Archive for the ‘basketball’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 22, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now I always try to work in how we did on our picks for the past week in the NFL. Now there are times I just forget or sometimes run out of space to work it in. Now last week was one of these weeks and wouldn’t you know it I got a telephone call from Mr. Fantasy to yell at me about the win/loss totals not being in the blog. So to avoid getting scream at on the telephone again I decided that I’d start the blog out with them.

Our Week 11 picks went like this Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy both went 10-4. Schaumburg Stu and I ended up at 8-6. For the season Dan the Man is in the lead at 106-54. Mr. Fantasy is holding down the second spot three games out of the lead at 103-57. Schaumburg Stu and I are stuck at the bottom of the pile as we are both 96-64 on the season.

Since it is Thanksgiving tomorrow instead of one Thursday game we get three. Things start off with the Detroit Lions hosting the Minnesota Vikings. The middle game of the three has the Los Angeles Rams visiting the Dallas Cowboys. The NFL day wraps up with the Washington Redskins playing host to the New York Giants.

I’m pretty sure that the scheduling for all four of the big sports is done by computer, but you have to wonder what the NBA was thinking when they saw that there was just one game scheduled for last night and it was the Chicago Bulls at the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now years ago this wouldn’t been a marquee match up and heck even last season the Bulls had Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade on their roster. This season there are very few recognizable names on either teams roster with the exception of Lonzo Ball.

Neither team was playing very well coming into the game as the Lakers where 7-10 while the Bulls have one of the worst records in the league at 3-11. The Lakers where a .500 team at home this season at 5-5 while the Bulls some how managed a road win and where 1-7 away from Chicago.

The game as a whole ended up being decent. the Bulls built a 14 point lead going into halftime at 56-42. The second half belonged to the Lakers as they scored 61 points while holding the Bulls to just 38 points as Los Angeles took a 103-94 victory.

Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers was the games high scorer with 22 points. His teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 21 points. Lonzo Ball had another rough shooting night going 3 for 13 from the field in the game. Ball was also just 2 of 8 from behind the 3-point line. Ball did grab a team high 13 rebounds. Julius Randle came off the Lakers bench to post a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

All five Bulls starters scored in double figures led by Denzell Valentine with 17 points. Bulls 1st round pick Lauri Markkanen (13 points and 14 rebounds) and Justin Holiday (10 points and 10 rebounds) each posted double-doubles in the game. Antonio Blakeney came off the Bulls bench to score 15 points.

The win improved the Lakers record to 8-10. This was also the first of back to back games for Los Angeles as they go on the road to face the 4-13 Sacramento Kings tonight. The loss dropped the Bulls to 3-12 on the season. This was also the first of back to back games for the Bulls. Chicago travels to Utah tonight to face the 7-11 Jazz.

If you have Denver Nuggets forward Paul Milsap on your fantasy team it looks like you’re going to be without him for about three months. Milsap had surgery on his left wrist to repair torn ligaments.

Milsap was injured in the 2nd quarter of Denver’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. The Nuggets ended up losing that game without Milsap 127-109.

Milsap has played in 16 games this season. He is averaging 15.3 points per game. To go along with 6.2 rebounds per game and 3.1 assists per game.

Luckily for the Nuggets they have quite a few players who can take over for Milsap while he’s out. Look for Kenneth Faried, Trey Lyles, Tyler Lydon and even Darrell Arthur to fill Milsap’s minutes. Faried appears to be the player who will take over Milsap’s plac in the starting line up; so if you’re looking for a fantasy pick up Faried may be the guy to go with.

As we wait for the baseball off season to pick up some stream you have to wonder if things will be a little slow until there is some type of movement in where National League M.V.P. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins might go.

Right now it appears as the two most talked about teams with interest in Stanton are the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Talks with the Giants have actually gotten to the point where there are now players names associated with the deal. San Francisco would not only acquire Stanton, but Marlins 2nd baseman Dee Gordon as well. In return the Marlins would receive a package of players led by Giants 2nd baseman Joe Panik and multiple prospects. Gordon is another of Miami’s veteran players that new ownership and CEO Derek Jeter has expressed interested in trading.

It’s always interesting when names start to come up in trade talks, but before everybody starts putting Stanton in a Giants uniform, don’t forget that he has a full no trade clause and can veto any trade.

Stanton was born in Panorama City California and according to reports grew up a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Would he accept a trade to the Dodgers biggest rival?

The third team that has popped up lately in Stanton rumors are the Boston Red Sox. Now you knew sooner or later we’d start to hear about the bigger name teams wanting to get in on a Stanton deal and it’s no surprise that the Red Sox are the first name up. The Red Sox where last in the American League in home runs last season with 168 while Stanton himself hit 59 home runs.

We’re just at the start of these Stanton rumors and these are just the first three teams to come up. It appears as though Stanton will be traded at some point in time. Where do you have him playing baseball in 2018?

 

How was your week

Posted: November 18, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, basketball, College Basketball, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Baseball Writers Association of America announced their awards this week with the final award being handed out was the M.V.P. Since the awards are now formatted for television they narrow the race down to three finalist before they announce the winner. In the National League it was Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Votto. In the American League the finalist where Jose Altuve, Aaron Judge and Jose Ramirez. This year there was going to be a first time winner in both leagues no matter which player won.

In the National League Stanton was named M.V.P. over Votto by just two points with Goldschmidt finishing a distant 3rd. Stanton ended up with 302 points. He got 10 1st place votes, 10 2nd place votes, 5 3rd place votes, 3 4th place votes, 1 5th place vote and 1 6th place vote. Votto ended up with 300 points as he also got 10 1st place votes. Votto also received 9 2nd place votes, 4 3rd place votes, 5 4th places votes and 2 5th place votes.

Believe it or not this wasn’t the closest M.V.P. voting ever. In 1944 St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion beat Chicago Cubs outfielder Bill Nicholson 190-189. Then in 1947 Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees edged out Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox 202-201. Then in 1979 there was actually a tie for the National League M.V.P. award. Keith Hernandez who was with the Cardinals and Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates each ended up with 216 points.

I’m always interested to see what other players picked up some votes as writers put 10 names on their ballot. Goldschmidt received 4 1st place votes, Charlie Blackmon picked up 3 1st place votes his teammate Nolan Arenado got 2 1st place votes and last years winner Kris Bryant received 1 1st place vote.

