Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

How was your week

Posted: July 27, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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With the trade deadline in Major League Baseball just four days away there’s no shortage of rumors out their. As we’re waiting for the first major trade to happen there has been so much talk on which player might headline that deal that it’s tough to figure out who it might be. There is however one thing that all of these deals seem to have in common no matter who the player is or what position he plays and I’m not sure how everyone seems to come to this conclusion, but apparently the New York Yankees will be acquiring everyone.

If the Yankees actually went out and dealt for 1/4th of the players they’ve been rumored to imagine what their team would look like. They’d have a bench full of All-Stars that could start on any other team in baseball and their pitching staff would feature all starting pitchers and Aroldis Chapman.

While I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Yankees went out and traded for some type of pitching be it a starter or a bullpen piece I’m not sure why they’re name seems to come up when positions players are involved.

Even with all of the injuries the Yankees have dealt with this season they’ve still hit the baseball well. Brett Gardner and Gary Sanchez both landed on the Injured List this week; so maybe there’s a catcher out their the Yankees might have some interest in, but other than that is there a position player that makes sense for them to add?

Pitching seems to be another story. On Thursday the Yankees pitching gave up 19 runs and 23 hits to the Boston Red Sox. Then last night the Red Sox hit double digits again as they scored 10 runs while picking up 14 hits.

There isn’t a Yankees starting pitcher with an ERA under 4.00, but the question seems to be if the Yankees go out and acquire a starting pitcher which one of the five current starters they have should or will lose their spot in the rotation.

Masahiro Tanaka has made the most starts for the Yankees this season with 21. He is 7-6 with an ERA of 4.79. The talk that I’ve heard lately was that Tanaka doesn’t have “swing and miss stuff” which might not play well coming out of the bullpen. Tanaka was the victim of that Thursday night Red Sox offensive barrage. Tanaka lasted just 3 1/3rd innings giving up 12 hits and being charged with 12 earned runs. Could Tanaka be headed to the bullpen?

J.A. Happ is 8-5 with a 5.23 ERA in 20 starts this season. Happ is 1-2 in his last 5 starts and is coming off a rough outing on Tuesday when he lasted just 3 1/3 innings and gave up 6 run on 6 hits against the Minnesota Twins. The Yankees did find a way to win that game, but Happ was nowhere around for a decision. Happ has always been looked at as a guy who pitches well in pennant races, but could he be headed to the Yankees bullpen?

James Paxton was acquired in the off season and I’m not sure the Yankees have gotten what they expected out of him. Paxton is 5-6 with a 4.72 ERA in 18 starts this season. Paxton was the Yankees starter last night and he gave up 7 runs on 9 hits over 4 innings against the Red Sox. Paxton’s strikeout numbers are good, but this is the second start in a row where he’s failed to more than 4 innings. Could Paxton be headed to the bullpen?

Domingo German is the youngest (26) of the Yankees starters and he’s been the best of the starters this season. German is 12-2 with an ERA of 4.03 in 17 games; 16 of which have been starts. Staying o trend German is coming off his worst start of the season. He lasted 3 2/3rd innings on Monday against the Minnesota Twins. German gave up 8 runs on 9 hits, but oddly the Yankees did end up winning this game in extra innings. German may have the easiest time of any Yankees starter to transition to the bullpen. Would German be the guy who heads to the bullpen if another starter is acquired?

C.C. Sabathia is in his 19th and final season in baseball. He’s made 16 starts this season and is 5-5 with a 4.50 ERA. Sabathia has pitched more than just 6 innings in 6 of his starts this season and his last start was his shortest o the season as he lasted just 4 innings. Sabathia appears to be on his way to Cooperstown when his career is over and you wonder if the Yankees would take him out of the rotation in his final season, but it is possible. Could Sabathia be the starter headed to the bullpen?

Even with the Yankees going 2-4 in their last 6 games and the pitching being just terrible they still have an 8 1/2 game lead in the AL East. Sabathia gets the start today against the Red Sox while German makes the start tomorrow in the series finale. Can these two turn the Yankees starting woes around?

The Tampa Bay Rays have been in playoff contention all season. They started off leading the AL East for quite some time and now they’re holding onto one of the two American League wild card spots, but after an injury to last season Cy Young award winner Blake Snell; can they hold onto a playoff spot?

The Rays are currently in the second and final American League wild card spot, but they are only 1/2 a game ahead of the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A’s. Can they hold off those two teams with Snell on the shelf for a month?

Snell is scheduled to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow to have some loose bodies removed. Snell is expected to be able to return in September, but who knows where the Rays will be in the standings by the time Snell is ready to return.

Coming off his Cy Young award winning season Snell has struggled. In 20 starts this season he is 6-7 with an ERA of 4.28.

I’m sure a lot of this will depend on where the Rays are in the standings when Snell is ready to return, but might it be better for Snell to just shut him down for the season? Snell is 26 years old and appears to have a long career ahead of him as a top of the rotation starter, but is it worth bringing him back this season?

If you’re the Rays; what do you do with Snell when he returns from surgery?

You ca listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: July 20, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, golf, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now I know I’ve mentioned this here before, but my love of sports developed through my father. As a young child he would haul his black and white television into our backyard and I would run around while he watched sports on that television.

Now the majority if the time what was on that little black and white television was baseball, but remember this was a time when we could only watch Chicago Cubs or Chicago White Sox games.

Once those games ended or if they weren’t on until later in the day their where other sports on that we’d watch.

If you’re old enough you’ll remember the Wide World of Sports and their tag line the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. The defeat part came with a ski jumper crashing at the end of the ramp and tumbling to the ground. The other networks had shows to compete with this. One was called the Sports Spectacular, but I’m drawing a blank on what the third show was called.

