Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: May 20, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, horse racing, sports
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Let’s go ahead and start off with the Sports Time Radio fantasy players of the week for Week 6. We went with two Cleveland Indians this week 2nd baseman Jason Kipnis and Corey Kluber. I know it’s early in the season, but it’s the first time we’ve had winners from the same team.

Here’s how we stand right now with our teams of hitting pitchers:

Dan the Man’s team is 10/66 .152 0 HR’s 4 RBI’s and 29 K’s

Mr. Fantasy’s team is 17/85 .200 0 HR’s 2 RBI’s and 26 K’s

My team is 12/82 .146 1 HR 6 RBI’s and 34 K’s

The NHL is in it’s conference finals and both series are tied 1-1 with Game 3 of the New York Rangers vs. the Tampa Bay Lighting is tonight. The series has moved to Tampa Bay and if they can hold home ice they’ll move on to the Stanley Cup finals. The Rangers won Game 1 of the series 2-1, but Tampa Bay took Game 2 by putting up 6 goals in a 6-2 win. The Western conference series is moving to Chicago for Game 3 on Thursday night. The Anaheim Ducks took Game 1 by scoring 2 goals in the 3rd period and pulling away to a 4-1 win. Last night the Chicago Blackhawks evened the series with a 3-2 win in 3 overtimes. At 16:12 of the third overtime Marcus Krueger scored the game winner for the Blackhawks. and ended what was the longest game in Blackhawks history. Corey Crawford made 62 saves for Chicago and  Frederik Andersen made 56 saves for Anaheim. It will be interesting to see how these two teams bounce back with just one day off before Game 3.

The NBA has also just started it’s conference finals, but only the Western conference has gotten under way with the Golden State Warriors taking Game 1  110-106 over the Houston Rockets. Stephan Curry lead all scorers with 34 points making 6 – 11 from behind the 3-point line. Shaun Livingston (18), Klay Thompson (15), Harrison Barnes (14) and Draymond Green (13) all scored double figures for Golden State. Green also grabbed 12 rebounds and was just 2 assists shy of a triple double as he had 8 assists. The Rockets were led by James Harden with 28 points, Trevor Ariza had 20 points and Josh Smith had 17 points. Even though he injured a knee and played just a little over 26 minutes Dwight Howard led the Rockets with 13 rebounds. Harden added 11 rebounds and missed his triple double by just 1 assists as he led the Rockets with 9 assists in the game. The Rockets had the lead after one quarter at 31-24, but Golden State bounced back to take a 58-55 lead at halftime. Golden State added 2 points to their lead after 3 quarters 84-79. The Rockets did out score the Warriors in the final period 27 to 26, but it wasn’t enough to get a win. With the next game on Thursday you have to wonder if Howard will be ready to play. If you’re a Rockets fan are you trying to figure out if Howard doesn’t get injured would you of stolen Game 1. Game 1 of the Eastern conference finals starts tonight in Atlanta as the Atlanta Hawks host the Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 2 is Friday May 22nd in Atlanta as well. The series seems to be being billed as Atlanta’s team concept against LeBron James or I saw someone call it “Hero Ball”. 

The NBA had it’s draft lottery last night and it was the Los Angeles Lakers who moved up at the expense of the New York Knicks. Los Angeles moved up from #4 to the #2 pick while it was New York that fell from #2 to #4. New York had the 2nd best odds going into the lottery last night, but fell to the 4th pick in the draft. Everything else for the NBA lottery held true to form. The Minnesota Timberwovles got the #1 pick, the Lakers are #2, the Philadelphia 76ers are #3, the Knicks are #4, the Orlando Magic are #5, the Sacramento Kings are #6, the Denver Nuggets are #7, the Detroit Pistons are #8, the Charlotte Hornets are #9, the Miami Heat are #10, the Indiana Pacers are #11. the Utah Jazz are #12, the Phoenix Suns are #13 and the Oklahoma City Thunder got the last spot in the draft lottery at #14. The Lakers appear to be the big winner coming out of last night as they along with the Timberwolves will get either Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns at the top of the draft. The Knicks where one of the teams that lost out last night, but in a way so did the 76ers. While Philadelphia did land the 3rd pick most experts have said that there is a drop off between the 2nd and 3rd best players in this draft. Not only that, but Philadelphia had a chance to leave the lottery with 3 lottery picks. If the Lakers pick would’ve landed outside of the Top 5 it would’ve went to the 76ers as part of an earlier trade. Of course we know now that the Lakers are picking 2nd; so they get to keep that draft pick. The 76ers also had a deal with the Heat and if the Miami draft pick would’ve fallen out of the Top 10 Philadelphia would’ve gotten that pick as well. Miami landed right at #10 in the draft and they get to keep their draft pick as well.

The most interesting player in the upcoming NBA draft may be Emmanuel Mudiay who played last season in China.  Mudiay was born in the Republic of Congo, was living in Texas and planned to attend SMU, then signed a pro contract in China amid claims (that his family denied) the move was to escape NCAA heat on academic issues. While an ankle injury cost him most of the season in Guangdong, a healthy Mudiay will pop at the select few individual workouts he performs.

Schaumburg Stu went with the favorite American Pharoah to win the Preakness and he cam through for him winning the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown. I went with Divining Rod who finished 3rd. Mr. Fantasy’s horse Mr. Z ended up in 5th place and Dan the Man’s pick Firing Line finished in 7th place out of 8 horses.  American Pharoah became the 14th horse since 1978 to take the Kentucky Derby-Preakness Stakes and now the question is; can he win the Belmont Stakes?

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week?

Posted: May 16, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports
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So Troy Tulowitzki met with his agent this week to decide if he would ask the Colorado Rockies for a trade. I don’t know when this meeting took place, but I saw a crawler headline on “Yahoo Sports” that Tulowitzki has decided not to ask to be traded. Now if you;re the Rockies; what do you do with Tulowitzki? He’s the biggest name on your team, sorry Carlos Gonzalez and people buy tickets to Rockies games to see him. If you decided that you’re going to try to deal him; what can you get for an injury prone shortstop who when healthy can be on of the best players in major league baseball. Tulowitzki has appeared in every Rockies game this season (32), but has played in just 264 games from 2012 – 2014. Tulowitzki is off to a solid start; he’s hitting .284 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI’s along with 13 doubles. Now if the Rockies make the tough decision and feel it’s in their best interest to trade Tulowitzki what could they get for him and where might he end up. Now every team in baseball could use a healthy Tulowitzki, but I’ve narrowed it down to 4 possible good landing spots.