Now in the American League Altuve was the run away winner as he received 27 1st place votes and totaled 405 points. Judge got 2 1st place votes and racked up 279 points while Ramirez received the other 1st place vote and totaled 237 points. Interestingly even though he only played in 114 games last season Mike Trout ended up with 197 points and finished 4th in the voting.

This really should’ve been Altuve’s 2nd M.V.P. as he easily was the top player in the American League, but the voters love for Trout took the award away from him. You have to wonder if Trout had played an entire season if they would’ve given him the award again.

Altuve is the 11th second baseman to win the M.V.P. and the first since Dustin Pedroia won it in 2008. Altuve is listed as being 5’6 and this ties him  with Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, the 1950 winner and Athletics pitcher Bobby Shantz, the 1952 winner as the shortest MVPs in history.

I think that the voters got this right, but what do you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Danica Patrick is 35 years old and has made the decision that her full time racing career is over.

NASCAR’s final race of the season is at Homestead-Miami Speedway this Sunday and Patrick used one of their media rooms on Friday afternoon to let everyone know that she was retiring. During her press conference Patrick announced that she’s going to run two races next season. She’ll run in the Daytona 500 to kick off the NASCAR season in 2018 and then she’ll race in the Indianapolis 500 in May 2018 as her final race.

Patrick did have one season left on her contract with Stewart/Haas racing, but they decided to part company when they couldn’t find a sponsor for Patrick for the 2018 season. Aric Almirola will replace her at Stewart/Haas next season.

There where some questions if Patrick would look for another ride for 2018 and then if she wanted to continue to drive would she be able to find a new team. In the end there just wasn’t a seat out there for her.

Patrick finished a disappointing 27th in points this season. Her best finish in the NASCAR series was 24th in points. In 189 NASCAR races Patrick finished in the Top 10 seven times, but she also never found her way to victory lane as a NASCAR driver. Patrick did win in an Indy car back in 2008 at a race in Japan. She also finished third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500.

Even though Patrick didn’t have great success as a driver she was always one of the most popular. For quite a while her primary sponsor was GoDaddy. They built and entire advertising campaign around her including Super Bowl ads which where humorous and racy by nature.

In the comments, please let me know how you think Patrick will be remembered as a driver.

With Patrick’s announcement as well as the retirement of Dale Earnhardt Jr plus the fact that Matt Kenseth hasn’t found a ride for 2018 it’s almost difficult to remember that the Monster Energy Series will crown a champion Sunday.

The final four drivers looking for a title are Martin Truex Jr. who’s starting 2nd on Sunday. Kyle Busch who starts right behind Truex in 3rd. Brad Keslowski starts the race in the 5th position and the final championship driver Kevin Harvick starts 9th.

Earnhardt Jr. starts 25th with Patrick right behind him starting 26th while Kenseth is starting 4th for the Ford Eco-Boost 400 on Sunday.

Do you think with a title on the line and three big name drivers leaving the sports that the ratings will go up for the final race of the 2017 season?

I’m sure just about every sports fan heard about the three UCLA basketball players that where arrested in China for shoplifting. As we know the players have returned to the United States and the school announced that the players where suspended indefinitely.

Now I’ve heard lots of sportswriters and others on television talk about how long these suspensions should be. I’ve heard everything from the entire season to just a couple of games. I’ve been trying to come up with a number of games myself and I just can’t seem to come to a conclusion. I’d be very interested to know what you think. Would you like to see them get a long suspension, a short suspension or are you somewhere in the middle? Again please leave your thoughts in the comments for me.

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

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 15, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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On Monday night the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from 23 points down and picked up a 104-101 win over the New York Knicks. While making  comeback from down 23 is impressive that’s not really the story of this game.

Now this all starts off with a tweet LeBron James sent out about how the Knicks should’ve drafted Dennis Smith Jr. with the 8th pick. Now according to everyone this was suppose to be a shot at Phil Jackson not Frank Ntilikina who the Knicks took with that 8th pick. You have to guess that the shot at Jackson comes from last season when Jackson used the word “posse” and James felt that the word was being used as a racial slur. Like everyone else I’ve seen James do interviews on television hundreds of times and he seems like a relatively intelligent person. Being that he’d have to know that Jackson no longer works for the Knicks and that his tweet would be interpreted as a shot at Ntilikina.

Now you knew sooner or later these two would meet up on the court. After James dunked he refused to move out of the way to allow Ntilikina to take the basketball out of bounds to inbound it. Ntilikina pushed James multiple times to get him out of the way. Now James is 6’8 and about 260 pounds while Ntilikina is listed at 6’5 and 190 pounds; so it was easy for James to play the bully against a much smaller opponent. As it became clear that James was trying to intimidate Ntilikina his teammate Enes Kanter came over and got in James face. Now Kanter is 6’11 and 250 pounds; so he’s a little more of an even match up for James. Kanter and James where both accessed technical fouls as their face to face confrontation ended.

What I found odd about this situation is there where people in the media who praised James for what he did. Now if you’re a Cavaliers fan or a media member who covers them for a local Cleveland paper I understand that they’re going to side with James no matter what he does. What baffled me was the national media that seemed to think what James did was okay. So what I’m guessing here is we’re against bullying unless it’s done by one of the top players in the NBA. What made less sense was if James’ original tweet was intended as a shot at Phil Jackson why didn’t he allow Ntilikina to take the ball out of bounds? It was an embarrassing action by one of the best players in the NBA and instead of trying to be a funny guy and respond to the comments Kanter made after the game he should’ve of been more concerned about the example he just set on the court.

Instead of talking about NBA players acting like morons let’s talk about what should be the top story in the league, the Boston Celtics.

Kyrie Irving returned last night for the Celtics wearing a mask to cover his facial fracture and led Boston in scoring with 25 points as the Celtics won their 13th game in a row 109-102 over the Brooklyn Nets.

Irving only missed one game officially, but he played just two minutes in the game where he suffered the facial fracture; so let’s call it two games. He messed around with the mask frequently, but it didn’t appear to affect his play too much.

Irving actually posted his career high at that time on December 15th of 2012 with 41 points against the New York Knicks. Irving was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers the last time he had to wear a mask.

