Archive for the ‘basketball’ Category

How was your Week? (2/8/14)

Posted: February 8, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,
0

20140213-220043.jpg

Did the Super Bowl go the way you thought it would go? While I actually had the winner way back before the season started I had no clue the game would go the way it did. Most if not all of the experts I heard and even Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy where picking Denver. Schaumburg Stu finally sided with me and we had the Seahawks against the world. As we all know by now it was a blowout in the Seahawks favorite and no one had that. By now you’ve heard the Super Bowl analyzed every possible way; so I’m not going to do a breakdown for you. Right now I’m just a happy fan who’s team won.

Football wise I will address this video that is trying to prove that the NFC championship game between the Seahawks and the 49ers was fixed. The easiest way to explain this is the video was made by a 49ers fan. I don’t know if you’ve seen this video but I was dumb enough to waste my time and watch the entire thing. Plain and simple it’s a video that any fan with a lot more computer skills than I, could have put together after any NFL game. I actually understand where this guy is coming from. His team lost and he’s upset and he had to find a way to explain why his team lost. I would’ve been just as upset as this fan was if the Seahawks had lost the game but I wouldn’t have made a video claiming the game was fixed. The 49ers are a young team just like the Seahawks are and they are in the toughest division in the NFL. Seattle won the division this season. San Francisco won the division last season. The Arizona Cardinals had a better record than some NFC teams that made the playoffs and the St. Louis Rams are a young up and coming team. If these teams can keep their players and this is a big if this division will be a battle for the next few seasons.

With football over the NHL on it’s Olympic break and the NBA in what some players have described as the “dog days” of the season it’s time for pitchers and catchers to report. The Chicago White Sox are the first team to report in our area (next Saturday) while the Cubs report later next week. Now we all can sit back and wait for Mr. Fantasy’s first mock draft for fantasy baseball.

We talked some baseball on the show this week and the two free agent pitchers I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago are still on the open market. Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez haven’t been signed and I have to wonder if Santana especially priced himself out of the market when he made salary demands when he entered free agency. Both guys also have draft pick compensation attached to them if a team signs them. After the last time I mentioned these two pitchers someone asked me where I thought these pitchers would end up. I really think it’s in Jimenez best interest to return to the Cleveland Indians. He had good success their last season and it would be a good fit for him. Santana on the other hand could end up almost any where at this point. I think at this point Santana will end up with the Texas Rangers or the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In more baseball news. Yesterday Alex Rodriguez dropped his lawsuit against Major League baseball and the players union (MLBPA) and will sit out the 2014 season on suspension. I don’t think this was a case A-Rod could win and he just saved himself quite a bit of money by not following through with this lawsuit. A-Rod could refile the lawsuit at any time, but right now it looks like he has “exhaust(ed) all options” like he had said he would do. The Yankees will save $25 million if A-Rod doesn’t play in 2014 but he is owed a total of $61 million though the 2017 season. The question now becomes with the dropping of the lawsuit is A-Rod admitting some guilt and would this give the Yankees enough to void the remainder of his contract. I guess will have to wait and see where A-Rod goes next.

So; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

2/1/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 31, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,
0

20140201-233439.jpg

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl; the Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks. Most of the experts I’ve heard make picks are going with Denver. Even Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man are picking Denver to win this game. I guess I am out on my own here going with the Seahawks to win. It’s the best offense (Denver) in the NFL against the best defense (Seattle) in the NFL. If you can believe it or not and with the way we make picks sometimes it might be tough. At the beginning of the season Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy picked Denver and I actually picked Seattle to win it all. Mr. Fantasy had Denver facing Atlanta while Dan the Man had them playing New Orleans. I had Seattle facing New England in the Super Bowl. Who was your pick?