Let’s start with the New York Mets. There was quite a bit of talk last off season that these two teams were trying to work out a deal for Tulowitzki, but they couldn’t come to terms. Now that the Mets have come back to the pack in the NL East and are currently on a 5 game losing streak I think it’s time to revisit this deal. While Wilmer Flores has shown some power early this season with 5 home runs he is still hitting .240 and  Tulowitzki would be a huge upgrade at shortstop. Part of the snag in the off season deal was the Mets didn’t want to give up pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard. I’m sure the Mets would still like to hang onto Syndergaard, but they have other pitching prospects they could include in a deal for Tulowitzki. If the Mets where to package Steven Matz, Marcos Molina and Flores in a deal would that be enough for Colorado to give them Tulowitzki. Remember Tulowitzki is signed until 2020 with an option for 2021. If the option on his contract was picked up the total value left on Tulowitzki’s deal is $109 million. That would be a lot of money for a team to take on along with dealing multiple prospects. Would 2 Mets pitching prospects and someone to fill in at shortstop be good enough for Colorado.

How about Tulowitzki to the Houston Astros. The Astros are off to a better start than anyone thought and they are currently in 1st place in the AL West. The Astros are 23-13 and have a 4 1/2 game lead in the division. Now Houston did just promote their top prospect Carlos Correra to Triple A and there is a chance he’ll be brought up to the majors in June. If the Astros were to pick up Tulowitzki and Correra was to come up in June there’s no reason Tulowitzki couldn’t move over to 3rd base in place of Luis Valbuena. There could also be some at bats at Designated Hitter for Tulowitzki. The Astros did sign Jed Lowrie in the off season and he is injured right now. Lowrie has been a utility player before and shouldn’t have any problems going back into that role if the Astros acquired  Tulowitzki. I’d be surprised if the Astros would deal Correra or Mark Appel for Tulowitzki, but could pitching prospects Vincent Velasquez, Michael Feliz, Jandel Gustave and someone like Jonathan Vyllar be enough for Colrado to move Tulowitzki to Houston. If the Astros are ready to contend this season adding a player of Tulowitzki talent level might be what puts them over the top.

Even though they are only in the 4th year of their 5 year plan the Chicago Cubs find themselves in 2nd place in the NL Central with a 20-15 record and 4 games behind the 1st place St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals will be tough to unseat at the top of the NL Central because they’re the Cardinals and they always seem to contend, but adding a player like Tulowitzki could make the Cubs a threat if not to win the NL Central then to grab a Wild Card spot. The Cubs would have to include Starling Castro in a deal for Tulowitzki, but Castro has a decent contract to deal. Castro is signed until 2019 with an option for 2020 and if the contract was player out he would make a little under $41 million. I seriously doubt the Rockies would swap Tulowitzki for Castro straight up, but what if the Cubs added minor league prospect Javier Baez to the deal. It’s believed that the Rockies would be looking for young pitching in any deal for Tulowitzki, but I don’t think the Cubs would part with top pitching prospect C.J. Edwards. Would Colorado accept a deal that had Castro and a couple of the Cubs other pitching prospects say Duane Underwood and Pierce Johnson.

Now there are always dark horse teams that pop up when these type of deals take place. I think a team that might be able to be that dark horse team in any Tulowitzki deal could be the team across town from the Cubs; the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox have struggled out of the gate. They are 15-17 right now and 6 games out of 1st place, but a deal for Tulowitzki could change that quickly. The Mets and White Sox talked about a deal involving Alexei Ramirez during spring training and he could go to Colorado in a Tulowitzki deal. Now it’s being reported that the Rockies would like to get young pitching in any type of deal involving Tulowitzki. So would Ramirez and a couple of the White Sox young pitching prospects not named Carlos Rodon be enough to get Tulowitzki. Would top White Sox pitching prospects like Francelis Montas, Spencer Adams or Tyler Danish along with Ramirez be enough to get Colorado to send Tulowitzki to the South side of Chicago. The White Sox have always found ways to make these type of deals; so I wouldn’t count them out of a Tulowitzki trade.

I thought it would be fun for Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I to do a 5 round fantasy draft of pitchers and use their hitting stats. Of course with us this took a lot longer than of should’ve, but we got it done. Here’s how are teams turned out. Dan the Man has Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants, Travis Wood, Chicago Cubs, Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies and Jorge De La Rosa, Colorado Rockies. Mr. Fantasy drafted Jason Hammel, Chicago Cubs, Josh Collmenter, Arizona Diamondbacks, Andrew Cashner, San Diego Padres, Shelby Miller, Atlanta Braves and Johnny Cueto, Cincinnati Reds. My 5 pitchers are Kyle Kendrick, Colorado Rockies, Zack Greinke, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mike Leake, Cincinnati Reds, Jordan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals and Matt Harvey, New York Mets. We’re going to use Batting Average, Home Runs, RBI’s and Strikeouts. I’ll try to keep you updated as the season moves along and will see who’s team of hitting pitchers does the best at the end of the season. 

The 2nd race of the Triple Crown is today; the Preakness. While none of us picked the winner for the Kentucky derby Dan the Man’s picked did finish in 2nd place. Here’s who we’re going with to win the Preakness. Dan the Man is staying with his Kentucky Derby horse and has Firing Line to win today. Schaumburg Stu Likes the favorite American Pharoah to win. If he does he’ll have won the first 2 races of the Triple Crown. Mr. Fantasy likes the horse with Mr. in his name; that would be Mr. Z and I’m going with Divining Rod to get the Preakness win.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast at http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 13, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, hockey, NASCAR, sports
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We’ve been picking a fantasy players of the week this season for baseball. 1 hitter and 1 pitcher win the award every week.  I keep forgetting to post them; so I’m going to catch you up and cover who we’ve picked through 5 weeks of the season. Week 1 Adrian Gonzalez, Los Angeles Dodgers and  Aroldis Chapman Cincinnati Reds. Week 2 Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles and Hector Santiego Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Week 3 Mark Teixeira New York Yankees and Gerrit Cole Pittsburgh Pirates. Week 4 Jose Altuve Houston Astros and David Price Detroit Tigers. Week 5 Bryce Harper Washington Nationals and Shelby Miller Atlanta Braves. You’re all caught up and now you can go back and look at the stats and see if you agree with us. We’ll pick our Fantasy players of the week on the Sunday podcast 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

