Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: July 8, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball
Tags: , , , ,
0

The Major League baseball All-Star teams where announced this week. You can complain about the starters all you want, but it’s a fan vote and until they change it there’s nothing you can do about it. If you’ve listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know that Mr. Fantasy can’t stand the fan voting.

I thought the American League reserves were close to what I thought they would be with the exception of a couple of players. I thought that Mookie Betts of the Boston Red Sox would be the choice for that team, but they went with Brock Holt. While Betts has better stats and is a full time starter I understand why they choose Holt. Holt has played every position except for pitcher or catcher and since the game “counts” a manager can use that kind of flexibility on his bench. The big surprise to me was the fact that Alex Rodriquez (A-Rod) wasn’t named to the team or even in the final 5 voting. Is there anyone who isn’t surprised by the kind of numbers A-Rod has out up. A-Rod has played in 78 games, he’s hitting .280 with 16 home runs and 47 RBI’s. His OPS Is .892 with an Slugging Percentage of .505 and an On Base Percentage of .387. I can’t even begin to tell you how odd it is that I’m actually writing that A-Rod may have been snubbed as an All-Star this season. Is there a chance that after all of the trouble baseball has had with A-Rod that he was more or less kept off the All-Star team. A-Rod’s teammates  Dellin Betances and  Mark Teixeira were selected as reserves and Brett Gardner is on the Final 5 ballot. You could make a case for Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox being left off the team, but he has a chance to make the team as he is in the Final 5 vote as well. Besides Gardner and Bogaerts, the other 3 players on the Final 5 ballot are Yoenis Cespedes of the Detroit Tigers, Brian Dozier of the Minnesota Twins and Mike Moustakas of the Kansas City Royals. Who do you like out of those 5?

In the National League the Final 5 ballot looks like this. Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeurys Familia of the New York Mets, Carlos Martinez of the St. Louis Cardinals and  Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies. While only 1 of the players will make the N.L. team you could make a case that 4 of them should already be on the team. I’ve heard a lot of people om television complaining that Kershaw wasn’t selected. Kershaw is 5-6 with and ERA of 3.08 and while those are good numbers they’re not as good as the other 2 starters who are on the Final 5 ballot against him. Cueto is 6-5 with a 2.61 ERA and Martinez is 9-3 with an ERA of 2.70. Why the big outrage over Kershaw when Cueto and Martinez have better numbers and no one is complaining that they weren’t named to the team. Looking at the National League team far and away the biggest snub is Tulowitzki. Tulowitzki leads all National League shortstops with a .320 batting average. He’s 4th in home runs with 9, 2nd in RBI’s with 45 and has played in 75 games this season. Jhonny Peralta of the St. Louis Cardinals won the fan vote and Brandon Crawford of the San Francisco Giants was added to the team as a reserve and I think both players belong on the team, but you can’t tell me that Tulowitzki doesn’t. There’s your 5 final ballot National League guys. Who are you voting for?

Who’s the top free agent left on the market in the NBA? Actually it would be LeBron James. James is very busy playing general manager for the Cleveland Cavaliers making sure they sign the players he wants them to sign. Case in point the Cavaliers just signed 32-year-old Williams to a 2-year, $4.3-million contract. Williams played 27 games for the Charlotte Hornets last season. Williams averaged 17.2 points per game and 6 assists per game. Williams did play a little over 30 minutes per game, but don’t expect that out of him for the Cavaliers next season. Tristan Thompson is still trying to work out a deal to return to Cleveland and it’s being reported that James won’t resign with Cleveland until they come to an agreement with Thompson. It had been reported that Cleveland reached an $80 million extension contract deal with Thompson on the first day of free agency, however, the deal fell apart and there has been no update regarding the contract discussions since. There is no other team in the NBA that is going to give Thompson this kind of money; so expect him to resign with the Cavaliers eventually. Don’t forget that Cleveland has already signed Kevin Love to a $110 million contract extension. Additionally, the Cavaliers resigned guard/forward Iman Shumpert for $40 million. When the franchise re-signs James and Thompson as widely expected, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert will be facing a massive luxury tax bill. Don’t forget that J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova are also free agents, but James hasn’t expressed any interest in resigning either player yet. While James has found it very easy to spend owner Dan Gilbert’s money this off season have the moves Cleveland has made moved them any closer to winning an NBA title.

The NBA Champion Golden State Warriors told David Lee and his agent that they would do what they could to trade him. There was even some talk that Golden State would package their 1st round draft pick with Lee in a deal, but that didn’t happen. Yesterday Golden State traded Lee to the Boston Celtics for veteran swingman Gerald Wallace. Lee lost playing time when the Warriors opted to go with smaller lineups that featured more 3-point threats. Lee averaged 7.9 points and 5.2 rebounds in 18.4 minutes last season, his lowest averages since his rookie season. In the 2013-14 season, Lee averaged 18.2 points and 9.3 rebounds while playing 33.2 minutes per game, but Warriors head coach Steve Kerr decided to give the bulk of Lee’s playing time to Draymond Green, who averaged career highs in points (11.7), rebounds (8.2) and assists (3.7) during the Warriors’ title run. Wallace played in 32 games for the Celtics last season. He averaged 1.1 points per game and 1.8 rebounds per game. Wallace hasn’t averaged double digit in points since 2011-12 season when he split time between the New Jersey now Brooklyn Nets and the Portland Trailblazers. Wallace has 1 year left on his contract and will make 10.105.855 for the 2015-16 season. It seems like Boston got the better end of this deal, but Lee didn’t fit into Golden State’s system; so it was better for them to deal him even if they didn’t receive fair market value.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week?

Posted: July 4, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey
Tags: , , , ,
0

A lot of free agent talent has already come off the board early this NBA off season, but there are still some quality players out there that can help your team win next season. Now I’m not talking about players like LeBron James and Marc Gasol who look like they’ll be returning to the teams they played with last season. That would be the Cleveland Cavaliers for James and the Memphis Grizzlies for Gasol. The biggest free agent left appears to be LaMurcus Aldridge. Aldridge has had a couple of meetings with the Los Angeles Lakers; it was reported that the first meeting didn’t go well. Even though Aldridge had those two meetings with the Lakers it seems that the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs have the best shot at signing him. Damian Lillard is doing what he can to get Aldridge to resign with the Portland Trailblazers. Aldridge’s decision will have an effect on what a lot of teams do with their cap space. Once Aldridge makes his decision there will be a bit of a drop off in free agent talent, but there will still be some players that can help teams out there. Tobias Harris is a restricted free agent and he averaged 17 points and six rebounds and is only 22 years old. Restricted free agency might be scaring teams away, which means there’s a chance the Orlando Magic retain him for less than expected. Reggie Jackson showed the potential to be a solid starting point guard late last season. Since he’s a restricted free agent it’s very hard to imagine a scenario in which he leaves the Detroit Pistons. Lou Williams is the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, but has not received heavy interest from any team yet, not even the Toronto Raptors a team for which he scored 15 points per game last season. As soon as the big names are off the market, Williams will appear as a solid player for any team looking for some bench scoring. Kosta Koufos is the odd man out in Memphis now that Brandan Wright is in the fold and as one of the few good big men still available, he could get serious money from one of the teams that fails to land Aldridge. He’s a big body who can defend and every team needs one of those. David West has made it clear he wants to play for a contender and his list reportedly includes the Spurs, Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards. At 34 years of age, he’s still a serviceable player who could help any team he joins but he will likely have to leave a lot of money on the table to land in one of his preferred destinations. Those are just a few of the players who may still be available for teams in free agency once Aldridge signs with a team. While they may not the superstar type of name you’d want your favorite team to sign every team needs those guys to come off the bench, play defense and find other ways to contribute.