Kevin Durant’s 30 plus points a game scoring streak came to an end last night. It wasn’t a great defensive effort on someone’s part. The streak actually ended because the Oklahoma City Thunder had such a big lead that Durant sat out the entire 4th quarter. Durant scored 26 points in 30 minutes last night as the Thunder beat the Brooklyn Nets 120 – 95. Durant is making his case for Most Valuable Player and with the absence of Russell Westbrook, due to injury has kept the Thunder 1st place in the Northwest division. LeBron James and LaMarcus Aldridge have also made strong cases for MVP but right now the award belongs to Kevin Durant. I remember that when I first started watching the NBA the finals where on tape delay. Then in 1984 David Stern was appointed commissioner now 30 years later the NBA is a world-wide league. I could’ve spent the entire blog today writing about what Stern has done to make the NBA the league it is today. He did have some help as Larry Bird and Ervin “Magic” Johnson where already playing in the league and then a player by the name of Michael Jordan was drafted. While it’s a players league and they where the faces that people saw Stern knew how to work behind the scenes and kept the league growing globally. Today is Stern’s last day as NBA commissioner. Starting tomorrow Adam Silver will be the commissioner of the NBA.

The NHL is getting close to going on a two week break for the Olympics. The Anaheim Ducks have pulled away from the pack a little with an 85 point total right now. The Chicago Blackhawks are next at 79 points while the Pittsburgh Penguins are right behind with 78 points. The St, Louis Blues are also right there with 77 points. The Penguins Sidney Crosby is leading the NHL in points with 75 and assists with 48. Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is the NHL’s leading goal scorer with 39. Matt Niskanen of the Penguins is the leader in the plus minus category with a plus 30. I don’t want to forget about the goaltenders.Josh Harding (Minnesota Wild) is the NHL leader in Goals Against Average. at 1.66. Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins) leads all goalies in wins with 29. Ben Scrivens (Edmonton Oilers) is the leader in save percentage at .937. Tuukka Rask (Boston Bruins) has the most shutouts for goaltenders with 5.

As always I have to ask you; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 1/25/14

Posted: January 25, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
1

20140128-223909.jpg

So it turned out to be the New York Yankees who signed Masahiro Tanaka. It took a seven year contract for $155 million to get the deal finalized. Then of course there’s the $20 million posting fee that the Yankees now have to pay to Tanaka’s Japanese league team the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. It had been reported that Tanaka had narrowed his choices to the Yankees or the Chicago Cubs. There was actually a report that another team had offered Tanaka more money than the Yankees did but they never said if that team was the Cubs. A lot of scouts have been saying that Tanaka is a #2 rotation type of pitcher but the Yankees paid an awful lot of money for a guy to be a #2 starter. Of course we won’t know anything until the regular season starts and we see how Tanaka matches up against major league hitters. After the Tanaka signing it was being reported that Matt Garza had signed a four year, $52 million dollar deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers came out and said they hadn’t signed Garza and he needed to pass a physical before they could agree on a deal. We’ll see if the Brewers end up with Garza or if it turns into a Grant Balfour type of situation. Balfour by the way agreed this week to a two year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays for $12 million dollars. Now we start to look and see where pitchers like Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez end up signing as we get closer to the start of spring training.

The NBA announced the starters for the All Star game. The Eastern conference starters are LeBron James and Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat. Paul George of the Indiana Pacers. Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Western conference starters are Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers. Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Stephen Curry of the Golden State warriors and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. This is the fan voting and these are the players voted to start by the fans. Bryant is injured and probably won’t play; so he’ll be replaced as a starter. You also have to wonder if wade will be ready to go by the All Star game as he has missed the last four Heat games with a knee injury. With every All Star game where the starters are selected by fan voting there was some complaints about the starters. For me I think the biggest omission from the starting line up is LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trailblazers. While I’m sure Aldridge will make the All Star team it would’ve been nice to see him get the fans votes to start the game. Aldridge is an M.V.P. candidate and the Trailblazers are 32 – 11; two games behind the Thunder in the Northwest division. I’m sure you have your own snubs. Who do you think should start the All Star game?

It’s the NFL’s week off before the Super Bowl and this season they’re playing the Pro Bowl on the week off. They had a draft to pick the teams and I tried to watch it and just couldn’t. It’s an idea they stole from the NHL where two captains pick the teams. In this case it was Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders picking the Pro Bowl teams. While the NHL has stream lined their draft and it runs quickly and smoothly the NFL’s was a lot of fluff and way, way too much time between draft picks. I hope the NFL noticed the issues with this set up and can get it corrected by the time they do this next season. I doubt it will make any difference at all in the Pro Bowl itself as the game isn’t taken seriously by the players. Oddly the Pro Bowl still does very good ratings. While I’ll flip over to the game from time to time, but can never watch the entire game. Do you watch the Pro Bowl?