What is going on with the scheduling for the NHL conference finals. The Chicago Blackhawks and the Anaheim Ducks don’t have a date for Game 1 of their series in Anaheim even though both teams wrapped up their series last week. There is a Game 7 tonight between the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals, but that’s an Eastern conference game and shouldn’t have any affect on when the Blackhawks/Ducks series should start. The Tampa bay Lighting eliminated the Montreal Canadiens last night (Tuesday) 4-1 to win the series 4 games to 2. Tampa Bay gets the winner of the Rangers/Capitals game in the Eastern conference finals. I’m not saying that the Ducks/Blackhawks series should’ve started, but they could’ve played 1 game by now. I guess the NHL is waiting for all of the series to finish to announce the schedule for the conference finals. Tyler Johnson of Tampa Bay has scored the most goals in the playoffs with 8. Corey Perry of Anaheim has the most points with 15. While Lighting goalie Ben Bishop has won the most playoffs games with 8. Anaheim has had the best power play so far in the playoffs scoring 31% of the time they have a man advantage. At 3.89 goals a game Anaheim is averaging the most goals in a game as well. The Rangers have the best goals against average at 1.73. Of course the Rangers goals against will go up or down depending on how their game goes tonight.

Kyle Busch is having a good week. First it was announced that Busch would be returning for this Saturday’s All-Star race.  Busch received medical clearance from his doctors and NASCAR on Monday, but he has yet to make a start this season after suffering a compound fracture in his right leg and a broken left foot in the Feb. 21 season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway. The shorter All-Star race and its segment-and-break format should help Busch in his return. There was more good news for Busch because on Wednesday, NASCAR granted a waiver to the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver who will return to racing in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. Despite missing the season’s first 11 races, NASCAR has waived the Chase requirement for Busch. Should he win one of the remaining 15 regular-season points races and make the top 30 in points or earn a spot based on his position in the points standings, he would be one of the 16 drivers in this year’s Chase field. Similar situations have come up before — three other drivers have been granted waivers since NASCAR re-tooled the Chase format before the start of the 2014 season. Tony Stewart, out for three races last summer after his involvement in an on-track fatality in a non-NASCAR sanctioned event, was given the all clear to pursue a Chase spot upon his return. Unlike Hamlin, Stewart was unable to qualify for the 10-race program. Before the start of the 2015 season, NASCAR announced driver Brian Vickers would be eligible for a Chase spot after missing this season’s first two races due to health issues. Kurt Busch was suspended for the first three races of the season as a result of domestic violence allegations made by former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. A Kent County (Delaware) family judge granted Driscoll a protective order, however the State Attorney General declined to file charges against the driver. Busch was reinstated and granted a Chase waiver. Last month, he won at Richmond and is currently in the provisional playoff field with the victory and a 14th-place points position. Last year, Denny Hamlin missed one race (at Auto Club Speedway), won one race (at Talladega Superspeedway) and was awarded one of the 16 Chase starting positions, and this year, Kyle Larson missed a race in March at Martinsville Speedway, but both drivers took part in Coors Light Pole Qualifying to remain Chase-eligible. I thought it was only fair on NASCAR’s part to give Busch the waiver and a shot at making the Chase. Now it’s up to Busch and his JGR racing team to win a race and get into the Chase.

I saw an odd quote from Chicago Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer and I’m disappointed that I was unable to find it for this blog. Hoyer mentioned something to the affect that the Cubs and the New York Mets have some matching pieces, but they hadn’t come to any kind of deal yet. I did see a report that the Mets inquired about Addison Russell, but I’d be surprised if the Cubs would deal him. It does appear that the Mets may be looking for a shortstop. Does that mean Starling Castro is headed to New York. I actually thought he’d be the guy to take Derek Jeter’s spot for the other New York team, but I was wrong. Castro has a very friendly contract, but if the Cubs move him what do they get in return. The Mets do have some quality pitching prospects in their minor league system, but aren’t the Cubs suppose to be on the verge of winning according to the Theo Epstein plan. If Castro is traded Russell would have no issues moving over to shortstop, but then who takes Russell place at 2nd base. Did  Arismendy Alcantara show you enough in the games he played with the Cubs to handle the everyday job at 2nd base. Alcantara was on the opening day roster and has since been demoted to Triple A Iowa. There’s also Javier Baez. Just imagine the strikeout total Baez could put up playing everyday. Looking at a deal like this I’m not sure what Hoyer meant by match up.

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: May 6, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports
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If your favorite team plays in the NL Central and they’re not the St. Louis Cardinals is the best outcome you can hope for 2nd place already this season. When the Cardinals lost Adam Wainwright for the season with a torn Achilles I actually thought they might fall back to the other teams in the NL Central. Instead St. Louis is looking like the best team in baseball. They have the best record in baseball at 20-6 and are currently on an 8 game winning streak. Last night (Tuesday) St. Louis won a game started by Tyler Lyons. Lyons has 13 career starts; he is 2-8 with an ERA of 4.69 over 94 career innings. Now by no means was Lyons great last night against the Chicago Cubs he did keep the game close enough for the Cardinals to find a way to win the game. Lyons pitched 4 1/3rd innings giving up 6 hits, 4 runs 3 of which were earned. Lyons did strikeout 7 Cubs while walking 2 and did throw a wild pitch. Not the starting pitcher stat line you’d want every game for your team, but it was good enough last night. Of course it helps that the bullpen came through with 4 2/3rd scoreless innings. Mitch Harris picked up the win, Kevin Siegrist and Miguel Socolovich each qualified for a hold and Trevor Rosenthal close the game out to get his 9th save of the season. Down the road the Cardinals will have to find someone to be that 5th starter. Before Lyons, Tim Cooney got a start that didn’t go so well. Cooney lasted just 2 1/3rd innings giving up 7 hits, 3 runs all earned while walking 1 striking out 3 and giving up a home run. Will that 5th spot go to Marco Gonzales who almost won the spot out of spring training or will Jamie Garcia step back into the rotation once he recovers from injury. Garcia threw 70 pitches in an extended Spring Training game on Tuesday and is set to go out on a rehab assignment early next week. Gonzales has made 3 starts for Triple A Memphis this season. In 16 innings his ERA is 4.50 giving up 20 hits and 8 runs while walking 3 and striking out 13. Those are a couple of the options St. Louis might use as a 5th starter. There’s also a chance they’ll go out and make a trade a little later in the season, but St. Louis always seems to be able to fill these spots from within their  organization.