Connor McDavid was the #1 overall pick in the NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers. McDavid has been touted as the next great player and some are calling him the next Sidney Crosby or Wayne Gretzky,. Edmonton and McDavid did agreed to terms on his three-year, entry level contract with the Oilers. McDavid’s contract is worth approximately $11.3 million in total; $925,000 per year plus bonuses; the maximum allowed for an entry-level contract. Like all can’t miss prospects will actually have to wait and see how McDavid does against NHL competition before we know if he’s the talent that people think he’ll be. If McDavid is the next Crosby or Gretzky will he be able to lead the Oilers back into Stanely Cup contention?

I was a little surprised to see the St. Louis Blues, trade forward T.J. Oshie to the Washington Capitals in exchange for forward Troy Brouwer, goaltending prospect Pheonix Copley and a third-round pick in the 2016 draft. I think most casual NHL fans remember Oshie as the hero for the United States during their 3-2 shootout victory over Russia during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but he has scored at least 50 points in each of his past three full NHL seasons. Oshie arrives with two years left on his current contract, which carries an average annual value of $4.175 million. Brouwer will attempt to fill Oshie’s role with St. Louis. Brouwer has one year remaining on his deal, worth $3,666,666 per season. A veteran, big-bodied winger with 531 career games and 255 career points, including a Stanley Cup with Chicago in 2010, Brouwer leaves Washington after four seasons with the Capitals. He registered 43 points in both 2013-14 and 2014-15.

The Columbus Blue Jackets took a chance last week acquiring Brandon Saad in a 7 player deal with the Stanley Cuo champion Chicago Blackhawks last week. Saad was a restricted free agent at the time of the deal and any other NHL team could’ve signed him to an offer sheet and there was a chance the Blue Jackets would lose him. Columbus solved that problem signing Saad to a 6 year $36 million dollar deal on Friday. The deal, which carries a $6 million salary-cap hit, will pay Saad $4 million this coming season, followed by $5.75 million in 2016-17, $6.25 million in 2017-18, $6.75 million in 2018-19 and 2019-20 and $6.5 million in 2020-21. Saad has played in 208 NHL games, totaling 52 goals and 74 assists. Last season was his best, with 23 goals, 29 assists and 12 penalty minutes, while playing in all 82 games. He had eight goals and three assists in Chicago’s playoff run.

Maybe the Seattle Mariners are looking to shake things up. It’s being reported that they’re sending pitchers  Roenis Elias, Vidal Nuno, and Tom Wilhelmsen to their Triple-A team in Tacoma with  no corresponding moves. yet. It does appear that Hisashi Iwakuma and David Hollins are about to take 2 of those spots on the Mariners roster. Iwakuma is just about ready to come off of the disabled list while Hollins who was a selection by the Mariners in the 2015 Rule 5 Draft. He has been serving an 80-game PED suspension from Major League Baseball but is now ready to make his debut with the team. If the Mariners do not add him to the 25-man roster, the team will lose him to either waivers or the Houston Astros. That leaves 1 open spot on the Mariners roster. Will they use it to add a hitter like Jesus Montero who is putting up good numbers in Triple-A. The Mariners were thought to be contenders in the A.L. West find themselves 6 games under .500 at 37-43 and 10 games behind the 1st place Astros. Getting Iwakuma back will help, but it might be too little too late for Seattle this season.

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Happy 4th of July

The Cole Hamels Situation

Posted: July 2, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball
Tags: , ,
0

The Philadelphia Phillies are 27-53; 17 games out of 1st place in the N.L. East and are on a 3 game losing streak. Their manager (Ryne Sandberg) resigned and they hired Andy MacPhail to take over as President next season, Even though the season didn’t go anywhere close to how Philadelphia were hoping it would they have the biggest trade piece on the market in Cole Hamels. Ruben Amaro Jr. is the Phillies Senior Vice President and General Manager and let’s face it he’s done a poor job. He’ll be in charge of turning Hamels into something the Phillies can start to build on. Now his demands for not only Hamels, but any other Phillies players have been ridiculous and if he’s left holding the Hamels and some of his others players at the end of the season he’ll be considered the worst General Manager in baseball if he’s not there already. Hamels has started 16 games this season and is 5-6 with a 3.22 ERA.  If the Cincinnati Reds decide to put Johnny Cueto on the trading block he would be comparable to Hamels, but Cueto would be a rent a player guy as he’s a free agent at the end of the season while Hamels is signed through 2018 with an option for 2019. Now where might Hamels end up let’s look and see.

Right off the bat I’m eliminating the entire N.L. East as I doubt the Phillies would deal him to a team in their division. Remember you play the other teams in your division 19 times a season and I’m sure they wouldn’t want to face Hamels multiple times during a season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers. There was talk that these 2 teams had talked trade and the Phillies wanted the top 3 prospects in the Dodgers organization; so those talks went nowhere. Now there is a new book coming out about the Dodgers called The Best Team Money Can Buy by Molly Knight. In this book there is quite a bit of talk about how Yasiel Puig’s teammates don’t like or don’t get along with him. While I don’t think Philadelphia would deal Hamels for Puig straight up and I don;t see the Dodgers adding Corey Seager or Julio Urias would Philadelphia take Puig and 2 or 3 other Dodgers prospect in a deal. The Dodgers could easily cover Puig’s lost with Andre Either. Alex Guerrero and Scott Van Slyke. Don’t forget they also have Carl Crawford; who’s injured right now. Could we see a blockbuster All-Star for All-Star deal?

The New York Yankees. When you think Yankees you don’t normally think prospects, but their farm system is better than you think. Would New York be willing to package Luis Severino, Robert Refsnyder and a few other top prospects together to land Hamels. The Yankees might even be willing to include infielder Jose Pirela as part of a Hamels trade. The Yankees find themselves just 1/2 a game out of 1st place in the A.L. East and they could use starting pitching. Hamels salary is nothing for the Yankees to take on and picking him up in a trade could swing a very close division race their way.