The Celtics lost their first two games to start this season before going on this 13 game winning streak. It’s actually the most wins in a row by a team that lost it’s first two games of the season. I wonder who keeps track of those stats. The Celtics will put their winning streak on the line Thursday night as they host the 11-3 Golden State Warriors.

As we head into Week 11 of the NFL season it’s time for some teams to start looking ahead to the 2018 season. The question for those teams is, will they have a new coach next season? Which coaches could be out of work at the end of this season?

Could we see big changes in the AFC North? Would the Baltimore Ravens more on from John Harbaugh if they finished under .500? You have to think that it’s time for the Cincinnati Bengals to make a change at head coach. Marvin Lewis has been with the Bengals since 2003 and has a career record of 121-111-3, but is 0-7 in the playoffs. The Bengals sit at 3-6 currently and they would probably need to win the remainder of their games to make the playoffs. Oddly the Cleveland Browns are 0-9 this season, but Hue Jackson seems to be the coach they want and it would almost be a surprise to see him let go, but you never know when you have a losing team. Even though he’s had to coach without his starting quarterback you have to think that this might be Chuck Pagano’s final season with the Indianapolis Colts. Pagano is in his 6th season as Indianapolis’s head coach, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014 and with a 3-6 record it doesn’t look like they’ll make it this season. With the New York Giants sitting at 1-8 you have to figure this will be the end for Ben McAdoo. McAdoo led the Giants to an 11-5 record and a wild card spot last season, but this seasons team looks nothing like that team and you have to wonder if he’ll be given another season to see if he can get the team back on track. Will the Chicago Bears decide to move on from John Fox after this season? Fox is in his 4th season with the Bears, but hasn’t had much success in Chicago. The Bears are currently 3-5 this season and under Fox are 12-27. It appears that the Bears feel they have their franchise quarterback in Mitchell Trubisky, but is Fox the coach that they want to try and develop him. Chicago is Fox’s 3rd stop as a head coach and it also just happens to be the only team he’s had a losing record with. 2017 is Fox’s 16th season, but has he done enough with the Bears to warrant coaching a 17th for the Bears.

Feel free to let me know in the comments if there’s a coach that I didn’t mention that you think might be losing his job at the end of this NFL season.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available anytime you’d like to listen to it at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: November 11, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We are very early in the NBA season, but the Boston Celtics deserve credit for the start they’ve gotten off to. The Celtics lost their first two games of the season and in the first game of the season they lost their big off season free agent signing Gordon Heyward for the season. After a horrible injury like that a team can struggle and take time to figure out who’s going to fill the role of the injury player. Now the Celtics did lose that first game Heyward was out, but after that they’ve run off 11 straight wins n a row with a 90-87 victory over the Charlotte Hornets last night.

Now not only did the Celtics land the big off season free agent they also pulled off a big time trade and acquired Kyrie Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Irving has shown himself to be a more all around player with the Celtics, but last night the Celtics had to find a way to win without Irving. 2 minutes into last nights game Irving caught an elbow to the face from his own teammate. Aron Baynes ended up hitting Irving in the face while he was trying to help out on defense. The shot to the face bloody Irving’s nose and he ended up leaving the game with a possible concussion. Luckily for Irving and the Celtics further tests ruled out a concussion and Irving should ne available for Boston’s next game Sunday afternoon against the Toronto Raptors.

With Irving basically being out for the entire game rookie Jayson Tatum and Shane Larkin (off the bench) tied for the team lead in scoring with 16 points each. Terry Rozier added 15 points coming off the Celtics bench, but had a tough shooting night going just 3 for 12 from the field. Jaylon Brown grabbed a game high 13 rebounds while adding 10 points. Marcus Morris also scored in double digits for the Celtics with 14 points.

Now besides just finding a way to replace Irving’s scoring the Celtics had to cover the other things he’s been doing to help them win. Marcus Smart didn’t have a very good night shooting the basketball as he went 3 for 16 from the field and 0 for 7 from behind the 3-point line, he did play 34 minutes and led the team in assists with 4 and steals with 2.

The Celtics defense was solid as Charlotte shot 38.8% from the field and 27.3% from behind the 3-point line. The Hornets where also their own worst enemy as the went 19 of 33 from the free throw line.

Who knows how long the Celtics winning streak will go. Sunday’s match up is against a winning team as the Raptors are 7-4 on the season and if they get by Toronto they’ll face the 5-7 Brooklyn Nets on November 14th in Brooklyn. If the streak stays in tact they’d put it on the line again November 16th as they host the 9-3 Golden State Warriors.

Now we all know that sooner or later the winning streak will end, but the Celtics should receive some credit for being able to put it together following the loss of Heyward and then covering for Irving’s injury last night.

Big time Japanese baseball star Shohei Otani made it official as he announced that he wants to make the move and play Major League Baseball next season. Otani plays for the Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japanese league. The team came out on Friday and announced that they would allow Otani to use the posting system this off season. This should allow Otani to join a major league team next season.

Otani has played nine seasons with Nippon Ham. This has allowed them to retain his rights and why he must use the posting system to leave.

If MLB, the MLB Players Association and Nippon Professional Baseball agree to a deal that would extend the expired posting agreement through this offseason, the team that Otani signs with would pay the Fighters $20 million. Under MLB’s labor contract, his signing bonus is restricted and remaining pool money is limited to a high of $3,535,000.

Under baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement, Otani can only agree to a minor league contract that is subject to signing bonus pools. If added to a big league roster, he would have a salary for about the minimum $545,000 next season and not be eligible for salary arbitration until 2020 at the earliest.

If he was to wait until he is 25 to enter MLB, there would be no restrictions and he likely would get a deal. Otani is 23 years old, but has repeatedly said that he’d prefer not to wait until he’s 25 and would like to go now.

Otani did have ankle surgery last month and is currently rehabbing from that surgery. Apparently the ankle injury occurred while running the bases not this season, but last season in the Japan Series.

Now Otani was a pitcher and an outfield for Nippon Ham and has said that he hopes to be able to continue to do both for whichever team he ends up playing for in next season.

It’s unclear right now if a major league team would allow him to do both or try to do both. You’d have to think that if he ends up in the American League his chances might be better as he could be used as a designated hitter when not pitching. Would you like to see him try to pitch and play the outfield at the big league level?

The Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals 22-16 this week on Thursday Night Football. The win improved the Seahawks record to 6-3 this season, but they’ll have to play the rest of the season without cornerback Richard Sherman.