These shows allowed me the opportunity to watch sports that I would’ve never watched. Boxing was a big feature on a lot of these shows, but they also showed many, many other types of sports. I can remember seeing track and field events, different skiing events as well as speed skating. It was one of these shows where I first saw the Harlem Globetrotters.

These types of shows helped me develop an interest no mater how small it was in other sports besides baseball, football, basketball and hockey. Not only did it help me develop an interest in these sports, but it also made me want to try them. Now there where different varieties of success with these different sports and there where I few I couldn’t try at all due to the cost of them.

One of the sports I was exposed to and got out try was golf and while I never got very good at it I always did enjoy playing it. I have thrown my fair share of clubs, but luckily I never broke one. Getting upset seems to be one of the rites of passage when playing golf. There where also quite a few rounds when I understood what Mark Twain meant when he said “golf is a good walk spoiled”. I haven’t had the chance to play a round in a long time and due to the various injuries I’ve had through the years I don’t even think I could swing a club, but I do still watch golf on television from time to time.

I don’t watch as much golf as I use to. My father was the driving force behind me watching golf when I was younger and now there are a lot more sports on to watch. I do however tune in every now and then especially when they’re playing a major tournament.

That’s the case this week as The Open Championship is being played this weekend at Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The 3rd round of the tournament is actually going on as I’m writing this. J.B. Holmes and Shane Lowry are tie for the lead at -8 while Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood find themselves one stroke back at -7. It’s still a little over an hour before any of these golfers will tee off for their 3rd round.

I am wondering if the golfers that missed the cut for The Open Championship are going to be talked about more than the golfer that wins The Open Championship.

Three of he biggest names in golf missed the cut and won’t be playing this weekend in Northern Ireland. Phil Mickelson (+8), Tiger Woods (+6) and Rory McIlroy (+2) didn’t make the cut for The Open Championship.

With these three players out of the tournament this weekend will this stop you from watching it? Unfortunately I believe that these three big name players missing the cut will dissuade the casual  golf fan from checking things out, but I’ll still flip over to it from time to time and see how it’s going. With the tournament being shown live there isn’t any other sporting event on that’s live and I like that; so I’ll be watching even without Tiger, Rory and Phil.

There hasn’t been a perfect game thrown in Major League Baseball since Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners threw one on August 15th 2012 against the Tampa Bay Rays. Well last night another Mariners pitcher took a perfect game into the 9th inning.

Seattle starter Mike Leake may have been making his last start in a Mariners uniform as his name has been mentioned quite a bit in trade talks. If this was Leake’s last start for the Mariners he will have left them with something to remember.

Last night Leake was pitching against the Los Angeles Angels. Through 8 innings Leake was perfect as no Angels player had reached base either by walk, hit or error. The Mariners had staked Leake to a 10-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th; so the only thing left to be decided was if there would be a perfect game.

Angels rookie 2nd baseman Luis Rengifo was leading of the 9th inning. Rengifo fouled off the first pitch. Leake missed outside with the second pitch to make the count 1-1. On the third pitch of the at bat Rengifo broke up the perfect game and the no-hitter with a single to rightfield.

In a lot of these cases as soon as the pitcher loses a bid like this he is immediately removed from the game, but Leake was allowed to stay in. It took him a hitter to get himself righted again as Kevan Smith walked following Rengifo’s single. With runners on 1st and 2nd a ground out for the 1st out of the inning moved them up to 2nd and 3rd, but that’s where Leake left them. There was a pop up to 2nd base for the second out and Leake struck out Mike Trout to end the game.

Leake threw 98 pitches in his what ended up being a complete game one hitter. He had just the one walk in the 9th inning and he struck out 6 in the game. With the win Leake improved to 8-8 this season and his ERA dropped to 4.27.

With the trade deadline just 11 days away; do you think this was Leake’s last start with the Mariners?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast at your convenience.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: July 17, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I thought with July 31st being the one and only trade deadline in Major League Baseball that we’d see a team or two go out and make some moves early in the month. That hasn’t been the case as just three deals involving major league players changing teams have happened.

Oddly out of the three trades that have been completed the Kansas City Royals have been involved in two of them.

Kansas City’s first deal sent starting pitcher Homer Bailey to the Oakland A’s for minor leaguer Kevin Merrell. Then in a deal of major league players the Royals sent catcher Martin Maldonado to the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Mike Montgomery.

The first trade that was completed this month had the Boston Red Sox picking up starting pitcher Andrew Cashner in exchange for two minor leaguers. Baltimore received 17 year old outfielder Elio Prado and 17 year old infielder Noleberth Romero in the deal.

Humorously there have been a lot of reports that teams are “interested” in certain players, but that’s such a wide open blanket type of statement that no one can really know what is meant. It’s more or less a move by guys who get paid to do this kind of thing for a living to cover themselves when a trade happens. This way a reporter can say something like, well I didn’t have all of the details in this, but there was talk all along that this team was “interested” in this player. I’m sure we’ve all heard something like that said before.

So why haven’t there been more trades made?

I think that there was a good possibility that either the Red Sox or the New York Yankees may have acquired Zack Wheeler from the New York Mets by now had he not have been placed on the Injured List due to shoulder fatigue. It appeared as though he was Boston’s first choice to add to their starting rotation, but they seem to have pivoted when Wheeler was injured and picked up Cashner instead. I’m not sure how much interest the Yankees actually had in Wheeler, but the one thing I’ve learned is that whenever a players name is thrown around in trade talks there is always someone out there reporting that player will go to the Yankees. There’s a chance that the Yankees could add some type of pitching, so why not Wheeler.

