabled list. Rich Hill, Brandon McCarthy and Hyun Jim-Ryu have a history of injuries and prospect Julio Urias was sent back to the minors after 5 starts. The Dodgers have the prospects to go and get a top line starting pitcher if they feel they need one, but will they.

The Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks are both just a 1.2 game behind the Dodgers in the N.L. West. Offense has never been an issue for a team that plays 81 games in Coors Field and Charlie Blackmon is shown that he should be mentioned as one of the top players in baseball. If pitching is the question it would have to be in the staring rotation as the Rockies bullpen has been if not the best than one of the best in baseball. Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland have been nice surprises while Jon Gray has made just three starts di to injury. Could a starter be something the Rockies look to add. Arizona I think is more of a surprise to be here even this early. Robbie Ray has really established himself in the starting rotation along with Zack Greinke, but after those two it’s unclear what the Diamondbacks will get. Tajuan Walker looked like he could be a valuable starter, but he’s landed on the disabled list. The bullpen is also interesting as Fernando Rodney was brought in to handle the closing duties last off season and has had some trouble. Rodney does have 14 saves, but is 1-2 with an E.R.A. of 6.10. If Arizona does make a move it could be for some type of pitching help.

Right now you could say that everyone in the A.L. East is still in contention. The New York Yankees are a nice surprise at the top of the division, but there are some questions. Chase Headley got off to a hot start, but is currently hitting .232; so could an upgrade at 3rd base be something the Yankees would look at? While the bullpen has been good even with Aroldis Chapman been hurt; the starting rotation has some questions. Which Masahiro Tanaka will be pitching. Tanaka has lost his last four starts and only one of them has been a good start. The Yankees are another team that has the prospects to acquire a top of the rotation type of starter, but they have been saying that they want to stay with their young core, but if there in it you’d think they would make a move.

The Baltimore Orioles at in 2nd place and a trade might not be the biggest question with this team, but more like when will Manny Machado start to hit? The Orioles are hanging around the top of the division with Machado hitting just .221. Baltimore isn’t the type of team that makes big trades; so you have to think they just go with the players they have on the roster. Once Machado starts to hit they’ll be better off and of course the return of closer Zach Britton will help the bullpen even though they’ve held their own with him out.

The Boston Red Sox where the top pick to win this division in pre-season, but they currently find themselves in 3rd place. The Red Sox have had some injuries to players who needed to be key contributors to their success. Pablo Sandoval just returned and the offense is waiting for Dustin Pedroia and utilityman Brock Holt to get healthy. Tyler Thornberg was brought in this off season to be the top set up guy, but hasn’t pitched all season due to injury. The starting rotation just got a big lift with the return of David Price. Do the Red Sox need to make a trade or just get healthy?

I’d like to know if you buy the Tampa Bay Rays or the Toronto Blue Jays as contenders in this division? Let me know in the comment section and if you do will take a more in depth loo at them.

Even 50 or so games into the season; did you have the Minnesota twins leading the A.L. Central? The Twins have been a nice story even though I don’t think anyone believes they’ll be in 1st place much longer. Miguel Sano has shown that he’s a top player though. Sano is right at .300 with 13 home runs and 41 RBI’s. Ervin Santana has also been a big surprise. Santana is 7-2 with an E.R.A. of 1.75 in 11 starts covering 77 innings and has to be mentioned in any early season Cy Young talk.

Even with their top two starting pitchers out the Cleveland Indians hung around in 2nd place. While Carlos Carrasco missed just a start or two Corey Kluber was out longer. Kluber returned this week to pitch 6 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in Thursday’s 8-0 win. Now Danny Salazar struggled again as a starter and has been moved to the bullpen. Trevor Bauer did just have a 14 strikeout performance in his last start, but for the season his E.R.A. is 6.00. Josh Tomlin has also had some trouble posting an E.R.A. of 5.54; so maybe a starting pitcher is something the Indians are looking to acquire. The everyday line up looks to be set especially if Bradley Zimmer can be the full time centerfielder.

The Detroit Tigers find themselves just 3 1/2 games out of 1st place and their bullpen has been terrible. While the offense is still potent even though it’s getting older. Detroit put up 15 runs in Friday nights win, but the bullpen has hurt them. Francisco Rodriquez has been bad; he’s 2-5 with 7 saves an and E.R.A. of 7.79. Rodriquez was moved out of the closers role and has only pitched 2 innings in the last 13 days. Right now the closers job looks to be a combination of Justin Wilson and Alex Wilson unless a deal is made for someone.

The A.L. West is turning into a one team race as the Houston Astros have pulled out to a 12 1/2 game lead in the division. The Astros spent quite some time rebuilding the franchise, but this off season they added the veteran pieces they thought they needed. The question the Astros might have is do they need a back of the rotation starter. Charlie Morton, Joe Musgrove and Mike Fiers all have E.R.A.;s over 4.00; so there could be an upgrade there if that’s a move they want to make. Houston is another team with a top rated minor league system and they could easily make a move for a back of the rotation type of starter.

There’s a little bit of a look at where we are right now in the baseball season. Who do you think will be the first contender to make a trade?