Sherman exited the game in the 3rd quarter and was diagnosed with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Sherman said that he expects to undergo surgery on the Achilles as soon as the swelling goes down.

Sherman has been a constant in the Seahawks defensive backfield as he hasn’t missed a game since joining the team in 2011.

Now it’s impossible to replace a player of Sherman’s caliber, but the job looks like it’ going to fall to Jeremy Lane. If that name sounds familiar it’s because two weeks ago Seattle traded Lane to the Houston Texans, but Lane failed his physical and the deal had to be reworked. In the end that failed physical may be a blessing in disguise for the as Lane has experience playing the outside where Sherman plays. It also saves the Seahawks from having to put nickel cornerback Justin Coleman in an unfamiliar position.

Lane was the starting cornerback opposite Sherman to begin the season for the Seahawks, but rookie Shaquill Griffin moved into that spot. That was part of the reason the Seahawks thought it would be safe to deal Lane.

It will fall to Lane, Griffin and Coleman to man the cornerback position for Seattle the rest of the season.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio live in BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is available to you any time you want to listen to it at TuneIn.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 8, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Phoenix Suns finally found n acceptable deal for disgruntled guard Eric Bledsoe. The Suns sent Bledsoe to the Milwaukee Bucks for Center Greg Monroe, a 2018 1st round draft pick and a 2018 2nd round draft pick. Both picks are protected.

Bledsoe played 3 games for the Suns this seasons before he sent out that infamous tweet about not wanting to be with the Suns anymore.

Bledsoe is joining a 4-6 Milwaukee team that has dropped 4 straight games. The Bucks have a true superstar in Giannis Antetokounmpo who’s averaging 31.9 points per game. Antetokounmpo has been doing a lot of the ball handing for Milwaukee, but with the acquisition of Bledsoe he’ll be able to help handle the basketball as well.

Milwaukee lost last night 124-119 to the Cleveland Cavaliers without Bledsoe. Bledsoe should make his Milwaukee debut on Friday on the road against the San Antonio Spurs.

While the Suns did get Monroe back in the deal it doesn’t appear that he’ll play for them. At first there was talk of buying out the remainder of his contract, but now it appears as though the Suns want to see if there’s any type of trade market for him. Monroe has an expiring contract which should be attractive to some teams. It’s not clear what the Suns would want in return for Monroe, but at 27 he’s doesn’t appear to be part of their rebuilding process.

The Detroit Pistons took Monroe with the 7th pick of the 2010 draft. Monroe spent 5 seasons with the Pistons before signing with the Bucks as a free agent before the 2015-16 season. Monroe averages 14 points a game in his career and shoots 51.1% from the field. His playing time had been cut to under 16 minutes a game this season.

Even though these two teams seem to be going in different directions they both currently have 4 wins on the season. Milwaukee was supposed to be a threat to the Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference while the Suns are looking to play their way into the draft lottery. You’d think that this trade will help both teams reach their goals.

Now it’s way. way too early in the season for anyone to be concerned, but when LeBron James is on your team and you get off to a 5-6 start to the season the experts are going to talk about it. The Cavaliers have lost 5 of their last 7 games, but did get a win last night over the Bucks 124-119.

James is averaging 28.9 points per game, but is playing 37.8 minutes a game. James is also the team’s leader in assists with 9.1 per game, steals at 1.45 per game, blocks at 1.18 per game and is the teams second leading rebounder with 7.3 a game. James has played in all 11 of the Cavaliers games this season, but you know down the road he’s going to need time off. James can clearly carry a team, but to have to do that for 82 regular season games and then into the playoffs isn’t going to be good for the Cavaliers.

Kevin Love (17.6), Derrick Rose (14.3) and Kyle Korver (10.5) are averaging in double figures for the Cavaliers. Love is also the Cavaliers leader in rebounds per game with 10.8. There’s plenty of help for James on this team; so getting him the rest he needs and being ready for the playoffs down the road shouldn’t be to big of an issue. Even if the Cavaliers aren’t the top seed in the Eastern Conference when the playoffs start they should still be considered as one of the favorites to go to the NBA finals again.

Nine players where given qualifying offers from their teams and if they choose to take them they would play for $17.4 million dollars next season.

The Kansas City Royals gave qualifying to 1st baseman Eric Hosmer, 3rd baseman Mike Moustakas and outfielder Lorenzo Cain. The Chicago Cubs gave qualifying offers to pitchers Jake Arrieta and Wade Davis. The Tampa Bay Rays gave a qualifying offer to pitcher Alex Cobb. The Colorado Rockies extended a qualifying offer to closer Greg Holand. The St. Louis Cardinals gave a qualifying offer to pitcher Lance Lynn and the Cleveland Indians gave a qualifying offer to 1st baseman Carlos Santana.

Now you wouldn’t expect any of these players to accept the qualifying offer, but by giving them the offer the team will get compensation if their player signs with another team. A club signing one of the players who didn’t accept would lose a draft selection, but no longer a first-round pick and possibly part of its international bonus pool allocation for 2018-19. Right now there are 166 free agent on the market who can start negotiating with teams starting Monday evening.

Major League Baseball started handing out awards starting with the Gold Glove.

In the American League Marcus Stroman (Pitcher) of the Toronto Blue Jays, Martin Maldonado (Catcher) of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim along with Brian Dozier (2nd base) and his teammate Byron Buxton (Centerfield) all won their 1st Gold Glove. Mookie Betts (Rightifeld) of the Boston Red Sox won his 2nd Gold Glove. Evan Longoria (3rd base) of the Tampa Bay Rays and Andrelton Simmons (Shortstop) of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won their 3rd Gold Gloves. Eric Hosmer (1st base) of the Kansas City Royals won his 4th Gold Glove while his teammate Alex Gordon (Leftfield) won his 5th Gold Glove.

In the National League Tucker Barnhart (Catcher) of the Cincinnati Reds and Marcell Ozuna (Leftfield) of the Miami Marlins each won their 1st Gold Glove. D.J. LeMahieu (2nd base) of the Colorado Rockies and Ender Inciarte (Centerfield) of the Atlanta Braves won their 2nd Gold Gloves. Paul Goldschmidt (1st base) of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Brandon Crawford (Shortstop) of the San Francisco Giants each won their 3rd Gold Gloves. Zach Greinke (Pitcher) of the Arizona Diamondbacks won his 4th Gold Glove while Jason Heyward (Rightfield) of the Chicago Cubs and Nolan Arrenado (3rd base) of the Colorado Rockies each won their 5th Gold Gloves.