Other than that deal there hasn’t been anything that seems like it’s going to happen. Now I’m sure the fact that there are six teams involved in the American League wild card race and legitimately 11 teams still hanging around in the National League wild card race. I’m not sure if the teams that are under .500 will be able to get back to the top of the wild card race in the National League, but if you eliminate them there are still five teams looking for one of those spots. When a team is sitting in this type of position they have to decide if they’re in or they’re out of the playoff hunt and they may wait until closer to the trade deadline to do that.

It was kind of a forgone conclusion that the San Francisco Ginats would be big players in the trade market as they rebuild their team and they still might be, but a four game winning streak coming out of the All-Star Break has them sittting just three games out of the second National League wild card spot.

I’m still under the belief that San Francisco will make some deals and get the rebuild of their franchise under way, but what f they went the other way and became buyers instead of sellers at the trade deadline. That would take a pitcher of talented pitching off of the trade market and that seems to be the one thing that every team contending for a playoff spot needs.

It’s also possible that the trade market has been slowed down by teams unwillingness to deal their top prospects. The key to any top tier player being moved is how many prospects the team he is currently on can get for him. With the prowess some of these rookies have shown it’s possible that a team might want to hang on and continue to develop their own players rather than trading them off for a high priced veteran or a one year rental type of player.

Teams have to somehow weigh their odds of winning a World Series against the career of a guy who’s coming through their minor league system. A team also has to figure out if it’s worth it to deal for a guy who’s in the final year of his contract and might walk away from them after the season. Now in the NBA this worked for the Toronto Raptors as they dealt for Kawhi Leonard and ended up winning the title, but that doesn’t happen to often. There are no guarantees, but a team has to give up a career of a young player for that type of rent a player and that can be a difficult decision.

This is also the first year that there has been one the one trade deadline and there’s a chance that teams are still trying to figure out how to deal with it. Remember after July 31st there used to be waiver trades, but those are gone this season; so once July 31st is past the team you have is well the team you have.

We’re just two weeks away from the trade deadline. How long do you think it will be before we see our first big name player dealt?

I do think once we get that first trade out of the way and it kind of breaks the dam, so we could see multiple trades follow very quickly. Of course the question then becomes; when will we see that trade happen.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and the podcast is available for you to listen to any time you any there.

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How was your week

Posted: July 13, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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After the Houston Rockets sent Chris Paul and some draft picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Russell Westbrook there was one question that popped into my mind and I’m sure I’m not the only one who was thinking or asking it. Did the Rockets get better?

First things first; here’s what the trade looks like. Oklahoma City gets Paul along with a protected 2024 1st round pick, a protected 2026 1st round pick. As well the Thunder have the right to swap draft spots with the Rockets in 2025 and 2021 there is some protection involved in those swaps. Also in 2021 Oklahoma City can swap for Either Houston’s pick or the Miami Heat’s pick which the Rockets currently own through trade.

While a lot of experts seem to think that Westbrook’s game is in decline the Rockets are still getting a player who’s averaged a triple-double in the last three seasons. It seems like a lot of people are pointing out that Westbrook’s scoring average dropped to 22.9 points per game which was his lowest in six seasons, but remember he had Paul George with him in Oklahoma City last season to help with scoring. What for some reason I haven’t heard anyone point out is Westbrook averaged a career high in rebounds per game at 11.1 and what may be even more important now that he’s heading to Houston is he averaged a career high in assists per game at 10.7. Westbrook was the NBA’s leader in assists per game last season and that could bode well now that he’s being paired up with James Harden again.

The one area that has been a problem for Westbrook is shooting the 3-pointer which has become the most important thing a player can do in today’s game. Westbrook shot just 29% from behind the 3-point line last season and has never shot better than 34.3% from behind the 3-point line in his career, but in Houston’s offense they might be able to work around that weakness.

Last season Harden shot 36.8% from behind the 3-point line while Eric Gordon shot 36% and P.J. Tucker shot 37.7% from behind the 3-point line. If Westbrook is o the floor with any combination of these players he wouldn’t be looked at as the guy who would be taking the “3” and this type of combination would give him drive and kick options when the ball is in his hands.

The bigger question may be; how much will Westbrook have the ball in his hands? Harden is very ball dominant when he is on the floor, but Westbrook is also use to having the basketball in his hands all of the time. They still play the game in the NBA with just one basketball on the floor at a time right now; so these two superstars are going to have to figure out how to share that basketball. That may actually be the biggest key to the success of this trade.

The one thing it appears the Rockets are getting in Westbrook is a healthier player than Paul was for them. Westbrook played in 73 games last season while Paul was suited up for 58 games for the Rockets last season. I understand that “load management” is the buzzword this NBA off season, but if you look at their careers Westbrook has been healthier than Paul throughout.

This is going to be an interesting season for the Rockets. I don’t think the trade for Westbrook makes them the best team in the Western Conference, but it’s going to make them one of the more exciting teams to watch.

Now you have to wonder what happens to the 34 year old Paul. It seems clear that the Thunder are in rebuild mode and they have the draft capital to possibly do that quickly, but do they want Paul as the leader of that rebuild?

Paul has three more seasons and quite a bit of money left on his deal. He is also coming off a season where he averaged the lowest points per game of his career at 15.6. Now some of that was because he was on a high powered offensive team that didn’t need him to score, but you do have to wonder if the team he ends up on needs him to score; can he do it?

Now before this deal happened there was a lot of talk that the Rockets where looking for a third team to add into it. It appears as the Miami Heat where that team and you have to wonder if there is still some interest in Paul by Miami. With all of the draft picks Oklahoma City has recently acquired they could sweeten the pot for Miami to take Paul and his large contract.

Of course wither it’s Miami or any other team that acquires Paul they’ll have to take the load management trend to heart. Paul played in just 58 games the last two seasons and hasn’t appeared in all 82 games of a season since the 2014-15 season. It wouldn’t be important for Paul to play in every game for whatever team he ends up on, but I’m sure they’d like to see him play in 70 plus games or so.