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

01/18/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

The Anaheim Ducks are on a roll right now. Even with a 4 – 2 loss last night (Friday) to the Chicago Blackhawks the Ducks have won 18 of there last 20 games. Anaheim has 77 points and are in 1st place in the Pacific division. They are 11 points ahead of the 2nd place San Jose Sharks. The Ducks are also 1st overall in the Western conference 4 points ahead of the Blackhawks. Ryan Getzlaf leads the Ducks in scoring with 56 points. Corey Perry leads the team in goals with 27; Getzlaf leads the team in assists with 32. Francois Beauchemin and Hampus Lindholm both lead the team in plus/minus with a +25. Perry has 8 game winning goals for the Ducks while Getzlaf is right behind him with 7 game winning goals. On Wednesday Anaheim put up 9 goals against Vancouver. The Ducks play tonight (Saturday) for the second night in a row against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are 3rd in the Western conference standings with 69 points and it’s a home game for St. Louis.

There’s been some talk of who will be the MVP in the NBA this season. If you where up a little late last night you got to see two guys state their case. The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors 127 – 121. Kevin Durant set a career high in scoring with 54 points for the Thunder while Stephen Curry scored 37 points for Golden State. Durant was 19 for 28 from the field including 5 of 9 q from behind the three-point line. Durant was also 11 for 13 from the free throw line and added 4 rebounds and 6 assists. Curry was 37 of 57 from the field hitting 6 of 10 from behind the three-point line. Curry was also 9 of 11 from the free throw line adding 3 rebounds and 11 assists. Two pretty good nights to get yourself into the M.V.P. conversation.

I didn’t forget about it or anything like that. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the conference finals to see who goes to the Super Bowl. 11:00 a.m. Mr. Fantasy and I will make our picks. You can listen live at BTR the show can also be found on Ultimate Sports Talk. Last week in our picks Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy where 2 – 2; I was 4 – 0. For the first two rounds of the playoffs Mr. Fantasy and I are 5 – 3 while Dan the Man is 4 – 4. It’s the Seattle Seahawks vs. the San Francisco 49ers to see who represents the NFC in the Super Bowl. Over in the AFC it’s the Denver Broncos vs. the New England Patriots. Seattle and Denver are the home teams for these games; so will see if that helps either team. Who are you picking?

Clayton Kershaw signed the largest contract in baseball history for a pitcher. The Dodgers signed Kershaw for 7 years and $215 million. It’s always a risk to sign a pitcher to a long-term deal, but Kershaw might actually be worth the risk. Kershaw was 16 – 9 with a 1.83 E.R.A. last season. Kershaw won the Cy Young award last season; his second. Kershaw also won the award in 2011. Do you think this is a good deal?

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

01/01/14 How was your week?

Posted: January 4, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

20140104-220839.jpg

I’ve heard lots of talk this week on the various sports shows I watch that they don’t like the way the 1st round of the NFL playoffs are set up. The complaint is the San Francisco 49ers who had a 12 – 4 record this season have to go on the road to play the Green bay Packers who had a 8 – 7 – 1 record. The Packers won the NFC North while the 49ers finished a game behind the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West. The other NFC 1st round match up has the same set up as the new Orleans Saints who finished the regular season at 11 – 5 have to play the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. The Eagles had a 10 – 6 record, but won the NFC east. So if you take these home games away from division winners; what do you get for winning your division? If winning a division doesn’t matter why do we have them? If this is changed, the NFL should just go to two conferences the NFC and the AFC because winning your division or even being in a division would become meaningless. Yes its a tough break the 49ers and the Saints have to go on the road for the 1st round of the playoffs, but if they didn’t want to travel they should’ve won their division. Dan the Man and I talked about this on Friday’s show and I just believe that a team deserves a home game for winning it’s division.

We have two games today (Saturday) and two games tomorrow (Sunday) to start wild card weekend. Do they still call it that? Game 1 had the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Indianapolis Colts. This is a rematch of a week 16 game which Indianapolis won 23 – 7. Andrew luck threw for 241 yards and 1 touchdown while Donald Brown scored the other Colts touchdown and led the team in rushing with 79 yards. Jamaal Charles scored the Chiefs lone touchdown and had 106 yards on 13 carries. Can Indianapolis repeat this and get another win?

