Archive for the ‘basketball’ Category

How was your week

Posted: June 8, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Speculation was that once the Major League Baseball draft was I the books it wouldn’t take ling for Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel to sign and they where right on the nose with that.

It was officially announced yesterday that Kimbrel has signed with the Chicago Cubs and that Keuchel has signed with the Atlanta Braves. Let’s see who got what.

Now if you listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast at all during the baseball off season I said over and over the Cubs needed to add bullpen help, but like always no one listened to me. I guess they had to learn their lesson on the field before they realized my idea wasn’t so bad.

Kimbrel received a 3 year deal for $43 million dollars from the Cubs. At first I thought they may have overpaid for him, but there where reports that the Tampa Bay Rays had upper their offer for Kimbrel to 3 years and $39 million dollars; so the Cubs had to out bid them and they did.

Now Kimbrel has been one of the best closers in baseball since his rookie year in 2011. He’s got a 50 save season under his belt and has never saved less than 31 games in a season. Kimbrel has also been one of the healthier pitchers in baseball and has appeared in at least 57 games in every season he’s pitched, but there have been some bumps in the road.

Kimbrel posted the second highest ERA of his career 2.74 last season, but his issues really showed up in the post season. While he did record 6 saves last post season in the 10 2/3rd innings he pitched he allowed 7 earned runs that’s an ERA of 5.94. Kimbrel gave up 9 hits and walked 8 batters last post season as well. Now Kimbrel’s struggles have been attributed to him tipping his pitches which is a correctable problem; so hopefully when he takes the mound for the Cubs he’ll be back tp his normal form.

The question now becomes how long will it take Kimbrel to get ready to join the Cubs bullpen? Kimbrel himself said he thought it would take two weeks while Cubs manager Joe Maddon went with three weeks when asked this question. Once Kimbrel is in the Cubs bullpen the other question will come up. Can he pitch on back to back days? Can he pitch more than one inning? Along with a few more questions; I’m sure.

It looks like a good signing for the Cubs as Brandon Morrow is still injured and while Pedro Strop did  solid job in the closer role he’s always been a better set up man though his career.

Did you like this signing?

I believe that it’s going to be easier for Kimbrel to get back into his role of closer than it’s going to be for Keuchel to be a top of the rotation starting pitcher like he’s been in his career. Just the last few seasons we’ve seen starters who have just reported to teams either at the end of spring training or right after spring training had ended and they’ve had rough seasons. Keuchel is joining a team with about 1/3rd of the season in the books. It makes you ask; what will the Braves get?

There was some talk mostly from Keuchel’s agent Scott Boras that Keuchel wasn’t going to sign a one year deal, but in the end that’s exactly what he got from Atlanta. Keuchel signed a 1 year deal for $13 million dollars with the Braves.

Keuchel made 34 starts last season and threw 204 2/3rd innings. The starts where a career high while the innings total was the second highest in his career. He did however give up more hits 211 than innings pitched and his strikeouts per 9 innings rate dropped a whole point. There where reports that Keuchel’s velocity was down and since he pitches to contact that could result in more hits off of him.

Now Keuchel is just what the Braves appear to need; a veteran top of the rotation starter. Don’t forget that Keuchel has not only won 20 games in a season, but is also a Cy Young ward winner. He posted an ERA of 3.74 last season, but that was in the American League and ERA’s are always higher there.

The question now just like for Kimbrel is; how long before Keuchel will be ready to join the Braves starting rotation? Keuchel is scheduled to make a start in Triple-A and it was agreed upon in his contract that he can only stay in Triple-A until June 18th. Even if Keuchel is injured he has to be called up and placed on the Injured List by June 18th. So expected Keuchel in the Braves rotation in 10 days.

Did you like the signing of Keuchel for the Braves? Who do you think made the better signing; Atlanta or Chicago?

Last night the Toronto Raptors took a 3-1 series lead over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals as they won Game 4 by a the score of 105-92. There are many ways to look at this, but the one thing I’m wondering is did this series just set up for Kevin Durant to be the hero?

Durant hasn’t played in a month due to a calf injury. His last game was against the Houston Rockets in the second round of the playoffs on May 8th and after the Western Conference final series against the Portland Trail Blazers there where a lot of people convinced that the Warriors didn’t need Durant to win the title. I wonder if those people have changed their minds now.

Remember that we’re talking about a player who is considered by some to be the best player in the NBA. Don’t forget that Durant is a two-time finals MVP. He’s also won a league MVP. As well as being a 4-time league scoring leader. That’s a lot of offense for even a team like the Warriors to be missing.

It’s an interesting scenario for Durant who is headed into free agency once these finals are over. If he returns and Golden State runs the table; wins three straight games and their third title in a row; how big of a hero is he? Now if he returns and they still end up losing the title to Toronto he should still be covered because he returned and tried to help the team out while possibly being less than 100%.

In all honesty no matter which route Durant chooses to take it’s not going to impact his free agency at all as he’ll still be the top target for every team looking to add a top player. I guess maybe it’s just the visions of Willis Reed walking out of the tunnel or Michael Jordan being almost carried off the court with the flu that makes me wonder if Durant could have a moment like that over an entire three game span.

What do you think. Does Durant play in the NBA Finals?

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

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: June 1, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I’ll be the first one to complain about the extra days off in a playoff series. It’s become common place in the NBA no matter if it’s an opening round series or the NBA finals that at some point there will be an extra day off added into the schedule. Sadly now it seems that the NHL has adopted this terrible scheduling pattern for the Stanley Cup finals.

Now the main excuse given is always travel even though the last time I checked teams are no longer taking the train to get from one destination to the next. Most if not all teams have a team plane which should make their travel much easier than you or I, but they still need that extra day off.

To the point teams and leagues do this because of their television contracts and I don’t understand why they just won’t come out and admit that.

