Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: November 19, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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11/19/14

Week 11’s picks had Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and I all going 8-6 for the week. For the season I’m in the lead with an overall record of 102-57-1. Schaumburg Stu is 2 games back at 100-59-1 while Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy are tied while an overall record of 99-60-1. Who knows what Week 12 will have in store for us.

In what I guess we’ll call the Fantasy Football Challenge pitting Mr. Fantasy vs. Greg, played out this way. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Tom Brady of the New England Patriots while Greg picked Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins. Brady scored 13.44 points and finished 13th among quarterbacks while Griffin scored 8.74 points and finished 21st among quarterbacks for Week 11. At running back they both agreed that Mark Ingram of the New Orleans Saints was the right choice. Ingram finished 9th among running backs with 20.70 points. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy went with DeSean Jackson of the Washington Redskins while Greg’s choice was Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers. Jackson finished 48th among wide receivers for Week 11 with 6.95 points while Cobb finished with 20.65 points which was good for 10th place among wide receivers. At tight end Mr. Fantasy picked Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers while Greg went with Julius Thomas of the Denver Broncos. Gates scored 5.45 points and finished 21st among tight ends while Thomas got hurt in Sunday’s game and scored 1.80 points which put him in 42nd place among tight ends. At kicker Mr. Fantasy picked Stephen Gostkowski of the New England Patriots while Greg’s choice was Nick Novak of the San Diego Chargers. Gostkowski scored 6 points and finished tied for 11th place while Novak scored 10 points and finished tied for 6th place. Sleeper picks for Week 11. Mr. Fantasy went with Cleveland Browns wide receiver Taylor Gabriel while Greg’s choice was Indianapolis Colts running back Trent Richardson. While Richardson might not be a sleeper in name value in production value he would be a sleeper if he had a good week. Gabriel coed 13.37 points and finished 23rd for Week 11. Richardson scored 4.60 points and finished 47th among running backs for Week 11. If you heard the show Sunday morning you have to hear Mr. Fantasy complain about picking the same players over and over. He suggested that they not be allowed to pick the Top 5 scores at each position. I ran the idea by Greg and he was good with it; so starting with Week 12 they will not be allowed to select any of the Top 5 scoring players at each position for the season. As always I use the scoring system from your Yahoo league titled Next Year is Here 13.

If you’ve listened to Sports Time Radio you know that we all live in the Chicago area. If you listen to sports talk radio in Chicago when they’re not firing Marc Trestman or trying to get Jay Cutler traded or released they’ll talk about who the Chicago Cubs will sign from the free agent market this off-season. The team itself had come out and said that Jon Lester was the first free agent that they where interested in, but they’d also like to sign Russell Martin. Now Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu are the resident Cubs fans on the show while Mr. Fantasy roots for the Chicago White Sox. Now we’ve heard this song and dance from the Cubs organization for the past couple of seasons. How they just missed out on this free agent or that free agent and it has started already this off-season. Russell Martin signed a 5 year $82 million dollar deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Cubs of course having to explain losing Martin to Toronto, went with it was too much money. I actually agree it was too much money for Martin, but he was the only top catcher on the free agent market and that’s what someone was going to have to pay to bring him in. There’s strike one on the Cubs. This morning the Cubs have been quoted as saying that they believe that Lester will sign with the Boston Red Sox. So the Cubs put two names up for their fans to look for and now it looks more and more that neither one of these players will be in a Cubs uniform come opening day. While Martin was far and away the best catcher on the free agent market there are still some top of the rotation starting pitchers still out there. Will the Cubs go after a James Shields or a Max Scherzer now that they’re saying Lester is headed to Boston. I doubt they will, but they’ll need to find some new names to put up for their fans to wish for.

If you’re playing fantasy hockey this season like Dan the Man and I are, I hope you had all of your Nashville Predators in your line up last night. The Predators went out and scored 9 goals last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Taylor Back scored 2 goals while Derek Roy, Eric Nystrom, Mike Ribeiro, Filip Forsberg, Calle Jarnkrok, Roman Josi and Colin Wilson each added a goal. Shea Weber tallied 3 assists while Ryan Ellis, and Paul Gaustad each had 2 assists in the game. Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer gave up 6 of the Predators goals while Jonathan Bernier gave up the other 3 goals and was tagged with the loss. The Montréal Canadiens led the NHL right now with 29 points and an 20-14-5 record. The Tampa Bay Lightning are just 1 point behind at 28 points and an 20-13-5 record. After that it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Anaheim Ducks tied at 27 points.

Kevin Harvick won his 1st Sprint Cup championship and a championship for Stewart-Haas Racing by winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 in Homestead Miami Florida on Sunday. Harvick went from 12th to first over the final 15 laps gave Harvick the championship over Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano. It was Harvick’s first Sprint Cup title in his 14th season of competition.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was Your Week?

Posted: November 15, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football
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11/15/14