The Toronto Blue Jays. Now most of the trade talk between the Blue Jays and the Phillies has focused on Toronto dealing for Jonathan Papelbon, but there’s no reason they couldn’t decide to make a deal for Hamels instead. A couple of the Blue Jays prospects pitcher Daniel Norris and outfielder Dalton Pompey struggled at the start of the season and were sent down. Would the Blue Jays be willing to move these 2 plus a couple of other prospects to add Hamels to their starting rotation. Toronto is just 1 game out in the A.L. East and while they look like they need bulloen help an big upgrade to the starting rotation might be helpful to the bullpen as well.

The Detroit Tigers. The Tigers find themselves in 3rd place in the A.L. Central 6 games behind the Kansas City Royals. I’m sure thus is a position they didn’t think they would find themselves in. Would the Tigers make a deal for Hamels when they still have to find a way to sign David Price; who’s a free agent after the season. Would Detroit package some of their young arms like Buck Farmer, Austin Kubitza and maybe Kyle Lobstein or even Bruce Rondon in a deal for Hamels. Do the Tigers need to add someone like Hamels or is getting Justin Verlander back from injury enough to get them back in the division race.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels find themselves chasing I guess we can still call them surprising Houston Astros in the A.L. West. I’m not sure if the Angels have the top prospects that Philadelphia would be looking for in a deal for Hamels. Would a collection of Andrew Heany, Sean Newcomb and maybe Natanael Delgado be enough to interest the Phillies in a deal. Would the Angels go as far as adding Matt Shoemaker or possibly even Garrett Richards to a deal to land Hamels.

The Texas Rangers. The Rangers have stayed healthy this season compared to last season and find themselves in 3rd place 6 games behind the 1st place Houston Astros. Starting pitching is a need for the Rangers as they have had 9 different pitchers start games for them this season. Would the Rangers use top prospect Joey Gallo as a chip in a deal for Hamels. Gallo played in 25 games for Texas. He hit .218 with 5 home runs and 13 R.B.I.’s. While Gallo is suppose to be a can’t miss type of prospects would the Rangers be able to add enough to a deal to get Philadelphia to trade them Hamels.

The Chicago Cubs. The Cubs are playing better than the front office had planned this season and have a solid shot at a N.L. wild card slot. I’m not sure if even a deal for Hamels would get the Cubs into the race against the St. Louis Cardinals in the N.L. Central. The Cubs have the prospects to make this deal if they want to. If they packaged Kyle Scwarber and Javier Baez along with a couple of arms say Brian Schlitter and Edwin Jackson would the Phillies make this move. The Cubs are another team who would have no trouble with Hamels salary and he could be the difference between them getting into the playoffs or not.

I left the Houston Astros off my list. They’re in 1st place in the A.L. West and while they do have the prospects the Phillies are looking for in a deal for Hamels I don’t think the Astros will make this move. They’ve been committed to their young players and I think they’ll stay with their plan on how to build their team and not deal their prospects even for Hamels.

@burketime
Sports Time Radio

Let’s Call it Wednesday

Posted: July 1, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey
Tags: , , , ,
0

NBA free agency has started and before it got going all I heard was that everyone was signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. Now the Lakers are a storied franchise, but with the shape the team is in right now why would a high profile free agent want to sign with the Lakers instead of a team that is contending for the title. The 3 big names that I heard come up on signing with the Lakers were Chicago Bulls guard, Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade and Portland Trailblazers center LaMarcus Aldridge. Butler is a restricted free agent; so the Bulls can and plan to match any offer he receives. Butler has already pushed back some meetings with teams as he negotiates with Chicago. I’m not sure what the reasoning was the Butler was going to the Lakers, but maybe his agent leaked that story to try to get some leverage with the Bulls. The theory behind Wade signing with the Lakers was that his wife (Gabrielle Union) is an actress and she’d like to live in California. This rumor has never been addressed

. Wade is looking to get back some of the money he gave up when the Heat brought in Chris Bosh and LeBron James. If Wade did sign with the Lakers would he and Kobe Bryant ever play a game together with their injury history. Aldridge may be the guy who ends up in a Lakers uniform. Aldridge is one of if not the top big man on the free agent market; so there will be many teams interested including the San Antonio Spurs. While I’m sure Los Angeles is a fantastic city to live in; is that reason enough to sign with the Lakers or do you go to San Antonio and contend for an NBA title?

There were 6 signings as free agency got underway.  Al Jefferson signed with the Charlotte Hornets for 1 year at $13.5 million. Roy Hibbert signed with the Indiana Pacers for 1 year at $15.5 million. Brook Lopez signed with the Brooklyn Nets for 3 years at $60 million. Al-Farouq Aminu signed with the Portland Trailblazers for 4 years at $30 million. Thaddeus Young also signed with Brooklyn for 4 years at $50 million and  Kawhi Leonard signed a 5 year $90 million dollar deal to stay with the San Antonio Spurs. Luol Deng also used his player option to stay with the Miami Heat for next season at $10.1 million. 

Besides Butler, Wade and Aldridge there are a couple of other big men who are free agents that should draw some attention. Kevin Love has said that he’d like to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but will LeBron James want him back. Yes I know James is a free agent as well, but he’s looking for the kind of money in a contract that only the Cavaliers can give him. James will pretty much be able to act as the Cavaliers general manager and get them to sign the players he wants until he resigns with them. Then there’s DeAndre Jordan the Los Angeles Clippers have said they’d like him back and have enlisted the help of actor Jamie Foxx to get Jordan to resign there. While the Clippers can give Jordan that extra year and more money than anyone else it still looks like he’ll leave as he wants to be a bigger part of a teams offense. Early in the free agenxy period it looks like the Dallas Mavericks are the front runner to sign Jordan. I don’t know why his name doesn’t come up as much as some of the other free agents is Marc Gasol. Gasol is a true NBA center who can score which is becoming rare in the newer NBA style. You have to think that the Memphis Grizzlies will do everything they can to resign him. You’ll have to keep an eye on the wire as some more free agents will probably come off the board today and we’ll have to see if and when the bigger names sign.

As soon as the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup the talk started on who would be back with the team next season. It started with the minor move of trading back up goaltender Antti Raanta to the New York Rangers for  Ryan Haggerty. The Blackhawks then signed defenseman David Runblad to a 2 year contract. Yesterday the Blackhawks finally made a bigger trade, but the main player dealt might not of been the player people thought it would be. Brandon Saad was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets along with Alex Broadhurst and Michael Paliotta. In return the Blackhawks received  Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano, Jeremy Morin and Corey Tropp plus a 2016 fourth-round draft pick. This may be the first of a few moves the Blackhawks may make to work with the NHL’s salary cap. There has been a lot of talk that Patrick Sharp and Bryan Bickell may be dealt this off season as the Stanley Cup champions get set to defend their title.