ESPN and TNT grossly overpaid to broadcast NBA regular season and playoff games. It was so bad at ESPN that they had to let quite a few employees go to save their bottom line; so you have to figure that they have quite a bit of control over the schedule; especially when it comes to playoff games.

Here’s how this could play out. The NHL started off okay as they had Game 1 on Monday and then Game 2 on Wednesday, but then they threw in the extra day; so Game 3 is tonight. The Boston Bruins where the prohibited favorite coming into this series, but the St. Louis Blues picked up a Game  win before the Bruins evened thing up with a Game 2 win. Even if one of these teams wins the next three games the NHL season won’t end until June 6th. If this series happens to go seven games the NHL season won’t end until June 12th. Except for fans in St. Louis and Boston; who pays attention to what’s going on in the NHL in the middle of June?

Over in the NBA the season could play out even longer. The Toronto Raptors picked up a Game 1 victory over the favorite Golden State Warriors and Game 2 is in Toronto tomorrow night. Now everyone expected Golden State to win this series and if they did win four games in a row to capture the NBA title the series would end on June 10th. Now if this series ends up going to full seven games in won’t end until June 16th. Since this is the first time the Raptors have ever made it to the NBA finals their fans will stay with this series no matter what, but if this does go all the way until June 16th there will be Golden State fans that won’t care who ended up winning.

Game 1 of the NBA finals was another example of how the television contracts these league get into doesn’t really help them.

Like I mentioned for the first time in team history the Raptors had made it to the NBA finals. Toronto also had the better regular season record; so they got hosted Game 1 and have home court advantage. What did that get for their fans? It got them a 9:00 p.m. start time for Game 1. Now you’ll hear the various leagues talk about growing the game and making it more available to kids. How many kids got to see the end of this game? The only reason I got to see any of this game was because I just happened to be on vacation from my job otherwise I wouldn’t of seen any of Game 1. To be fair tomorrow nights game isn’t much better as it will start at 8:00 in Toronto, but if that’s what television wants that’s what television is going to get. Sorry fans your not important to the NBA!

The Major League Baseball draft is coming up in a few days; I believe it ight be June 3rd, but I’m not sure of that date. I have to give baseball some credit for trying to make it out like it’s a big deal. They’ve created a draft show and it seems like there’s a commercial for it on the MLB Network ever time they go to break. I’m sure they’d love the MLB draft to be looked at and turned into a spectacle like the NFL and NBA drafts are, but that’s just not going to happen for them.

When your favorite NFL or NBA team makes a draft pick the player goes right to training camp with the team that picked him and in most cases will be on the field or court when the season starts. When you get drafted by an major league team you go to spring training, but you spend that time in minor league camp. Maybe the player that a team took with their #1 pick makes an appearance or two in the major league camp just so they ca be seen by reporters and the teams front office people, but there’s very little chance that player will see any time in the major league for quite some time.

Now’s there’s really nothing that MLB can do about this it’s just the nature of their game and it takes time for a player to develop until the NFL and NBA where they can walk into a training camp and compete for a job.

The Baltimore Orioles have the first pick in the MLB draft and in just about every mock draft I’ve read they’re going to select Bobby Witt Jr. a shortstop who is almost 19 years old and played at Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville Texas. If the Orioles don’t take Witt Jr. they may go with outfielder Riley Greene from Hagerty High School in Oviedo Florida or left handed pitcher Zach Thompson who pitches at the University of Kentucky.

Now maybe down the road one of these players will have a Hall of Fame career, but I don’t think any of them will be in the big leagues this season; so unlike the NFL and NBA draft we just have t wait and see how these players turn out.

If Witt Jr’s name sounds familiar to you that’s because his father Bobby Witt  pitched for seven different major league teams over a 16 year career.

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

Remember to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 29, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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When the Los Angeles Lakers signed LeBron James the team was expected to re-claim it’s spot among the elite of the NBA. Unfortunately for James and the Lakers things went from bad to worse.

The season didn’t go anywhere near as expected as James played in just 55 games due to injury. That was the least amount of games he’s ever played in during the regular season in his career. James also couldn’t find a fit with the young core of players that the Lakers had assembled and he did his best to get them shipped off in a trade for Anthony Davis that didn’t come to fruition.

Even with the addition of the best player in the NBA the Lakers finished 37-45 and missed the playoffs for the 6th year in a row.

To no one’s surprised Luke Walton was fired as head coach and there was a report earlier in the week that Rich Paul who runs Clutch Sports for James wanted Walton removed very early this past season.

Apparently there was a dinner where James and his business manager Maverick Carter sat down with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to discuss certain things one of which was the state of the Lakers. While these three sat at one table it was reported that Paul was at another table within ear shot of the three. Now there’s no way to knw what was actually talked about, but this seems a bit off to me.

Now after the Walton firing things got even weirder for the Lakers. Magic Johnson who was team President just up and quit without telling anyone. Since Johnson’s departure there has been a lot of finger pinting with Johnson blaming everything on General Manager Rob Pelinka.

Besides the signing of james the Lakers added some veteran players Lance Stevenson, Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee and Tyson Chandler. According to reports these players where signed by Johnson and Pelinka without any discussion from the rest of the front office or coaching staff.

So how can the Lakers fix this? Apparently James has already spoken to Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard about joining the Lakers as free agents this off season. I know you’d think this would be tamoering, but since it’s James nothing will come of it. Kyrie Irving has also talked about teaming up with James again and is another free agent the Lakers could sign. Add in the fact that they somehow magically moved up in the draft lotttery and now own the 4th pick which I’m still guess will be used in a trade for Davis and the Lakers are on their way back.

Aftr the removal of Walton from the head coaching position the Lakers had a difficult time finding someone to accept the job. Of course the first choice was Tyronn Lue who was the head coach whne the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title with James a few seasons ago. For some reason the Lakers didn;t want to go any more than three seasons on a conttract for a head coach while the going rate in the NBA is five years. Lue declined the offer and the two side couldn;t come to an agreement.