We’re heading into the home stretch for fantasy football as a lot of leagues wrap up a week or two before the regular season ends. I thought it would be a good time to look and see who’s been disappointing for fantasy owners. I’m going off of the ranking that were used in our longest running fantasy league called Next Year is Here 13. I know it’s 2014, but when I renewed the league I forgot to change the year. We’re going to try and stay away from players who missed multiple games because of injuries or suspension. At quarterback Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears was the 18th rated player at draft time. Cutler is the 63rd ranked player going into Week 11. Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was ranked 39th at the start of the season. Newton missed a lot of the pre-season injured and it seems to have carried over into the season as Newton is ranked as the 65th overall player right now. Colin Kaepernick the San Francisco 49ers quarterback was the 31st ranked player coming into the season. Through 11 weeks Kapernick is in the 89th position among all players. If you remember at the start of this fantasy football season all the talk was about the running backs being the guys you needed to have. In our league running backs where projected to be the top 5 scoring players in our league. Through 11 weeks there is only 1 running back (DeMarco Murray) in the top 5 total scores. LeShon McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles was the #1 overall rated player in our league coming into the 2014 season. Right now McCoy is the 71st rated player in our league. Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy was the 5th rated player in our league. As of right now Lacy is the 44th rated player. Zac Stacy of the St. Louis Rams came into the season as the 29th rated running back. Through 11 weeks Stacy is rated at 215th. There are probably quite a few more running backs that we could list here, but we’ll save that for the end of the season. A lot of the top wide receivers have been injured and missed multiple games; so they’ll get a pass right now. Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall was rated as the 13th overall player coming into 2014. Right now Marshall is rated as the 70th overall player. Keenan Allen if the San Diego Chargers was supposed to be the 27th overall player. Even with the solid year San Diego is having Allen is rated at 161st right now. Maybe Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson was over rated at 36th to start the season. Even if Jackson was rated a little to high; he should be in a better position than 124th where he is right now.Injuries affect the tight end ratings as well and I actually had to search a little bit to find 3 tight ends. Playing in the up tempo Philadelphia Eagles offense Zac Ertz was in the 102nd position to start the season. Through 11 weeks Ertz is rated as the 137th overall player. Ladarius Green of the San Diego Chargers was supposed to take some catches away from Antonio Gates at tight end and that made Green the 137th rated player to start the season.Green was ranked 7 spots ahead of Gates. After 11 weeks Green is the 1782nd rated player overall while Gates is in the 37th spot. Since we need a third tight end let’s go with Tim Wright of the New England Patriots. Wright was traded to the Patriots at the start of the season and he was ranked as the 208th overall player. Right now Wright is ranked as the 208th overall player and while that not a huge drop I’m sure fantasy owners where looking at Rob Gronkowski’s injury history and thinking they might have a steal with Wright. I figured I’d looking and see if there where some kickers we could add as disappointing, but all 4 of them are rated higher now than where they started the season. The 4 kickers that are down from the start of the season are Josh Brown of the New York Giants. Brown started at 1814th and is now 2285th. Greg Zuerlein of the St. Louis Rams started the season at 1852nd and is now at 2301st. Ryan Succop of the Tennessee Titans started the season at 1857th and is now at 2309th. Oakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski started at 1968th and is now 2313rd. The team defense/special teams category had a few teams that dropped way down from where they started the season at. The Denver Broncos were rated 282nd to start and are now at 1755th. The Seattle Seahawks where rated at 133rd to start the season; the highest rated defense to start the season. Now the Seahawks defense is ranked at 177th. The St. Louis Rams defense came in at 177th to start the season. At the start of Week 11 the Rams defense is at 1785th. Come the end of the season we’ll have to see if these players turn it around of if 2014 is going to be disappointing for their fantasy owners.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) handed out their awards for the Major League Baseball regular season. Remember these awards cover just the regular season; no post season included. Overall I thought they did a good job of picking award winner for the American League and National League at 4 of the 4 categories. AL Manager of the Year was Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles while the Washington Nationals Matt Williams won the NL award. On a side note Schaumburg Stu picked both of these guys to win this award at the start of the season. In the AL, Jose Abreu won the Rookie of the Year award while Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets was the winner in the NL . I actually picked Abreu to win at the start of the season. I thought they might miss the AL Cy Young award winner, but they got the right guy as Cory Klober of the Cleveland Indians won the award. I thought they might go with “The King” Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners, but Hernandez finished 2nd in the voting. On the NL side Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers won the award getting all of the 1st place votes. Of course Kershaw was Dan the Man’s pick at the start of the season. Mike Trout was the unanimous selection for AL MVP and while Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and I all had Trout winning this award I don’t think any of us thought he get all of the 1st place votes like he did. Where I think the BBWAA missed was their choice for NL MVP Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw pitched in 27 games this season. 27 games is just under 17% of the season. Does he deserve this award based on the fact that he’s only involved in 17% of his teams games; the answer should be NO! While Keshaw was dominant when he pitched he didn’t show up in enough games to win the MVP award. The mainstream media push that Kershaw got probably put him over the top for this award, but it’s sad that voters pay more attention to what people say than players on the field. Looking at the NL voting San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey finished 6th and was actually left off of a ballot; really off a ballot. I thought Posey and Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates who finished 3rd where the players who would battle it out for this award. Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies got a 10th place vote from the voter who left Posey off his ballot. I would love to know how he thought that Tulowitski was a Top 10 MVP candidate, but Posey wasn’t. I know every year there are questions about how these awards are handed out, but like I said I think they got most of them correct this season. Well all, but one. Maybe next season they’ll get them all right.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 12, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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11-12-14

Schaumburg Stu and Dan the Man tied for the best record in Week 10 of our picks at 10-3. Mr. Fantasy was a game behind at 9-4 while I finished last for the week at 8-5. For the season I have the lead at 94-51-1, Schaumburg Stu is two games back at 92-53-1, Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy are four games off the lead at 90-55-1. We’ll see what Week 11 brings.

For Week 10 Mr. Fantasy and Greg both went with the same quarterback; Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and it worked out for them as Rodgers was the highest scoring quarterback of the week. At running back Mr. Fantasy went with Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears while Greg chose Andre Ellington of the Arizona Cardinals. Forte finished 17th among running backs with 15.85 points while Ellington scored 18.45 points and finished 13th among running backs for the week. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy picked Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brown scored 10.79 points and was 33rd among wide receivers for the week. Greg;s wide receiver pick was Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos. Thomas scored 19.30 points and finished 14th among receivers for the week. At tight end Mr. Fantasy took Julius Thomas pf the Denver Broncos while Greg went with Jimmy Graham of the New Orleans Saints. Thomas finished 2nd at 24.05 points while Graham finished 1st with 27.10 points for the week; so they nailed the top two tight ends for Week 10. For kickers this week Mr. Fantasy picked Cody Parkey of the Philadelphia eagles while Greg went with Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens. Parkey scored 9.75 points and finished 9th among kickers while Tucker scored 3 points and finished tied for 21st for the week. I what I thought was a bit f a surprise both Mr. Fantasy and Greg picked tight ends for their sleeper picks. Mr. Fantasy went with Chicago Bears tight end Dante Rosario who had 1 catch for 3 yards and scored 1.05 points in Week 10. Greg picked Seattle Seahawks tight end Luke Wilson. Wilson injured his ankle in the 2nd quarter of the Seahawks game Sunday. Wilson didn’t have any catches before he was hurt and scored 0 points for the week. It looks like it was another close week between these two, but I think Week 10 goes to Greg. I use the scoring system from our Yahoo league titled Next Year is Here 13.

On the Sports Time Radio podcast you might have heard us talk about our different fantasy football teams and leagues. We have the league above that I mentioned and then we have a Sports Time Radio named league that was done with an auction draft format. Mr. Fantasy and I have what we describe as a money league team with some of his friends. In this league the player who owns Adrian Peterson was looking to trade him. The deal that was kicked around was T.Y. Hilton the wide receiver from the Indianapolis Colts for Peterson straight up. The Peterson owner actually told us he could get a lot better player than Hilton for Peterson. As I look at the league scoring totals for the season Hilton sits 6th among wide receivers. Here are the players in front of him 1 through 5. Demaryius Thomas, Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Calvin Johnson and Jordy Nelson. So he’s going to get a better wide receiver than Hilton; interesting. Would you give up any of these wide receivers for Peterson?

Sunday in Homestead Florida after the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway NASCAR will crown a 1st time champion. Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman will have a 400 mile shoot out for the Sprint Cup championship. Which ever driver has the best finish wins the title. I don’t know if there’s a favorite among these drivers. Newman hasn’t won a race all season, but with solid finishes and let’s call it moving Kyle Larson out of his way last weekend he finds himself with a chance to win it all. Harvick maybe the driver on the best roll going into this race, but Logano has been strong all season. Hamlin may be a bit of a wild card in the race. It will be interesting to see how aggressive these drivers will be early in the race and it would be great if they where all in the Top 10 with about 5 laps to go. Did you like the new format for The Chase this season?