Listen to Sports Time Radio on BloTalkRadio.com or listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 31, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Stanley Cup finals started on Monday as the Pittsburgh Penguins hosted the Nashville Predators in game 1. This was the first time in team history that Nashville has been to a Stanley Cup finals and you have to wonder if maybe there was some nerves early on. Pittsburgh jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the 1st period. Evgeni Malkin got the first goal for the Penguins. Connor Sheary scored Pittsburgh’s second goal while Nick Bonino added the third goal. Sidney Crosby assisted on two of the three goals.

With a 3-0 lead heading into the 2nd period it looked as though the Penguins would cruise to an easy victory. The Predators and the game really settled down in the 2nd period. Ryan Ellis scored the only goal of the period for Nashville to make it a 3-1 game. P.K. Subban and Mike Fischer assisted on the goal.

Nashville had been playing as good if not better than every other team in this years playoffs, but you have to wonder if they had out themselves in to big of a whole against a top offensive team like Pittsburgh.

The Predators made it a one goal game when Colton Sissons scored on the power play. Then Nashville evened things up at 3-3 when Fredrick Gaudreau scored. It was a tie game for a little over three minutes before Jake Guentzel score for the Penguins to make it 4-3. Nick Bonino scored his second goal of the game into an empty net to  seal a Game 1 5-3 win for the Penguins.

A game that started off looking like a blow out turn out to be a very close contest. The offensive minded Penguins managed just 12 shots on Pekka Rinne in the game. Even though they picked up the win you have to think that the Penguins will have to find a way to generate more scoring chances as the series moves forward. Now Nashville did get 26 shots on Matt Murray; so they have to be happy with the shot total they had. You look back at the game and you have to wonder if the Predators had just gotten off to a better start things may have been different.

Game 2 is tonight in Pittsburgh. I don’t think you can say this is any type of must win for Nashville. I’m sure they’d love to get a win on the road, but even if they go down 2 games they’re headed back home for Game 3 on Saturday night and then Game 4 on Monday night. To win the Stanley Cup Nashville will have to win a game in Pittsburgh; so maybe Game 2 could be that game. Will find out tonight.

Now the Washington Capitals where the best team during the NHL regular season, but where eliminated from the playoffs by the Penguins in the 2nd round. That of course has brought up some questions about a team that has won the President’s trophy in back to back seasons.

Would the Capitals make changes? Washington’s General Manager Brian MacLellan address what the team would be looking to do this off season on Tuesday. MacLellan explained that he’d look to “tweak and retool on the fly rather than overhauling the roster”.

There have been some rumors that the Capitals may look to trade Alexander Ovechkin or All-Star center Nicholas Backstrom. Neither of those deals look to be happening. The Capitals aren’t even looking to make a coaching change. Barry Trotz will be back behind the Washington bench at the start of next season. 2017-18 is the last year of Trotz’s contract; so maybe we’ll see a coaching change after that.

Now there are some big decisions that Washington will have to make this off season. Wingers T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams along with defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and Karl Alzner are unrestricted free agents. The Capitals also have four of their young players Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Andre Burakovsky and Nate Schmidt as restricted free agents. The restricted free agents usually take priority and all four of those will be looking for raises. Since the NHL’s salary ca[ isn’t expected to move much from the $73 million dollar figure that it’s at Washington might be making some changes by default. The Capitals will have to figure out who stays and who goes as well as the possibility of losing a player to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.

Will the Capitals bring enough players back to win the President’s trophy for a third season in a row? Or better yet will they find some success in the playoffs for the first time with Alex Ovechkin.

Albert Pujols should make the baseball Hall of Fame the first year his name is on the ballot. Pujols was the best player in baseball when he was with the St. Louis Cardinals and while he hasn’t quite been the same player since signing with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Pujols is on the brink of hitting his 600th career home run. Pujols hit home run #599 in the Angels 9-3 win over the Atlanta Braves last night. You have to figure #600 won’t be far behind. Remember just three year ago to get to the 500 home run mark Pujols hit #499 and #500 in the same game in Washington. While that didn’t happen last night; he does just need one more home run to get to that 600 total. When Pujols hits that 600th home run he’ll be the 9th player in baseball history to reach that total. Now remember Pujols is signed through the year 2022 with the Angels; so there’s a chance if he stays healthy that he’ll actually get to the 700 home run plateau. If he did get tp that 700 number Pujols would be just one of four players to reach that number.

While Pujols might not be the player he use to be he still has a resume that should get him easily into Cooperstown. Pujols was Rookie of the Year in 2001. He’s won three M.V.P. awards 2005, 2008 and 2009. He’s also finished 2nd in the M.V.P. voting four times and 3rd once. Pujols is a 10-time All-Star, has won 2 Gold Gloves and 6 Silver Slugger awards. He’s also a .308 career hitter who won the N.L. batting title in 2003.

Do that look Hall of Fame worthy to you?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can find the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget that I’m on Twitter @Burketime

 

How was your week

Posted: May 27, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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With the Major League Baseball season not even 50 games old can you really look at the National League East and wonder if there’s another team in the division that’s going to challenge the Washington Nationals for the division title. The Nationals are the only team over .500 in the N.L. East at 29-18 and have a 7 1/2 game lead over the 2nd place Atlanta Braves. Now if I had to guess I’d say that most people picked the Nationals to win the division before the season started, but did anyone think they’d make it look this easy.