Saturday’s game 2, is one of the games I mentioned before the New Orleans Saints vs the Philadelphia Eagles. LeSean McCoy led the NFL in rushing yards with 1607 yards and Nick Foles has been a surprise at quarterback since taking over the starting job. While Foles threw for 27 touchdowns during the season the amazing stat is that he only threw 2 interceptions the entire year. The Saints have ruled out leading rusher Pierre Thomas for this game with an injury. You’d think that Mark Ingram would get an added work load with Thomas out but Darren Sproles may see a few more carries as well. Of course the Saints go as Drew Brees goes 5162 passing yards and 39 touchdowns for Brees this season. The weather may get rough during this game; so will have to see if it affects either of these high-powered offenses.

On Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. Mr. Fantasy and I will cover the games for that day. The first game is the San Diego chargers vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. Game two is the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Green Bay Packers.

Just so we’re on the record here since two of these games will be played before you hear us on air are picks are. Dan the Man has the Colts and the Saints for Saturday’s games. Mr. Fantasy has the Chiefs and the Saints and I’m going with the Colts and the Eagles. To find out our picks for Sunday you’ll have to tune in and find out. Sports Time Radio

I’ve decided that this Masahiro Tanaka talk is out of control. There are so many reports about which teams are in the running for him and who might not pay as much. Just yesterday I heard that the Seattle Mariners where the new front-runner but it’s being reported in Chicago that the Cubs won’t be out bid for Tanaka. The dark horse team seems to be the Arizona Diamondbacks while reports are the Yankees and the Dodgers won’t pay as much as people have been saying they would. It’s looking more and more like Tanaka will be getting over $20 million dollars a season for as much as 7 years. While he is only 25 that’s a long time to lock up a pitcher who hasn’t proven himself in the majors. Maybe someone should ask the Boston red Sox about Daisuke Matsuzaka. Remember him?

While the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Dallas Mavericks Friday night 119 – 112 they suffered a big loss. Point Guard Chris Paul suffered a separated should and is going to miss 3 to 5 weeks. Paul is considered by most experts to be the best point guard in the NBA. Paul was averaging 19.6 points per game and a league high 11.2 assists per game. If you’re looking to plug a hole in your fantasy line up with Paul out Darren Collison should be the guy to fill in while Paul is out.

So; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime8

+

How was your Week? (12/28/13)

Posted: December 28, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

20131228-204049.jpg

So how many NBA games did you watch on Christmas day? I watched all of the Chicago Bulls win over the Brooklyn Nets. I also watched all of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s win over the New York Knicks. I only made it about half way through the Miami Heat victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. I managed to catch a total of about half of the game where the Houston Rockets defeated the San Antonio Spurs. I was unable to see any of the last game a Golden State Warriors win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The teams also wore jerseys with sleeves. Most of the people I heard talk about the jerseys didn’t like them but I actually did. I’d have to guess that the NBA referees didn’t like the jerseys since there where no numbers on the back and they had to search for the players number to make foul calls. It will be interesting to see if the NBA will pull these jerseys out again this season or if we’ve seen the last of them for now?

It’s week 17 in the NFL and there are two win and you’re in the playoffs games. Aaron Rodgers returns for the Green Bay Packers as they take on the Chicago Bears Sunday at 3:25 p.m. The winner of this game wins the NFC North and gets a playoff spot. While the Packers have Rodgers back, Clay Matthews had surgery on his thumb and is ruled out for this game. The Bears are a slight favorite in this game and a lot of the experts are picking Chicago to win this game and claim a playoff spot. It’s the best rivalry in the NFL in the last week of the regular season with a playoff spot on the line. What more could you ask for? The other win and you’re in-game is for the NFC East division title. The Philadelphia Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys in the Sunday night game for what will be the only playoff spot left by the time this game kicks off. After some game playing by the Cowboys, quarterback Tony Romo had back surgery on Friday and is out of this game. The Cowboys tried to string everyone along during the week and tried to make it seemed like Romo might play in this game. I don’t think anyone believed that at all but I think they where just trying to give the Eagles something to think about. Kyle Orton takes over as quarterback for the Cowboys; they signed Jon Kitna to be his back up. It’s a lot of pressure for Orton to step into but he’s a veteran quarterback and as long as the Cowboys game plan correctly for his skill set he’ll be fine. Now I’m not saying Dallas will win this game just that Orton has a chance to play well. If you want to know who we think is going to win these games listen tomorrow (Sunday) morning (December 29th) at 11:00 a.m. on Sports Time Radio to hear who we’re going with in these two games and all the other NFL week 17 match ups.