The Philadelphia Phillies have hired Andy MacPhail as team President. MacPhail will take over the job next season when current team President Pat Gillick retires. Until that happens MacPhail will serve as a special assistant to Gillick. Obviously with Gillick retiring, the Phillies had to hire someone to take his place, but shouldn’t MacPhail’s first move be to relieve general manager Ruben Amaro of his duties. Ryne Sandberg resigned and  Pete Mackanin will manage the team the rest of the season. Who in their right mind would want this job. You have to think that the Phillies will end up with a first time manager in 2016. There have been a few names mentioned and they would all be first time managers; no surprise there. I wonder how the Philadelphia fans would react to Raul Ibanez, Jim Thome or Pat Burrell being named Phillies manager. Ibanez was a finalist to manage the Tampa Bay Rays last year. Thome joined the Chicago White Sox organization in 2013 as a special assistant to the manager and expressed interest in one day becoming a manager. Burrell hasn’t expressed any interest in managing or this job, but he’s a former Phillies player; so you never know. Maybe the best choice would be David Bell. Bell is currently the bench coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and was formerly the manager for the Triple-A Louisville Bats and the former Double-A Carolina Mudcats in the Cincinnati Reds organization. Philadelphia is currently 27-52 and 17 games behind N.L. East leading Washington Nationals. 

@Burketime

How was your Week?

Posted: June 27, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey
Tags: , , , ,
0

On Thursday Jon Lester pitched for the Chicago Cubs against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Lester only lasted 4 innings, but this isn’t about if he’s worth the money the Cubs are paying him. It’s about how the home plate umpire acted during the game. In the 2nd inning A.J. Ellis was at the plate for the Dodgers with a 2 and 2 count. Lester’s next pitch appeared to be right down the middle of the plate. Ellis took what looked like strike 3, but home plate umpire Andy Fletcher called it a ball. When Cubs catcher David Ross threw the ball back to Lester he caught it in disgust and yelled towards home plate. Lester’s next pitch was close, but clearly a ball and Ellis drew a walk. It’s not uncommon to see a pitcher get into a fight with an umpire during a game. It is uncommon to see an umpire charge the pitcher’s mound during one of those arguments, but that’s exactly what Fletcher did. Ross pretty much had to physically restrain Fletcher as he was trying to get to Lester who was o the pitching mound.  Ross did a good enough job distracting Fletcher; to allow Cubs manager Joe Maddon to make his way out to the field. Maddon was able to take Fletcher’s attention away from Lester, and the two retreated to home plate to argue. Amazingly, no member of the Cubs was ejected during the argument. Lester explained the situation after the game this way. “I didn’t say anything directly to him,” Lester said. “I don’t know why he was so upset. I had my head down when I was yelling. Nothing was directed at him … and I don’t know what was going on. It had nothing to do with the umpire’s strike zone. I have to execute better.”  Ross also added “Andy wanted to make sure [Lester’s reaction] wasn’t directed toward him,” Ross said. “I was making sure [Fletcher] would talk to me and not Jon.” To me Fletcher’s reaction was improper and he needs to be disciplined. Players should be allowed to show that they’re upset with a call an umpire makes and as long as the player has his reaction and gets back to baseball it should be over. Too many times in games today, umpires go way over the line to continue these arguments which of course then lead to players or managers being ejected. This is the first time that I remember a home plate umpire charging the mound like he had been hit by a pitch. Ross had to put his hands on Fletcher to stop him from getting to the mound and Lester. I’ve heard this said quite a few times and I’m going to repeat it. I’m not at the game to see the umpire. 

After his near perfect game in his last start. It was Max Scherzer’s turn in the rotation for the Washington nationals as they were playing the Philadelphia Phillies. Scherezer added another 5 1/3rd perfect innings last night retiring the first 16 Phillies he faced until Freddy Galvis doubled on a 1-1 to the right field wall. While Scherezer  couldn’t match Johnny Vander Meer, who threw two straight no-hitters for the Cincinnati Reds in June 1938, Scherezer has taken a no-hitter into the sixth inning in three straight starts. On a side note; the deepest a pitcher has taken a no-hitter after throwing one in the start before was Nolan Ryan in 1973, when he allowed a hit with no outs in the eighth. Scherezer picked up the vicyory in the Nationals 5-2 win to improve his record to 9-5 on the season. Scherezer pitched 8 innings allowing 5 hits, 2 earned runs while striking out 7 hitters. Scherezer even got a base hit and scored one of the Nationals 5 runs.

There was a streak in major league baseball that came to an end this week and I’m not sure many people even noticed.  Atlanta Braves right fielder Nick Markakis saw his record streak of 398 consecutive games without an error end in the first inning of Thursday’s game against the Washington Nationals. Denard Span singled to right field leading off and Markakis bobbled the ball, allowing Span to take second. Markakis, who signed with Atlanta in the offseason, established the all-time MLB record for consecutive errorless games by a non-pitcher on June 18th; breaking the previous mark of 392, set by Darren Lewis from 1990-94. Markakis had not made an error since on Aug. 10, 2012, while with the Baltimore Orioles.

The NBA Draft was held on Thursday with Karl-Anthony Towns being the 1st player selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Los Angeles Lakers took D’Angelo Russell with the 2nd pick and the Philadelphia 76ers took Jahlil Okafor with the 3rd pick. Now most if not all experts had these 3 players being the first 3 players off the draft board in some order. The New York Knicks had the 4th pick in the draft and took Kristaps Porzingis. Now it was reported that Carmelo Anthony didn’t like this pick and was upset with the Knicks and Phil Jackson There was a report that Anthony was telling a close friend “are we supposed to wait two or three years for this guy?”  A Knicks source claims that Anthony called Tim Hardaway Jr. after Hardaway was traded to Atlanta for the draft rights to Jerian Grant to express his displeasure with Jackson’s moves. Stephen A. Smith said on SiriusXM radio that Anthony feels “betrayed” by Jackson, who last summer signed him to a 5-year, $124 million contract. If I could ask Anthony a question I’d love to know who or what he thought the Knicks could do that would make them contenders. Anthony, who turned 31 on May 29, had season ending knee surgery in February and will be ready by the start of training camp.

The NHL Draft started last night, but I’d have to lie to you to tell you anything about the players who were picked last night. As expected Connor McDavid was the 1st overall pick by the Edmonton Oilers and Jack Eichel was taken 2nd by the Buffalo Sabres as expected. For the first time in NHL history and I believe draft history a team had 3 consecutive 1st round picks. The Boston Bruins ended up having the 13th. 14th and 15th pick in the first round. Boston ended up taking defenseman Jakub Zboril, left winger Jake DeBrusk and right winger Zachary Senyshyn. I’m not sure if we’ll see any of these players in the NHL at the start of next season, but it will give you something to keep an eye on. Just so you know when to start looking for these players the NHL season starts October 7th with 4 games on the schedule.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

How was your Week?