On the other end of the standings from the Cardinals, but in the NL East are the Philadelphia Phillies. Philadelphia is 10-18 through this early part of the season, but they still have the best trade piece on their roster. That begs the question; why is Cole Hamels still in a Phillies uniform? Is Philadelphia;s asking price still to high for Hamels? There have been some rumors that the Los Angeles Dodgers have kicked the tires on a deal involving Hamels. The report is that the Phillies asked for two of the three Dodgers top prospects plus. That would mean the Dodgers would have to move two of these three Joc Pedersen, Corey Seager or Julio Urias plus whatever you might have to toss in to fill out the deal. Is Hamels worth that? Don’t forget Hamels is signed through 2018 with an option for 2019. He’ll make $23.5 million every season and the 2019 option is for $20 million. Their is an option that will make his 2019 salary $24 million if it’s reached and there is also a $6 million buy out if his team doesn’t want to pick up that option. That sounds like a lot to ask for a pitcher who in 6 starts is 1-3 with an ERA of 4.14.

How much do the Cleveland Cavaliers miss Kevin Love? The Cavaliers dropped Game 1 of their 2nd round series to the Chicago Bulls at home 99-92. Cleveland will try to even up the series tonight. The Bulls where 10 of 18 (55.6%) from behind the 3-point line and 40 for 80 (50%) from the field. Can just a little better defense from Cleveland or a worse shooting night from the Bulls even this series up. The Bulls about rebounded the Cavaliers 42-39. If Love was healthy would he have altered this total. Love averaged 9.7 rebounds a game during the regular season and 7 per game in the 1st round playoff series. Or is all the Cavaliers need is J.R. Smith to return to the lineup. Smith was serving a suspension from the Cavaliers 1st round series and missed Game 1. Maybe if LeBron James just shoots better the Cavaliers will even this series. James was 9 for 22 (40.9%) from the field and didn’t make any of the his 3-point attempts; he took 3 in the game. James did have 15 rebounds and 9 assists in Game 1. Love injury is tough to factor into this series as it seemed like he never truly fit into the system. Is Cleveland having the best player in the NBA enough to get them past the Bulls in Round 2?

The other game tonight has the Los Angeles Clippers vs. the Houston Rockets. The Clippers took Game 1 of this series on the road 117-101. The other two series are tied at 1-1 as the Atlanta Hawks handed the Washington Wizards their first playoff loss 106-90 in Tuesday’s first game. In the nightcap the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors 97-90 to give the Warriors their first playoff loss. I’ve never liked the way the NBA handles their playoff scheduling and this is one of the reasons why. The Hawks/Wizards series and the Warriors/Grizzlies series are off until Saturday. So all 4 teams played on Tuesday night and then they’re giving a 3 day break while the Bulls/Cavaliers series and the Rockets/Clippers series come back to play on Friday and then on Sunday. It just seems odd to me that two of the four series play every other day and the other two series manage to get a three day break in between  games 3 and 4. Of course this is part of the reason that the NBA playoffs run so long and by the time they actually crown a champion most of the casual fans no longer care who wins.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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How was your Week?

Posted: May 2, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, Boxing, football, hockey, sports
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The 1st round of the NBA playoffs will wrap up tonight when the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Clippers play Game 7 of their series tonight in Los Angeles. This has been the only interesting series of the first round. Even though the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets found ways to win a couple games against their higher seeded opponents there was never any real doubt who would win those series. Even though the Washington Wizards where the #5 seed in their series against the Toronto Raptors; Washington was playing better basketball coming into the playoffs and it showed when they swept the series. The majority of these series were boring and uninteresting with the exception of the Spurs/Clippers series. As the NBA playoffs start the 2nd round let’s hope the games get better and more interesting.

Now the NHL has started the 2nd round of their playoffs and 3 out of the 4 games were great to start these series off. The Anaheim Ducks did have an easy time in Game 1 against the Calgary Flames winning 6-2. The Washington Capitals won Game 1 of their series against the New York rangers by scoring a goal in the final seconds of the 3rd period to steal a 2-1 victory. It took double overtime to settle Game 1 of the Montreal Canadiens/Tampa Bay Lighting series.. Nikita Kucherov scored in the 2nd overtime to win the game for Tampa Bay 2-1. The Chicago Blackhawks jumped out to a 3 goal lead in Game 1 of their series against the Minnesota Wild and looked like they would cruise to a victory. Minnesota turned around and scored the next 3 goals to even the game, but the Blackhawks managed to out 1 more puck in the net and take Game 1, 4-3. The 2nd round of the NHL playoffs got off to a great start and hopefully they’ll carry it on through these series.

I’ve always enjoyed watching the NFL draft, but this may be the last season I take the time to do that. I’ve tried watching the coverage on ESPN and the NFL Network and they both stink. They’ve spent way too much time just doing nothing. The picks get backed up 3 or 4 teams and it’s like neither network has never covered a draft before. Now I have no issue when things slow down to salute the military or have someone from a charity the NFL works with come out. It’s nice to see a former player like Jim Kelly or Rick Upchurch get the applause from the crowd for the battles they’re fighting. It’s even funny to see Ickey Woods announce a Cincinnati Bengals draft pick and “Shuffle” for the fans, but the NFL and the networks need to find a way to speed up the announcement of the picks. Rounds 4-7 start in about 4 hours and they are outside today, but luckily they’re going to get some good weather in Chicago for it. They also mentioned that the picks will be announced from the teams war rooms; so I’m interested to see how this works out and if it might speed things up a little.

On the Sports Time Radio podcast yesterday (Friday) we had Zach Alapi from http://www.TheLivingDaylights.co on with us to talk about the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao boxing match that takes place tonight. Zach has Mayweather winning this fight by decision, but his staff was split on who would win. 3 of the writers on his website had Mayweather winning, but there where 2 writers who picked Pacquiao to win. On the podcast Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I all have Mayweather winning tonight and just like Zach we see the fight going to distance. On one of the sports networks I get they were actually announcing which celebrities were sitting ringside and all I could fins myself asking was; who cares. This is a fight boxing fans have been waiting for and why does it matter at all who’s sitting ringside. With the price of tickets who else did they think would be in those seats.

The other big event happening today is the Kentucky Derby. It’s the first race in the Triple Crown from Churchhill Downs. I made my pick on Wednesday and I’m sticking with Mubtaahji. Mr. Fantasy likes Danzig Moon and Dan the Man has Firing Line to win. I will caution people not to take our advise on horse racing as we know little to nothing about the sport and I’m pretty sure we all just took a name we liked. I actually do watch the derby, but I’m just interested in the actual race and I can do without all of the pre-race stuff. There are some experts who will tell you that horse racing and boxing are dying sports. Isn’t it interesting that they both ended up having huge events on the same day.