The Lakers next choice seemed to be Monty Williams who was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers at the time. It was clear that Lue was the top chpice for the Lakers and Williams was just a secondary candidate; so while the Lakers where busy trying to workout their issues with Lue the Phoenix Suns swooped in and hired Williams as their head coach.

After whiffing badly on their first two attempts to hire a head coach they finally found someone to take over the team.

Former Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic head coach Frank Vogel was named head coach of the Lakers. Vogel spent 6 seasons with the pacers and made the payoffs in five of those six seasons. His two seasons in Orlando didn’t go as well. The Magic never won 30 games in a season with Vogel as their head coach and they missed the playoffs in both of his seasons with the team.

Vogel acccepted the Lakers three year contract offer with the caveat being that Jason Kidd would be one of his assistant coaches.

Kidd spnt a season as the Brooklyn Nets head coach and then three and a half seasons as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Kidd was fired 45 games into the 2017-18 season by Milwaukee. Kidd made the playoffs his only season in Brooklyn and two of the three full seasons he coached with Milwaukee.

It seems as though the Lakers would’ve liked to have just hired Kidd as their head coach, but you wonder if his history had anything to do with them going about things the way they did. Will have to see if the natural order of progression has Kidd taking over the Lakers in three years or less.

The Lakers apppear to be a mess right now, but don’t expect them to stay that way. James should be able to recruit one or two top players to join him and I still fully expect them to end up with Davis one way or another. Would it shock you if the Lakers where competing for the top spot in the Western Conference next season?

I just saw a big deal made of the fact that we’re 100 days away from the kickoff of the NFL regular season. Does everyone miss football that much that this needed to be celebrated like it was?

I get that the NFL is still the top sport in most people’s opinion, but there was a lot of other sports going on. Maybe your not into baseball because it’s May and there’s still a long way to go. I understand that the NHL comes in at the bottom of the four major sports, but the Stanley Cup finals have started. By the way the Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 in Game 1; Game 2 is tonight. Also the NBA Finals are one day away from starting. I don’t know; maybe it’s just me, but I think we didn’t need to make this big a deal for the NFL being 100 days away.

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

How was your week

Posted: May 25, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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With the way that sabermetrics and analytics have taken over baseball I’m not really surprised at anything that comes out. I’m to the point now where I’m more humored or curious on how they got to this conclusion. That was the case this week when I read one story and the heard a report on MLB Network that has Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo as an MVP candidate.

To be fair I haven’t followed Gallo closely this season except to plug him into my FanDuel home run derby line up; so I thought we could go over his numbers and see if or how he’s starting to be mentioned as an MVP candidate.

Gallo has played in 43 of the Rangers 48 games this season. Gallo is hitting .285; he came into the season as a career .203 hitter over the first four seasons of his career. He’s had 151 official at bats this season. Of his 43 hits this season 11 of them have been doubles, he has 1 triple and 15 home runs. At least right now he has more singles 16 than home runs. Gallo also has 35 RBI’s this season. His strikeout rate is still very high and he’s on pace to strikeout about 228 times this season. Gallo has walked 35 times and you can also add 3 stolen bases to his stat line.

To be honest his numbers are better than I thought they would be, but is he an actual candidate for MVP?

I can see why people would have Gallo in the MVP conversation right now. There really aren’t a lot of candidates in the American League. If I had to guess right now I’d say that George Springer of the Houston Astros is the front runner for the award. I’d think that Springer’s teammates Alex Bregman and Michael Brantley would garner some votes as well. You could add Gallo in as the 4th contender and just to round out a Top 5 you could throw Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees in the MVP race.

It is a bit of a down year right now in the American League. The Yankees have had a lot of injury to their key players who would grab a lot of those MVP votes from the East coast writers and at this point of their season there’s no one on the Boston Red Sox who’s an MVP candidate.

If this situation was to continue I’m not sure who all of those writers would cast their votes for; so that might make Gallo a viable contender for the MVP award. If I had to guess those writers would end up pushing Sanchez o the award as there would be no one else to vote for.

Gallo is tied for 2nd in the AL in home runs. He’s tied for 6th in RBI’s and his average puts him 27th out of all qualifiers. He is tops in OPS right now which is a big stat among the analytics community; so I’m sure that’s one of the main reasons we’re hear his name mentioned as an MVP candidate.

Now there’s still a long way to go in this season. Gallo and the Rangers still have 114 games to play, but right now I can understand why they have him in the MVP conversation. Will he win it? I guess will just have to wait and see how the rest of the season plays out.

I wanted to drop in a quick update on the Sports Time Radio podcast instead of waiting to the end to do it. We’re going to be off the next five Sunday’s as Mr. Fantasy is on a European vacation. Then of course since Monday is the Memorial day holiday will be off because Dan the Man likes his holidays, but other wise will be rolling along like usual.

The podcast can be heard live on BlogTalkRadio.com. We’re on Monday thru Thursday from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. Then on Friday we start 30 minutes earlier as we’re on from 5:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. The podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you’d like at TuneIn.com.

Sports Time Radio also has a Facebook page; so you should check that out and give it a like while you’re there. The podcast also has it’s own Twitter account @SportsTimeRadio. If you’re interested in following that. The hosts also have Twitter accounts if you’re interested in follow us. Dan the Man is @DanZeeeMan, Mr. Fantasy is at MrFanofSports while I am @Burketime. Sadly Schaumburg Stu doesn’t have a Twitter account, but maybe someday he’ll start one.

Feel free to interact with us on social media or by calling into the podcast and talking to us.

The Golden State Warriors are still waiting to find out who they’ll be facing in the NBA finals and tonight there’s a chance that they might get that answer.

The Toronto Raptors host the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Raptors hold a 3 games to 2 lead in the series and with one more win will advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in team history.