Where do you have Paul ending up? Does he stay with Oklahoma City? Will he end up in Miami? Or do you have him going to another team? Please let me know where you’ll think he’ll end up in the comments.

The Los Angeles Angels honored Tyler Skaggs last night and they did something perfect when you’re honoring a pitcher; they threw a no-hitter.

This was the Angels first home game since Skaggs passed away on July 1st. In the pre-game ceremony all the Angels wore Skaggs #45 and his widow Debbie threw out the first pitch.

The Angels then went out and put up 7 runs in the 1st inning on their way to a 13-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Taylor Cole made the start as the “opener” and pitched 2 innings. Cole struck out 2 and threw 22 pitches before giving way to Felix Pena. Pena took the no-hitter the rest of the way pitching the final 7 innings striking out 6. The only Mariners player to reach base was catcher Omar Navaez who Pena walked with one out in the Top of the 5th inning. that was the only blemish on the Angels tribute to Skaggs.

After the final out of the no-hitter the Angels players came out of the dugout to celebrate and the players that where still wearing Skaggs #45 covered the pitching mound with their jerseys as a tribute to Skaggs.

Skaggs actually would’ve turned 28 today July 13th.

Don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIN.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want.

you can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: July 10, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I’m not sure how this came up, but I found it interesting that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred had to defend the number of home runs that are being hit. I’m not surprised at all that he said hat MLB had nothing to do with the baseballs being altered, but MLB Is looking into why their appears to be less drag on the baseball this season. Honestly what did you expect Manfred to say.

I can understand the questions about more home runs being hit, but this seems to be baseballs motus operandi when ratings start to drop. After the last strike; what brought fans back? It was the home run battle between Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. Now to be fair that was more PED generated than baseball related, but MLB didn’t do much to try to stop it. Now the last couple of seasons ratings have been down and appears as though baseball has turn to it’s old friend the home run to help them out again.

Now there are people out their trying to sell you on the fact that players are paying more attention to things like swing plane, launch angle and exit velocity as the reason for the increase in home runs. While I’m sue that those reasons have added to the number of home runs being hit there’s no way that it’s accounted for the jump we’ve had this season.

At the current pace home runs are being hit the record for most home runs in a season will be broken by more than 600 home runs.

I’ve also heard some people say that since pitchers are throwing harder now than ever before in the game a batter doesn’t have to hit the baseball as well for it to go out of the ballpark. Does anybody believe that?

While I like to see players hit home runs as much as the next fan, but when a batter takes a pitch that was almost in the other batters box and hits it 450 feet to the opposite field there’s something going on.

I did find it interesting that when the International League started using the same baseball as MLB does their number of home runs jump exponentially. That seems like it’s a clear indication that it’s the baseball.

To be honest I’m not sure if the home run will solve all of baseballs problem. I’m not sure that more offensive was the problem with baseball and there’s something to be said about a well pitched game. It seems that baseballs biggest problem is still the length of games and I’m not sure if there’s a fix for that. It would also help the game if their where less strikeouts and more baseballs put into play. You can’t tell me you enjoy watching batter after batter strikeout unless the pitcher is either working on a no-hitter or is coming up on the strikeout record. More balls in play would provide more action on the field and that may make the game more attractive to watch.

It makes sense for MLB to want to attract younger viewers to their games, but that a very difficult thing for a game like baseball to do. You need to be patient to watch a baseball game and with the younger audiences today well they want a pay off right away. Of course that quick pay off would be a home run, but that’s not going to happen every time a player comes to bat.

If there’s a way MLB could figure out how to teach kids about the game it might help them stay interested in it as they get older. Of course they have a video game like every other sport, but I think they might have to start at even a younger age than that to try to hook fans in. I started learning about baseball at a very young age, but the only video game I had back then was pong.

There are just so many distractions in today’s society that’s it’s going to be difficult for MLB to find a way to get those younger fans to be interested and stay interested in baseball. Do you have any ideas to help MLB out? If so please leave them in the comments.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about how exciting the Home Run Derby was, but I don’t enjoy it; so I didn’t watch. Now I do enjoy the MLB All-Star game more than the All-Star games from any other sport, but I didn’t get to see much of that last night. From all of the reports I’ve heard it was a pretty good game.

I did find it interesting that Shane Bieber won the MVP award. I didn’t see enough of the game to know who might’ve been in contention for the award, but I’m guessing if they gave it to a pitcher who just threw one inning there must not of been a lot of other choices.

Bieber pitched the 5th inning and worked a clean inning striking out all three batters he faced. I’m sure since the game was played in Cleveland and with there being no clear cut MVP choice they went with the hometown player who had the best night.

Bieber is just 24 years old and was a late addition to the AL All-Star team and by winning the MVP he became only the third player in All-Star game history to be named MVP in his home ballpark. Oddly he is the second Cleveland Indians player to do this. Sandy Alomar Jr. was the All-Star game MVP back in 1997. The other player to win the MVP award in his home ballpark was Pedro Martinez in 1999.

Bieber wasn’t added to the All-Star team until Friday when he replaced Mike Minor of the Texas Rangers, but he became the first pitcher since Mariano Rivera in 2013 to win the MVP. Bieber is also just the 5th pitcher in the past 40 years to win the MVP award. He joins Pedro Martinez (1999), Roger Clemens (1986), LaMarr Hoyt (1985), Rivera of course and Juan Marichal (1965). Only Bieber, Marichal and Rivera earned MVP honors without getting a win in the game.

With al of the All-Star festivities in the books MLB returns to regular season action on Friday.