It looks like Major League Baseball is going to investigate the Chicago Cubs hiring of Joe Maddon. There had been rumors and reports that the Tampa Bay Rays thought that the Cubs had spoken with Maddon and that’s why he opted out of his contract with the Rays. The Cubs insist everything was by the book — that they even checked with the Commissioner’s Office before contacting Maddon — but the Rays weren’t so sure, and MLB at the very least is giving the complaint due diligence. It’s hard to blame the Cubs for jumping at the chance to land Maddon — he’s the type of manager who could not only bring a new personality to a team, but energize a fan base too. The question is whether the Cubs were a little too eager to secure Maddon. We know, for example, they had no problem doing Rick Renteria dirty. If it is proven that the Cubs tampered with Maddon Tampa Bay could receive compensation. That compensation could come in the form of players, draft picks or money. Also if Cubs officials lied to MLB investigators there could be some type of suspensions involved. This will be a very difficult charge to prove; so don’t be surprised at all if nothing comes from this, but MLB has to look into it.

Did you have the New York Mets signing the first free agent? They agreed to a two-year contract with outfielder Michael Cuddyer. The 35-year-old is a two-time All-Star and was the NL batting champion in 2013 with the Colorado Rockies. Cuddyer hit .332 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs (Runs Batted In) this year in a season interrupted by injuries. He was limited to 49 games and was on the disabled list three times because of a strained left shoulder and a strained left hamstring. Cuddyer signs a two-year, $21 million deal and with this signing the Mets lose their 1st round draft pick this June which was #15 overall.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week?

Posted: November 8, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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11/2/14

A couple of week into the NBA season there are three teams still unbeaten and two teams looking for their first win. The Houston Rockets at 6-0, the Memphis Grizzlies at 6-0 and the Golden State Warriors 4-0, while the Philadelphia 76ers 0-6 and the Los Angeles Lakers 0-5 are still trying to get that first win. One of the unbeaten teams will lose tonight (Saturday) as Golden State travels to Houston to play the Rockets. Memphis will also put its undefeated season on the line tonight against the 2-4 Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. Of course the big story these first few weeks of the NBA season is the 2-3 start by the Cleveland Cavaliers. With LeBron James returning to Cleveland and the trade for Kevin Love you had to think it might take a little time for this team to gel, but I don’t believe people thought it would start like this season has. Cleveland did get a 110-101 victory over the Denver Nuggets Friday night with James leading the team in scoring with 22 points as well as leading the team in assists with 11. Love had 19 points and a team high 8 rebounds. Kyrie Irving (12 points) and Dion Waiters (17 points) took a combined 25 shots after possible taking a few too many shots in the Cleveland losses. Early in the season James seems content to let the younger players try to take over games and use these moments to teach. Love is still looking for the place where he fits with this team and Irving and Waiters have to learn when to give way to their superstar. It’s very early in the NBA season and there’s a lot of time for this Cleveland team to come together. If you thought they where going to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders you where fooling yourself. If they’re still having these issues or other after the All-Star break then you can worry about the Cavaliers.

It was the battle of Ohio on Thursday Night Football this week as the Cleveland Browns went into Cincinnati and beat the Bengals pretty easily 24-3. Andy Dalton 10 of 33 for 86 yards while throwing 3 interceptions and ending up with a quarterback rating (RTG) of 2.0 had a lot of issues with the wind. Brian Hoyer 15 of 23 for 198 yards and a RTG of 92.3, was able to beat the weather and lead the Browns to the win. The Cleveland running backs took turns putting the football in the end zone. Ben Tate started the Browns scoring with a 4 yard touchdown run in the 1st quarter giving Cleveland a 7-0 lead. Cincinnati answered with a 43 yard Mike Nugent field goal to make the score 7-3, but who knew those would be the only points for the Bengals. Isaiah Crowell got the Browns next rushing touchdown; a 2 yard run in the 2nd quarter making the score 14-3 Cleveland. A Billy Cundiff field goal put Cleveland up 17-3 going into halftime. Terrance West got the final touchdown of the night for Cleveland. A 1 yard run in the 3rd quarter to make it 24-3 in favor of Cleveland. West got 26 carries and 94 yards along with his touchdown to lead the Browns rushing attack, Crowell had 12 carries for 41 yards and his touchdown while Tate had 10 carries for 34 yards and his touchdown. Jeremy Hill was averaging 4.6 yards per carry for Cincinnati, but with his team down only got 12 carries for 55 yards. Miles Austin had 5 catches for 48 yards for Cleveland to lead all receivers while it was Jermaine Gresham with 3 catches for 29 yards that led the Bengals. Fantasy wise if you started a Cleveland running back you at least got a touchdown out of him, but receiving wise there wasn’t a lot of help for you. A.J. Green had 3 catches for 23 yards while Mohamed Sanu caught 2 passes for 20 yards; ouch. With Browns tight end Jordan Cameron out dealing with a concussion Gary Barnidge filled in at tight end picked up a few fantasy points for you catching 2 passes for 46 yards. If you have a league where defensive players count the Bengals had three players get some good tackle numbers. Linebacker Emmanuel Lamur led Cincinnati with 11 tackles while two other linebackers Nico Johnson and Vincent Rey getting 10 tackles each. Buster Skrine picked off 2 Dalton passes and Craig Robertson got the other Cleveland interception.

It looks like it’s Jon Lester, James Shields and Max Scherzer who are at the top of everyone’s fee agent lists this off-season. You can never have enough starting pitching and there’s been a lot of predictions on where these three pitchers will end up. Most people see Lester ending up with the Chicago Cubs, but I have a feeling he’ll end up back with the Boston Red Sox. Shields has been predicted to stay with the Kansas City Royals and there’s a very good chance that will happen unless a team throws a lot of money at him. Scherzer is a tough call. He’s a Scott Boras client; so that means he’ll be one of the last players to sign with a team. Scherzer turned down a 7 year $144 million dollar deal before the 2013 season from the Detroit Tigers. This sounds like a signing for the New York Yankees, but would a team like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim jump in and sign Scherzer. If your team doesn’t land one of the top three pitchers the next level of pitchers features Ervin Santana, Brandon McCarthy, Francisco Liriano and Kenta Maeda the 27-year-old Japanese pitcher who the Hiroshima Carp are expected to post. How would you feel if your team signed a Justin Masterson, Jason Hammel or Jake Peavy. This seasons playoffs and World Series proved that you need good arms in your bullpen and in this years free agent crop it looks like closer David Robertson is the best reliever on the free agent market. Andrew Miller the left-handed set up specialist is also available along with another set up guy Luke Gregerson. The closers who are free agents after Robertson look like Rafael Soriano, Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) and Sergio Rome. Is your favorite team looking for pitching? Are these some of the names you’re looking for your team to sign?

As the baseball off-season gets started will try to look at the free agents out there and see where they might end up or if they’re a good fit for your favorite team.

We featured some good interviews this week on Sports Time Radio this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday Mark O’Neil from Around the Foghorn joined us to talk San Francisco Giants baseball. On Thursday we had Al Yellen from Bleed Cubbie Blue with us to talk Joe Maddon and possible Cubs free agent targets as well as which young prospects should be on the team in 2015. You can go into the archives at Sports Time Radio and listen to these podcasts.