If Milwaukee finds a way to win Game 6 on the road the series would head back to Fiserv Forum for a Game 7 on Monday.

No matter how this Eastern Conference series plays out the NBA Finals will start on Thursday May 30th. It also won’t matter which Eastern Conference teams wins as they both had better regular season records than the Warriors; so they’ll be hosting that Game 1.

With the finals on the horizon this brings up an interesting question. Would you rather be Golden State or the team that wins the Eastern Conference?

It seems as though the biggest advantage that Golden State has is they can get healthy; but besides that is there anything else that helps them being off this long? Golden State hasn’t played a game since May 20th when they swept the Portland Trail Blazers out of the Western Conference finals. That means that the Warriors will have 10 days between games. Now I’m sure they will have practices and scrimmages, but that doesn’t recreate an actual game. I mentioned earlier that health could be the Warriors one advantage, but even with this time off it’s being reported that Kevin Durant won’t be ready for the start of the NBA Finals; so that advantage might not mean anything.

Is it at all possible that it’s better to be the team still playing? That of course would be as long as one of your players doesn’t suffer an injury before the NBA Finals.

I don’t think that either the Raptors or the Bucks will beat the Warriors for the NBA title, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they look better than them when Game 1 rolls around. It wouldn’t even be a huge shock to me if that Eastern Conference team picked up a Game 1 win.

Feel free to let me know what situation you’d rather be in heading into the NBA Finals.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend.

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 22, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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It seems that a Major League Baseball manager and NFL quarterbacks have at least one thing in common. When their teams win they get too much and credit and when the teams loses they get too much blame. At least in the NFL the quarterback gets his hands on the football when his team is on offense. A manager doesn’t get to hit or pitch, but he’s the one that loses his job when that team doesn’t perform. That seems to be the case in New York right now as Mets manager Mickey Calloway is on the hot seat after a prolonged slump by his team.

The Mets where on a 5-game losing streak and it looked like Calloway might be out of a job. First year General Manager Brody Van Wagenen came out and said that Calloway would be the Mets manager, but he used the term “for the foreseeable future”; so that really didn’t answer anything.

As it turned out the best thing for the Mets was to return home to face the Washington nationals another struggling National League East team. The Mets have taken the first two games of this four game series with the Nationals. Thursday the Mets picked up a 5-3 win and then last night the Mets won 6-5 on a walk off infield single by Amed Rosario.

With those two wins the Mets improved to 22-25 on the season and you’d have to think that for a short period of time Calloway’s job is safe. Of course who knows if he’ll last through another losing streak.

As early as it still is in the season I’m not sure that a managerial change would make that much difference on a team like the Mets.

The Mets have struggled with injury like a lot of teams have this season. Jed Lowrie was a big off season signing for the Mets, but he’s yet to play a game due to injury. Lowrie sprained his left knee capsule which kept him out of all of spring training as well as the 47 regular season games the Mets have played. It appeared that Lowrie was recovered from his injury, but had a setback when he strained his left hamstring. Lowrie is going to be re-evaluated in two weeks and there’s no set timetable for his return. Todd Frasier also started out the season injured, but has returned to play in 23 games this season. Frasier is off to a slow start hitting .206 with 2 home runs. You can add Michael Conforto to that injury list as he is currently on the IL with a concussion. Hopefully Conforto will just miss the 10 days that the Injured List calls for, but you never know with a concussion.

Then there’s the plight of Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes has battled injuries for the last three seasons with the Mets. In 2017 he played in 81 games, last season he played in just 38 games and this season it doesn’t appear as he’ll play any games for the Mets this season. Cespedes was sidelined after having surgery on both of his heels. While it’s unclear how Cespedes had an accident while working on his ranch and suffered multiple right ankle fractures. As of right now there’s no idea when he’ll be able to return.

The only Mets pitcher to miss significant time has been Jason Vargas. Even when he was healthy Vargas wasn’t very good. In 7 games 6 of which where starts Vargas was 1-2 with an ERA of 5.92 over 24 1/3rd innings. Vargas injured his hamstring and landed on the 10-day IL. He’s scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Friday and then a decision will be made on a return date. When Vargas returns the Mets will have to decide if he’ll go back into the starting rotation where he wasn’t very good or he’ll be oved to the bullpen. There’s also a possibility that the Mets could release Vargas when he returns.

Now injuries are out of the managers control, but they do affect a teams record and that indirectly can lead to the manager losing his job. Even at 3 games under .500 the Mets are only 5 1/2 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East.

Do you think a change in manager would help the Mets? Or do they just need their players to get healthy and back into the line up?

While it’s really no surprise that the Golden State warriors are going back to the NBA Finals for the 5th season in a row it is a little surprising that they did it by sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers.

Now remember Golden State Played the entire series without Kevin Durant who is recovering from a strained calf. Andre Iguodala also missed game 4 of the Western Conference Finals with a calf injury.

Luckily for Golden State Iguodala’s injury isn’t serious and he’ll be ready for Game 1 of the NBA Finals whenever that is. Durant’s stats for the Finals is still unclear.

The Warriors will now sit and wait for the winner of the Milwaukee Bucks/Toronto Raptors series. Toronto won Game 4 of the series last night 120-102 to tie the series at two games apiece.

If this series was to go seven games it wouldn’t end until Monday, May 27th. There’s never really a quick turnaround with these NBA series; so the NBA Finals might not start until mid-week or later.

That means the Warriors will have at least a week to get their players healthy and prepare to try and win their 3rd NBA championship in a row and their 4th title in 5 years.

Do you think this much time off is go for the Warriors? Or do you think it would’ve been better for them to only have a few days off before starting the NBA Finals?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com The podcast airs Monday thru Thursday from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. Then on Friday’s we start a half hour early at 5:00 p.m. and we go until 6:00 p.m. Now if you do happen to miss the podcast live all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 15, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The NBA held it’s draft lottery last night. Now there are a lot of people who believe the lottery is rigged and I happened to be one of those people. Now last nights lottery did nothing to slow down the conspiracy theorist at all.