Posted: June 20, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball
Tags: , , , ,
0

The New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers 7-2 last night in New York. In the bottom of the 1st inning Alex Rodriquez (A-Rod) hit his 13th home run to right center field off of Justin Verlander to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. It was the 667th home run of Rodriguez’s career, but more importantly on this night it was his 3000th career hit. With his home run Rodriguez became the 29th player in Major League Baseball history to reach the 3000 hit milestone. Rodriguez is also the 3rd player who’s 3000th hit was a home run; the other 2 are Wade Boggs and A-Rod’s former teammate Derek Jeter. Rodriguez, who will turn 40 next month and is the first player to reach 3,000 hits since Derek Jeter did in July 2011. Compared to the celebration four years ago for Jeter’s accomplishment, there was noticeably less buildup for Rodriguez’s chase of 3000 hits. Rodriguez’s previous admissions of performance-enhancing drug use and season-long suspension in 2014 created a much different feeling. Four years ago, the Tampa Bay Rays applauded in unison for Jeter’s homer; on Friday, the Tigers mostly declined to acknowledge the moment, though a few opponents did tip their caps. After the game’s final out, Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera offered Rodriguez a congratulatory hug. Rodriguez joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray and Rafael Palmeiro as the only players to log both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. Rodriguez, who played seven seasons (1994-2000) in Seattle Mariners and three (2001-03) for the Texas Rangers before collecting 1,465 hits and counting with the Yankees.

Zack Hampie is the fan who caught Rodriguez’s 300th hit and he has told the Yankees that he won’t be giving the ball back. On his Twitter account Hampie posted a picture of the baseball mention that he “Got it authenticated by @MLB” and also said :I’m keeping it”. Hampie elaborated further on why he wouldn’t give the baseball back to Ropdriguez to http://www.NJ.com saying “I think that someone like Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez, who has made half a billion dollars in his career, doesn’t really need a favor from a normal civilian and a fan like me” Hampie went on to say ” I don’t know right now if I’m going to sell it. I mean, depending on what the Yankees could offer, I would consider giving it back. I’m not giving it back for – I don’t plan to give it back for a chance to meet him and fully autographed bats, because I don’t collect bats, I collect baseballs. Just having this baseball is so meaningful to me. I can’t believe that I got it. If you had caught Rodriguez’s 3000th hit; want would you do with the baseball?

Now that Rodriguez has reached the 3000th hit milestone; who’s next on the hit list. Ichiro Suzuki has 2886 career hits; so it looks like he’ll be the next player to get to 3000 hits. After Ichiro it’s Adrian Beltre with 2657 hits, Albert Pujols with 2587 hits, Tori Hunter with 2386 hits and Carlos Beltran rounds out the list with 2373 hits. I would think we’ll see Beltre and Pujols become members of the 3000 hit club before their careers end, but I’m not sure if we’ll see Hunter or Beltran get to 3000. Including Rodriguez these are the Top 6 players in career hits right now; so those 5 players are the closest to 3000 hits.

How do you feel about Rodriguez joining the 3000 hit club? I consider myself a fan of the Seattle Mariners and used to root for him. The Mariners selected Rodriguez with the 1st pick of the 1993 amateur draft. As I mentioned before Rodriguez did miss all of last season because he was suspended for P.E.D. use. While Rodriguez has won a slew of awards and made countless All-Star teams; he’ll also be coming up on 700 home runs very soon. All of these numbers are tainted for me as I always wonder where he’d be if he hadn’t taken P.E.D.’s.

How much more can the Washington Nationals take? Some how the Nationals are just 1/2 game out of the lead in the National League East behind the New York Mets. I’m not sure if any team has had more injuries to key players than the Nationals have. The Nationals season started with Anthony Rendon missing the first 2 plus months of the season along with Jayson Werth missing some time. Denard Span also missed some games at the start of the season. Werth returned played 27 games and then fractured his left wrist and will be out until at least August. While Span has returned to play full time Rendon suffered a set back working his way back and while he has returned he’s been in only 15 games for Washington. 1st baseman Ryan Zimmerman was placed on the 15-day disabled list last week with left foot plantar fasciitis and there is no timetable for hi return. Nate McLouth was going to be the Nationals 4th outfielder, but he hasn’t played a game this season due to injury. McLouth was just moved to the 60-day disabled list as he felt pain in his shoulder earlier in the month while swinging a bat. The pitching staff hasn’t been immune to the injury bug either. Doug Fister is just returned from his injury on June 18th pitching 5 1/3rd innings against Tampa Bay. Fister struck out 3 gave up 9 hits and 5 runs while taking the loss. Steven Strasburg has a left  trapezius strain and has just started a minor league rehab assignment and the Nationals expect him back in the starting rotation by the end of June. Craig Stammen got off to a great start out as a set up man this season. Stammen got in 5 games covering 4 innings and hadn’t given up a run until he had an issue with his forearm. Stammen ended up needing season ending surgery on that forearm. Aaron Barrett was working out of the Nationals bullpen and has appeared in a team high 30 games this season. Barrett ended up on the disabled list this week with a  right biceps strain. There’s no timetable set for Barrett’s return. Then there’s Bryce Harper. Harper hasn’t been placed on the disabled list, but he did suffer a mild left hamstring strain when he slipped on the outfield grass making a throw home. Now this brought out a lot of talk about how baseball handles rain delays and especially the way they remove the tarp. After seeing replays of Harper’s injury I’m not sure the way they removed the tarp had anything to do with Harper getting hurt; it really just looked like he didn’t get good footing making a throw and injured his leg. Even if you’re not a fan of the Nationals or Bryce Harper with the season he’s having you don;t want to see him get hurt. Now if you are a fan of the Nationals can they handle an injury to Harper were he misses time? Being a baseball fan I understand that teams are going to have to deal with injuries, but a lot of those teams weren’t picked to go to and in some cases win the World Series.Can the Nationals live up to those expectations? and will they suffer any more key injuries this season?

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: June 17, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey
Tags: , , , ,
0

On Monday the night the NHL season came to an end as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lighting 2-0 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals to win the series 4 games to 2. Then last night the NBA season came to an end as the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-97 to win that series 4 games to 2.