So how was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 5, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports
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11/5/14

Are you watching the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup? They started with 16 drivers in the Challenger round. After 3 races they cut 4 drivers and entered the Contender round. 3 more races and 4 more drivers eliminated to get to the Eliminator round which comes to an end this Sunday in at Phoenix International Raceway. Then 4 drivers will advance to the final race and the Championship round of the Chase on November 16th at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are tied at the top of the Chase standings going into Phoenix while Ryan Newman sits in 3rd. Right now Jeff Gordon has the 4th spot in the Chase, but he holds just a 1 point lead over Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards a 5 point lead over Brad Keslowski and a 6 point lead over Kevin Harvick. None of these 8 drivers have gotten a win in the Eliminator round that would automatically advance them to the Championship. This new Chase set up seems to have made winning more important, but it also seems to have brought out a lot of anger in these drivers. Keslowski seems to be the guy that has taken that bad boy role as he’s had issues with Kenseth earlier in the Chase and then just last week after the race Keslowski and his crew had a large brawl with Gordon and his crew. Late in the race after a caution Gordon was starting on the front row with teammate Jimmy Johnson to his inside while Keslowski was lined up right behind Johnson. In the 1st turn after the restart Gordon’s car went up the track a little and Keslowski was able to move into that opening. As Gordon went back down to block Keslowski and get his car back in line, Keslowski had his car to far in the opening and the touched. The incident caused Gordon to have a tire go down and end up finishing 29th and dropping 3 spots in the Chase standings. This is what got the altercation started on pit road after the race. While the drivers avoided penalties from NASCAR their crew chiefs and crew members weren’t. Here’s the penalties from NASCAR. Three Hendrick crew members for six races for being “involved in a post-race physical altercation” and fined them each $25,000. A fourth Hendrick crew member was fined $10,000 and suspended for three races for the same offense. Gordon’s crew chief Alan Gustafson and Kasey Kahne crew chief Kenny Francis were each fined $50,000 and placed on probation for six races because “the crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his team members.” according to NASCAR. Also suspended for six races and fined $25,000 were: Jeremy Fuller, the Kahne crew member who came from behind the scrum and threw several punches toward Keselowski, as well as Gordon crew members Dwayne Doucette and Jason Ingle; Dean Mozingo, another Gordon crew member, was fined $10,000 and suspended three races. Hendrick Motorsports said it would not appeal, and the punished team members would not face further sanctions from the organization. There’s still a couple of races left in the NASCAR season; so maybe you should start watching.

In our picks for Week 9 in the NFL I was able to come out on top with a 10-3 record. Mr. Fantasy finished 2nd with a record of 8-5 while Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu both ended the week at 7-6. For the season I am hanging onto the lead with a record of 86-46-1. Schaumburg Stu is 4 games behind with a record of 82-50-1. Mr. Fantasy is in 3rd with a record of 81-51-1 while Dan the Man is a game behind him with an overall record of 80-52-1. You can hear our picks on the Sunday morning podcast of Sports Time Radio from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. .

We’re in the 3rd week of our players challenge with Mr. Fantasy and Greg. The first two weeks where pretty even; so let’s see how the 3rd week went. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Seattle Seahawk Russell Wilson while Greg went with Denver Bronco Peyton Manning. Wilson was 22nd among quarterbacks with 8.18 points while Manning was 7th with 18.06 points. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was the high point scorer for Week 9 with 39.90 points. At running back both guys went with Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. Foster finished with 23.15 points and 8th place among running backs. Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks was the highest scoring running back for Week 9 with 35.30 points. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy took Jeremy Maclin of the Philadelphia Eagles while Greg selected Emmanuel Sanders of the Denver Broncos. Maclin finished as the #1 scoring wide receiver of Week 9 with 32.55. Sanders scored 24.36 points and was in 7th place among wide receiver’s. At tight end Mr. Fantasy went with Rob Gronkowski (again) of the New England Patriots while Greg choose Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers. Gronkowski was the #1 scoring tight end for Week 9 with 23.50 points. Gates scored 5.05 points and finished in 20th place among tight ends for Week 9. At kicker Mr. Fantasy picked Chandler Catanzaro of the Arizona Cardinals while Greg went with Phil Dawson of the San Francisco 49ers. Both kickers scored 4 points and finished tied for 11th place for Week 9 among kickers. For their Week 9 sleeper picks Mr. Fantasy went with running back Charles Sims of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while Greg selected Oakland raiders wide receiver Brice Butler. Sims scored 0 points in Week 9 and for the season as well while Butler scored 9.50 points for the Raiders in Week 9. This match up may be to close to call. Who do you think got the players challenge win this week?

Major League Baseball handed out it’s Gold Gloves for the 2014 baseball season. Here are the winners. Catcher: AL, Salvador Perez, Royals; NL, Yadier Molina, Cardinals. First base: AL, Eric Hosmer, Royals; NL, Adrian Gonzalez, Dodgers. Second base: AL, Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox; NL, DJ LeMahieu, Rockies. Third base: AL, Kyle Seager, Mariners; NL, Nolan Arenado, Rockies. Shortstop: AL, J.J. Hardy, Orioles; NL, Andrelton Simmons, Braves. Left field: AL, Alex Gordon, Royals; NL, Christian Yelich, Marlins. Center field: AL, Adam Jones, Orioles; NL, Juan Lagares, Mets. Right field: AL, Nick Markakis, Orioles; NL, Jason Heyward, Braves. Pitcher: AL, Dallas Keuchel, Astros; NL, Zack Greinke, Dodgers. 3 Royals, 3 Orioles, 2 Dodgers and 2 Rockies claimed awards. Did they get it right? How did your favorite team do?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week? 11/1/14

Posted: November 1, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The San Francisco Giants won their 3rd World Series title in 5 tears with a 3-2 Game 7 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Jeremy Affeldt came out of the Giants bullpen first and had the longest outing of the season pitching 2 1/3rd innings before turning it over to Madison Bumgarner who pitched the final 5 innings of the game. Affeldt was credited with the win while Bumgarner picked up a save. Bumgarner threw 21 innings in 2 starts and 1 relief appearance with an Earned Run Average (E.R.A.) of 0.43. He allowed 9 hits and 1 walk while striking out 17. While Bumgarner dominated on the mound and was awarded the World Series Most Valuable Player (M.V.P.) Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval led the Giants hitting attack. Pence hit .444 getting 12 hits with 1 home run and 5 Runs Batted In (R.B.I.) adding 3 doubles. Sandoval also had 12 hits in the World Series batting .429 with 3 doubles and 4 R.B.I.’s. As the question start for the Giants on if the can repeat on the Royals side the questions become can they get back. The Royals had a big playoff run; not losing a game until the World Series and while the Royals may not be here next season their future is bright. Under the bright World Series lights rookie pitcher Yordano Ventura came through and looks like he’ll turn into a quality starting pitcher. Ventura threw 12 innings in the World Series in his 2 starts. While he did give up 11 hits and walked 5 matters in those 12 innings his E.R.A. was just 1.46; so he was able to get himself out of trouble. Ventura added 6 strikeouts as well. At the plate Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez led the team with a .333 batting average. Perez totaled 8 hits with a double and a home run for the Royals.