Now there where people who liked the New York Mets to challenge the Nationals at the top of the division and even contend for a wild card spot. Well the Mets have had more injuries to their top players than any other team in baseball. They’re without starting pitchers Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard. Add pitchers Seth Lugo, Tommy Milone and closer Jeurys Familia to the injury list. Don’t forget that Yoenis Cespedes hasn’t played since April 27th. Brandon Nimmo is also part of the injury list and David Wright hasn’t played a game this season and may not play one in 2017. Not to mention the Matt Harvey drama a few weeks back where he ended up getting suspended for three games. The Mets are currently 20-26 and in 3rd place in the division, but it doesn’t look like their year.

Now the Braves are in 2nd place at 21-25, but I don’t think anyone sees them as a contender just yet. The plan all along for the Braves was to be ready to contend by the time their new ballpark opened. Atlanta isn’t quite there yet, but they added some veterans in the off season to help them out. Sean Rodriguez was signed as a free agent, but was injured in and automobile accident before the season started and may miss all of 2017. The Braves ended up making a trade for Brandon Phillips to play 2nd base. The Braves also have some young pitching prospects who aren’t quite ready for the majors. So instead for forcing these young pitchers into the majors they signed Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey as free agent s and the traded for Jaime Garcia to hold down the rotation until their young pitchers are ready. Now while the Braves maybe improved from last season I don’t think they’ll be challenging the Nationals for 1st place.

The Miami Marlins are currently in 4th place in the N.L. East with a record of 17-29, but are 11 1/2 games out of 1st place. I don’t think anyone believed that Miami would contend this season as they had to find a way to replace staff ace Jose Fernandez. The Marlins brought in veteran starters Dan Straily and Edison Volquez to help out. Straily has been solid in his 10 starts so far going 3-3 with an E.R.A. of 3.83. Volquez however has really struggled going 0-7 in his 9 starts with an E.R.A. of 4.85. Wei-Yin Chen who was brought in a couple of seasons ago as a free agent to help the rotation has battled injuries all season and has made just 5 starts. Chen is 2-1 with a 4.33 E.R.A over 27 innings in 2017. I don’t think the Marlins will be making a run at the Nationals.

Now there where some people who thought that the Philadelphia Phillies could be the surprise team of the N.L. East, but they’re off to a 16-30 start and our in last place 12 1/2 games out of 1st place. Now the Phillies are still in rebuild mode, but the fact that Odubel Herrera and Maikel Franco are off to terrible starts. Herrera is hitting .227 while Franco is hitting .215.Jeremy Hellickson was brought back to help anchor a young staff and while he has a good record at 5-2 his E.R.A. is high at 4.28. Hellickson actually has the lowest E.R.A. of all the Phillies starters; so giving up runs is an issue for this young staff. While some people thought that Philadelphia could play .500 baseball this season, they’re going to have their work cut out for them to get back to that point and they won’t be pushing Washington at the top of the division.

Now the Houston Astros actually have a bigger division lead in the American League West at 9 games than the Nationals do, but it looks as though there are teams in the A.L. West that could get back into the division race and even though they might not end up challenging the Astros for 1st place they’ll at least have a winning record. After looking at the teams in the N.L. East do one of them look like they’ll get on a run and get themselves back into the pennant race?

The Stanley Cup finals starts on Monday as the Pittsburgh Penguins host the Nashville Predators in Game 1. While Nashville was the 2nd wild card in the Western Conference and the last team to qualify for the playoffs they’ve been playing better than any other team in the playoffs. The Penguins scored 111 regular season points; second only to the Washington Capitals who the Penguins beat in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Now Nashville is looking to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in the teams history. The Penguins are looking to be the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998 to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.

These two teams split their two games against each other this season, with each one winning game. The Predators beat the Penguins 5-1 on October 22nd and the Penguins evened things up with a 4-2 victory on January 31st.

Now both teams are battling injuries coming into this series. Nashville is hoping that center Mike Fischer will be able to be ready for the start of the Cup finals. Fischer has been out since Game 4 of the Western Conference finals when he went took a knee to the head from Anaheim’s Josh Manson. The Predators will also be without forward Kevin Fiala who broke his femur in the 2nd round and is done for the playoffs. It appears as though the Penguins will have to play another series without their best defenseman Kris Letang. Letang has a neck injury and hasn’t played a playoff series for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh defenseman Justin Schultz is playing through an upper-body injury and should be good to go for Game 1, but it’s uncertain if defenseman Chad Ruhwedel who is recovering from a concussion will be available.

Heading into the finals you have to think that the Predators hold the advantage in goal even against a strong Pittsburgh offense. Pekka Rinne has played all 16 games and is leading all goalies who have started more than five games this postseason with a .941 save percentage. The Penguins have used a combination of Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray in goal. Fleury stepped in for Murray after the latter was injured in warm ups before the first game of the playoffs and carried the Penguins at times; especially against the Capitals in the conference semifinals. Since regaining his starting job in Game 4 of the conference finals, Murray has been outstanding for the Penguins, posting a .946 save percentage in four starts.