You can listen to the Sports Time radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: July 6, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Is it possible that we’re only going to get one division race to watch the remainder of the season in Major League Baseball? Well let’s take a look.

Let’s start out west where the Los Angeles Dodgers currently have the largest lead out of any of the division leader. The Dodgers are 14 1/2 games up on the Colorado Rockies in the NL West. Over in the American League West the Houston Astros have a 6 1/2 game lead over the Oakland A’s. Moving back east the Atlanta Braves are at the top of the NL East and they have a 6 1/2 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. In the AL East it’s the New York Yankees who find themselves in 1st place. The Yankees have built a 8 1/2 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays. Looking at the AL Central you’ll see that it’s the Minnesota Twins at the top of the division and they hold a 6 1/2 game lead over the Cleveland Indians.

It’s in the NL Central where thigs get interesting. With a win last night the Milwaukee Brewers took over 1st place in the division by  1/2 game over the Chicago Cubs. Now it’s not just a two team race in the NL Central. The St. Louis Cardinals are in 3rd place, but find themselves just 1 1/2 games out of 1st place. You can even go as far as saying that the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds are still in the division race even though both teams have under .500 records. Both the Pirates and the Reds are 4 games out of 1st place in the NL Central.

This is easily the best division race in baseball and you have to wonder what one of these teams have to do to separate themselves in the pennant race. If there is a team that can separate themselves from the division.

The Cardinals played well early and looked like the best team in the division. Then it was the Brewers turn in 1st place and I actually saw a host on the MLB Network call the division over once the Brewers took over the division lead. I don’t think we need to go into how dumb of a statement that was or why this moron still has a job, but Brewers lead didn’t last as the Cubs found their way into 1st place for a short period of time.

Who knows how this division is going to end up playing out, but it seems like it’s going to be the only division that’s undecided down the stretch this season. Well I guess there’s always the wild card races.

In the American League wild card race it’s the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians who hold the two wild card spots right now.

Cleveland is just 1/2 game ahead of the Oakland A’s while the Boston Red Sox and Texas Ranger are 2 games back. Let’s even throw in the Los Angeles Angels who are 4 1/2 games out of a wild card spot and the Chicago White Sox find themselves 6 games out of a wild card spot.

There are even more teams hanging around in the National League wild card race. Currently it’s the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies who are holding onto the two wild card spots, but it’s a tight race.

There are actually nine teams that are less than 8 games out of the final wild card spot. Now obviously it’s going to be tough for the team towards the bottom of the wild card race to jump all these teams, but since it’s so close I’ll throw them in.

The Washington Nationals are 1/2 games out. The St. Louis Cardinals are 1 game out. The Colorado Rockies are 1 1/2 games out. The Arizona Diamondbacks are 2 1/2 games out. The San Diego Padres are 3 games out while the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati reds are 3 1/2 games out. While it seems like it’s been a down year for the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets they’re both technically still in the wild card race. The Giants are 6 1/2 games out of a wild card spot while the Mets are 7 games out of that final wild card spot.

The NL Central and the wild card look like the races to watch for the remainder of the season and will have to see which teams try to improve themselves to get into the playoffs.

While nothing is official yet it appears as Kawhi Leonard will be signing with the Los Angeles Clippers. As well as bringing Leonard in as a free agent the Clippers have acquired Paul George in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Leonard had meetings with the Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers and the team he just won the NBA title with the Toronto Raptors and he made it clear that he wanted to sign with a team that could contend for a championship.

It had also been reported that Leonard and George had express interest in playing together. This help facilitate George being traded to the Clippers. Apparently George’s agent recently approached the Thunder about a trade and it’s believe that George is the perfect piece to pair with Leonard.

I was quite surprised to see what the Clippers gave up to get George. Oklahoma City will receive point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and a number of draft picks. The Thunder will also receive five 1st round picks. They’ll get unprotected picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026 from the Clippers along with two picks the Clippers acquired in trades from the Miami Heat. Those are an unprotected pick in 2021 and a protected pick in 2023. Oklahoma City also has the option to swap picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025.

That may seem like a lot of draft capital to give up and the first thought that comes to mind is did the Clippers mortgage their future. Don’t forget that the Clippers acquired multiple draft picks in the deal that sent Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers last season.

So a California team has added some more star power. Do you think the addition of Leonard and George males the Clippers a contender for the NBA title? Also are you disappointed that this is where Leonard ended up?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you happen to miss the podcast live all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you’d like.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: July 3, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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With NBA free agency moving fast and furious I thought it was interesting that there where people out their who thought that the other leagues could learn something from the way it went. Now sadly this plays into a lack of knowledge of the other sports as free agency on the NFL and the NHL move along at just about a fast of a pace as NBA free agency does. I guess no one was paying attention to those other two sports. Now baseball on the other hand they definitely could learn something.

Free agency is much easier to forecast when that certain league has a salary cap. Things are made even easier in the NBA as teams know what the maximum amount of years and money they can offer a player. While the NFL and the NHL don’t have the same contract limits and dollar amount they are still working against a salary cap.

Over in baseball it’s an entirely different story. There is no salary cap; so in reality teams can spend as much money as they’d like, but there is a luxury tax which a team has to pay if their total salaries go over a certain number. I’ve seen quite a few people try to say that the luxury tax is baseballs salary cap, but it’s not even close to that. In MLB it’s completely up to the team if they want to go over the luxury tax while in a salary cap league you have to make roster moves to stay under that salary cap number.

I don’t expect MLB to adopt a salary cap any time soon as it seems that the luxury tax has worked for them. If you’ve noticed these last few seasons most of the higher salaried teams have been doing their best to stay under the luxury tax line.

So while I don’t believe that baseball has to make any moves with their luxury tax I do think they could learn a thing or two about making their off season more interesting. With a new CBA coming up will see if there are any changes made to head that way.