With the World Series over the baseball off-season begins and the Chicago Cubs didn’t waste any time getting their off-season started. The Cubs fired manager Rich Rentaria after just one season and on Monday will officially announce Joe Maddon formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays as their new manager. While there haven’t been any terms to Maddon’s deal released yet there is a report that the Rays are either going to or have asked Major League Baseball (MLB) to investigate the Cubs for tampering with Maddon. There was a report out that the reason Maddon opted out of his Rays contract was because he had contact with the Cubs and he knew he had a job waiting. The report is also saying that the Rays would look for player compensation in the form of Addison Russell or Javier Baez.

If you’re a fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder or just a fantasy basketball player you have to start thinking this team is cursed. They start the season with their best player Kevin Durant out with a foot injury and then in the 2nd game of the season their other star player Russell Westbrook goes out with what turns out to be a broken hand. Westbrook should miss about 4-6 weeks for the Thunder. Westbrook did out up 38 points in the Thunder’s opening game 106-89 loss to the Portland Trailblazers. On Thursday night the Thunder dropped their 2nd game of the season to the Los Angeles Clippers 93-90. It looks like Serge Ibaka will have to try to keep the Thunder hanging around in the Western conference until Durant and Westbrook can return. Another National Basketball Association injury that happened last night was Derrick Rose spraining his ankle and having to leave the Chicago Bulls 114-108 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers Friday night. Rose finished with 20 points, four rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes of action and the injury is being reported as minor.

Dan the Man and I have gotten off to good starts in the Sports Time Radio fantasy hockey league. It’s early in the season, but Dan;s team is the #1 rated team in our league which is 18 teams. Dan’s team has four 4 goal scorers leading his team; Tyler Bozak of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nick Bonino of the Vancouver Canucks, Damon Severson of the New Jersey Devils and Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks. Tyler Johnson of the Tampa Bay Lighting has 11 assists to lead Dan’s team. Besides Goals and assists we have some interesting categories for our league. Plus/minus, penalty minutes, power play points, short-handed points, game winning goals, shots on goal, faceoffs won, hits and blocks. Of course you must have goaltenders on out team and Dan has a good one in Frederik Andersen of the Anaheim Ducks who is off to a 7-1 start and a Goals Against Average (G.A.A) of 1.60. Besides wins, losses and goals against the other two goalie categories are save percentage and shutouts. There are times a hot start can propel a team through the season, but since I’m in this league against Dan I’m hoping his team comes back to the pack.

I mentioned Anaheim earlier and behind Andersen play they have the best record in the National Hockey League (NHL) at 9-3 and 18 points. The Montreal Canadiens are right behind then at 8-2-1 with 17 points. On the other end of the standings the Carolina Hurricanes are still looking for their first win of the season. Through 8 games the Hurricanes are 0-6-2 with just 2 points so far this season. Anaheim’s Corey Perry leads the NHL with 10 goals while the New York Rangers Rick Nash is one goal behind at 9. Jakub Voracek of the Philadelphia Flyers leads the league in assists with 12 while Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings, Tyler Johnson of the Tampa bay Lighting and Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers all have 11 assists. Voracek is tied for the league lead in points with Tyler Seguin of the Dallas Stars and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Each guy has 15 points for the season.

I know, I know there was a Thursday night football game. Schaumburg Stu was the only one of us smart enough to pick the New Orleans Saints to beat the Carolina Panthers. The Saints (4-4) piled up 375 yards to snap a seven-game losing streak on the road that dated back to last November. Brees finished 24 of 34 for 297 yards and Mark Ingram turned in another solid performance with 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Brees threw an interception and fumbled in the first quarter before settling down late in the second quarter and leading touchdown drives on four out of five possessions. The Saints’ defense sacked Cam Newton four times and forced two turnovers. Newton, who spent much of the night under heavy duress playing behind an offensive line without three of its regular starters, was limited to 151 yards passing. The Saints won 28-10 to take the lead in the NFC South division.

So how was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday. 10/29/14

Posted: October 29, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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We’re going to have a World Series Game 7 in Kansas City tonight and the Royals made sure of that last night with a 10-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants last night (Tuesday) in Game 6. Kansas City jumped on Giants starter Jake Peavey early last night and never looked back. Peavey lasted just 1 1/3rd innings last night. Peavey was charged with giving up 5 earned runs on 6 hits while walking 1 and striking out 2. Yusmeiro Petit came in to finish the 2nd inning and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits as the Royals put up a 7 run 2nd inning. Yordano Ventura gave the Royals the strong starting pitching performance they needed. Ventura did walk 5 in his 7 innings, but didn’t give up any runs while striking out 4 and only allowing San Francisco 2 hits. Like you’d expect the Royals bullpen came in the final 2 innings to wrap up the game, but this time it was Jason Frasor in the 8th and Tim Collins in the 9th. Kansas City got 15 hits on the game with Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas and Omar Infante all had 2 hits apiece. Both of Moustakas went for extra bases; a double off of Peavey in the big 2nd inning and then a 7th inning home run off of Giants reliever Hunter Strickland. Cain also drove in 3 runs. The starting pitcher are Tim Hudson for the Giants and Jeremy Guthrie for the Royals. Of course being that it’s a Game 7 you’d have to think that everyone pitcher from both teams would be available except for maybe Ventura. The first pitching questions that comes up is will we see Madison Bumgarner out of the San Francisco bullpen. You have to wonder what kind of game it will be tonight as only one of these World Series games have been close. Game 3 was decided by was a 3-2 Royals victory. Will we get a classic tight Game 7? or will we get a game like we’ve been getting in this World Series; an easy victory for one of these teams. Who are you picking to win tonight?

After a couple of rough weeks making NFL picks Dan the Man bounced back to take Week 8 with a 11-3 record. Schaumburg Stu and I tied a game behind Dan at 10-4 while Mr. Fantasy struggled through an 8-6 week. For the season I still hold a one game lead on Schaumburg Stu. I am 76-43-1 with Schaumburg Stu at 75-44-1. Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy are tied after Week 8 with an overall record of 73-46-1. There are 6 teams on bye during Week 9; so will see if this helps us make better picks.