On the Friday edition of Sports Time Radio Dan the Man picked the Predators to win this series. Now him and I have a bet; so I have the Penguins to win. The loser of the bet has to buy the winner a t-shirt with the players names listed on the back if there team wins. Dan went with the Penguins last season and as you know won that bet. Can Dan go back to back?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can find the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 24, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Matt Harvey of the New York Mets made his first start at home since his suspension last night. Harvey worked a clean 1st inning getting a strikeout, a pop to shortstop and a fly out to leftfield. Then Harvey’s Mets teammates went out and put up seven runs in the bottom of the 1st inning which hopefully helped him relax. Harvey pitched 5 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits while walking 4 and striking out 6. Harvey did pick up the win to even his 2017 record at 3-3. Harvey threw 103 pitches in this his 9th start of the season. The win was Harvey’s first since April 11th, but he hasn’t pitched more than 5 1/3rd innings in his last 5 starts.

Now this is Harvey’s 5th major league season. He’s made 91 career starts and has a record of 32-31 with an E.R.A. of 3.16. Now remember just a couple of seasons ago Harvey was going to lead the Mets pitching staff to regular playoff appearance. The Mets did make it to the World Series losing to the Kansas City Royals in 2015. Now the talk has turned to is it time for the Mets to try and trade Harvey.

Harvey is just 28 years old and you have to wonder what the market would be for a pitcher who has been injured and struggled like Harvey has the last two seasons. Harvey made just 17 starts in 2016 and was 4-10 with an E.R.A. of 4.86. Would a contender be interested in maybe adding a pitcher like Harvey to the back of their rotation? and would a change of scenery do him good? It’s still a little too early for teams to jump into the trade market; so the Mets should have some more starts to evaluate Harvey and decide if he could be a trade candidate. Of course with the injuries the Mets are dealing with in their starting rotation they might need to hang on to Harvey just for the innings.

Jacob DeGrom and Harvey have made 9 starts for the Mets while Zack Wheeler who missed two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery has made 8 starts. Robert Gsellman has made 7 starts, Noah Syndergaard has made 5 starts while Tommy Milone has made 3 starts. The Mets also got single starts from Adam Wilk and Rafael Montero. Steven Matz has not made a start this season for the Mets do to injury. Matz was schedule to make a rehab start yesterday and if all things went well could be activated from the disabled list to make a start this weekend. Syndergaard is on the 60-day disabled list and isn’t expected to return until after the All-Star break.

Could these injuries to the starting staff lessen the chance that the Mets would trade Harvey or do you think there’s a chance that Harvey is wearing a different uniform this season?

Now everyone likes to talk about prospects in baseball and it can be integral to your fantasy baseball success. So in case you didn’t hear the Boston Red Sox are calling up their top prospects 1st baseman Sam Travis. Travis is 23 years old, but was having a great start to his Triple-A season at Pawtucket. Travis is coming back from a knee injury that limited him to just 47 games in 2016. In 33 games at Pawtucket Travis is hitting. 286 with 4 home runs and 14 RBI’s Travis’ OPS is .805 and he has 9 doubles. Travis recently was rated as the Red Sox’s 4th best prospect and the #98 prospect in baseball by ESPN’s Keith Law.

It will be interesting to see how the Red Sox handle Travis’ playing time. Travis has been exclusively a first baseman throughout his minor league career, but the Red Sox have gotten good production out of their current 1st baseman Mitch Moreland. Moreland is leading the American League in doubles with 16 and has hit 5 home runs while driving in 23 runs. Moreland was signed to a 1 year $5 million dollar deal this past off season. Now the original plan for Moreland was for him to play 1st base against right handed pitching and then move Hanley Ramirez to 1st base against left handed pitching, but Ramirez has played only three innings at first base because of soreness in his right shoulder.

With Travis being called up you’d have to think that the Red Sox would want him to get regular at bats, but who loses the at bats Moreland or Ramirez? Moreland can play the corner outfield spots; so he might be able to get some at bats there, but Ramirez is limited to just 1st base or DH. If Ramirez’s shoulder is still an issue maybe he’s headed for the disabled list, but will have to wait and see how the Red Sox handle who gets the at bats.

The Ottawa Senators picked up a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals to force a Game 7 on Thursday night.

After a scoreless 1st period the Penguins got the first goal of the game at 4:51 of the 2nd period when Ian Cole and Scott Wilson assisted on Evgeni Malkin’s goal. At 13:15 of the 2nd period the Senators got even on a 5 on 3 power play as Bobby Ryan scored to tie the game at 1-1. Ryan was assisted by Erik Karlsson and Kyle Turris. The Senators went to the lead early in the 3rd period when Mike Hoffman scored at 1:34 of the period to give the Senators a 2-1 lead. Fredrik Claesson and Clarke MacArthur assisted on what turned out to be Hoffman’s game winning goal.

Craig Anderson had struggled in goal the last couple of games for the Senators including being pulled from the net after giving up 4 1st period goals in Game 5. Anderson looked like a completely different goaltender in Game 6 as he stopped 45 of the 46 Pittsburgh shots he faced. Matt Murray got the start in goal for the Penguins again and played well. Murray stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced.