Golden State pulled out to a 13 point lead after the 1st quarter 28-15. The Cavaliers cut into the Golden State lead in the 2nd quarter going into halftime down just 2 points; 45-43. Golden State stretched their lead to 12 points by the end of the 3rd quarter; 73-61. The Cavaliers did outscore Golden State in the final quarter 36-32, but it wasn’t enough as the Warriors held on for an 8 point victory and their first NBA title since 1975. Andre Iguodala and Stephen Curry led Golden State in scoring with 25 points apiece. The move of Iguodala into the starting line up by Golden State coach Steve Kerr not only help the Warriors win the NBA title, but Iguodala was named finals MVP Iguodala added 5 rebound, 5 assists and 2 steals in Game 6. Draymond Green scored in double figures with 16 points and had a triple double adding 11 rebounds and 10 assists in Game 6. Festus Ezeli and Shaun Livingston came off of the Golden State bench to score 10 points apiece. LeBron James was led the Cavaliers in scoring with 32 points, rebounds with 18 and assists with 9 missing another triple double by just that 1 assists. J.R. Smith added 19 points. Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson had double, doubles for the Cavaliers. Mozgov had 17 points and 12 rebounds while Thompson cored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. In Game 6 Golden State was the better shooting team from the field making 43.5% of their total shots and hit 38.2% from behind the 3-point line. Cleveland made 39.0% of their total shots and 23.1% from behind the 3-point line. Cleveland was the better free throw shooting team making 27 of 39 (69.2%) of their foul shots while Golden State hit 18 of 29 (62.1%) from the foul line. It was quite surprising that the finals M.V.P. went to Iguodala as James was the best player on the floor even in a losing effort. You have to wonder if James coming out yesterday (Tuesday) saying he didn’t want to be named M.V.P. if the Cavaliers lost the series had an affect on the M.V.P. finals voting. James logged a ton of minute in this finals series and he did everything he could to help the Cavaliers win, but with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving missing significant time with injuries it proven that one great player couldn’t carry a team to a title.

On Monday night Duncan Keith scored in the 2nd period to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead and it turned out to be the only goal they would need, but Patrick Kane did add another Chicago goal in the 3rd period to give the Blackhawks a 2 goal lead and get to the score the game ended at 2-0. It was the Blackhawks 3rd Stanley Cup victory in 6 season and Keith won the Conn Smythe trophy given to the outstanding player in the playoffs. Keith became the first defenseman since Bobby Orr in 1972 to score the Stanley Cup winning goal and win the Conn Smythe trophy. Orr actually pulled this feat off twice; he did it in 1970 as well. Corey Crawford came up big for the Blackhawks when they needed him as Tampa Bay had some quality scoring chances and Crawford even stopped Steven Stamkos on a breakaway. The victory tied Crawford with Tony Esposito for career playoff wins by a Blackhawks goalie with 45. It seemed to have been a series where experience triumphed over youth. Throughout the series it seemed as Tampa Bay was the better team and was outplaying the Blackhawks. Chicago never seemed to panic and never found themselves down by more than 1 goal at any time in the series. Actually the 2-0 win by the Blackhawks in Game 4 was the only game decided by more than 1 goal. It was a good time for Kane to come through with his 1st goal of the series.

After their Stanley Cup victory there were a few experts debating on if the Blackhawks were a dynasty. Some have pointed out that they’ve never won the Stanley Cup in back to back seasons, but the counter is that even in the seasons were they didn’t win it all they went to the conference finals. The Blackhawks are also the first team to win 3 Stanley Cups in the salary cap era. Remember the salary cap is designed to make the teams even.  The Blackhawks have sustained their success the same way the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings did: with a stable and special group of players and some of the best coaching in NHL history. If the Blackhawks find a way to win another Stanley Cup or two in the next few seasons; would that make them a dynasty? While there will be some changes in the off season for the Blackhawks their core group of player is intact and young. The Blackhawks have been involved in the Stanley Cup Playoffs every season since 2009.  The Blackhawks have reached the Western Conference Final five times and the Stanley Cup Final three times in those seven seasons. They were within an overtime goal of being a favorite to win the Stanley Cup against the New York Rangers last season; so is another Stanley Cup or two out of their reach. Being a dynasty is subjective to each person, but dynasty or not the Blackhawks are a Cup contender and should be for the foreseeable future.

I’m getting a kick out of the American League All-Star balloting. As of yesterday the Kansas City Royals had 8 players that would start the All-Star if voting ended right now. I’be heard a lot of the experts complaining about this and I actually heard one suggest that if Omar Infante wins the vote at 2nd base he should decline the honor. Infante isn’t having the best season; he’s hitting .221, but it’s fans vote and if that’s who wins the vote he should play in the game. Royals manager Ned Yost was asked about this situation and was told about some of the complaining and he had a great response. Yost told everyone who didn’t like the way the voting was going to “go out and vote”.

Listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week?

Posted: June 13, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey
Tags: , , , ,
0

The Golden State Warriors evened the NBA Finals at 2-2 with a decisive 103-82 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night in Cleveland. Golden State got out to a 7 point lead after the 1st quarter 31-24. They were able to add 5 points to that lead going into halftime by outscoring the Cavaliers 23-18 in the 2nd quarter. Golden State took a 54-42 lead into the locker room at halftime. Cleveland came out and knocked 6 point off of the Warriors lead outscoring Golden State 28-22, but still found themselves trailing 76-70 at the end of the 3rd quarter. The Cavaliers were unable to keep their run going into the 4th quarter and appeared to run out of gas as Golden State pulled away easily adding 15 points to their lead outscoring Cleveland 27-12 in the 4th quarter to get to that 21 point 103=82 victory. Golden State made a change i their tarting line up as Andrew Bogut was removed from the starting line up and Andre Iguodala was inserted into Bogut’s spot. Iguodala  reciprocated by tying for the team lead in points with Stephen Curry. Iguodala and Curry both scored 22 points; Draymond Green scored 17 points and Harrison Barnes also scored in double figures for Golden State with 14 points. Iguodala also tied for the team lead in rebounds with Green and Shaum Livingston. All three players grabbed 8 rebounds in Game 4 while Green tied Curry for the team lead in assists with 6. It ended up being  Timofey Mozgov not LeBron James leading the Cavaliers in scoring with 28 points. James did contribute 20 points, but was 7 of 22 from the field and 5 of 10 from the free throw line while stumbling into a cameraman after being fouled by Bogut. To be fair LeBron was having a bad shooting night before he went tumbling into the first row. Tristan Thompson added 12 points while Matthew Dellavedova scored 10 points, but was a terrible 3 of 14 from the field. Thompson grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers while James added 12 rebounds and Mozgov also had double digit rebounds grabbing 10. James just missed a triple double by 2 assists as he led the Cavaliers with 8 assists. You can add Iman Shumoert and J.R. Smith to the list of Cavaliers who had bad shooting nights in Game 4. Shumpert went 2 of 9 from the field while Smith made just 2 of the 12 shots he took and missed all 8 of the 3-point field goals he attempted The Cavaliers shot 33% from the floor and 14.8% from behind the 3-point line compared to 46.8% from the field and 40% from behind the 3-point line for the Warriors. The series returns to California even at 2 and you have to ask; did the Cavaliers just have a bad shooting night or did the best defensive team (Golden State) in the NBA figure something out?