Mr. Fantasy either figured out or found out that I had put him into a challenge with my friend Greg. Greg got the better of Mr. Fantasy last week; so let’s look and see how their picks for highest scoring players at each position did. They did pick the same player at running back, wide receiver and tight end, but will get to those picks in a minute. Will start at quarterback. Mr. Fantasy picked Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers while Greg’s pick was Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints. Brees was the 5th highest scoring quarterback of Week 8 with 24.07 points. Rodgers picked up an injury in his game, but still finished 11th among quarterbacks for the week with 18,46 points. Pittsburgh Steelers Ben Roethlisberger at 47.59 points was the highest scoring quarterback of the week. At running back they both went with Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears. Forte was the 2nd highest scoring running back of the week scoring 34.05 points. Houston Texans running back Arian Foster and his 43.30 points was the only player who stood in between Forte and the top scoring running back spot. At the wide receiver position Jordy Nelson of the Green Bay Packers was Mr. Fantasy and Greg’s choice. Nelson had 3 catches for 25 yards and a total of 4.75 fantasy points and 74th place among wide receivers. Ouch! Jeremy Maclin of the Philadelphia Eagles led all wide receivers with 42.95 points. They both liked New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. Gronkowski was a very good pick as “Gronk” was the highest scoring tight end of the week with 39.90 points. Mr. Fantasy dislikes having to pick a kicker, but he went with Mason Crosby of the Green Bay Packers. I don’t know how Greg feels about picking a kicker each week, but he went with Dan Bailey of the Dallas Cowboys. With 12 points Crosby finished 8th among kickers in Week 8. Bailey had 5 points and tied for 24th place among kickers. For sleeper picks Mr. Fantasy chose Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Donte Moncrief. Moncrief had 7 catches for 113 yards and a touchdown while scoring 22.80 points for the week. Greg went with Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Zach Mettenberger who was making his first NFL start. Mettenberger threw for 299 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Mettenberger also had a rushing attempt for -1 yards was sacked twice and lost a fumble. Mettenberger totaled 13.13 fantasy points for Week 8. This looks like it’s close to call, but it might be Mr. Fantasy by a nose here.

The NBA opened their season last night with 3 games on the schedule; 2 early starts and 1 late start time. The San Antonio Spurs got their ring hung their banner and then got a 1 point win, 101-100 over the Dallas Mavericks. The other early game had the New Orleans Pelicans beating the Orlando Magic 101-84. The night-cap had the Houston Rockets getting a win over the Los Angeles Lakers 108-90. James harden of the Houston Rockets was the high scorer of the night with 32 points. Nikola Vucevic the center for the Magic grabbed 23 rebounds to led all players last night. Magic rookie point guard Elfrid Payton had 7 assists to led all players in last nights games. There was also a Dwight Howard elbow to Kobe Bryant that Howard was accessed a flagrant foul on. Injury wise Lakers rookie forward Julius Randle, the team’s top draft choice in June, broke his right leg midway through the fourth quarter. The stat line of the night has to go to Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis. Davis had 26 points, 17 rebounds, 9 blocked shots just missing a triple double. Davis also added 3 steals and 2 assists on the night.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

10/25/14 How was your Week?

Posted: October 25, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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Game 3 of the World Series went to the Kansas City Royals 3-2 giving them a 2 games to 1 lead in the series with Game 4 tonight in San Francisco. After games that were won by 5 runs and 6 runs Game 3 was more of the style the Royals have played through the playoffs. Alcides Escobar doubled to left field to lead off the game against Giants starter Tim Hudson. A ground out by Alex Gordon moved Escobar to 3rd and another ground out by Lorenzo Cain gave the Royals a 1-0 lead. With 1 out in the top of the 6th inning Escobar singled, Gordon followed that with a double and Escobar scored for a 2-0 Royals lead. Cain ground to 3rd for the 2nd out of the inning and that was it for Hudson. Giants left hander Javier Lopez was brought into the game to face Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer. Hosmer singled to center off of Lopez scoring Gordon as the Royals took a 3-0 lead. The Giants cam back in the bottom of the 6th inning off of Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie. Brandon Crawford singled, Mike Morse pinch hit for Lopez and doubled Crawford home for the Giants 1st run. Morse’s double ended Guthrie’s night as the Royals went to their bullpen for Kelvin Herrera. Herrera walked Gregor Blanco to put Giants on 1st and 2nd. Joe Panik grounded out moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd then a ground out by Buster Posey scored Morse as Blanco went to 3rd. Pablo Sandoval ground out to end the Giants half of the 6th and the scoring for the night at 3-2. Guthrie got the win for Kansas City pitching 5 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 runs. Out of the Royals bullpen Herrera pitched 1 1/3rd innings, Brandon Finnegan pitched 2/3rd of an inning, Wade Davis pitched and inning and Greg Holland pitched the 9th inning for the save. In their 4 innings the Kansas City bullpen didn’t give up a hit and struck out 4 batters. Hudson took the loss for San Francisco pitching 5 2/3rd innings giving up 3 runs and 4 hits while walking 1 and striking out 2. Lopez pitched a 1/3rd of an inning out of the San Francisco bullpen followed by Sergio Romo for an 1 1/3rd innings, Jeremy Affeldt for 1 1/3rd innings and Santiago Casilla for a 1/3rd of an inning. The San Francisco bullpen didn’t give up any runs just 2 hits while striking out 5 Royals. Game 4 is tonight at 7:00 p.m. weather permitting. There is some rain forecast for the San Francisco area tonight. Jason Vargas is the scheduled starter for Kansas City While Ryan Vogelsong is listed as the San Francisco starter.

Thursday night football had an AFC West battle as the Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers 35-21. Denver improved to 6-1 while San Diego fell to 5-3. At halftime Denver was up 14-7, but out up 2 touchdowns in the 3rd quarter to take a 28-7 lead before San Diego got on the board in the 3rd to make it 28-14 going into the 4th quarter. Denver scored first in the 4th quarter to go ahead 35-14 before San Diego got the final touchdown making the score 35-21. Luckily for us we had all picked Denver to win the game.

Fantasy wise it’s always a good play to have your Broncos in your line up. Peyton Manning was 25 for 35 for 286 yards and 3 touchdowns. All 3 of Manning passing touchdowns went to Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders also had 9 catches for 120 yards to go with those 3 touchdowns. Demaryius Thomas also had 8 catches going for 105 yards. Ronnie Hillman put up 109 yards on the ground carrying the football 20 times and adding 3 catches for 29 yards. Juwan Thompson only had 7 carries for 29 yards, but 2 of those carries went for touchdowns. For San Diego Phillip Rivers was 30 of 41 for 252 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Keenan Allen had 9 catches for 73 yards and a touchdown while Antonio gates had 5 catches for 54 yards and 2 touchdowns. Malcolm Floyd also added 4 catches for 58 yards. The San Diego ground game didn’t get much going Thursday night. Branden Oliver led the Chargers in rushing with 13 carries for 36 yards, but Oliver did add 7 receptions for 27 yards. If you’re in a PPR (Point Per Reception) league those catches Oliver got will help a lot. If you’re in a league that scores defensive players Brandon Marshall got in on 10 tackles for the Broncos with 2 going for losses while Chris Harris and Rahim Moore had the Broncos interceptions. For the Chargers Eric Weddle totaled 11 tackles with 9 of them being solo tackles.