Pittsburgh will host Game 7 tomorrow night as the Nashville Predators sit and wait for the winner of this series. The Predators eliminated the Anaheim Ducks in six games in the Western Conference finals. Nashville won Game 6 by a 6-3 score and took the series four games to two.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can find the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget I’m on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 17, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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It’s not real surprise that the Golden State Warriors took a 2-0 lead last night over the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals. I think just about everyone who knows anything about basketball understands that San Antonio should’ve won Game 1, but Zaza Pachulia took care of that by taking out Kawhi Leonard on a dirty play. Don’t buy what you hear from the Golden State side; it was a clear cut attempt to take Leonard out. There’s a reason why the NBA cracked down on the move Pachulia used to take Leonard out with a few seasons ago. Now if you’re wondering why there was no action taken by the NBA after this incident. If you’ve seen any commercial for the NBA I’m sure you’ve notice that the majority of them feature the Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers; so it’s very, very clear who the NBA and the stations that carry the games want in the finals. No matter what kind of fight the Spurs or the Boston Celtics in the Conference finals we’re going to see the Warriors and the Cavaliers for the third year in a row.

Last night Golden State cruised to a 136-100 win in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. Golden State had a 17 point lead after the 1st quarter and that was pretty much the story. San Antonio never really got back into the game and where outscored by the Warriors in every quarter. Stephen Curry made six of the nine 3-pointers he shoot and was 8 for 13 from the field overall as he scored a 29 points in only 31 minutes of game action. four of the five Golden State starters scored in double digits and Golden State even had three players off the bench score in double figures. As for Pachulia; well with Leonard sitting out the game there was no real need for him. Pachulia did start, but played just seven minutes; scoring four points.

Jonathan Simmons got the start in place of Leonard and led the Spurs in scoring with 22 points. Only one other San Antonio player scored in double figures. Davis Bertans came off the San Antonio bench to score 13 points. With the game out of hand earlier the Spurs managed their players minutes as no San Antonio played logged more than 27 minutes in Game 2.

The teams will get a extra day of rest as the series moves to San Antonio for Games 3 & 4. Game 3 is Saturday night and is being shown on ESPN.

Now if you’re looking for a basketball game to watch tonight believe it or not Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals is on. Yes it’s true the Eastern Conference finals are finally starting. It took so long to get to this point that I’m guessing most people don’t remember that Boston is the #1 seed; so the series opens up in Boston tonight. The Cavaliers haven’t played a game since May 7th when they swept the Toronto Raptors out of the playoffs winning four straight.

So who do you think has the advantage in Game 1? The Celtics coming off of a seven game series or the Cavaliers; who have been resting and practicing for 10 days.

While we are just about 40 games or so into baseball’s regular season and it’s tough to make a call on just about every team it’s still fun when rivals meet in a series. This week we’ve had the Los Angeles Dodgers visiting the San Francisco Giants. The Giants record isn’t where anyone thought it would be right now at 17-24, but they’ve managed to take the first two games in this series. San Francisco won Game 1 by four runs 8-4 and last night they won a 2- pitchers duel. It’s an afternoon game for these two teams today and the pitching match is Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers and Johnny Cueto for the Giants. Kershaw is 6-2 with a 2.43 E.R.A. while Cueto is 4-2 with an E.R.A. of 4.15. The Dodgers have lost 3 games in a row and are currently in 3rd place in the N.L. West 3 games behind the division leading Colorado Rockies. San Francisco comes into this afternoons game on a five game winning streak. The Giants are in 4th place in the N.L. West and are 8 1/2 games behind the 1st place Rockies.

Will we get a pitchers duel out of these two aces? Or will one or maybe both of them struggle in this outing? I’d expect a low scoring game, but you never do know.

While the Giants are on a good winning streak; it’s the Texas Rangers who currently have the longest winning streak in baseball with seven wins in a row. Now the Rangers got off to such a bad start that this seven game winning streak has just gotten them back to .500. The Rangers are currently 8 games behind the Houston Astros in the A.L. West, but they have plenty of time to get themselves back into the division race, but can they? With Cole Hamels on the disabled list the Rangers are really leaning on Yu Darvish at the top of the rotation. After Darvish though they’re just kind of piecing it together. It’s the oft injured Andrew Cashner and A.J. Griffin after Darvish and then there’s Martin Perez and Nick Martinez mixed into the rotation. Once Hamels returns to the rotation the Rangers will have to solid guys at the top and that puts the rest of the rotation in better match ups, but it looks like Hamels is going to be out about 6 more weeks. It appears that Matt Bush has taken over the closer role. Bush is four out of five in save chances and has an E.R.A. of 1.23 in 14 games. Bush was taken with the #1 overall pick in the 2004 draft by the San Diego Padres. Bush has had numerous personal and legal problems though his career, but hasn’t had an issue since 2012. Bush took over the closer role from Sam Dyson. Dyson blew all three of the save opportunities he had before going on the disabled list. Since returning Dyson has been used in a set up role.

Do you see the Rangers challenging the Astros for the division title? Or maybe a wild card spot?