The New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns each had an equal chance to win the draft lottery with the Chicago Bulls next in line percentage wise. When it was all said and done the Knicks where the only team that stayed in the inside the Top 5. The Cavaliers ended up with the 5th pick, the Suns pick 6th and the Bulls pick 7th. Even the Knicks fell a little as they ended up with the 3rd overall pick.

The overall winner of the draft lottery was the New Orleans Pelicans who will have the #1 pick and the right to select Zion Williamson. The Memphis Grizzlies moved up to the #2 spot while the Knicks sit at #3. The Los Angeles Lakers jumped up all the way to #4 which was no surprise at all to me as I expected the Lakers to come away with the #1 pick.

Now I’m sure most people would look at this and not think there was anything fishy going on, but let’s take a closer look at how things fell out.

As I mentioned I thought the Lakers would end up at #1 and if it wasn’t them it would be the Knicks who got the first pick. but New Orleans fits into this conspiracy just fine.

As everyone knows Anthony Davis has no interest in returning to New Orleans next season and since he’s signed with the agency that LeBron James owns it’s no shock at all that he wants to play with the Lakers. The two teams tried to work out a trade around the deadline, but couldn’t come to terms on a deal because the Lakers didn’t have enough assets for the Pelicans to make the trade. Now the trade package the Lakers can offer has greatly improved.

I’m guessing the deal will go down something like this. The Lakers will send the #4 pick along with multiple other draft picks to New Orleans with Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball for Davis.

The Lakers will get the star they want in Davis and James will be able to shape the team the way he wats with that young core gone. This should also be enough for the Lakers to return to the playoffs even in the tough Western Conference which is where the NBA wants them.

The Pelicans will gain a solid core of young players that they immediately add Williamson and one other young talent that they’ll get with the 4th pick to the mix. Remember most experts think that there are four top players in this draft; so the Lakers pick landed just inside of where they needed it to for this deal to happen.

Memphis landing at #2 may have been the biggest surprise of the night, but when you look at the Grizzlies closely you can understand why the NBA wanted them up there.

Memphis is one of the lowest drawing teams in the league and last season they tried to sell for their top players. Marc Gasol ended up in the Eastern Conference finals as a member of the Toronto Raptors, but the Grizzlies where unable to find a taker for Mike Conley. You’d have t think without a top pick in this draft that Memphis would deal Conley in the off season and that may still happen.

By landing in the 2nd spot of the draft the Grizzlies will most likely select Ja Morant. There are experts who think Morant might be a better NBA player right out of the gate than Williamson. Now don’t go crazy their not saying for his career; just for the start of their rookie seasons. This would give Memphis a bonafide young superstar for fans to come out and watch as the teams begins a rebuild.

The Knicks came away with the 3rd pick in the draft and I’m not really sure if there’s anything of interest here. There where repots that if the Knicks landed the #1 pick in the draft they’d try to trade it to New Orleans for Davis. I guess you could look at the fact that the Knicks are owed by James Dolan who is not only the worst owner in the NBA, but the worst owner in all of professional sports; so maybe the NBA didn’t want to do him ay favors and allow him to end up with Williamson.

Luckily for the Knicks they landed n a spot where they should be able to draft a young player like R.J. Barrett to help their team out. The other teams with chances like the Knicks in the lottery; the Cavaliers, Suns and the Bulls will all be back in the draft lottery next season with the picks they got.

The other team that walked away from the draft lottery with some bad luck was the Atlanta Hawks.

The Hawks had two chances to move into the top of the draft since they also owned the Dallas Mavericks pick. Sadly for the Hawks they didn’t get close to a top pick as they ended up at #8 and #10. It would’ve been very interesting if the Hawks had moved up into the Top 3 and would’ve been able to select one of those players that will go in those spots.

Now no matter which side of the draft lottery conspiracy you’re on there are two things that you have to remember. 1) The draft lottery is a made for television event and 2) the NBA is a business and they’re going to do what’s best for business.

It’s always been good for the NBA when the Lakers and the Boston Celtics are good. The Celtics where a playoff team even though they where a bit of a disappointment in the playoffs, but the Lakers on the other hand need some help to find their way into the playoffs. While it appears as though the Celtics will be good enough to find their way into the playoffs next year the Lakers would need some help. Did the NBA give the Lakers enough help to get into the playoffs next season?

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

Remember to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: May 11, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, MMA, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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According to most of the people who cover and report on the NBA the championship was decided last night. Now it was just a Western Conference semi-finals Game 6, but they feel that these where the best two teams and the winner of this series would go on to win the NBA title. So who won this series and the title last night?

Well it was the Golden State Warriors who beat the Houston Rockets 118-113 last night. Now not only did Golden State win Game 6 on Houston’s home court the Toyota Center but they did it without Kevin Durant.

Durant is consider to be the best or one of the best players in the NBA, bt he was scheduled to miss the rest of the series against the Rockets when he strained a calf in Game 5. As it turned out the Warriors didn’t need him.

Now if you’ve read any of the blog I’ve written here when I talk about the NBA that I don’t enjoy the style of play; so there was no way I was going to sit through an entire game.

I turned the game on just as Klay Thompson hit a 3-pointer to give Golden State a 110-104 lead with 36.1 seconds left in the game.

To be honest I think it took about 20 minutes to play the final 36.1 seconds of this game and I was quite bored, but I managed to stick with it. The Rockets where just throwing up 3-pointers and then fouling; so they where trying to trade 3 points for 2 points and with 3.6 seconds left they had cut the Warriors lead to 3 points at 116-113.