I mentioned that James went tumbling into the first row of seats under the basket and ran head first into a cameraman. James ended up giving himself a couple of nice cuts on his head which he did bleed from. What I didn’t understand was why wasn’t he removed from the game and tested for a concussion? If an NFL team had left a player on the field who had just hit his head like that the mainstream media would be out with it’s pitchforks and torches calling for everyone involved to be fired. Was it because James is the best player in the game and there was no chance of the Cavaliers making any kind of run with him out of the game. In the post game press conference James mentioned that he didn’t go through the concussion  protocol, but said he had a headache from hitting the camera and cameraman. Now I’m not a doctor or in the medical profession, but I thought that a headache was a  symptom of a concussion. To be honest the entire James tumble looked like a flop until he crashed into the cameraman. I’m thinking that James was trying to get a Flagrant 2 foul called on Bogut and wanted to add a little something to the call and didn’t know were he was on the floor. I doubt James will even show up on any kind of injury report for Game 5.

Speaking of Game 5’s the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lighting take the ice around 7:00 p.m. for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals with the series tied 2-2. Since this is the NHL, we never heard what Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop’s injury was or is, but it’s being reported that Bishop is “possible” for Game 5. Bishop did not practice Friday and will be evaluated Saturday morning before a decision is made. Tampa Bay’s coach Jon  Cooper said that Bishop’s absence from practice was planned when the decision was made to remove him from the lineup for Game 4 on Wednesday. Bishop left Game 2 and did not play in Game 4. He stopped 36 of 38 shots in Game 3, but noticeably lacked mobility and did not leave the crease to play the puck with his normal frequency. Rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy replaced Bishop in Game 2 and made five saves in the final 7:41 for his first Stanley Cup Playoffs victory. Vasilevskiy, 20, made 17 saves in a 2-1 loss in Game 4, his first NHL postseason start. Vasilevsky would start in goal for Tampa Bay if Bishop is unable to play in Game 5. Tonight’s game is very important to both teams as the winner of Game 5 should win the Stanley Cup. Neither team has won two games in a row in this series and if that holds to form the winner of Game 5 will win it all. Patrick Kane got his 1st point of the series; an assist in Game 4, but even with his scoring slump he’s still the Blackhawks points leader for the playoffs. Kane is one of the best players in the NHL and knows how to score in the playoffs.  In 114 Stanley Cup Playoff games, he has 112 points, including 47 goals. This postseason, he has 10 goals, tied with Jonathan Toews for the team lead, and 21 points in 21 games. In the Final, he was held without a shot in Game 2, but has had three shots in each of the other three games and has been creating chances despite playing with several different linemates in the four games. Did Game 4;s assist get Kane out of his slump? If it did and he’s ready to break out it could bring the 3rd Stanley Cup in 6 seasons to Chicago.

The Houston Astros had lost 7 games in a row and where coming off of a series were they where swept by the Chicago White Sox. Thing didn’t look like they were going to get any better last night (Friday) as “The King” Felix Hernandez was on the mound as the Astros opened their series against the Seattle Mariners. Not only did the Astros end their losing streak they rocked Hernandez. “The King” lasted just 1/3rd of an inning meaning he only got 1 out. Hernandez gave up 5 hits, 8 runs; they were all earned, he walked 2, struck out 1 and gave up 2 home runs. Luis Valbuena and Jason Castro were the Astros who homered off of Hernandez. Last night looks like the worst start of Hernandez’s career and he saw his ERA jump to 3.38 on the season. After getting 8 runs off of Hernandez the Houston offense slowed down, but they didn’t need any more as they costed to a 10-0 victory over Seattle. Brett Oberholtzer (1-1) got the win for Houston pitching 8 innings. Oberholtzer gave up just 3 hits while walking 2 and striking out 5. The Astros other 2 runs were scored on solo home runs. Carlos Correa hit his 2nd home run of the season and Chris Carter hit his 11th home run of the season. The win improves the Astros record to 35-27 with a 2 1/2 game lead over the Texas Rangers in the A.L. West. The disappointing Mariners fell to 27-34 and are 7 1/2 games behind the 1st place Astros.

So how was your week?

You can listen to the Sports Time radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

.

How was your Week?

Posted: May 30, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports
Tags: , , , ,
0

The NHL had it’s first of two Game 7’s last night as the Tampa Bay Lighting beat the New York Rangers 2-0 to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. It was a 0-0 game until the 3rd period when Alex Killorn scored a couple minutes into the period to give the Lighting the lead. Ondrej Palat scored the 2nd goal for Tampa Bay about 11 minutes into the 3rd period to ice the game. Ben Bishop made 22 saves for Tampa Bay in the shutout and is 7-1 with a 1.25 goals-against average, a .951 save percentage and two shutouts following a loss in the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was his second shutout of the series and third of the postseason. Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves for the Rangers, who entered 7-0 in Game 7 at home but were denied a return trip to the Cup Final. Lundqvist had won six consecutive Game 7’s, an NHL record. The Stanley Cup finals start on Wednesday and Tampa bay will find out tonight if they will be facing the Anaheim Ducks or the Chicago Blackhawks. Anaheim is the home team tonight; the game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. (Central Time) start time. If form holds in this series the team that scores first will win. No matter how they have gotten there if you’re the first team to out the puck in the net you win. Barry Melrose mentioned in his preview of the game that there could be quite a bit offense tonight. So will we get a 5-4 game or a 2-1 game?

So the NHL gets 3 days off before they start the Stanley Cup Finals on the other hand the NBA has 8 days off between the end of the conference finals and the start of the NBA finals. By the time the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers take the court to start the finals I won’t even care who wins it. The days off may be a blessing for the Warriors as Klay Thompson got a concussion in the series clinching victory over the Houston Rockets and can use these days to rest and get ready. Depending on the what grade of concussion Thompson received will be the final decision on if he’ll be ready for Game 1. Thompson will not return to practice until he is symptom free and is being listed as out indefinitely. The longer break should also help the Cavaliers as well. Guard Kyrie Irving has been slowed by knee tendinitis and a sore foot, and four-time NBA MVP LeBron James has been banged up as well. If you’ve listened to a LeBron James interview you wouldn’t believe it. but neither of those injuries seems as serious as the one the Warriors are facing now. The NBA’s concussion policy requires players to pass a series of steps without experiencing symptoms before they can return. That starts with riding a stationary bike and progresses to jogging, agility work and non-contact team drills, according to the league. Players must start over if they experience any symptoms. The protocol also requires the team physician to discuss the process with Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, the director of the NBA’s concussion program, before a player can return. If Thompson is out for any length of time will the Warriors be able to replace him?