We’re a little past the half way point with games played in baseball and looking at the standings and the way that things have played out I’d have to say that even though they’re 5 games over the .500 mark the Boston Red Sox have been one of the more disappointing teams this season.

Coming off of a World Series winning 2018 season the Red Sox went into the off season trying to stay under or close to the luxury tax we just talked about; so that took them out of the free agent market.

The only off season signings the Red Sox made was of their own players. They brought back World Series MVP Steven Pearce on a one year deal. Then they re-signed Nathan Eovaldi to a four year $68 million dollar deal.

Since the Red Sox where working on the cheap they allowed closer Craig Kimbrell to go into free agency. It was decided that they’d use a closer by committee format and that hasn’t served them very well. Boston has had 34 save opportunities this season and they’ve converted on just 17 of them. Six different relivers have saved at least one game this season with Ryan Brasier leading the way with 7 saves. I can understand the Red Sox not wanting to meet Kimbrell price as he was asking for 5 years and around $15 to $18 million dollars a season, but it appears as though they need a better solution than what they’ve been doing.

As for a better solution will see, but the Red Sox are making a change at closer. Boston has announced that when Eovaldi is reinstated from the 60 day IL he’ll be the teams closer. Now this could be as interesting as it is intriguing since health hasn’t been Eovaldi’s strong suit in his career.

Eovaldi went on the IL after he needed to have what was described as “loose bodies” removed from his right elbow. He is expected back after the All=Star break; when he’ll move into his new role.

In his career that has covered almost eight full seasons Eovaldi has pitched in 160 regular season games, but 152 of them have been as a starter. He has 0 career saves. As a starter Eovaldi has only made 30 plus starts once in his career 2014 and he hit his highest inning total in that same season 199 2/3rds. He has piled up quite a few injuries in his career even missing the entire 2017 season as he recovered from surgery.

Can he really be a guy who can be called on out of the bullpen to pitch two or even three days in a row?

It clear that the Red Sox are banking on the same kind of success as a closer that Eovaldi had coming out of the bullpen last post season, but is that really a reliable way to gauge him as a closer?

It’s clear that the Red Sox have to do something at the end of games as they find themselves 10 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East race. Boston is also 1 1/2 games behind the Oakland A’s for the second American League wild card spot, but aren’t their other options.

The Red Sox have always had a highly rated farm system and you’d have to think they’d be able to turn one of those prospects into an upgrade at closer and their should be some on the trade market.

I’m sure for the right prospect or package of prospects Boston could pick up Brad Hand, Shane Greene, Will Smith or a handful of other closers. It seems a though the Colorado Rockies have soured on Wade Davis and you can understand why with an ERA of 5.76, but he’s done the job before and has quite a bit of post season experience. You also have to think with the struggles Davis has had Boston might not have to give up too much to get him.

It will be interesting to see how Eovaldi fairs as a closer and if the Red Sox will make a deal just to have a guy in the bullpen; just in case. Whatever the Red Sox are going to do they can’t wait much longer or else their chances of repeating will be gone.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: June 22, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Well there are a couple things in baseball that really seem to be bothering me lately; so I want to see if writing about them will help me.

Let’s start off with the problem I have with just about every baseball writer out their. How come every time there’s a player possibly being traded they all have him going to the New York Yankees? Is it the east coast bias of these wroters? Or are they really just that ignorant to think that every single player dealt is headed to New York?

The latest example of this started when Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said some thing the affect of the Yankees would do anything they had to do to acquire Max Scherzer. Of course to contradict this the Nationals have said that they’re not trading Scherzer. If you remember just back to last season Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo had a deal in place that would’ve sent Bryce Harper to the Houston Astros. This deal was vetoed by Nationals owner Ted Lerner and it’s been reported that Lerner would do the same thing in any deal regarding Scherzer. It was said that Lerner would like to see Scgerzer be the first Nationals player inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Now even with these reports it’s not going to stop these writers to write over and over that Scherzer will be joining the Yankees. Interestingly the Yankees farm system was ranked just outside of the Top 10 to start the season; so why wouldn’t the Nationals deal Scherzer to a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Astros who’s farm systems where ranked inside the Top 10 at the start of the season. Evem though they’re in the same division as the Atlanta Braves maybe Washington would consider sending Scherzer there since the Braves have one of the best farm systems in baseball.

Let’s face it if the Nationals do decide to trade Scherzer it’s going to be for a big return of prospects and there are quite a few other teams that can offer more than the Yankees could. Maybe these writers think that Washington would be willing to take some of the Yankees glut of outfielders that they currently have n their major league roster. Couldn’t you just see a trade for Scherzer headlined by Brett Gardner or Aaron Hicks while throwing Cameron Maybin into the deal.

Now I’m sure these writers will defend themsleves and say that Cashman was the only Genral Manager who came out and said they’d deal for Scherzer. To that I’d say; how many other General Managers did you ask? I’m sure the answer to that would be a big fat zero.

Now I’m not saying that the Yankees can’t and won’t acquire Scherzer it’s just the way they go about reporting it that drives me up the wall. See now that it’s been written one time it will be written over and over again and then it will make it’s way onto the MLB Network and it will get to the point that this will be all we hear about while teams are out there making actual moves not deals that the writers want to see happen.

One down; one to go.

Now I’m sure that I’ve mentioned here before that I live in the Chicago suburbs. It also comes up from time to time on the Sports Time Radio podcast.