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can find the podcast on TuneIn.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: May 6, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, horse racing, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Joey Logano picked up his first win of the of the NASCAR season as he won last Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Speedway, but the win will not count towards the post season for Logano and his #22 team. On Thursday NASCAR issued an L1 level penalty to Team Penske’s No. 22 team for a rear suspension violation discovered during teardown. The penalty carries multiple consequences, which includes making  Logano’s win at Richmond on Sunday encumbered. What the encumbered win means is that Logano cannot use the Richmond win as consideration for an automatic playoff spot. Should Logano still make the postseason, the five playoff points that come with a victory would not apply for Richmond. The official race record will still list Logano as the winner. Additional penalties are a $50,000 fine and two-race suspension for crew chief Todd Gordon, and the loss of 25 driver points and 25 owner points. Team Penske announced it would not appeal the penalties.

There was also a penalty accessed to Richmond 3rd place finisher Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing #11 team, but it was nowhere near as stiff as Logano’s. During a post race check Hamlin’s car was found to have a unsecured lug nut on one of the tires. Hamlin’s crew chief Mike Wheeler was handed a $10,000 fine after one lug nut was found to be improperly secured.

Tomorrow the Monster Energy NASCAR series has the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Talladega is a restrictor plate race; so that has to bring everyone to the thought of this race being the one that the retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. can get a win a qualify for “The Chase”. Earnhardt Jr. is still one of the best if not the best restrictor plate racer in the Monster Energy Series and he’s always a good choice to win at Talladega, but he didn’t have a great practice session yesterday; so we’ll have to see how he does in qualifying today.

While we’re on the subject of racing; the race for the triple crown starts with the running of the 143rd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs today. The favorite to win right now is Classic Empire who has 4-1 odds and is being ridden by Julien R. Leparoux. There are also two horses who’s odds are close to Classic Empire’s at 5-1. You can get McCracken or Always Dreaming at those 5-1 odds. Irish War Cry is the only other horse with betting odds under 15-1 as he’s currently at 6-1. So betting wise it looks as though it’s a four horse race.

Now I’ll be the first to tell you I know absolutely nothing about horse racing or how to bet on it, but I’m picking Girvin to win today. Girvin is currently at 15-1 odds and is being ridden by Mike E. Smith. Girvin will start the race out of gate #7 and let’s face it; how can I not pick a horse who’s named after former NBA star George Gervin.

The Baltimore Orioles won their game Friday night 4-2 over the Chicago White Sox, but when it came time to close the game out the Orioles where without closer Zach Britton who wasn’t in their bullpen last night. Not Britton was just activated from the disabled list on Tuesday. Britton went on the disabled list on April 18th with left forearm strain and it appears as though Britton may have had a recurrence of the injury. Britton did pitch a scoreless inning Tuesday night and then again Thursday night, but was unavailable last night due to the injury flare up. Britton underwent an MRI on his pitching arm and Baltimore’s manager Buck Showalter said “There’s some talk about the next step to take with him.” Brad Brach assumed the closer role for the Orioles last night just like he did when Britton was on the disabled list. Brach entered Friday nights game with a three run lead and got the save despite allowing a run on two hits to the White Sox in the 9th inning.

With an odd set of circumstances behind it the Orioles lost their starting pitcher in last nights game after he record two outs. Wade Miley made the start for the Orioles against the White Sox last night and threw just 12 pitches as he was hit by line drives off the bats of consecutive White Sox hitters. Miley gave up three hits, but no runs in what was the shortest start of his career at 2/3rd on an inning. Miley left the game with what the Orioles are calling a left wrist contusion. White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu was the first player to hit Miley with a line drive as he hit a ball that caught Miley on his pitching hand. Baltimore’s trainer came out and examined Miley, but Miley convinced him that he was okay and was allowed to stay in the game. Then two pitches last White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia hit a liner back up the middle that caught Miley in the back of his left leg. Miley walked off the field under his own power as Gabriel Ynoa came out of the Orioles bullpen to retire the side with no runs being allowed. It was reported that the baseball Abreu hit had an exit velocity of 103 m.p.h. while the baseball Garcia hit was clocked at 102 m.p.h.

Now I played a lot of baseball growing up and now I watch way too much baseball and I’ve never seen a pitcher get hit in consecutive at bats like that. Please leave me a comment and let me know if you every seen this happen in a baseball game.

There was another odd set of pitcher injuries last night in the Seattle Mariners/Texas Rangers game. In the 11th inning of what turned out to be a 3-1 Texas win in 13 innings the Mariners lost two pitchers to injury on consecutive batters. Jean Machi was removed from the game with two outs in the Top of the 11th after walking Carlos Gomez. Evan Marshall came out of the Seattle bullpen and was given all the time he needed to warm up since Machi left the game do to an injury. On the second pitch Marshall threw to the Rangers Joey Gallo he screamed in pain grabbed the back of his right leg and went down. Marshall ended up having to be helped off the field and was diagnosed with a hamstring injury. Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters after the game that Machi had a nerve issue in his right thumb that made it difficult to feel the baseball.