Dion Phanuef is in talks with the Toronto Maple Leafs on a seven year deal. The money that I heard was $7 million but I would think for a player like Phanuef it would be much higher. Phanuef is the Maple Leafs leader in minutes played and plus/minus and he does this against the other teams top line most of the time. In 38 games this season Phanuef has 3 goals and 11 assists with a plus minus rating of +10 while racking up 48 penalty minutes.

In the Eastern conference the Boston Bruins in leading the way with 54 points. The Pittsburgh Penguins are on top in the Metropolitan division with 57 points. In the Western Conference the Chicago Blackhawks lead the Central division with 60 points. The Anaheim Ducks lead the Pacific division with 59 points. Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points with 50 while Patrick Kane is 2nd with 50 points. Alex Ovechkin leads the NHL in goals with 30 while Alexander Steen is 2nd with 24. Joe Thornton leads the NHL in assists with 37 while Nicholas Backstrom and Sidney Crosby are tied for 2nd with 34. Hampus Lindholm is a +22 to lead the NHL in plus minus rating. Tuukka Rask has 4 shutouts to lead all goalies in that category.

Masahiro Tanaka was posted by his Japanese team the Rakuten Golden Eagles on Christmas day. The rumor is Tanaka wants $17 million dollars a season to pitch in the majors. Once a team signs Tanaka his Japanese team will receive $20 million dollar from the team that signs Tanaka. Tanaka was 24 – 0 with a 1.27 era, last season. Tanaka did lose a game in the Japanese World Series but did come back the very next day to close out the championship. There are a long, long list of major league baseball teams looking to sign Tanaka; so now they have 30 days to get his signature on a contract. Let the bidding war start.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime

12/21/13 How was your Week?

Posted: December 21, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,
0

20131221-233253.jpg

Yesterday (Friday) the Baltimore Orioles voided their two $15 million dollar contract offer to free agent closer Grant Balfour. The Orioles reported that there was a shoulder issue that came up during Balfour’s physical. Now there are reports coming out this morning (Saturday) that physician’s from the Cincinnati Reds and the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t agree with the Orioles diagnosis. Balfour has released a statement saying he feels disrespected by the Orioles but it looks like he’ll be back out on the free agent market.

I mentioned on the show last night (Friday) that I’ve always been a fan of Kobe Bryant. So as you can guess I was disappointed to see him go down with a fracture knee cap in his left knee. It just happens to be the same leg that he suffered the torn Achilles last season. Bryant is scheduled to be out for six weeks and told reporters that “Only an idiot would” doubt his resolve to return to the Lakers. Bryant is 35 and is starting to have these injury issues pop up. Last season with the Achilles and now this injury happened just six games into Bryant’s season. Bryant was playing a little over 29 minutes in those six games he got to play in. He was averaging 13.8 points a game, shooting 42.5% from the field. Bryant had recently been giving the duty of handling the basketball more; so his assists where up to an average of 6.3 a game but with the extra ball handling duties his turnovers where up as well. He was averaging 5.7 turnovers a game. Being a fan I have no doubt that Bryant will be back but what kind of impact can he have on this Lakers team this season?

There are two months left until the NBA trade deadline but the name that was out right away with a lot of noise was Houston Rockets Center Omer Asik. Some of the rumors had Asik going to the New Orleans Pelicans for Ryan Anderson. Another rumor had him going to Philadelphia for Thaddeus Young and Spencer Hawes. One more rumor being reported had Asik headed to Boston for Brandon Bass, Courtney Lee and a low-end first rounder from Boston. The Rockets have said that they’re going to hang on to Asik for nowbut will see how this plays out and where he ends up.