Do you think they got these awards right? Is there someone else you think should’ve won a Gold Glove? Feel free to leave your comments.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live oin BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available for you any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: October 28, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The Houston Astros have yet to lose at home during this playoff season and as that streak continued last night it allowed them to take a 2 games to 1 lead in the World Series as they won Game 3 by a 5-3 score over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Astros got up early on Dodgers starter Yu Darvish as they scored 4 runs in the Top of the 2nd inning. Yuri Gurriel led off the inning with a solo home run to leftfield to put the Astros up 1-0. Josh Reddick then hit a double to leftfield. Evan Gattis drew a walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Marwin Gonzalez hit a long single that Reddick scored on to make it 2-0, but Gattis only moved up to 2nd base. Brian McCann who was hitless through the first two games then singled to rightfield as Gattis scored and Gonzalez went to 3rd base. George Springer lined out to 2nd base for the 1st out of the inning. While Alex Bregman did make the 2nd out of the inning his fly ball to centerfield was deep enough to score Gonzalez and put the Astros up 4-0. It looked like the Astros might add some more runs off Darvish as Jose Altuve doubled putting runners on 2nd and 3rd, but Carlos Correa flied out to rightfield to end the inning.

Lance McCullers Jr. came out for the Top of the 3rd with that 4 run lead and got himself into trouble right away. Joc Pederson, Kiki Hernandez and Chris Taylor all drew walks; so the bases where loaded for Corey Seager. Seager was the Dodgers best hitter through the first two World Series games and he had a chance to get the Dodgers right back in the game. Seager however hit into a double play as Pederson scored to make it a 4-1 game. Justin Turner followed Seager with a ground out to end the inning as McCullers Jr. dodged a bullet.

Darvish lasted just an 1 2/3rds innings as Kenta Maeda came in to pitch 2 2/3rds innings before being relieved by Tony Watson in the Bottom of the 5th inning. Watson got the first batter he faced for the second out of the inning. Josh Reddick then singled and he was followed by Evan Gattis who reached on an infield hit back to Watson. On the play Watson committed a throwing error that allowed Reddick to score all the way from 1st base with Gattis ending up on 2nd. Watson struck out Marwin Gonzalez to end the inning as the Astros took a 5-1 lead.

The Dodgers started off the Top of the 6th inning with a walk to Corey Seager and then a double by Justin Turner before the struggling Cody Bellinger struck out for the 1st out of the inning. That ended McCullers Jr. night after 5 1/3rd inning of work. Brad Peacock came out of the Astros bullpen and got Yasiel Puig to ground out for the 2nd out of the inning, but on the play Seager scored the Dodgers 2nd run of the game with Turner moving up to 3rd base. Peacock then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Turner to score to make it a 5-3 game. Peacock got pinch hitter Chase Utley to foul out to end the inning.

The closest any team came to scoring in the final 3 innings was when the Astros had the bases loaded and 2 outs in the Bottom of the 7th inning, but Ross Stripling got George Springer to fly out to centerfield to end the threat.

McCullers Jr. picked up the win for the Astros. Peacock pitched the final 3 2/3rds inning to get the save. Darvish was tagged with the loss for the Dodgers.

Game 4 is tonight in Houston. The Astros will send Charlie Morton to the mound to start Game 4 while the Dodgers will turn to Alex Wood to try and get the series back to even and hand the Astros their first post season loss at home.

Morton has made 3 post season starts for the Astros. He’s pitched 13 total innings and has a 1-1 record, but his E.R.A. is 6.23. Morton hasn’t lasted any longer than 5 innings in any of his 3 post season starts.

Tonight is just Wood’s second post season start for the Dodgers for 2017. In his only outing Wood pitched 4 2/3rds innings while giving up 3 runs, all on solo home runs against the Chicago Cubs on October 18th. Wood did strikeout 7 in that outing. How will the 10 day layoff affect Wood? and can he get the series back to even for the Dodgers?

The Golden State Warriors beat the Washington Wizards 120-117 last night at Oracle Arena. Now it was just a regular season NBA game; so it was the altercation that makes this game stand out.

Draymond Green of Golden State and Bradley Beal of the Wizards got to know each other a little better as they had a disagreement in the 2nd quarter of last nights game that resulted in both players being ejected.

It all started with just 23 seconds left in the 2nd quarter. Beal drove to the basket and Green blocked his shot out of bounds; so the Wizards retained possession. As the Wizards set up to inbound the basketball both players where trying to get position in the lane. After some jostling between player Beal slapped Green in the face from behind. To noone’s surprise Green didn’t take that lightly and he grabbed Beal and the two players got locked up. While tied up the players headed towards the fans ion the front row underneath the Wizards basket, but ended up going to the floor before they made it into the crowd.

Teammates and officials tried to break up the melee and even a fan got involved trying to break the players up. Now two Wizards players Markieff Morris and Carrick Felix left the Wizards bench during the scuffle to help break things up, but this is against NBA rules; so there may be suspensions for those two players. Morris by the way was inactive as he’s recovering from hernia surgery.

Green emerged from the altercation with a ripped jersey as he and Beal continued to bark at each other after being separated. Beal also got into a verbal confrontation with a Warriors fan as he was exiting the court.

We’re waiting to see if either or both players will draw a suspension from the NBA for this incident or if the election will be considered punishment enough.

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

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter. I’m @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 18, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports
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The NBA season tipped off last night with two games. The opener featured the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the Boston Celtics. While the night game had the defending champion Golden State Warriors vs. the Houston Rockets.

This off season the Celtics where able to land one of if not the top free agent on the market when they signed Gordon Hayward to a 4 year $128 million dollar deal. It was the first of a couple moves that the Celtics made that had many people thinking the could unseat the Cavaliers as the best team on the Eastern Conference. Sadly Heyward’s Celtics debut went horribly wrong.

Heyward went up for an alley-oop just about 5 minutes into the game. He collided with LeBron James on the play and his leg bent in a funny way and he collapsed under the basket. The players stayed away from Heyward as the doctors where checking him out, but eventually his teammates and the Cavaliers players came over to check on him as he was being stretchered off the court.