Now there have been a ton of pitcher injuries early this season, but these are two of the oddest set of injuries I’ve ever seen.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or find the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

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

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 3, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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So we’re a month into the 2017 baseball season. Are you concerned with the way your favorite team started off? Neither World Series team from 2016; the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians are both just over .500 at 14-12 while the Houston Astros are off to the best start at 18-9. Now I’m a big advocate of panicking after the first month of the season, but there are people out there who do. Of course everyone wants their favorite team to get off to a good start, but not every team in baseball can get off to that good start. It’s kind of the same thing with players stats. Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals is off to a good start this season, but I don’t think he’ll hit .419 all season long. On the other side Curtis Granderson of the New York Mets is hitting just .122 after the first month of the season. Maybe it will end up being a down year for Granderson, but do you really think he’ll hit .122 all season long? Or will we see him end up right around his career batting average of .253. I know it’s fun to talk about it, but when it comes to rooting for a team or a player you have to be able to handle the highs with the lows. I get that’s easier said than done and it does take some time to be able to do that, but it’s a long, long season and things always seem to even out.

What I am finding interesting to watch is can the players who had down years in 2016, but have had good starts to the 2017 season keep it up. Jason Heyward go a big free agent deal with the Chicago Cubs before the 2016 season and then went out and hit .230 with 7 home runs and 49 RBI’s. Heyward has started off 2017 hitting .261 through 25 games with 3 homers and 16 RBI’s. How about Zack Greinke. He also got a big free agent deal from the Arizona Diamondbacks and while he did have a winning record at 13-7 his E.R.A. was 4.37. That’s the highest it’s been since his second year in baseball. Greinke had one complete game shutout in 2016, but was limited to 26 starts due to injury. Greinke has made 6 starts in 2017; he’s 2-2 with an E.R.A. of 3.19 and he already has one complete game. Jordan Zimmerman is another pitcher who signed a big time free agent deal before the 2016 season. Zimmerman switched leagues signing with the Detroit Tigers, but was limited to 19 games (18 starts) in 2016 due to injury. Zimmerman was 9-7 with a 4.87 E.R.A. Now in five 2017 starts Zimmerman’s E.R.A. is still quite high at 6.18, but he’s 3-1 on the season. I mentioned Ryan Zimmerman in the paragraph above, but you might not remember that Zimmerman hit .218 with 15 home runs and 46 RBI’s in 115 games in 2016. In 25 games this season Zimmerman is hitting .419 with 11 home runs and 29 RBI’s.

What do you think will we see these players continue to play well this season or will they have a relapse or revert to what happened to them in 2016? Better yet; did you take a chance on one of these players in your fantasy league this season? If you happened to they might be paying some big dividends early in the 2017 season.

I’m sure by now you’ve know about the death of Boston Celtics superstar Isaiah Thomas’ sister Chyna back on April 15th. Well last night the Celtics played Game 2 of their second round playoff series against the Washington Wizards on what would’ve been Chyna’s 23rd birthday. Now the Celtics did go on to win the game 129-119 in overtime to go up 2 games to none in the series. Now Thomas who was dealing not only with the recent loss of his sister also had oral surgery on Monday to fix the tooth he lost in Sunday’s Game 1 win. With all of this going on in Thomas personal life he still went out and scored 53 points in the Boston victory. Thomas played 45 minutes in the Game 2 win. He shot 18 of 33 from the field including 5 of 12 from behind the 3-point line. Thomas made 12 of the 13 free throws he shot as well. Thomas also had 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals with just 2 turnovers in Game 2. When Thomas was on the floor the Celtics where a +10 in the game. Unlike their first round series the Celtics won both of their home games to start round 2. The series will now move to Washington for game 3 & 4 with Game 3 being played on Thursday night.

With the draft over teams have to start looking at free agents to fill the needs they still have. The Denver Broncos hope they filled one of their holes yesterday when they signed running back Jamal Charles for one year. The deal could be worth up to $3.75 million dollars. Charles has spent his entire nine year NFL career with the Broncos AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs. Charles has played in just 8 games total the last two seasons due to injury, but for his career he has gained 7260 yards with 43 touchdowns while averaging 5.5 yards per carry. Charles has played in 103 career games and has five 100 yard seasons to his credit. His best season was 2012 when he gained 1509 yards. Charles is also a receiving threat out of the backfield. In his career he has 285 receptions and 20 receiving touchdowns. In 2013 Charles caught a career high 70 passes.

Charles will join a Broncos backfield where Devin Booker was the leading rusher with 612 yards in 2016. The Broncos would also like to see C.J. Anderson return from injury. Denver also used a 6th round draft pick on De’Angelo Henderson a running back out of Coastal Carolina.