Let’s stick with the NBA here and talk a little about what has to be considered the biggest surprise team early this season, the Portland Trailblazers. 27 games into the season the Trailblazers are 22 – 5 going 10 – 2 at home during these games. The Trailblazers have four players averaging double-digit scoring for them this season. LaMarcus Aldridge leads the way with 23.3 points a game but Damian Lillard is right behind him at 21.3. Wesley Matthews at 16.2 points per game and Nicolas Batum at 14.1 points per game are the other two Trailblazers averaging double figures. Aldridge is also leading the team in rebounds per game at 11.1. Robin Lopez is 2nd on the team averaging 8.4 rebounds per game. Lopez also has the best shooting percentage on the team at just under 54%. Lillard leads the team in assists per game with 5.9. Batum is second on the team at 5.2 assists per game and Mo Williams is handing out 4.5 assists per game. I actually heard a sports writer explain that Portland doesn’t get a lot of coverage because sports writers and televised games don’t want to go to Portland because it’s not as exciting as an New York or Los Angeles. More or less saying that there’s nothing they like or want to do in Portland after a game. Sadly I didn’t know that part of being a good team meant having to have places for people to go after your games. Who knows how the Trailblazers will end up this season, but it’s a nice early season story and you never know they might be able to roll this good start into some type of playoff run. I guess then everyone would have to go to Portland.

@Burketime

How was your 11/30/13

Posted: November 30, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

20131201-002418.jpg

I’ll start out this week by wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you and your family had a good time.

It’s Heisman trophy time in college football and a lot of contenders have fallen by the way side. Marcus Mariota of Oregon has struggled later in the season. Johnny Manziel (Texas A & M) has also had some late season struggles. Jameis Winston (Florida State) has still played well on the field but his off the field issue may prevent people for voting for him. The reports coming out say that the investigation against Winston may not be wrapped up by the time the Heisman voting is due. If there hasn’t been a decision made on if Winston will be charged it might be tough for someone to cast a vote for him. I think that leaves you with a couple of choices. Jordan Lynch quarterback (Northern Illinois) and Andre Williams running back (Boston College) as the top two college football players. I’m guessing that neither of these two will get the award but I think one of them should. Lynch just broke his own record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a game. He had 321 yards against Western Michigan on 11/26. For the season Lynch has 1755 yards with 20 rushing touchdowns and is averaging 7.1 yards per carry. He’s also completed 65% of his passes this season for 2457 yards and 22 touchdowns while throwing just 5 interceptions. Lynch has also led Northern Illinois to a 12 – 0 record this season. I know the knock Lynch gets is that he hasn’t played a big time college football team this season. Northern Illinois best win this season may have been week 1 against Iowa a 30 – 27 win. If Lynch doesn’t win the Heisman he should at least get an invite to New York for the awards ceremony. Breaking into the Heisman race late this season is Andre Williams of Boston College. In his last three games Williams rushed for 295 yards against New Mexico State, 339 yards against North Carolina State and 263 yards against Maryland. For the season Williams has 2073 yards rushing and has 16 touchdowns. Boston College is 7 – 4 this season and is on a four game winning streak as I write this. I did find it odd, looking over Williams stats, that he hasn’t caught a pass this season. This shouldn’t affect the way the voters look at him. Williams breaking into the Heisman talk so late in the season may actually be a plus for him but I don’t know if it will be enough to get him the award. As always the award is supposed to go to the best player in college football but we all know better than that. Lets hope this season some voters see the light and actually try to figure out who that best player is and not cast their vote for the most popular or talked about player.

If you’ve listened to the Sunday shows you know that picking winners in the NFL games hasn’t been our speciality. We did make our picks for the Thanksgiving games and did better than we normally do. Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man went 2 – 1 with Pittsburgh being the only loss for that day. I managed to jump out in front for the day going 3 – 0. Will make the rest of our picks for the week on Sunday mornings show, so will see how we do. For the season Dan the Man is in the lead at 98 – 65 – 1. I’m a couple of games behind Dan the Man at 96 – 67 – 1 while Mr. Fantasy is bringing up the rear at 90 – 73 – 1. Will see how the rest of the season goes for our picks.