Last night in Fenway Park Alex Rodriguez tied Willie Mays on the all-time home run list with hitting his 660th home run. While this should be a celebrated event for baseball I could care less about it. There’s a pretty good chance that Rodriguez has been using some type of performance enhancing drug his entire baseball career and there were even some reports about him using P.E.D.’s in high school. The high school rumors were never proven, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. 660 home runs is a great accomplishment for a player who didn’t cheat the game. Is there anyone out there who even cares about this that’s not a New York Yankees fan. It was no real surprise that the Boston Red Sox fans booed Rodriguez when he was announced as a pinch hitter. Mike Shuster is the Red Sox fan who was sitting on top of the Green monster and caught Rodriguez’s 660th home run. Shuster has told the New York Post that he won’t be giving the baseball to Rodriguez. It is being reported to “stay tuned” to this story as Shuster might have a price. A Hall of Fame spokesman said they would accept Rodriquez’s 660th home run ball or “milestone” as the spokesman put it. Maybe they could put a side note on the ball explaining how Rodriguez got to this number, but I doubt they actually would.

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Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: April 29, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports
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Max Scherzer signed a gigantic free agent contract this off season with the Washington Nationals and then must’ve forgotten that they where in the National League. Scherzer thinks the fans would like to see the DH in the National League instead of a pitcher swing a “wet newspaper” and that “both leagues need to be on the same set of rules.”. Then after San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner took Scherzer to task for his comments Scherzer took to his Twitter account and said that his comments were “In jest” and “taken out of context” in order to fit “a story with a specific agenda.”. I’m not sure I’m buying Scherzer’s defense here especially since these comments came out after he had to miss a start because he injured a thumb while batting. While Scherzer may have been the only player who mentioned he’d like to see the DH through out baseball there where quite a few experts and analyst who’d like to see this happen as well. All the DH talk really got rolling after St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright got injured in the batter’s box in his last start. St. Louis announced yesterday that Adam Wainwright would miss the rest of the season due to a torn Achilles in his left foot. Wainwright will have surgery this week, and is expected to miss between 9-12 months. I’ve seen the highlight of the at bat Wainwright got injured in and my question was did he get hurt hitting or did he get hurt as he was trying to run out of the batters box? For obvious reasons this hasn’t been mentioned by anyone who wants to see the DH adopted by the National League, but if Wainwright had a weak Achilles as it was would this injury had happened the next inning when he took the mound? While the injury occurred while he was hitting it’s easy to point fingers and say that’s why it happened and maybe it did, but there’s also a chance he injured it pushing off trying to run to 1st base. Of course if there was a DH in the National League the only way this injury would’ve happened to Wainwright was if it did happen while he was pitching because he wouldn’t of been near the batters box.

For me baseball was the first sports I ever played. There where no youth football leagues or basketball leagues when I was growing up; now there were a few hockey leagues, but they were very expensive not only to join the league, but to buy the equipment for as well. Of course there was Little League; which I only needed my baseball glove and a bat if my parents would buy one for me. Little League supplied the teams with bats, helmets and of course baseballs along with uniforms. Which I wore to my teams first practice game even though we weren’t suppose to. Now as I got older and learned more and more about the other sports what I liked about baseball was each league didn’t play each other and had a one different rule. Now in the NFL the AFC and NFC play by the same set of rules. In the NBA and the NHL the have an Eastern and Western conference, but they use the same set of rules. Then there was baseball were in the American League the pitcher didn’t hit, but in the National League just like my Little League team the pitcher batted. Now if you’re a little older than I am you will remember the pitchers hitting all the time; since the DH wasn’t adopted by the American League until 1973. Oddly though while playing Little League and moving through that system and into high school and college baseball the pitcher was always one of if not the best hitter on the team. I’m guessing since the DH is used through almost every minor league system a pitcher doesn’t work on his hitting at all while working his way top the big leagues. I’m sure there are some leagues that don’t use the DH, but the only other league I can think of that people might know that doesn’t use a DH is the .Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League in Japan.

I understand that baseball wants a younger demographic and they believe that offense will bring in a younger group; so I fully expect to see the DH used in both leagues very soon, but I hope they don’t do it. Baseball already took some of the luster off of the World Series for me by doing inter-league play. I didn’t mind inter-league play at first, but now with an inter-league series every week it ruined it for me very quickly. I’m really hoping that baseball sees that having a DH in just one league makes them interesting and different from any other professional sport, but sadly I think I’m on the losing end of that argument.

Are you ready for the NFL draft to start tomorrow? The draft is now a 3 days event as just the 1st round will tale place on Thursday..Rounds 2 and 3 take place Friday night and then rounds 4 through 7 are done on Saturday afternoon. Now there are a ton of smoke and mirrors going on with teams right now as they try to hide their interest in certain players. That’s why I was a little surprised when Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman came out and said the Vikings were more than interested in trading the 11th pick in the 1st round. Of course trades happen all the time during the draft with teams looking to move up or down to get their guy, but nomally a general manager doesn’t advertise it like Speilman did. Then I’m sure not to be out done Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones came out and said he expects the Cowboys to trade their 1st round pick. I’m sure no one is surprised at all that Jones found a way to get some press.

We have quite a interesting sports weekend coming up. There’s the NFL draft and baseball as I wrote about above, but there is also the NBA and the NHL playoffs going on; which may be in the 2nd round. There has been some talk about this Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match, but don’t forget the Kentucky Derby is also this Saturday. I’ll be the first to tell you I know nothing about horse racing, but if I was betting on the race I’d be putting my money on  Mubtaahij to win the Derby. .

How was your Week?

Posted: April 25, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports
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The NBA is in the 1st round of it’s playoffs and most series have played 2 or 3 games and a few teams have chances to close out their series today. There is just 1 series where each teams has won a basketball game. That series is the San Antonio Spurs vs. the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers won Game 1 of the series by 15 points, 107-92 and there were quite a few experts saying that the Spurs were done after just 1 game. They seemed to have forgotten that the Spurs were one of the hotter teams heading into the playoffs and the only reason they were facing the Clippers was because the Western conference standings were so tight that when they lost their last game of the season they feel from the 2nd or 3rd seed down to the 6th seed. So with the Spurs being declared out of the series after 1 game they turned around and took home court advantage in the series by winning Game 2 111-107. Game 3 was last night (Friday) in San Antonio and if you would’ve told me that one of these teams would win this game by 27 points I would’ve thought you were crazy. Kawhi Leonard scored 32 points and the Spurs beat the Clippers 100-73 to go up 2 game to 1 in the series. Besides Leonard only 2 other Spurs players scored in double figures and neither of them was named Tim Duncan, Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili. It was Boris Diaw (15) and Danny Green (11) would scored double digit points in San Antonio’s win. The Clippers shot 34.1% from the field and 6-23 from behind the 3-point line. Blake Griffin going 6-15 from the floor and 2-3 from the free throw line and led the Clippers in scoring with 14 points. Chris Paul struggled from the field going 3-11 and Jamal Crawford had a horrible shooting night going just 1-11 from the floor. Austin Rivers scored 11 points and DeAndre Jordan had 10 points; as the only other Clippers who scored in double figures. San Antonio has found different ways to win Game 2 and Game 3 and with Game 4 Sunday in San Antonio do the Spurs have a 3rd different way to win a game in this series. Does Game 3 become a must win for the Clippers or would they have a shot at winning the series if they went back to Los Angeles down 3 games to 1.