My father was born and raised in the town of Macomb Illinois. In Macomb you are either a St. Louis Cardinals fan or a Chicago Cubs fan. My mother was born and raised in Chicago and while she wasn’t a huge baseball fan her family where White Sox fans. This led to a bit of a split in my fandom growing up even though I’d say that I rooted for the Cubs a little more than I did the White Sox even though I did want to see both teams win. Even when we went to games to was split right down the middle. We’d go to two games a year one at Wrigley Field to see the Cubs and one at Comiskey Park to see the White Sox. This always put me in an interesting position and lately what I’ve seen out of Cubs fans has left me feeling disgusted.

Now when I started watching the Cubs they where rarely in contention for a playoff spot and in most cases the team finished under .500. I’m sure you remember the Cubs being call “Loveable Losers”. Then finally in 2016 the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. In the two years following that World Series win the team has made the playoffs in 2017 and just missed out last season losing a game 163; so they’re a good team.

Since the team has been winning and they’re competitive again this season as they are currently in 1st place in the NL Central. The Cubs have a 1 1/2 game lead over the 2nd place Milwaukee Brewers. This seems to have brought out a very unlikeable side to their fan base.

I’m sure that not all Cubs fans are like this, but it seems as though the ones that are active on social media are whiny entitled crybabies and it’s too the point where I don’t even want to watch Cubs games because if they lose I don’t want to deal with these people.

Now as an 8 or 9 year old kid my life hinged on every game and if the Cubs lost it would crush me and then my father would remind me that they’ll be playing again tomorrow. Now if the Cubs lose a game I see on social media that the team they lost to was lucky or whatever other excuse that comes to their mind and it’s sad to see an adult act like they even if they are a big fan of the team.

Baseball is an odd sport and no matter who your favorite team is they’re going to lose quite a few games in a season. If you’re hanging by a thread for every single game it’s going to make for a long, long season. as fa and out of shape as I am if I watched baseball like this I’d be dead of a heart attack by the All-Star break.

Now I’m also sure that from time to time your favorite team loses a game because the team they where playing caught a break or got a good bounce, but crying about it on social media doesn’t make you look very good. I actually saw Cubs fans crying that Eloy Jimenez was just lucky to hit what turned out to be the game winning home run in the first game of the series between the Cubs and the White Sox. Was it really luck?

No this has in no way changed my feelings towards the Cubs. I’d like to see them and the White Sox continue to win as many games as they can get into the playoffs and win the World Series. It’s just the terrible way that Cubs fans act that has turned me off from the games this season. Maybe they’ll grow up at some point and time and start acting like an adult would ask even of the team s going to lose and my prediction is that the Cubs are going to lose some more games this season.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

Please follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: June 19, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Major League Baseball trading deadline is about six weeks away and remember that deadline is final this season. There are no more waiver deals after the July 31st trading deadline. This is going to put quite a few teams in the position of having to decide if they’re buyers and they want to add a player or two, to try to make a run or if they’re sellers and they’ll move a few of their guys for some prospects. The question is who, what and will they deal?

In the American League you have to think that teams like the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays and even the Boston Red Sox think they’re playoff contenders. You’d have to guess that with maybe the exception of the Rays they’d all be looking to add for a playoff run.

The Yankees have already added as they acquired Edwin Encarnacion from the Seattle Mariners for minor league pitcher Juan Then four days ago.

There are some interesting teams just on the outside of the wild card race that could try to make a trade to get into one of those playoffs spots, but will they?

The Cleveland Indians, Oakland A’s, Los Angeles Angels and Chicago White Sox all find themselves within 3 games of the final American League wild card spot.

Over in the National League you have the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers. Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona diamondbacks all in the playoff hunt.

Now the Braves and the Cubs have already added what they hope will be help to their pitching staffs. Atlanta signed Dallas Keuchel for the remainder of the season to a $13 million dollar contract. Chicago went longer on their deal to bring Craig Kimbrel into their bullpen as he revived a three year $43 million dollar deal with an option for a fourth year.

Keuchel is scheduled to make his first start for the Braves on Friday against the Washington Nationals. Kimbrel worked a perfect inning in Triple-A and threw just 8 pitches in the process. So it shouldn’t be too long before he’s closing games for the Cubs. Maybe even by this weekend.

You also have to wonder with so many teams still in contention for a playoff spot, are there enough teams who will be willing to deal or have anything to deal that could make a difference.

Also with so few teams being in a sellers mode the asking price for players might be much higher than it usually is. What could a team ask for if three, four or maybe even five teams are interested in one of their players?

In the American League I’d be surprised to see either the White Sox or Indians going out trying to make deadline deals to contend. I’m not sure if the White Sox will still be this close to a wild card spot by July 31st and they seem to be a year away. Cleveland has been interested in cutting payroll since the off season. So even if they look like they’re in the race for a wild card spot, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trading away players instead of adding them.

The National League, however, is a convoluted mess. The only team that is double digit games out of the second wild card spot is the Miami Marlins and while some of the teams that find themselves 5 1/2 to 7 games out might be looking to sell for the shear fact that they’ll have a lot of teams to jump to contend.

Even with eliminating those teams there are still ten teams in the race for either their division or one of the two wild card spots.

While the Dodgers have moved out to a 10 game lead in the NL West the Brewers only lead the NL Central by 1/2 game and the Braves are up in the NL East by just 2 1/2 games. Those races are far from over.

I’d love for you to jump in and help me out here. Which team or teams do you see making moves to contend? Also, is there a certain player out their that you think a certain team should be targeting? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.

The NBA draft is tomorrow night and barring a New York Knicks oddity; which could happen we should know who the Top 3 picks are. After those three picks though it’s anybody’s guess who’s going where.

We should see the New Orleans Pelicans take Zion Williamson at #1. Ja Morant should go to the Memphis Grizzlies with the 2nd pick and then all indications point to the Knicks taking R.J. Barrett with the 3rd pick. After these three, we’ll see.