Tonight (Saturday) is our Sports Time Radio fantasy league NBA draft. There are some injured players that will have to figure out how we’re going to handle. Steve Nash of the Los Angeles Lakers is out for the season; so of course you don’t want him on your team, but here are some more players will have to think about. While Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder is out of his cast and in a walking boot he’s still a long way away from returning to the court. The earliest Durant might return is the end of November, but it will probably be later than that. It looked like the Thunder’s free agent signing Anthony Morrow would get more minutes in Durant’s absence, but Morrow is also injured and will be out until November as well. The Thunder also lost 1st round draft pick Mitch McGary in pre-season to a foot injury and he’s doubtful for the start of the season. For the Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo out indefinitely with facial fracture. Also for the Magic 3 point shooting big man Channing Frye is expected to be out for the start of the season with a knee injury. Philadelphia 76ers star point guard Michael Carter-Williams will be out until November with a shoulder injury. The 76ers also maybe without their 1st round draft pick Joel Embiid who may miss the start of the season with back problems. Kawhi Leonard made a name for himself in the NBA finals, but the San Antonio Spurs guard is having some eye issues and may miss the start of the season. I was looking for a big season out of Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beals, but he’s out until November with a wrist injury. New Orleans Pelicans point guard Tyreke Evans may miss the start of the season with a knee injury. While the Milwaukee Bucks may not win a lot of games this season their center Larry Sanders is a valuable fantasy player if he can stay on the court. Sanders has had personal and injury issues and may not start the 2014-15 season because of t=what the Bucks are calling an undisclosed injury. Like I mentioned we know the Steve Nash is done for the Lakers, but Nick Young (Swaggy P.) is doubtful for the start of the season with a thumb injury. We all saw the horrible injury Indiana Pacers forward Paul George sustained playing for Team USA this summer. George has said he may be back for the end of the season and the playoffs and while it would be great for him to make it back he won’t be much help to fantasy players. Pacers power forward David West is also dealing with an ankle injury and may miss the start of the season. Shaun Livingston who is now playing for the Golden State warriors looks like he’ll miss the start of the season because of a toe injury. The Denver Nuggets look like they might be missing three players to start the season. Point guard Nate Robinson (knee) and Forward/center JaVale McGee (leg) might miss the start of the season and J.J. Hickson has a banged up knee as well as having to serve a 5 game suspension to start the season. Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls has a thumb injury and may miss the start of the season. Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets is having a foot issue and may miss the start of the season. Kevin Garnett, Brook Lopez and Deron Williams of the Brooklyn Nets are all dealing with injury issues and may miss the start of the season. Rajon Rondo the Boston Celtics point guard may miss the start of the season with a hand injury. These are just some of the players will have to decide what to do with tonight. While I’m sure some of them will play opening night for their teams some of w=them will miss games and playing time. making the right choice in a draft can make or break your fantasy basketball season from the opening tip.

So how was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

10/22/14 Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 22, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The World Series got under way last night in Kansas City as the Royals hosted the San Francisco Giants. The Giants took the 1st game of this World Series 7-1 on the strength of Madison Bumgarner left arm. Bumgarner pitched 7 innings allowing just 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 5. Javier Lopez and Hunter Strickland pitched an inning apiece out of the Giants bullpen to wrap up the Game 1 win. The Giants wasted very little time getting to Royals Game 1 starter James Shields putting together 5 straight hits in the 1st inning highlighted by a Hunter Pence 2 run home run and had a 3-0 lead on the Royals before Kansas City had even batted. Shields lasted just 3 innings giving up 7 hits and 5 runs. San Francisco added 2 more runs in the top of 4th off of Shields and then 2 more runs off of Danny Duffy in the top of the 7th inning. Salvador Perez accounted for the only Royals run with a solo home run in the bottom of the 7th inning. For the Giants, Pence was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s and 2 walks. Pablo Sandoval also added 2 hits for the Giants going 2 for 5 with 2 RBI’s. Game 2 is tonight in Kansas City with Jake Peavey takes the mound looking to give the Giants a 2-0 in the series. The Royals counter with rookie Yordano Ventura as their starting pitcher. While it’s not a must win game for Kansas City tonight you’d have to think they need a win so the series doesn’t go to San Francisco down 2-0.

Week 7 was my week in the picks we do for Sports Time Radio. I went 12-3, Schaumburg Stu finished 2nd with a record of 11-4, Mr. Fantasy was 10-5 in 3rd and Dan the Man was at the bottom last week going 9-6. For the season I have taken a 1 game lead at 66-39-1 over Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy who are at 65-40-1 while Dan the Man has dropped to the bottom of the standings at 62-37-1. Will make out Week 8 picks on Sunday’s show from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on www.blogtalkradio.com; so we’ll see how those picks go.

As you know if you’ve listened to the show Mr. Fantasy picks a high scoring player at each position and also makes a sleeper pick for the week as well. What he didn’t know this week was that I had a friend (Greg) who is a long time fantasy player makes picks against him. Neither guy knew who the other would be picking but they only picked one position the same. So let’s see how their picks went. At quarterback they both went with Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts. Luck finished 10th among quarterbacks for Week 7 with 17.38 points. Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks was the highest scoring quarterback of Week 7 with 35.11 points. At running back Mr. Fantasy went with Arian Foster of the Houston Texans while Greg went with DeMarco Murray of the Dallas Cowboys. Murray ended the week in 5th place among running backs while Foster was the 11th highest scoring running back of the week. Murray had 28.20 points while Foster had 23.50 points; Matt Forte led all running backs with 31.65 points in Week 7. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy selected Steve Smith Sr. of the Baltimore Ravens while Greg took Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Smith finished in 45th place among wide receivers for Week 7 while Brown end the week in 8th place. Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos was the leading scorer at wide receiver with 35.35 points, Brown had 22.23 points while Smith had 8.95 points for Week 7. At the tight end position Mr. Fantasy picked Jordan Reed of the Washington Redskins while Greg picked Greg Olsen of the Carolina Panthers. Reed finished 17th among tight ends while Olsen was in 2nd place. Reed scored 9.15 points for the week while Olsen had 16.75 points. Gavin Escobar of the Dallas Cowboys scored 20.75 to lead all tight ends in Week 7. At Kicker Mr. Fantasy picked Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens while Greg went with Adam Vinatieri of the Indianapolis Colts. Nick Folk of the New York Jets led all kickers for Week 7 with 15 points. Tucker scored 9 points and ended the week in 13th place while Vinatieri scored 12 points and finished in 7th place for Week 7. For sleeper picks Mr. fantasy selected Chris Hogan wide receiver of the Buffalo Bills who scored 8.05 points for Week 7 and ranked as the 53rd among wide receivers. Greg selected Daniel Thomas running Miami Dolphins who scored 9 points and finished 37th among the Week 7 running backs. It looks like Greg may have gotten the better of Mr. Fantasy for Week 7. Will have to see how the Week 8 picks work out. Just so everyone knows I use the scoring system that is customized for our Yahoo league.