Once Steph Curry got his hands on the basketball and the Rockets had to foul him with just 2.3 seconds left you knew this game was over. Curry didn’t disappoint as he nailed those two free throws to put the game away and end Houston’s season again.

This is the second season in a row that the Warriors have knocked the Rockets out of the playoffs. This was also the 4th time in 5 seasons that the Warriors have eliminated the Rockets from the playoffs.

At this point the Rockets probably have to decided if the combination of James Harden and Chris Paul will ever be able to gte past the Warriors in a playoff series. Especially since last night looked like Houston’s best chance with Durant sidelined.

Curry ended up being the Warriors leading score with 33 points even though he went scoreless in the fist half of the game. Curry went 9 of 20 from the field including 4 of 11 from behid the 3-point line, but he made all 14 of the free throws he shot to get him to that 33 number.

Klay Thompson added 27 points while Andre Iguadala was the other Golden State starter to score in double digits with 17 points. Kevin Looney and Shaun Livingston helped pick up the score void in Durant’s absence. Looney went for 14 points while Livingston added 11 points. Draymond Green grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 7 assists to lead the Warriors in those categories.

In a losing effort James Harden led the Rockets with a game high 35 points. Harden added 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals, but it just wasn’t enough to get the Rockets a Game 6 win.

Chris Paul and Clint Capela each had double-doubles as Paul went for 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Capela had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Paul also handed out a team high 6 assists. P.J. Tucker was the other Rockets starter to reach double figures in scoring with 15 points.

The Rockets bench didn’t have much affect on the outcome of this game. Houston got 17 points in 50 total minutes from the four players who came in off the bench.

Golden State will get some time off to rest and hopefully Durant will be healthy for the Western Conference finals which start on Tuesday. Who will Golden State be playing in those Western Conference finals? Well they’re going to have to wait until Sunday to find that out.

We actually have not one, but two Game 7’s on Sunday. The Portland Trail Blazers are at the Denver Nuggets on Sunday afternoon to start the NBA action. Then the Toronto Raptors will host the Philadelphia 76ers in a Game 7 with the winner going to the Eastern Conference finals to face the Milwaukee Bucks.

Milwaukee advanced to the Eastern Conference finals this past Wednesday when they eliminated the Boston Celtics in five Games. Milwaukee won Game 5 116-91 on Wednesday.

So who do you have n these two game 7’s? Are you going with Toronto or Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference? What about the Western Conference; do you like the Trail Blazers or the Nuggets to advance?

Anderson Silva is fighting tonight on UFC’s 237 card. Silva will fight Jared Cannonier tonight.

Silva is 44 years old and has three fights left on the current contract he has with the UFC. Obviously he’ll have two fights left after tonight. Apparently it doesn’t matter how many fights Silva has left on any contract because according to his manager Jorge Guimaraes; Silva and the UFC are in talks about a contract extension.

Silva is 34-9-1 with one no-contest in his UFC career. He’s coming into tonight’s fight off of a loss. Silva dropped an unanimous decision to Israel Adesanya on UFC 234 February 10th in Melbourne Australia.

This is the quickest turnaround for Silva in his UFC career. Before the fight with Adesanya he had almost a two year lay off.

Silva held the UFC middleweight title from 2006 to 2013 which covered 10 fights; a UFC record at the time. Silva still holds the UFC record for most consecutive victories with 16. Silva is considered one of the greatest UFC fighters of all-time and a sure Hall of Fame selection when he final does decide to retire.

Silva is looking to turn around the struggles he’s had. He has only one fight since 2012; a span of 7 fights. The win came against Derek Brunson on February 11th 2017.

Silva has also had two suspensions in that time frame after testing positive for a prohibited substance. Now the USADA; which is the UFC’s anti-doping partner did over turn Silva’s suspensions saying they where caused by a contaminated dietary supplement.

Do you have Silva getting a win tonight?

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

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 1, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now if you’ve ever listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast or just kept up with the blogs here you know that the NBA is my least favorite of the four major sports. I would check in on games from time to time to get the score and watch a few minutes of whatever game as on, but after Game 1 of the Western Conference semi-finals between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors I may be done with the sport as a whole.

Golden State won Game 1 104-100 and after the game I think that the Rockets complained more than any other team in NBA history. Now I’ve played enough basketball to understand that ever time you miss a shot you think you where fouled, but the Rockets really took it to another level.

James Harden took the Rockets final shot of Game 1 and like he always does he brought his legs forward to make contact with the defender. It’s clear that the contact had no impact on if Harden’s shot was going to go in, but he hit the floor like he had been checked into the boards in an NHL game. Now Harden gets a lot of these calls as evidenced by the fact that he shot more free throws than any other player in the NBA this regular season, but he didn’t get this call and that set the Rockets off.

Now after the complaining from the Game  loss had slowed down just a little bit the Rockets came out with some information on Game 7 of the Western Conference finals that they also lost to the Warriors.

Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey said that they had audited that Game 7 and the referees missed 81 calls that the Rockets should’ve gotten. At first I thought this was some kind of joke, but when I went back and looked at the article he actually said 81 missed calls. If the referees would’ve made all 81 of those calls; how long would that game of lasted?

Now of course Morey didn’t say how the game was audited, but obviously since he’s the Rockets General manager I could imagine the ticky-tac foul calls that he would’ve wanted the referees to make.

At first I thought all of this was a joke as I’m use to hearing players, coaches and just about everyone from the losing team complaining about the referee during the playoffs. This of course is done to work the referees a little bit and hopefully get some more calls in the next game, but it seems as though the Rockets where quite serious about their audit of that Game 7 and all their complaining from Game 1. This has led to the Rockets now becoming my least favorite professional sports organization in the entire sporting world and I hope they never win a championship.

All this led up to Game 2 which was played last night in Oracle Arena since the Warriors have home court advantage on this series and hosted games 1 and 2. There was drama right away for this game as Scott Foster was announced as one of the referees along with Ed Mallory and Eric Lewis.