Heyward was taken into the Cavaliers locker room for his medical evaluation. Being that Cleveland was the home team their locker room is outfitted with more medical equipment than the visitors locker room is. Both Celtics and Cavaliers officials where in the locker room with Heyward along with doctors from each team. Heyward received X-rays in the Cavaliers locker room.

After the game Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said that Heyward had dislocated his ankle and fractured his tibia while the team announced the injury as a fractured ankle. No matter what his injury is Heyward was flown back to Boston last night and taken straight to New England Baptist Hospital according to reports. Heyward is scheduled to have surgery today.

Heyward’s teammate did rally and beat the Cavaliers 102-99 as Jaylen Brown led the way with 25 points. James just missed an opening night triple-double in the loss as he had 29 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists.

In the night cap it was ring night for Golden State and as I’m sure most of you know that normally spells trouble for a team. No one is sure if it’s the change of warm ups or the delays the ring ceremony causes, but most teams struggle when they are given their championship rings. The Warriors didn’t fall into that trap to start.

The Warriors out up 35 points in the 1st quarter to take a slim 1 point lead. After a 36 point 2nd quarter the Warriors had a 9 point lead at halftime. Golden State was able to push their lead to double digits at the end of the 3rd quarter as they lead by 13. As the 4th quarter rolled around it appeared as the Warriors would be able to get by the new look Rockets on opening night, but the final quarter didn’t go their way. Did the Warriors run out of gas? Or was it the opening ceremony just catching up to them? Golden State managed just 20 points in the 4th quarter as the Rockets where able to make up that 13 point deficit and pull out a 1 point win 122-121.

James Harden led the Rockets with 27 points. Harden also recorded 10 assists. The Rockets only used 8players in the game and all three of the players who came off the bench scored in double digits led by Eric Gordon with 24 points. If you would’ve bet that Nick Young would be the Warriors leading scorer on opening night you probably would’ve won a lot of money, but he was. Young came off the Golden State bench to score 23 points. Young made 8 of the 9 shots he took in the game and was 6 of 7 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green was a point short of a triple-double as he had 11 rebounds, 13 assists, but just 9 points in the loss.

If you’ve ever played on a team you know that there are arguments between teammates and sometimes these escalate into physical altercations. Luckily these fights are rare and they don’t often end in an injury, but that wasn’t the case for the Chicago Bulls at practice Tuesday.

Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis are battling each other for playing time at the power forward position. At practice on Tuesday it was reported that the two started by talking trash to each other which we see happen in ever NBA game.

In this case the incident between Mirotic and Portis sadly continued to escalate as it was reported that Mirotic charged Portis on a couple of occasions before Portis retaliated with a punch. Portis’ punch landed right in Mirotic’s face and he dropped to the floor.

Mirotic ended up being taken to the hospital and where he was diagnosed with a concussion and fractures to his upper jaw. The Bulls have said that surgery is a possibility for Mirotic.

Bulls general manager Gar Foreman was at practice and saw the altercation happen according to reports, but he didn’t comment on it. In a statement released by the team the Bulls said they are ” evaluating disciplinary action.”

The Bulls open the season Thursday night on the road against the Toronto Raptors.

Is there anyone out there who can figure out this NFL season? There seem to be quite a few upsets every week and as you’ll see it’s affecting our records when it comes to picking games.

For Week 6 Dan the Man was the only one who was able to get above .500 at 8-6. Schaumburg Stu was right at .500 with a 7-7 record. I was a game under .500 at 6-8 while Mr. Fantasy struggled to a 5-9 record for the week

On the season Schaumburg Stu is still in the lead with a record of 53-38, but Dan the Man has closed the gap to just one game as his record stanza at 52-39. I am hanging around in 3rd place with a record of 49-42 while Mr. Fantasy finds himself in the cellar, but he is just one game behind me at 48-43.

You can listen the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalklRadio.com, but you can also listen to the podcast any time you choose to at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: September 27, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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To say that Week 3 in the NFL was not good to us and your picks would be an understatement. I guess you can say that myself, Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy tied for the win in Week 3. Sadly we where all 7-9 while Dan the Man finished at 6-10. Overall Schaumburg Stu is leading at 29-18. Dan the Man and I are one game behind at 28-19 while Mr. Fantasy is at the bottom of the pile at 27-20.

If you’ve listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you’ve heard us joke about us jinxing a team when the four of us agree that they’ll win. We last Sunday we agreed on 11 games. Seven of those 11 teams that we all agreed would win lost. Now through a couple of weeks it can be tough to tell what a teams identity is, but some of the teams that lost where clearly upsets. I’d say if you’re a fan of a certain team the worst thing that could happen to them is for the four of us to agree that they’re going to win a game.

Well Week 4 will get rolling Thursday night with the Green Bay Packers hosting the Chicago Bears. Hopefully will have a better week of picks than we did last week.

I always flip around to the different sports networks to see what their talking about. Now yesterday when I was bouncing around from channel to channel there where a couple of them that had breaking news on their crawler and I was waiting for it. When I final got to see what these couple of networks where trying to pass off as breaking news made me chuckle. Their big huge breaking news was that Dwayne Wade was planning to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers after he clears waivers. How is that breaking news? Now I understand that one of the networks playing this off as breaking news paid way too much money to televise the NBA and they have to play any basketball story up as bigger than it is to justify their own stupidity, but anyone else calling it breaking news just hasn’t been paying attention.

On Sunday Wade agreed to a buyout with the Chicago Bulls after playing just one season with them. Wade played in 60 games last season averaging 18.3 points per game while playing an average of 29.9 minutes per game. Wade shoot 43.4% from the field, but just 31% from behind the 3-point line.

Once Wade was bought out it was pretty clear where he would end up signing and even though there where some other teams mentioned I think everyone knew that Wade would end up in Cleveland with LeBron James. While playing together for the Miami Heat Wade and James won back to back NBA titles in 2012 and 2013. Wade also won an NBA title with Miami in 2006. Wade was the series M.V.P. in 2006.

Wade will be entering his 15 seasons and he didn’t play in back to back games last season. Now there are reports that guard Isaiah Thomas is going to be out until January with a hip injury; so it looks as though the Cavaliers starting back court will be Wade and former M.V.P. Derrick Rose. On their training camp roster the Cavaliers have Jose Calderon, Kay Fedler, J.R. Smith , Iman Shumpert and John Holland to go along with Rose and Wade at the guard position. Even when Thomas returns from injury does this look like a good enough back court to win an NBA title or get into the NBA finals?