Early in the NHL season there are only three teams that haven’t lost a game in regulation. The Washington Capitals are 3-0 with 2 games decided in overtime or shoot outs. The Nashville Predators are 4-0 with 2 games being decided in overtime or shoot outs and the Chicago Blackhawks are also 4-0 with 1 game being decided by overtime or in a shoot out. While those teams have yet to lose a game in regulation the Montreal Canadiens with a 6-1 record have the most points at 12. The Anaheim Ducks are 5-1 and are tied with the Predators at 10 points behind the Canadiens. While Tyler Seguin of the Dallas Stars and John Tavares of the New York Islanders lead the NHL in points with 10 it’s Rick Nash of the New York Rangers leading the NHL in goals with 8. There are four players tied for the league lead in assists with 7; Tavares, Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks, Jason Spezza of the Dallas Stars and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks are the players that are tied. While it’s very, very early in the season and these stats will change not only from week to week, but from game to game I still enjoy knowing who the league leaders are. I know there’s no real reason for it, but it’s something I’ve enjoyed looking at since I was young and I continue to do it almost on a daily basis. I always want to know who scored and who got assists. Hopefully one of your favorite players is among the league leaders or your favorite team still hasn’t lost a game.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week? 10/18/14

Posted: October 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports
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I realized right after I posted the Wednesday blog that I forgot to include how Mr. Fantasy did with his picks for highest scoring position player for Week 6. So let’s starts off this blog with getting caught up on who he picked and how they did. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears. Cutler was the 12th highest scoring quarterback of the week with 16.52 points. Cam Newton led all quarterbacks in Week 6 with 36.63 points. Mr. Fantasy’s running back choice was Giovani Bernard of the Cincinnati Bengals. Bernard finished 4th among running backs with 29.20 points. Matt Forte was the highest scoring running back in Week 6 with 39.45 points. T.Y. Hilton of the Indianapolis Colts put up some big numbers for wide receivers against the Houston Texans two Thursday’s ago (10/9/14) scoring 35.30 points. Mr. Fantasy went with Julio Jones of the Atlanta Falcons to be th highest scoring wide receiver from Sunday’s and Monday’s game. Jones ended the week 38th among wide receivers with 11.40 points. Andre Holmes of the Oakland Raiders was the highest scoring wide receiver on Sunday with 27.35 points. For his tight end Mr. Fantasy picked Greg Olsen of the Carolina Panthers. Olson was the 5th highest scoring tight end of the week while Jace Amaro of the New York Jets led all Week 6 tight ends with 20.30 points. Every fantasy team needs a kicker and for Week 6 Mr. Fantasy’s team went with Mike Nugent of the Cincinnati Bengals. Nugent was the 3rd highest scoring kicker of the week with 15 points. The New England Patriots Stephen Gostkowski was the Week 6 leader for kickers with 18 points. In Week 6 Mr. Fantasy took Storm Johnson of the Jacksonville Jaquars as his Week 6 sleeper pick. While Johnson didn’t put up great numbers he did find his way into the end zone and ended the week with 14.65 points. Johnson had 14 carries for 48 yards with that rushing touchdown. He also caught 1 pass, but it went for -4 yards. As far as running backs go I don’t think Johnson would’ve been too much help to your fantasy team, but he had a solid week. Will see how Mr. Fantasy’s Week 7 picks do.

The World Series is set and will begin Tuesday October 21st in Kansas City as the Kansas City Royals host the San Francisco Giants. The Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles to get into the World Series while the Giants took 5 game to beat the St. Louis Cardinals. I was a little surprised to see that the Giants are going to bring back Madison Bumgarner to start Game 1. I thought Tim Hudson might get the Game 1 call to give Bumgarner an extra day of rest. The Royals will go with James Shields as their Game 1 starter. There’s been a lot of talk about the Royals bullpen and with good reason. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland have been lights out this post season. Herrera’s appeared in 7 post season games covering 8 1/3rd innings. Herrera has 10 strikeouts and has given up 1 run for an ERA of 1.08. Davis has appeared in 8 post season games covering 9 1/3rd innings giving up 1 run while striking out 10 for an E.R.A. of 0.96. Holland closes games for the Royals and has appeared in 8 post season games saving 6 of them. Holland has pitched 8 innings striking out 10 with an ERA of 1.13. While those are great numbers for the Royals bullpen don’t sleep on the Giants bullpen. While not as heralded this post season the Giants group of Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and closer Santiago Casilla have been very good as well. You could also add left-handed specialist Javier Lopez who’s appeared in 6 games, but has only pitched 2 innings and hasn’t given up a run. Affeldt has appeared in 7 post season games covering 6 1/3rd innings and hasn’t given up a run. Romo was the Giants closer early in the season, but is now the set up guy. He’s pitched in 7 post season games, but has only thrown 4 2/3rd innings. Romo has 4 holds and an ERA of 1.93. Casilla has appeared in 7 post season games and has pitched 6 2/3rd innings and also hasn’t given up a run. You’d have to think will see a lot of these pitchers in the World Series and this may turn out to be the key. Which ever bullpen can continue the run that they’re on may end up winning it all. Her are two bullpen pitchers; one from each team to keep an eye on besides the main relievers. Yusmeiro Petit of the Giants. While Petit has only been in 2 post season games they cover 9 innings. Petit may be the guy the Giants call on if a starter gets in trouble early in a game. If games don’t go as planned for the Royals Jason Frasor may become a pitcher to look for out of their bullpen. Frasor has made 4 post season appearances getting 2 wins and not giving up any runs. There always seems to be a guy or two you don’t expect to pitch in and help his team and these maybe be a couple of names you’ll see.

Big names normally don’t get traded during the season in the National Football League. Last season Trent Richardson went from the Cleveland Browns to the Indianapolis Colts for a 1st round draft pick. Yesterday Percy Harvin was traded from the Seattle Seahawks to the New York Jets. Seattle will receive a conditional draft pick in 2015, which will range from a 2nd to 4th round selection. This move came as a surprised to most people, but then a report came out that the Seahawks had been listening to trade offers for Harvin for a few weeks now. When Seattle acquired Harvin from the Minnesota Vikings they gave up a 1st, 3rd and 7th round draft picks to get him. Right after the trade was made stories came out about Harvin not being a good locker room guy and that the team had grown tired of the receiver’s act, believing he had become too much of a destructive force in the locker room. In addition, two team sources said Harvin had physical confrontations in the locker room with teammates, especially on the offensive side of the ball. While Harvin is a weapon on offense and returning kicks he’s had problems staying healthy, but if he can stay healthy he’ll be part of a top wide receiver pairing with Eric Decker who was signed last off-season as a free agent. It doesn’t look like to big of a risk for the 1-6 Jets as only this season of Harvin’s contract is guaranteed meaning if things don’t go well the rest of the season they can let him go with no salary cap hit. It should make the Jets offense interesting to watch the rest of the season.

If you’re a fantasy basketball player we have our league set up and we’re looking for players. We’re at 14 teams right now and we’re hoping to get to 20 teams. It’s an auction style draft and it’s run through the Yahoo fantasy sports site and did I mention it’s free to play. If you’re interested here’s the link to join. It’s “Sports Time Radio” the draft is a week from today.

So how was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

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