Stephen Strasburg exited his start last night against the Cincinnati Reds after pitching 1 inning. Strasburg showed signs of an injury in the 1st inning, but came out for the 2nd inning before Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams and a trainer came out and removed him from the game. There is no official announcement on Strasburg’s condition or if he’ll miss a start, but in his post game interview he mentioned how he felt he couldn’t get his throwing shoulder loose. This is the second early departure from a start in a row for Strasburg. He pitched just 3 2/3rds innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 23rd. Strasburg has made 10 starts this season and is 3-5 with an ERA of 6.55. Strasburg was the #1 overall pick by the Nationals in 2009. When the pick was made there were scouts and baseball experts talking about how Strasburg might win multiple Cy Young awards during his career and he still might. Strasburg did pick up a small share of votes for the Cy Young award last season (2014) and did lead the National League in strikeouts with 242 and games started with 34. In 6 seasons Strasburg has made 119 career starts, but only twice gas he started 30 or more games in a season; remember though he did miss most of the 2011 season. He made just 5 starts in 2011 because of an arm injury that required Tommy John surgery. Strasburg has one more year of arbitration with the Nationals before hitting the free agent market in 2017. There’s a very good chance that Strasburg will go out onto the open market since he is represented by Scott Boras. If this arm issue os something that will cause Strasburg to miss time you have to think it will affect his value a couple of seasons down the road. Then instead of what might he get on the free agent market will we be talking about the fact that he was a bust as a #1 overall draft pick.

Josh Hamilton made his return to the Texas Rangers this week. I’m not sure how I feel about this as I’m in the camp that thinks he should’ve been suspended. He’s appeared in 5 games for the Rangers and has 5 hits in the last 3 games. Hamilton actually hit 2 home runs against the Red Sox last night. Texas is 3-2 with Hamilton on the line up including a 7-4 last night in the game he homered twice in. The Rangers are 24-25, 6 games out of 1st place in the American League West. I don;t think anyone was expecting Hamilton to lead the Rangers to a division title or a World Series win, but this does have a chance to be a good story. Hamilton has a chance to be an example to a lot of people who have the sane issues as he does. The question will be; can he stay clean?

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

So how was your week?

.

How was your Week?

Posted: May 23, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports
Tags: , , , ,
0

It’s Memorial Day weekend and that means the Indianapolis 500 will be run. NASCAR has pretty much taken over any type of racing news, but the Indianapolis 500 is the one still mainstream open wheel race that gets covered. When I was younger I would watch the race, but not so much anymore. While I’ll still try to catch the end to see who wins the race there’s not a connection you might feel for your favorite NASCAR driver with this series for me. While I still recognize some of the names like polesitter Scott Dixon after looking at the starting grid there where only 4 other drivers starting in the Top 10 who’s names I recognized. I’m sure if I followed this racing series a little closer I would know the other drivers in the Top 10, but I don’t even know if their other races are shown on television. While I would never want to see the Indianapolis 500 not be televised this weekend or moved to another network I would like to be able to find the other races in this series easier. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in 1st place in the NL West by 1 1/2 games over the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers and Giants just finished a mid-week 3 game series that saw the Giants sweep all 3 game from the Dodgers in that series. Not only did the Giants get a sweep in that series the Dodgers were shutout in all 3 games. San Francisco seems to be getting healthy while Los Angeles is going through some injuries. Even though the Dodgers did win their game last night they still only put up 2 runs. I don;t think anyone thought that offense would be an issues for the Dodgers and when Yasiel Puig returns from his hamstring injury the offense should return to were it was at the start of the season. What I’m wondering is if there’s going to be a move made for a starting pitcher. Los Angeles still has the best 1,2 top of the rotation in baseball with Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke in those roles, but there are some questions after that. Brett Anderson has been solid at 2-2 with an ERA of 3.61 in his 8 starts. The 8 starts Anderson has made this season match his total from all of last season and he hasn’t made more than 30 starts in his career. Anderson made 30 starts as a rookie in 2009; so will he hold up over a season in the Dodgers rotation. Brandon McCarthy has been lost for the season and it was announced yesterday that Hyun-jin Ryu will have season ending shoulder surgery. Ryu didn’t make any starts for the Dodgers this season. Carlos Frias has made 6 appearances with 4 of those being starts and is 3-1 with a 2.55 ERA. Mike Bolsinger has made 3 starts for the Dodgers as well and is 2-0 with an ERA of 1.04. Will the Dodgers stick with Frias and Bolsinger at the back of the rotation or will they go out on the trade market and try to find pitching. I’d be surprised to see Cole Hamels in a Dodgers uniform unless the Philadelphia Phillies come way down on what they want in return for Hamels. Now there is another Phillies pitcher that has gotten some attention early in the trade market. Could the veteran Aaron Harang be someone the Dodgers might be interested in. Harang is 4-3 in 9 starts for the Phillies with an ERA of 1.82. I’d be surprised to see Harang still with the Phillies at the end of the season, but which contender or contenders might be interested .

I was a little surprised to see the Cleveland Cavaliers more or less coast to a 12 point win 94-82 in Game 2 of the Eastern conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavaliers took a 5 point lead after the 1st quarter 26-21. Cleveland kept the lead at 5 going into halftime 54-49, but pulled away in the 3rd quarter out scoring Atlanta 30-17 and taking a 84-66 lead. The Hawks did out score the Cavaliers in the 4th quarter 16 to 10, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to get Atlanta back into the game or close to a win. LeBron James led Cleveland and all scorers with 30 points. James also had 11 assists and 9 rebounds missing a triple double by just that 1 rebound. Iman Shumpert (16) Matthew Dellavedova (11) and Timofey Mozgov (10) were the other Cavaliers scoring in double figures while Tristan Thompson grab a game high 16 rebounds for Cleveland. Dennis Schroder led Atlanta with 13 points, but Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and Al Horford all scored 12 points for the Hawks. Cleveland has a 2 games to 0 lead in the series and they are headed back to Cleveland for Game 3 on Sunday night. Can Atlanta win a game in Cleveland and keep the series alive and return home or are the Cavaliers looking at a sweep. 

If you’re a Houston Rockets fan are you going to end up looking back at this Western conference finals series against the Golden State Warriors and wonder what if. The Rockets lost Game 1 by 4 points 110-106 and had their chances to take that game. Thursday night though might be the heartbreaker for Rockets fans. The Rockets were down 1 point with under 10 seconds to play and they had the basketball. James Harden was doubled teamed and unable to get a game winning shot off as the Rockets lost 99-98 in Game 2. Golden State has a 2-0 lead in this series, but it could just as easily be the other way around and if you’re Houston you have to think those missed chances will cost you this series. The series heads back to Houston for Game 3 tonight and the Rockets are kind of in the same boat the hawks find themselves in. Can they win a game at home to keep the series alive or will they be swept out of the conference finals.

On the podcast we always notice how the NFL finds ways to keep themselves in the news all year long, but lately all I’ve heard is the negative “Deflate Gate” news. I doubt this is the kind of news the NFL wants to generate in the off season and I have to tell you; I’m over this already. While I do think that a 4 game suspension was too much for Tom Brady I have no real interest in this situation. I side with Dan the Man on this when he has said over and over on the Sports Time Radio podcast that this is really the NFL’s fault. With all of the money the NFL makes they couldn’t have someone in charge of the game footballs. That’s enough of that garbage. When does mini-camp start?

Older Entries
Newer Entries