Now when the NBA playoffs started there was a lot of complaining that there were teams that finished the regular season under .500 that made the Eastern conference playoffs. With the way the 1st round of the playoffs have went is that the biggest problem or could the issue be that there are too many teams in the playoffs. Besides San Antonio the Washington Wizards are the only other lower seeded team to win a playoff game. The Wizards went into the playoffs as a #5 seed and were matched up against the Toronto Raptors. It’s not a huge surprise that the Wizards are winning this series as there’s not a lot of difference between a #4 and #5 seed, but the Raptors really struggled down the final stretch of the regular season. If the playoffs went from 16 teams to 12 teams no under .500 teams would’ve made it. The Milwaukee Bucks where 41-41 and are the 6th seed in the Eastern conference. Now lowering the number of playoff teams will never happen, but when the 1st round plays out like this doesn’t it take some of the excitement out of it. Now the Memphis Grizzlies/Portland Trailblazers series has just played 2 games; so maybe something will happen their with Memphis up 2 games to 0 and Game 3 today. The Atlanta Hawks and Brooklyn Nets have only played 2 games with Atlanta winning both of them, but does anyone think Brooklyn will win a game in this series. Atlanta is the eastern conferences #1 seed while Brooklyn barely found it’s way into the playoffs. While there has been a game here or there that has been exciting I’m not sure this is the 1st round the NBA had hoped for.

I took a chance last season on my fantasy teams and late in both drafts I managed to get Yordano Ventura of the Kansas City Royals. He had a very good rookie season going 14-10 with a 3.20 E.R.A, in 30 regular season starts and was one of the big reasons the Royals found themselves playing Game 7 of the World Series last season. In the off season the Royals decided not to re-sign James Shields and allow Ventura to become the ace of the pitching staff. So this season Ventura has made 4 starts; he is 2-1 with a 4.09 E.R.A. over 22 innings so far. In what may be some kind of record in his last 3 starts the benches have cleared and he’s been right in the middle of it. Now when this happened in his start against the Oakland A’s in understood it. Ventura hit Brett Lawrie who had taken out the Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar with a slide into 2nd base the game before. The pitch hit Lawrie low and even Lawrie acted like he knew it was coming and just went to 1st base. Ventura  escalated the situation by barking at Lawrie who was going up the 1st base line while Ventura was leaving the game. That didn’t bother me too much as Ventura was just defending a teammate. In Ventura’s start before that against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim/ After Mike Trout scored a run and with Ventura was backing up home plate they started to exchange words over something and this led to the benches emptying. Then in his last start against the Chicago White Sox Adam Eaton hit a ball back up the middle that Ventutra fielded. While Eaton was running the ball out Ventura started barking at him more or less because he hit the ball back up the middle which is something I heard Ventura doesn’t like when hitters do. This led to yet another bench clearing for the Royals and there where even some punches thrown. There have also been reports that White Sox pitcher Chris Sale tried to get in the Royals clubhouse to find Ventura and continue the fight. Now I understand that pitchers are going to throw at batters and there’s going to be times when players get upset and it will lead to on field fights, but in your last 3 starts. Kansas City looks like they have a very good team again and may have a shot to get into the playoffs, but can they do that with their best pitcher starting fights every time he takes the mound. Then you also have to wonder how many more times are Royals hitters going to be understanding about getting drilled because of something Ventura did or said. Is it time for major league baseball to step in and suspend or fine Ventura for his actions or will the Royals be able to police themselves and get their ace under control.

Now the 1st round of the NHL playoffs are also going on and 2 of their series have already ended. The Anaheim Ducks swept the Winnipeg Jets 4 games to 0 and the New York Rangers closed out the Pittsburgh Penguins 4 games to 1 last  night. I was a little disappointed to see Sidney Crosby go out of the playoffs in the 1st round and his team not even out up much of a fight. There is a chance that 3 more series will come to an end tonight. The Washington Capitals have a chance to close out the New York Islanders. The Chicago Blackhawks can eliminate the Nashville Predators and the Calgary Flames can send the Vancouver Canucks home with a win. The Tampa Bay Lighting hist the Detroit Red Wings as well today, but that series is tied at 2 games apiece.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast at http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 22, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, Boxing, football, hockey, NASCAR, sports
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Last Sunday at Bristol motor speedway NASCAR held the Food City 500 in support of Steve Byrnes and Stand up to Cancer. On Sunday morning Chris Olmstead from www.BeyondtheFlag.com was on the Sports Time Radio podcast to preview the race. I always make Chris select 3 drivers who might end up in victory lane at the end of the race. Chris mentioned pay close attention to the drivers from Joe Gibbs racing (JGR) ans sure enough Matt Kenseth in the #20 car who started on the pole won the race. By the way Kenseth drives for JGR. Chris will be back on the podcast Friday with Dan the Man and I to preview the Toyota Owners 400 at the Richmond International Raceway this Saturday. Chris has been on a role picking winners on the podcast; so who will he go with for Saturday’s race.

Sadly for NASCAR Steve Byrnes passed away on Tuesday at the age of 56, but at least they were able to put his name on a race and pay tribute to the announcer. Due to his Illness Byrnes was unable to attend the race, but it was reported that he watched on television and even tweeted during the race.  During Sunday’s race, crewmen from every team stood on the pit wall with signs from the Stand Up To Cancer organization that read “I stand up for Steve.” Byrnes took a leave of absence from Fox Sports October of 2014 to focus on his treatment.  From 2001 until 2014, he was a pit reporter for NASCAR on Fox. Byrnes served as a fill-in studio host and lap-by-lap announcer for NASCAR on Fox whenever Chris Myers or Mike Joy, respectively, were not available. As of 2014, Byrnes was the co-host of Fox Sports 1‘s NASCAR Race Hub, and was expected to be the lead announcer for the Camping World Truck Series in 2015.