Foster refereed a Rockets game back in February and James Harden complained so much about the way Foster called the game that he was given a fine by the league. Now Harden wasn’t the only Rockets player to complain about Foster officiating that game, but I believe he was the only one that was fined for his comments.

With Foster as one of the officials you’d had to wonder how this game would go. Would he end up inciting the Rockets with calls he made or would he unintentionally favor the Rockets so it wouldn’t look bad. In the end neither scenario really took place.

The Warriors ended up being called for 23 fouls in the game while the Rockets where called for 21 fouls. As things turned out there was much more interest in the injures to Harden and Stephen Curry than what foul calls the referees made.

As for the game the Warriors built a 14 point lead midway through the 3rd quarter and it appeared as Golden State might cruise to an easy Game 2 victory, but the Rockets came back and cut the Warriors lead to just 3 points with just under seven minutes left to play, but that was as close as they get. Golden State ran off 9 straight points to stretch their lead back out and in the end picked up their second win in the series 115-109.

Golden State won the first two games at home; so they have a 2-0 lead in the series. The teams get a bit of an extended break as the series shifts to Houston for Game 3, but that game won’t be played until Saturday night.

C.C. Sabathia made his 4th start of the season for the New York Yankees last night and while Sabathia ended up taking the loss 3-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks he did join some pretty elite company.

Sabathia pitched 5 1/3rd innings giving up 2 runs on 5 hits while walking 2 and striking out 5 and it’s those 5 strikeouts that are important here.

Coming into this game Sabathia was just 3 strikeouts short of reaching 3000 career strikeouts. Sabathia struck out Arizona’s John Ryan Murphy to end the 2nd inning and record his 3000th strikeout last night. Sabathia is now the 17th player in Major League Baseball history to strikeout 3000 batters. He is also just the third left handed pitcher to reach that total following Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson.

Sabathia announced that 2019 would be his final season, but if he stays healthy and can make his starts he has a chance to move up the all-time strikeout list. Sabathia finds himself 82 strikeouts behind John Smoltz; so he has a good chance to catch him. Sabathia is also 114 strikeouts behind Curt Schilling and 115 strikeouts behind Bob Gibson; so he also has a chance to pass both of them as well.

One thins is clear; no matter where Sabathia ends up on the all-time strikeout list it appears as his next stop after the 2019 season will be Cooperstown when he’s inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

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

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: April 20, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Since he NHL and NBA seasons run at the same time it’s inevitable that the leagues get compared to one another. In most of those comparisons, the NBA comes out ahead. They’re clearly the more popular league as well as being better marketed and having a better television deal but when it comes to the playoffs the NHL is far and away better than the NBA.

Now both leagues have 16 teams make the playoffs; 8 teams from the Eastern Conference and 8 teams from the Western Conference. That’s where the similarities stop.

Just look at the first round of the playoffs for example. In the NHL, we saw the #1 overall seed the Tampa Bay Lighting get swept out of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Then last night the #1 seed in the Western Conference the Calgary Flames where also eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche in 5 games.

This is the first time in NHL history that both #1 seeds have been eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs. Now this is something that we’d never seen happen in the NBA.

Over in the NBA there was a lot of noise when the #1 seed in the Western Conference the Golden State Warriors blew a 30 plus point lead to lose the second game of their opening round series against the Los Angeles Clippers. Of course the Warriors turned around and beat the Clippers by 27 points in Game 3 to take a two games to one lead in the series. I’d actually be surprised to see the Clippers win another game in this series.

The other #1 seed in the NBA was the Milwaukee Bucks and in their first round Eastern Conference playoff series they’ve had no problems beating the Detroit Pistons and taking a 2-0 lead. The Bucks won Game 1 by 35 points and Game 2 by 21 points. Do you see Detroit winning a game in this series?

Now the NHL did have one higher seeded team dominate a 1st round series. The 2nd seeded New York Islanders swept the 3rd seeded Pittsburgh Penuins oout of the playoffs in their 1st round match up, but the other series could go either way.

The Toronto Maple Leafs won Game 5 of their series 2-1 last night to take a three games to two lead in their series with the Boston Bruins. Toronto has a chance to close out the series at home on Sunday.

The defending champion Washington Capitals are tied two games a piece in their first round series with the Carolina Hurricanes. Game 5 is tonight in Washington.

Over in the Western Conference the #1 seeded Nashville Predators are tied 2-2 in their opening round series against the Dallas Stars. Game 5 is this afternoon in Nashville.

The 3rd seeded St. Louis Blues currently hold a three games to two lead over the 2nd seeded Winnipeg Jets. In Blues will have a chance to close out the series tonight in St. Louis.

After dropping the first game in this series, the Las Vegas Golden Knights ran off three straight wins against the San Jose Sharks but San Jose bounced back to win Game 5. Las Vegas is at home for Game 6 tonight with a chance to close out the series.

While some of these series may end tonight each team in these series has won multiple games. That’s something that’s not going to happen in the opening round NBA playoff series.

We’ve already mentioned that Golden State and Milwaukee are leading their series and the Bucks look like they’ll have a good chane to sweep. How about the other series?

The Toronto Raptors have a history of struggling in the playoffs and when they lost Game 1 of their opening round playoff series to the Orlando Magic there was a lot of talk that we’d see the Raptors make another surprise playoff exit. Well the Raptors bounced back and won the next two games and now hold a two to one lead in this series.

The Philadelphia 76ers had the same trouble as the Raptors did dropping Game 1 of there playoff series to the Brooklyn Nets but the 76ers came back and won the next two games including a Game 3 win without Joel Embiid to take a two games to one series lead. Even if Embiid is out the 76ers should be able to win this series

The Boston Celtics look like they  might be on their way to a 1st round sweep of their opening round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers as the Celtics have taken all three game in this series so far. The Pacers host the Celtics for Game 4 tomorrow; so will see if Boston sweeps or if the Pacers can get a game.