We spent quite a bit of time on the Tuesday edition of Sports Time Radio talking about Sidney Crosby and the hit that gave him a concussion; so I don’t want to go into that again. You can find that podcast on TuneIn.com if you’d like to get Dan the Man and mines take on the situation. It seems as though the series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals is the marquee NHL playoff match up, but sooner or later people may need to start paying attention to the Nashville Predators. The Predators swept the #1 seeded Chicago Blackhawks out of the 1st round of the playoffs and last night they beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1 to take a 3 games to 1 lead in that series. The Predators/Blues series is the only one that has played four games and all of the other series are at 2 games to 1 with to Game 4 being played tonight. The Capitals are at the Penguins and the Anaheim Ducks are at the Edmonton Oilers. Pittsburgh and Edmonton have the lead in those series. The other Game 4 is Thursday night as the New York Rangers hosting the Ottawa Senators with the Senators ahead in that series.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio live on BlogTalkRadio.com or listen to the podcast anytime you want at TuneIn.com

I’m on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 26, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, hockey, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

I was caught off guard yesterday by the news that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be retiring at the end of this NASCAR season. Earnhardt Jr. missed the last 18 races of the 2016 season with concussion like symptoms, but was medically cleared to return to racing this season. Even though Earnhardt Jr. missed pretty much the entire second half of the 2016 season he still won Most Popular Driver as voted by the National Motorsports Press Association. It was the 14th year in a row that Earnhardt Jr. had won that award. Career wise Earnhardt Jr. won 26 races and 9 exhibition races; he is also one of only eight drivers to have won the Daytona 500 two or more times. Earnhardt Jr. won his first Daytona 500 in 2004 and then 10 years later in 2014 he won the race again. Earnhardt Jr. was actually leading this years Daytona 500 when he got caught up in a wreck. He ended up finishing 37th.

Even though he won’t be behind the wheel any more don’t expect Earnhardt Jr. to be too far away from the race track. He still co-owns JR Motorsports which is involved in the NASCAR Xfinity and truck series.

It’s been a slow start to the 2017 season for Earnhardt Jr. His best finish was a 5th place at Texas Motor Speedway on April 9th. That’s been his only Top 10 finish so far this season, but there are 28 races left this season. It would be nice to see Earnhardt Jr. get himself into The Chase and have a chance to win a championship in his final season.

Dustin Pedroia has missed the last two Boston Red Sox games after Manny Machado slide into and past 2nd base spiking Pedroia in the calf area. There was some swelling in the area that caused Pedrioa to sit out the final two games of that series against the Baltimore Orioles. There where reports that Machado reached out to Pedroia via text message and apologized for the incident and it appeared that the two players had worked things out between themselves.

On Saturday there was no attempt made by the Red Sox to retaliate on behalf of Pedroia and it looked like everything was put in the past. Then in the final game of the series on Sunday Machado came up to bat with Matt Barnes pitching for the Red Sox. The first pitch Barnes threw to Machado was a 90 plus mile an hour fastball behind his head that actually hit Machado’s bat. Barnes was ejected after that pitch and Machado went on to hit a RBI double off Joe Kelly who came in to replace Barnes. After this incident Machado and Pedroia exchanged words while Machado was in the on deck circle and it seemed as though Pedroia was saying that he didn’t ask the Red Sox or in this case Barnes to do that.

Now I would’ve had absolutely no problem at all if the Red Sox would’ve hit Machado as some type of retaliation for his slide into Pedroia, but my issue with this is you don’t go head hunting when you’re doing it. There was a similar incident in the Minnesota Twins/Detroit Tigers series over the weekend and when the Tigers pitcher retaliated he threw at the rear end of the Twins batter. Now that I can deal with, but you can’t go up around or after a guys head when you’re doing this.

Now I was hoping that Major League Baseball would come down on Barnes hard and set an example of what they would do to pitchers who go head hunting, but sadly they choked in a big way. All Barnes got was a 4-game suspension for throwing at someone’s head and he’s appealing that. This is just sad and a huge joke at the hands of Major League Baseball. Barnes should’ve easily gotten double digit games for what he did and to suspend him for just 4 games is laughable. What would’ve been Barnes suspension had he actually hit Machado in the head? Machado would’ve missed multiple games with the concussion he probably would’ve gotten from the pitch had it hit him. Is that what it would’ve of taken for Barnes to get and actual punishment. Major League Baseball truly dropped the (base)ball in this time and I hope it doesn’t take someone getting hit in the head by a pitcher who’s retaliating for one of his players for them to realize that this is a serious issue and it needs a serious suspension.

The 2nd round of the NHL playoffs gets started tonight. The Western Conference series will drop the puck tonight. The teams that knocked out the #1 and #2 seeds in the Western Conference will meet in the 2nd round as the St. Louis Blues host the Nashville Predators in Game 1 of their series. Then the Anaheim Ducks will host the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their 2nd round series. Both of these games can be seen on the NBS Sports Network.

On Thursday the 2nd round in the Eastern Conference gets started. The Ottawa Senators host the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their series. This game will be shown on CNBC. Then a half an hour after the first game starts the series that everyone is talking about gets started as the Washington Capitals host the Pittsburgh Penguins in game 1 of that series.

Now I don’t want to take anything away from the Rangers or the senators as they both won their 1st round series and deserve to be here, but does it seem right that the Capitals and the Penguins are meeting in the 2nd round and not the Conference Finals? Most people thought that the Capitals and the Penguins where the best two teams coming into the playoffs and now they meet in the 2nd round; that just doesn’t seem right to me. I know the NHL re-did their playoff format, but I don’t understand how the teams with the top two points on the season should meet in the 2nd round of the playoffs. I don’t know maybe it’s just me. Feel free to let me know what you think of the NHL playoff seeding for the 2nd round in the comments.

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

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

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