We’re about a week and a half away from the boxing match that everyone has been waiting for. Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather get in the ring to box on May 2nd and yesterday it was announced that Kenny Bayless would referee the fight. The 64-year-old Nevada native, who has refereed five of Mayweather’s bouts and seven of Pacquiao’s and has officiated 100 title fights. The  Nevada State Athletic Commission also announced the 3 judges for the fight. Dave Moretti and Burt Clements of Nevada and Glenn Feldman of Connecticut had been appointed for the fight. Mayweather and Pacquiao have been considered the best pound-for-pound boxers of their generation but a host of issues — including differences over drug testing protocols as well as revenue splits and broadcaster conflicts — have stopped the two meeting in the ring. Both are coming to the end of their careers and have established interests elsewhere. According to Forbes, Mayweather, 38, is the highest paid athlete in world sport. While Pacquiao, who is 36, has run for political office in his native Philippines. Who do you have winning this fight?

While it’s still very, very early in the baseball season did you have the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and New York Mets getting out of the gate at 11-3. Maybe you had the Milwaukee Brewers going 2-12 at this point, but did you have the Miami Marlins just 1 game ahead of them at 3-11. Of course it’s way, way too early to panic it is fun to say that the Houston Astros are in 1st place in the American League West. Remember when the Seattle Mariners signed Nelson Cruz and the experts said his home run total would go down. Well he has 8 home runs through 14 games. Joey Votto looks a lot like the Joey Vottto of old as he has 6 home runs. Cruz and Adam Jones each have 16 RBI’s to lead major league baseball. Jones and Adrian Gonzalez are both hitting .442 while Billy Hamilton has 8 stolen bases and Dee Gordon is just 1 steal behind him with 7. Just like the standings it’s just too early to go nuts over these stats, but they’re always fun to look at and if you’re a fantasy baseball player they’re relevant to you. Looking back I realized that I forgot to name a fantasy player and pitcher of the week in Saturday’s blog. I believe I would’ve went with Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles as my fantasy player of the week and I’m going to go with Hector Santiago of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as the pitcher of the week.

Yesterday was the official release of the NFL schedule and I don’t understand why it’s such a huge deal. There where two specials on the schedule. Now we’ve known who was going to play who we just didn’t know the dates of these games and now we do. The New England Patriots open the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I did find it kind of funny that the Tennessee Titans are actually playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1. In Week 2 the Seattle Seahawks play the Green Bay Packers in a playoff rematch. In Week 12 we’ll get what might be our last Peyton Manning/ Tom Brady match up when Brady’s Patriots go to Denver to play Manning’s Broncos. There are 4 teams the Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaquars all have 3 game road trips scheduled. To be fait though Atlanta’s 3 game road trip has them facing  the Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers and the Jaquars. A lot of people are point out that none of the three teams that could potentially relocate to Los Angeles in 2016 will play at home on the final Sunday of the regular season. These same people also think that this is no accident that the San Diego Chargers, Si. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders will be spared the possibility of awkward goodbyes as lame-duck teams.. What kind of schedule draw did your favorite team get?

The NHL and NBA playoffs are just getting into the 1st round games; so we’ll look at those a little more in Saturday’s blog. There is a chance we might have a series over with by then. Well I should say an NHL series might be over as with the way the NBA playoff schedule is there’s a 0% chance a series will be done.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to Sports Time Radio on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

How was your Week

Posted: April 18, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports
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The baseball season is only a couple of weeks old and while it’s my favorite sport there are a couple of trends that have bothered me even this early in the season. The first one is hitting a power type of guy in the 2nd spot in the batting order. I understand that in the new sabermetric era of baseball the stolen base doesn’t mean as much and strike outs don’t mean anything at all. Now I’m not saying you need a 100 stolen base a year guy at the top of your batting order like Lou Brock, Rickey Henderson and Maury Wills were, but you at least need a little bit of a speed threat at the top. Now it’s tough to get your running game going when the guy behind him in the batting order is a low contact high strikeout guy. You also wouldn’t want to get a guy thrown out at 2nd base when the guy in the batters box could get you 2 runs with one swing of the bat. Growing up watching baseball the 2nd hitter in your line up was always a guy who could handle the bat. He could hit with 2 strikes on him and would take pitches to see if the runner in front of him could steal a base. If a bunt was needed to move the runner over he could do that or he could hit behind the base runner if needed. Not to mention that he would be one of if not the best defensive player on your team. Do these type of baseball players still exist? and could they help a team win games? I can understand a team like the Cincinnati Reds putting Joey Votto in the two-hole. While he’ll hit his share of home runs, he’ll take pitches, he makes contact and doesn’t strikeout a lot. Now teams like the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs are going with higher strikeout guys in the 2nd spot of their batting order. With Jose Altuve coming off of a career year in 2014 you’d think the Astros would like a guy hitting behind him who could give him a chance to steal a base or get himself in scoring position another way. It’s George Springer who’s hitting 2nd in the Astros batting order. In 10 games this season Springer is hitting .135 with 16 strikeouts and is tied for the most strikeouts. The Cubs have Dexter Fowler in the lead off spot and while he’s not a big stolen base guy he can easily get to 30 steals a season. Jorge Soler has been hitting behind Fowler quite a bit early in the season and while his batting average is good (.294) he’s struck out 11 time in 9 games. I’ve heard the reasoning of getting the guy a few extra at bats, but wouldn’t it be more important to score runs and win games over getting extra at bats for a guy. The other trend that is driving me crazy this season is hitting the pitcher in the 8th spot. There are pretty much only two reason this happens. The first one is because your manager has no confidence at all in your starting pitcher and he wants him a spot up in the batting order so he can get him out of the game an inning earlier. The second reason would be because your manager is looking for cheap attention from the media. There are always questions for a manager when the pitcher isn’t hitting 9th and the only one who can answer them is the manager; so he gets the media attention he’s looking for. Even this early in the season I’ve seen this come back to hurt teams, Now if there are runner on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs they would probably walk the 8th place hitter to get to the pitchers spot anyway, but on a couple of occasions the pitcher has come up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. If this was an actual 8th place hitter there would be a chance for the team to score some runs, but with the pitcher up; he’s as close to an automatic out as there is in baseball. There are 3 pitchers with 3 hits so far this season, but would you rather have them at the plate or your regular 8th place hitter. Here’s hoping these teams wake up and stop trying to re-invent baseball and concentrate more on putting there teams in better positions to win.