When Wade clears waivers and signs with the cavaliers it will be for their veteran’s minimum of $2.3 million dollars. Wade could’ve signed for more money with another team, but it’s clear that he wanted to team back up with James again.

With the NHL season lurking just around the corner it’s time for fantasy players to make sure they’re ready for their upcoming fantasy drafts. There are some quality players that are going to start the season on injured reserve, but should be worth taking a chance in and stashing on your bench until they return.

Ryan Kesler of the Anaheim Ducks had hip surgery and looks to be out until the New Year. Kesler played in all 82 games regular season games for the Ducks in 2016-17. He totaled 58 points on 22 goals and 38 assists. Kesler also played in 17 playoffs games last season scoring 8 points on 1 goal and 7 assists. Keep an eye on Kesler’s status as he could be a good add towards the end of your season.

Travis Zajac of the New Jersey Devils has been an under rated fantasy player and that will really be true this season as it appears he’ll be out four to six more weeks after having pectoral surgery in August. Zajac played in 80 games for New Jersey last season. He totaling 45 points on 14 goals and 31 assists. Depending on your leagues depth Zajac will be a good centerman to bring on when he’s healthy.

Ryan Ellis of the Nashville Predators is recovering from off season knee surgery and it’s being reported that he’s still about three months away from returning. Ellis played in 71 games last season totaling 38 points on 16 goals and 22 assists while be a +17. In 22 playoff games Ellis scored 13 points, 5 goals and 8 assists while being a +4. The Predators look to be a team on the rise; so you’ll have to analyze the situation very carefully to see if there will be minutes for Ellis when he returns from injury.

Anther defenseman on the mend is Andrej Sekera of the Edmonton Oilers. Sekera torn his ACL in the post season and it looks like he’ll miss a minimum of half the season. Sekera played in 80 games last season. He ended up scoring 35 points on 8 goals and 27 assists while posting a +14. Sekera played in 11 post season games. He scored 1 goal and assisted on 2 others for a total of 3 points, but was a -1 for the playoffs. Sekera did have his second best scoring season in 2016-17 and has put up 30 points or more in both of his seasons with Edmonton half a season is a long time to wait. Maybe the timing will be right and Sekera will return just as you’re looking for a guy, but I don’t think it’s worth holding a roster spot for him.

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

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: September 23, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I think that we’re all use to bad Thursday night football games, but so far this season the NFL has delivered two out of the three weeks of this season. Honestly though who thought that the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers would keep that streak going this past Thursday, but they did.

Now the game looked like it was just going to be a blow out as the Rams had a 34-20 lead heading into the 4th quarter, but the 49ers got themselves back in the game and ended up being just an unconverted 2-point conversion away from possibly sending the game into overtime.

In the end the Rams ended up with a 41-39 victory and improved their record to 2-1 while the 49ers fell to 0-3 even though they’ve played three close games to start the season.

I’m not sure if fantasy owners where expecting this, but the game provided them with some very good numbers to start off Week 3.

Jared Goff was 22 of 28 for 292 yards and 3 touchdowns. Goff was credited with 1 rushing attempt for -1 yards as well. Brian Hoyer went 23 of 37 in the game for 337 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interceptions. Hoyer also ran the football 1 time for 9 yards and a touchdown. Did you start either of these guys?

As for running backs Todd Gurley put up some big fantasy numbers. Gurley carried the football 28 times for 113 yards and scored 2 rushing touchdowns. He also caught 5 passes for 36 yards and had a receiving touchdown as well. Who had Gurley having a 3 touchdown night? Carlos Hyde did well for the 49ers as well. Hyde carried the football 25 times for 84 yards and scored 2 rushing touchdowns. Hyde also added 3 receptions for 10 yards. I’m sure Gurley was in everyone’s starting line up, but I wonder how many people used Hyde this week.

The Rams had two receivers go over the 100 yard mark in the game. Robert Woods had the most yards for them with 108 on 6 receptions, but Sammy Watkins was the Los Angeles receiver to have in this game. Watkins also had 6 receptions and went for 106 yards, but he had 2 touchdowns. Pierre Garcon had good numbers as well as he went for 142 yards on 7 receptions, but it was Trent Taylor and Garrett Celek who caught the 49ers touchdowns in this game. I actually had Garcon starting in one of my leagues, but I wonder how many line up Watkins and Woods where in.

I don’t think that either teams Defense/Special teams will be much help to you in fantasy this week as they both let up quite a few points. The Rams did have 4 sacks to go with 1 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery while totaling 83 return yards. The 49ers had 2 fumble recoveries to go with 65 return yards.

The win improved the Rams record to 2-1 while the 49ers fell to 0-3. Both team are on the road for Week 4 as the Rams will take on the Dallas Cowboys in AT&T Stadium while the 49ers will face the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium.

We’ve haven’t heard much about this lately, but as we get closer to NBA training camps opening Carmelo Anthony is still a member of the New York Knicks.

Now Anthony has a full no-trade cause in his contract; so he’ll be able to pick which team he ends up on if a deal is worked out. Anthony had agreed to go to the Houston Rockets, but the teams where unable to work out a deal for him. There are reports now that Anthony has added the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder as two more teams he’d be willing to accept a trade to. Now it’s no surprise at all that Anthony would be willing to go to the Cavaliers. He and LeBron James are friends off the court and James has mentioned being interested in playing with Anthony before. Now you have to wonder if either of these teams would have the assets required to make a deal for Anthony. The Knicks aren’t looking for any long term veteran type contacts in a deal and draft picks are only going to get you so far. Cleveland is still the best team in the Eastern Conference, but would the addition of Anthony to go along with their earlier acquisition of Paul George give Oklahoma City enough to challenge the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference?

Now don’t forget that the Portland Trailblazers still remain interested in acquiring Anthony, but as of now he hasn’t said that he’d accept a trade to Portland. Portland’s top two players guards Damon Lillard and C.J. McCollum have been trying to convince Anthony to join the Trailblazers if a deal could be worked out, but so far no word out of Anthony on if he’d go to Portland. Could Portland emerge as the front runner for Anthony if deals with the Cleveland and Oklahoma City can’t be worked out?