The NBA season is about 15 games into it’s run and the Indiana Pacers have the best record at 14 – 1 but there are some teams very close to them record wise. The San Antonio Spurs are 14 – 2. The Portland Trailblazers and the Miami Heat are both 13 – 3, while the Los Angeles Clippers and the Houston Rockets are 12 – 5. Teams on the other end of the standings are the Utah Jazz at 2 – 15 and the Milwaukee Bucks at 2 – 13. Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) is leading the league in scoring averaging 28 points per game with Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks) right behind him at 26.5 points per game. Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers) leads the league in assists handing out 12.2 per game. John Wall (Washington Wizards) is next at 8.8 assists per game. Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) leads the league in rebounding averaging 13.9 rebounds per game with 3.9 of the rebounds being on the offensive side. DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers) is second in rebounding with 12.9 rebounds per game with 4.4 of those rebounds being on the offensive rebounds.

The NHL is about a quarter of the way through the season and it looks like the Western conference has the better run of it right now but there’s still a long way to go. The defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks are the top point scoring team with 42. The St. Louis Blues, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks are all right behind the Blackhawks with 39 points. The top team in the Eastern conference is the Boston Bruins with 36 points but the Pittsburgh Penguins only trail them by one point at 35. Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) is leading the league in points with 36. Alexander Steen (St. Louis Blues) and Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) are leading the league in goals scored with 20. Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) leads the NHL in assists with 25. Dustin Penner of the Anaheim Ducks in the leagues plus minus leader at plus 18.

So, how was your week?

You can follow me on @Burketime

How was your Week 11/23/13

Posted: November 23, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

20131124-170639.jpg

A quick apology for not having a show Wednesday this week. There was a scheduling mix up and when I went to get the show set up for Dan the Man and I it was too late. I’m sorry about that.

Alex Rodriguez walked out of his arbitration hearing this week after it was ruled that Bud Selig wouldn’t be called to testify. This was all planned by Rodriguez’s legal team to try to get the public on his side. I could only imagine Rodriguez pounding on the table and getting up and leaving and I had a good laugh about it. Rodriguez is never going to admit that he used P.E.D’s and then lied to everyone about it but I think any real fan knows he did. I found it very interesting that his legal team had a press release ready to go right after the walk out happen. Even more proof that this was a planned event. Rodriguez ended up on the radio at WFAN in New York, but that interview was a huge joke as well. It was Rodriguez blaming Selig for everything and then denying any and all of the accusations that have been made against him. I also found it interesting that Rodriguez and his team wanted Selig to testify at the hearing but Rodriguez wasn’t going to testify at the hearing. Why Selig, but not Rodriguez?

A couple of big trades in major league baseball this week. On Wednesday the Detroit Tigers sent 1st baseman Prince Fielder and $30 million dollars to the Texas Rangers for 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler. This may actually be a trade that ends up helping both teams in the long run. With the trade of Fielder; Miguel Cabrera will move back over to 1st base and prospect Nick Castellanos will get a chance to play 3rd base. Also Kinsler can move into the lead off spot in the Tigers batting order and take some of the pressure off of Austin Jackson. With Fielder’s money off the Tigers book they’ll be able to look into resigning Max Scherzer. Cabrera is also getting close to the end of his contract and you have to figure it’s going to cost between $25 – $30 million a season to keep him in Detroit. On the Texas side of the trade Fielder will add power to the line up. I’d guess he’ll split time at 1st base with Mitch Moreland and also be a designated hitter. Fielder plays as close to everyday as any player in the majors; so the Rangers should get a lot of quality at bats out of him. The other trade happened yesterday when the St. Louis Cardinals sent 3rd baseman David Freese and pitcher Fernando Salas to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for outfielder Peter Bourjos and minor league prospect Randal Grichuk. There where a lot of rumors that the Cardinals where looking to make a trade, but that they where trying to acquire a shortstop. By trading for Bourjos I have to wonder if the Cardinals are out of the Carlos Beltran free agent derby. Looking at the trade you have to wonder if it’s the first move for each teams and that they have another trade in the works.