The NBA playoffs get started this afternoon with the 1st of 4 games on the schedule today. The Washington Wizards and the Toronto Raptors kick things off today. They are followed by the New Orleans Pelicans against the Golden State Warriors. The 3rd game on the schedule today is the Milwaukee Bucks against the Chicago Bulls and the night wraps up with the Dallas Mavericks against the Houston Rockets. The other 8 playoff teams get started on Sunday and their schedule looks like this. It’s the Boston Celtics vs. The Cleveland Cavaliers to start the day. That game is followed by the Brooklyn Nets taking on the Atlanta Hawks. The 3rd game on Sunday is the Portland Trailblazers vs. The Memphis Grizzlies and the final game is the San Antonio Spurs against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Now I saw the odds that Las Vegas has put up on who will win the NBA title and they didn’t give the best odds to either of the #1 seeds in the conferences. It’s the Cavaliers who open as the 9 to 4 favorite to win the title. The Warriors are 2nd at 5-2 with the defending champion Spurs next at 4-1. The team with the best record in the Eastern conference Atlanta is 12-1 while the Bulls, Clippers and Rockets are all 14-1 odds. The Grizzlies are 25-1 odds while the Raptors and Trailblazers are 50-1 odds and the Mavericks and Wizards landing at 60-1 odds. If you like a long shot how about the Pelicans at 100-1 or at 200-1 you can have the Bucks, Celtics or Nets to win it all. So with the betting odds posted I figured I’d get Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu along with myself to make our picks on who will win. Here’s what we came up with. Dan the Man has both of the #1 seeds going to the finals; so it’s Atlanta and Golden State for Dan with Golden State winning. Schaumburg Stu went with Cleveland out of the East and Golden State out of the West with Golden State winning the title. I like the Cavaliers to get to the finals out of the East and the Spurs to get to the finals out of the West with the Spurs repeating as NBA champions. Who do you have?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to Sports Time Radio on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 8, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, NASCAR, sports
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The Washington Nationals were pretty much everyone’s pick to win the National League east and the World Series this season. Now there’s no real concern after a 3-1 opening day loss to the New York Mets, but what may become an issue are the Nationals injuries. The Nationals are starting the season with 4 players on the disabled list. Denard Span has been out since March when he had core muscle surgery. Span was the engine that got the Nationals offense rolling last season and there’s a big hole at the top of the order with him out. Span may return at the end of the month, but it may also take him a while to get into game shape against major league pitching. Span missed a big chunk of spring training and you have to wonder if a minor league rehab stint will be needed to get him back on track. Jayson Werth is still recovering from the shoulder surgery he had in January. Werth did hit in some minor league games at the end of March and it shouldn’t be too much longer before he’s able to return to the Nationals line up. Just like Span; you have to wonder how far behind Werth will be since he’s been out for 4 months. Washington needs Werth’s bat back in the middle of their line up and they may get it about the middle of this month. Nate McLouth would’ve been the guy to fill in for Werth, but he’s out as well. McLouth had shoulder surgery in August of 2014 and has a difficult time returning from it. McLouth may be back this month as well, but hiss absence has been twice as long as anyone else and you have to wonder how far away he is from being ready to hit major league pitching. Casey Janssen was brought in by the Nationals to provide a some bullpen support and take some pressure off of closer Drew Storen, but Janssen landed on the DL with right shoulder tendinitis. Janssen is another Nationals player who may return this month, but it’s his throwing arm that’s the issue and you have to wonder if this will hang around all season long with Janssen. Storen had some injury issues as well during spring training, but didn’t end up on the DL. With Janssen out and Storen having some issues; what kind of shape is the Washington bullpen in? Anthony Rendon was talked about as being the break out player of 2015, but his year has started on the DL with an MCL sprain in left knee. When Rendon first got hurt it was reported as minor and that he would miss a few days. Then the report changed to Rendon would miss the rest of spring training, but he should be good to go for the start of the season. Then as the season was getting ready to start Rendon went on the DL with his time table being set for a possibly April return. Rendon has avoided knee surgery and the Nationals are right to be very careful, but they’re also missing a huge piece of their line up. On the plus side for the Nationals none of their starting pitchers have ended up getting injury. That may be enough to keep them in games and get them some wins early in the season, but with Soan, Werth and Rendon’s bats on the sidelines they’re going to have to find ways to score runs. There’s nothing that can derail a teams run more than injuries to their key guys.

NASCAR took the week off last weekend, but they return Saturday in Texas for what has to be Dan the Man’s favorite race. the Duck Commander 500 at the 1.5 mile Texas motor speedway. Chris Olmstead from BeyondtheFlag.com will join our podcast Friday night around 10:30 p.m. to preview this race for you. It’s a full weekend in Texas for NASCAR. On Thursday from 4:30 pm-5:30 pm there’s NASCAR Xfinity practice. The Xfinity drivers return from 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. for their final practice. Friday has a full day of activity starting at 11:30 am with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice. At 2:00 p.m. the Sprint Cup drivers hit the track again for their final practice. At 4:45 pm it’s time for NASCAR Xfinity Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying. After the Xfinity guys qualify the NASCAR drivers get back on the track around 6:45 pm for their qualifying runs. Friday night wraps up with the NASCAR Xfinity Series O’Reily Auto Parts 300. Then on Saturday night the Sprint Cup drivers will go 334 laps or 501 miles in the Duck Commander 500.

Now normally on the podcast it’s Dan the Man who comes up with the conspiracy theories, but I actually have one of my own. Yesterday the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs had a night game schedule at Wrigley Field. Just a little after Noon I turned on the MLB Network to catch some updates and on their crawler at the bottom of the screen there was an announcement saying the Cubs/Cardinals game had been postponed. They where siting the weather that they predicted would hit the Chicago area. While it would’ve been a tough night to play baseball the rain and wind that was being forecasts to hit Chicago area didn’t. These two teams have another game scheduled for this afternoon and the weather outside is just as bad as it was last night and there is rain in the forecast. So the question is; will they play today’s game? Now there was no make up date announced for yesterday’s day and why do I have a feeling that the date will be after the construction at Wrigley Field is done. I’m pretty sure you can see what I’m implying here. I wouldn’t be shocked at all if today’s game ends up being called off because of the predicted weather. Even though Wrigley Field didn’t look bad on television Sunday night it obviously isn’t in the condition the team would like it to be. Not to mention the more games they can play after construction is done the more people they can squeeze into the ballpark. All you have to do is remember that Cash Rules Everything Around Me!

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

Follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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