Now the one NBA playoff series where we might actually see a 1st round upset is in the Western Conference. The 7th seeded San Antonio Spurs currently hold a two games to one lead over the 2nd seeded Denver Nuggets. Th teams split the first two games in Denver and San Antonio picked up in win in Game 3 at home. The Spurs are hosting Game 4 this evening looking to take a commanding lead in this series.

The Portland Trail Blazers held home court as they won the first two games in their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Last night Oklahoma was at home and they picked up their first win of this series. This may be the most evenly matched payoff series and we’ll see if the Thunder can even things up at home tomorrow night.

So far the Houston Rockets have been the most dominate team in the Western Conference playoffs. They won Game 1 against the Utah Jazz by 32 points and in Game 2 they beat the Jazz by 20 points. The series shifts to Utah for Game 3 tonight and will have to see if Utah can slow down the Rockets and find a way to get a win in this series.

Now when you go through and you look at these series it’s quite clear that the NHL has the more interesting playoffs series going on right now. Does that means more people will watch. Probably not but maybe they should.

What have you watched more of, the NBA or the NHL playoffs?

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

Remember you can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 10, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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NBA

It’s been a strange year for the Los Angeles Lakers and some how it got even stranger for them.

The Lakers lost their final game of the season to the Portland Trail Blazers 104-101. The loss capped off a disappointing 37-45 season. While this was just another loss for the Lakers it was what came about afterwards that was quite a surprise.

Pretty much out of nowhere, Magic Johnson resigns as President of the Lakers. There were reports that the Lakers top brass was having a meeting and most if not everyone thought it was to decide the future of head coach Luke Walton. After that meeting broke up Johnson stepped up to the mic choking back tears as he announced his resignation.

I’m not sure if will ever know the real reason why Johnson decided to step down after just two seasons with the Lakers. Johnson said “I want to go back to having fun” and he also said that “he wants to go back to who I was before taking this job”.

What may be the most interesting thing about Johnson’s resignation was the fact that he went to the media first before informing Lakers owner Jeanie Buss or the team general manager Rob Pelinka. It was reported that Buss and Pelinka along with chief financial officer Joe McCormack, chief operating officer Tim Harris and manager of special projects Linda Rambis held an all hands on deck type of meeting in El Segundo California after Johnson’s announcement.

Johnson was the Lakers President for two years and even with the signing of LeBron James, the team improved by just two wins this season. The Lakers where unable to find their way into the playoffs in either of the seasons Johnson was President. The Lakers haven’t actually been to the playoffs since 2013.

Johnson is still the greatest player in Lakers history but he may not of been cut out to be President of an NBA team. It can be difficult for great players to transition into front office or coaching roles and this may just be another case of another player not knowing what he was getting himself into. Johnson is and will continue to be a very public figure and good will ambassador for the game of basketball but he may not of realized how many hours being a team President would require him to put in.

Do you think we’ll ever know the real reason Johnson resigned?

MLB

I’m not sure of it was last week or two weeks ago that I wrote about all the injuries the New York Yankees had been dealing with to tart the season off but some how with the news that came out yesterday, it got worse for them.

The Yankees top starter, Luis Severino went down right before the start of the season with an injury to his right shoulder. Severino was placed on the Injured List to start the season but reports were that he had begun throwing long toss.

Apparently, Severino was still having some discomfort after his long toss session. Severino had his shoulder examined yesterday and was diagnosed with a grade two lat strain and will be completely shutdown for six weeks.

Looking at that timetable Severino might be able to start throwing again right around June 1st.  Maybe it’s possible that Severino could be back before the All-Star break.

Severino is in the first year of a four year $40 million dollar contract. He won 19 games last season and was thought to be the Yankees #1 starter coming into this season. Severino is just 25. He has a lot of years ahead of him and just needs to get healthy.

Now Severino wasn’t the only starting pitcher that got some bad news injury wise the last couple of days. Both the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs had a starting pitcher get injured.

Mike Clevinger hasn’t given up a run in his two starts this season for the Indians but he had to come out of his second start this season due to an injury. At first it was thought to be just a minor injury but Clevinger ended up being diagnosed with a right upper back/Teres major muscle strain.  Clevinger will be shutdown for 6 to 8 weeks.

It’s unclear right now who the Indians will use to fill Clevinger’s spot in the rotation but they have some options. It actually looks like Cleveland is considering about six different pitchers for that spot. We could see Adam Plutko, Jefry Rodriguez, A.J. Cole Asher Wojciechowski or Cody Anderson. Ultimately, it might be Anderson who takes over that rotation spot until Clevinger returns but he’s still working his way back from missing the last two seasons with injuries.

Luckily for the Cubs it looks like Jon Lester suffered the most minor injury out of these three pitchers.

On Monday, Lester had to come out of his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates after two innings due to hamstring tightness.

After the game, Lester said that he planned on making his next start.  However, the Cubs aired on the side of caution and put Lester in the Injured List. This appears to be the right move and even though it might cost Lester a couple of starts.  It’s better to let him get back to 100% then make the injury worse trying to pitch though it.

The Cubs will turn to Tyler Chatwood to pick up those couple of starts that Lester will miss.

The Cubs signed Chatwood to a three year $38 million dollar deal in 2018, but he struggled with control and has started the 2019 season in the bullpen. Chatwood has appeared in three games as a reliever this season covering 5 innings but his control issues still appear to be there. Chatwood has walked 4 batters in the 5 innings he’s pitched and walks were the issue he had last season. Last season in 24 games (20 starts) over 103 2/3rd innings, Chatwood walked 95 batters.

With as poorly as the Cubs have gotten out of the gate this season they’re going to need Chatwood to be able to keep them in those games he starts for Lester. Can he find his control?

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

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

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