The Pelicans are back on the board at #4 and the hot name right now seems to be Darius Garland, but there has been quite a few reports that New Orleans might deal this pick. The Atlanta Hawks actually offered the #8 and #10 picks to both the Knicks and the Pelicans to move up, but both deals where turned down. New Orleans is apparently looking for an All-Star quality young player instead of more picks if they decide to move that 4th pick. There has also been some talk that the Chicago Bulls and the Phoenix Suns are interested in moving up to that 4th pick. Maybe New Orleans can get a deal done with one of those teams.

Now I actual enjoy the NBA off season more than the regular season, but I have one big problem with the draft that the league needs to fix and it’s an easy fix to make.

Now we’ve known for a week plus that the New Orleans Pelicans will have the 4th pick in the draft that belonged to the Los Angeles Lakers. New Orleans received the pick as part of the trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Lakers. Now for some reason when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver steps to the podium to announce the 4th pick he’ll say that the Lakers selected who ever the player that’s picked. The problem here is obvious; the Lakers no longer have that 4th pick. This will happen again with the 10th pick as it originally belong to the Dallas Mavericks, but they traded this pick to the Atlanta Hawks at last years draft. There will be quite a few more times that this will happen and I’m not quite sure why the NBA can’t handle this like every other league handles this, but for some reason they don’t.

Sadly it’s probably too late to fix this for tomorrow night, but please NBA get on this and make it easier for us watching.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast ay time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: June 12, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now I’m sure that Major League Baseball believes they’re not doing anything wrong and let’s face it they’re never going to admit to anything and why would they since this worked for them once before, but it’s clear there’s something going on with the baseball this season.

Some people used the termed juiced other say the baseball is wound tighter this season. I even heard someone say that with the increase in pitching velocity the number of home runs was bound to go up, but I think even the average baseball fan realizes that it’s the baseball.

Let’s go back to 1998 when baseball was coming off a strike and there was quite a bit of backlash from the fans. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had an epic home run battle that helped bring fans back to the game.

McGwire win the battle with Sosa as he hit a single season record at that time of 70 home runs. Sosa ended up with 66 home runs and won the NL MVP in 1998.

Of course Barry Bonds went on to break the single season home run record with 73 home runs in 2001 and he also has hit the most home runs by a player n baseball history with 762 for his career. Of course all three of these big time home run hitters have come under scrutiny for the use of performance enhancing drugs to help them reach those home run totals.

This season it doesn’t appear that any player is getting help hitting home runs from any other substance but a supped up baseball.

We’ve played about 1/3rd of the season and right now there are six players with 20 home runs or more. That would mean if these numbers held up all six of these players would reach the 60 home run mark for a season. Eight times in Major League Baseball a player has hit 60 or more home runs in a season; so just imagine if this season there are six guys who reach that number.

I’m sure with the short attention span society we live in today Major League Baseball probably thought it would be the right thing to do to add some excitement to the game and what better way to do that than make home run numbers go up. To be honest it just makes the game boring and hard to watch. You get one moment of a baseball flying into the stands in between a large amount of strikeouts and the baseball not being out in play. It’s bad enough that every single major league ballpark is designed to have regular flyballs land in the bleachers. Now with the baseball the way it is even pop flies are turning into home runs. How is this good for the game?

On Monday we had a firestorm of sabermetrics, analytics and a juiced up baseball put on a sad display of power at Citizens Bank Park as the Philadelphia Phillies hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Phillies and the Diamondbacks combined for a Major League record 13 home runs in a game. Now you would think with 13 home runs being hit in a game we’d see one of the higher scoring games in baseball history as well, but we didn’t. Some how with these two teams combining to hit 13 home runs they only managed to score 21 runs combined.

This is where the sabermetrics and analytics come into play. Since players no seem no long interested in doing anything but hitting home runs there just weren’t any runners on base when all of these home runs where hit.

I’m sure the sabermetric/analytic community has an excuse for this, but we all know that would be just complete garbage. There where runs scored in every inning of this game except the 7th. There where 27 hits in this game and 13 of them where home runs and the teams combined to leave 15 runners on base.

I’m kind of at my wits end when it comes to baseball. This is the game that I’ve been interested in the longest out of the four major sports. Now I’ve given up on the new style of play in the NBA and slowly but surly it’s staring the look like baseball might be next.

The Golden State Warriors kept their NBA title hopes alive with a 106-105 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 on Monday night.

There where quite a few interesting storylines to come out of this game, but let’s go with the most obvious of them all the Kevin Durant injury.

I find it very hard to believe how many people who watch the NBA game much, much closely than I do think that Durant was some how forced or conned into playing by the Warriors. Just think about that statement for a minute; then try to figure out how they’d be able to do that.

Durant was about to be the biggest free agent on the NBA market where there is a lot of money out there with the television deal they have. Why would he risk that? Do people honestly believe that Durant and his team of people only took the word of the Golden State team doctors before agreeing to play on Game 5? There is no chance at all that Durant didn’t consult his own physician before playing in Game 5.

Durant looked really good for a guy who hadn’t played in a month. He played 12 minutes and scored 11 points. He was 3 of 5 from the field, but he went 3 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. He also made all both free throws he attempted, grabbed 2 rebounds and blocked a shot before going down with a torn achilles.

It looks as thought this injury may keep Durant out all of next season, but there’s really no telling how long he’ll be out until surgery is performed.

After his injury again there where a lot of people saying that he wouldn’t be able to come back as the player he is now because big men have a difficult time coming back from this injury. The first question that popped into my mind was; since when is Durant anything like a normal big man in the NBA?

I actually don’t care how this affects the NBA Finals at all. I’m more interested to see how this affects the off season. There where quite a few teams that where making salary cap room to try to add Durant. Which direction will those teams go now?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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