The Knicks open camp on Monday and you can just how awkward it’s going to be as Anthony plans on reporting to camp. You’d have to expect a ton of tension between the two sides and Anthony has been encouraging the Knicks to show urgency in their pursuit of a trade before the season.

Anthony has two years and $54 million dollars left on his contract, but he has an option year for the 2018-19 season that would pay him $27.9 million dollars for that season if he chooses to opt into that.

Do you remember Anthony Bennett? I’m not surprised at all if you don’t, but he was the #1 overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft. After playing just one season at UNLV the Cleveland cavaliers made Bennett the top pick in that 2013 draft.

Bennett was with the Cavaliers for one season before he was dealt to the Minnesota Timberwolves along with Andrew Wiggins in the deal that landed the Cavaliers Kevin Love. Bennett also stayed just one season in Minnesota before being waived and signing with the Toronto Raptors. Bennett played just 19 games for the Raptors as he spent most of his time in the D-League before being waived. The Brooklyn Nets signed Bennett next and again he spent most of his time on their D-League team playing just 23 games for the Nets before they released him. Bennett them found his way to the Euro League where he played with the Turkish team Fenerbache.

So it’s looking like Bennett is going to end up being another 1st round NBA bust, but maybe not. The Phoenix Suns have signed Bennett to a non-guaranteed contract and he’ll be joining them for training camp this week. It appears that it may be another trip to what is now called the G-League for Bennett, but at least he’s going to get another chance to prove himself in the NBA.

You can listen to the Sports Time radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is available for you to listen to any time you want at TuneIn.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: August 30, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is having an M.V.P. type of season. He hit his 51st home run last night and has 110 RBI”s already this season. The Marlins have improved to one games above the .500 mark at 66-65 and are in contention for a National league wild card spot. Miami is currently 5 1/2 games behind the Colorado Rockies for the 2nd National League wild card spot. Now that’s a lot of ground to make up, but it’s been interesting to see how the Marlins have found a way to turn their season around.

I guess what’s disappointing to me in this culture of baseball is with the season Stanton is having there is now talk that he’s using a performance enhancing drug. Stanton stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs around 250 pounds. Do people really believe that he needs assistance to hit home runs? Maybe it’s the fact that Stanton has been healthy this season. Stanton has played in 129 of the Marlins 131 games. Last season he played in 119 games and in 2015 he played in just 74 games. You would think an increase in games played and more at bats would equal more home runs for a power hitter. Now the 51 home runs is more than Stanton has hit in any season, but if you’ve spent any time watching baseball this season you know that the balls are flying farther than last season and that should account for the rise in home runs. The baseballs have actually been tested; so this is a fact. Who knows maybe I’m way off here and Stanton is some type of drug, but I don’t think I am. It’s just very sad to me that this is where we go when I guy is having the breakout type of season that people have been waiting for him to have. I guess that’s just how baseball is now.

In the 2nd inning of the game between the Boston red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays Red Sox lefty Chris Sale stuck out Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar. Now it was just one of 11 strikeouts Sale had in the game, but this one was his 1500th career strikeout. This was also the fastest that any pitcher in major league history has reached 1500 strikeouts. It took Sale 255 games and 1290 innings to amass that total and don’t forget that he was a reliever his first two big league seasons. It was former Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood who held the record. Wood reached 1500 strikeouts in 1300 innings.

Sale appears to be the front runner for the American League Cy Young award. With the won last night Sale is now 15-6 with an E.R.A. of 2.77. Right now Sale leads the American league in wins (15), innings pitched (185 1/3rd), and strikeouts (264). The only starting pitcher with a better E.R.A. than Sale is Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians who’s at 2.63. Sale has made 27 starts this season and will probably make five of six more starts this season depending on how the pennant race goes for the Red Sox. You’d have to think right now though Sale is at the top of just about everyone’s Cy Young ballot.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, but there’s a company called Rep The Squad that is selling monthly subscriptions that allow fans to pick what jerseys they want to wear and have it shipped to them. Now I know this is done with video games and movies, but jerseys. When a subscriber returns a jersey the next in his queue or “locker” as  Rep The Squad calls it will be sent to them. By the way the jersey will be returned in prepaid envelopes. A monthly subscription costs $19.95 for adults and $16.95 for children.

Brian Watkins is the person behind this idea. Watkins hopes to eventually go into all major pro sports teams, but at launch; which is Wednesday, the company will only have jerseys for fans of the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions. The company has acquired thousands of jerseys, including every look in every size for these teams.

Now I’m sure you’re thinking the same thing that I’m thinking. What happens when a jersey comes back dirty. Watkins is expecting jerseys to be returned dirty and he said that “the jerseys are immediately dry cleaned at no cost to the customer”. Now Watkins did mentioned that “There will be a charge, however, if a jersey were to come back all cut up”.

The Seattle based company is backed by Madrona Venture Group, which was one of the earliest Amazon investors and Maveron, which is was co-founded by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. Now there are some NFL players that are investors in this company. The NFL players invested in this company include Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin along with two former Seahawks. Golden Tate now a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions and offensive tackle Russell Okung now with the Los Angeles Chargers.

I’m very interested to know if you’d be interested in renting a jersey? I mentioned that they do this with video games and movies, but it’s also done with clothing and jewelry. I understand that jerseys are expensive to buy, but I’m just not sure about a rented jersey even if it’s been dry cleaned.

The Golden State Warriors have been to the last three NBA Finals and they’ve won two titles. With all of their superstars returning for the 2017-18 season you have to think that the Warriors are a lock to make the playoffs and if you do you can bet on it.

The Westgate Superbook is offering 1-1000odds that the Warriors make the playoffs. What does that mean? It means if you where to bet $100,000 on the Warriors making the playoffs you’d win $100. On the flipside if you bet $100 dollars on Golden State missing the playoffs and they actually did you’d win $10,000 dollars, but good luck with that bet.

If you don’t like that bet Westgate has set Golden State’s win total for the 2017-18 season at 67.5 games. The Warriors are projected to win 11 more regular season games than any other NBA team. The Boston Celtics are actually projected to have the second highest regular season win total at 56.5.

Are you laying your money down on any of these bets or is there a wager you like that’s out there?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com but don’t forget that you can also listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

Follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

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