Last night the Chicago Bulls lost 98 – 95 last night to the Portland Trailblazers. Derrick Rose left this game with is what’s being called a non contact knee injury. Bulls fans went through this last season, but this time it was his right knee. He left the stadium on crutches and there hasn’t been any time-table as to this injury. Rose is schedule to have an M.R.I. in Los Angeles on Saturday. Rose was injured in the 3rd quarter and the Bulls went on to blow a 21 point lead in this loss. Rose had 20 points in about 28 minutes last night before getting injured. There was always talk about the Bulls giving the Miami Heat a run at the Eastern Conference and a spot in the NBA Finals. Without Rose it will start to look more and more like last season when Rose was gone for all of it. I guess Bulls fans will hold their breath until the M.R.I. results are known.

Now you know from listening to the show that Dan the Man and I rail on ESPN quite a bit. In week 1 or 2 of the college football season the network decided that the Heisman trophy would go to Florida State red-shirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston. Now Winston has been accused in a sexual assault case where his DNA has been found. Let me state that there have been no charges filed against Winston as I write this and I’m not hear to decide what the verdict here should be. The reason I bring this up at all is I’m interested to see where and or how ESPN gets themselves out of this. It doesn’t matter how this case plays out it looks this situation will cost Winston any chance at the Heisman trophy. I haven’t watched a lot ESPN as of late, so I don’t know if there running away from their early award. I’m guessing they are. The voting is still a few weeks away and I’ll be interested to see who comes out as the front-runner.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 11/09/13

Posted: November 10, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

20131110-070826.jpg

With the World Series over, the baseball off-season starts to heat up. Yesterday on the show, Start of the weekend; Friday Dan the Man and I discussed free agent demands that Ervin Santana and Rickey Nolasco have made. Santana wants a contract worth $100 million and Nolasco is looking for a contract worth $80 million. Now I know this is a down year for free agent pitching but why would a team consider giving either if these pitchers contracts worth anywhere near that amount. Santana made 32 starts last season and had a 9 – 10 record. He pitched 211 innings and had a good ERA 3.24, but does that make him worth a $100 million dollar contract. Nolasco went 13 – 11 overall, but was 8 – 3 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nolasco made 33 starts and pitched 199 innings total. His ERA with the Dodgers was 3.52, but would that make you want to pay him $80 million dollars over the life of a contract. It will be interesting to see which teams will jump in and negotiation with these two pitchers but I think I’d be very surprised to see either of them get the kind of long-term deals and the kind of money they’re asking for right now. If these two pitchers are worth this kind of money what would a free agent pitcher like Matt Garza would command. Garza is a free agent as well and has always been looked at as a guy with #1 starter type of stuff. I’m not sure the same could be said about either Nolasco or Santana.

The NBA season is getting going and the Indiana Pacers are the only undefeated team at 6 – 0; while the Utah Jazz are the only team that hasn’t picked up a win yet. The Jazz are currently at 0 – 6 as I’m writing this. You’d have to say the biggest surprise to start the NBA season are the 4 – 2 Philadelphia 76ers. While the 76ers may still end up in the draft lottery you can’t say they haven’t gotten off to a surprising start; even getting a win over the Miami Heat. Evan Turner is leading the team in scoring at 22 points a game. While rookie Michael Carter – Williams is averaging 18 points and 7 assists a game. While I’m sure no one is ready to put the 76ers in the NBA finals they are a good story to start the year off.

With the NHL season about a third of the way over the Anaheim Ducks have the most points in the league right now with 29 and lead the Pacific division. The Colorado Avalanche aren’t that far behind with 26 points and are leading the Central division. There is still a long way to go in this NHL season and right now there are 13 teams with 20 points or more and 9 of them are in the Western Conference. The Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby is leading the league in points with 23 while the St. Louis Blues Alexander Steen leads the league with 14 goals; Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks is the league leader in assists with 17.

Tuesday on the show we talked quite a bit about the Jonathan Martin, Richie Incognito situation with the Miami Dolphins. I don’t want to go into all the details about what has went on with these two Dolphin players and at this points it’s a no win situation for both guys. At this point in time I’m wondering if either Jonathan Martin or Richie Incognito will ever play in the NFL again.

So, how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Another special Thursday

Tuesday

Sports Time Radio Pregame Show

Older Entries
Newer Entries