Archive for the ‘fantasy’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: March 2, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, fantasy, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Stephen Curry sat out last nights games because of the left ankle he hurt on Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With Curry out of the Warriors line up the game may not have went the way anyone expected it to go, but Golden State still got a win over the Atlanta Hawks 109-105 in overtime. It was the 6th win in a row for Golden State and they also stayed perfect at home (Oracle Arena) this season. The last loss Golden State had at home was January 27, 2015 (113-111) against the Chicago Bulls. Golden State was up 32-26 after the 1st quarter and extended the lead to 59-48 at halftime and it started to look like the Warriors would cruise to another home win. The Warriors managed just 16 3rd quarter points and Atlanta was able to cut the lead to 5 at 75-70. Of course since the game went into overtime it means that Atlanta outscored Golden State 27-22 in the 4th quarter. The Warriors put up 12 points in overtime to Atlanta’s 9 points to get the victory. With Curry out injured Klay Thompson stepped up to lead the Warriors in scoring with 26 points. While the Warriors have become known for “small ball” last night there center Andrew Bogut chipped in 19 points. Bogut made 8 of the 9 shots he took from the field. Draymond Green had   15 points and led the team on rebounds with 13 and assists with 9. Harrison Barnes was the 4th Warriors starter to score in double digits with 12 points. Marreese Speights added 10 points off of the Golden State bench. Speights went 2 for 2 from behind the 3-point line making both of them in the 4th quarter. Golden State turned to Shaun Livingston as a starter and Leandro Barbosa off the bench to help fill the void with Curry out. Livingston played the bulk of the minutes (34), but Barbosa added the offense with 11 points. Livingston added 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assist and 2 steals in the game. Atlanta was led in scoring by Paul Milsap with 19 points. Al Horford and Dennis Schroder (off the bench) each had 17 points. Kent Bazemore had 15 points and tied with Horford for the team lead in rebounds with 9. Kyle Korver and Mike Scott each had 11 points and did their damage from behind the 3-point line. Korver went 3 of 6 while Scott was 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point line. Jeff Teague was the Hawks team leader in assists with 6.With the win Golden State improved to 54-5 on the season. Atlanta fell to 33-28 and are holding on to the #5 seed in the Eastern Conference right now. Atlanta will stay in California and play the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Golden State will play host to Oklahoma City on Thursday. It’s a rematch of Saturday nights game that the Warriors won 121-118 in overtime.

If you’re playing daily fantasy or your fantasy league is still going on here are some of the guys I hope you had in your line up last night. D’Angelo Russell scored 39 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the Lakers 170-101 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Brook Lopez had 23 points for the Nets in a losing effort. Damian Lillard had his 3rd consecutive 30 plus point night in a row scoring 30 points exactly as the Portland Trail Blazers cruise to a 104-85 win over the New York Knicks. Carmelo Anthony put up 23 points for the Knicks. Hassan Whiteside had 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 129-111. Kemba Walker also had a 26 point night in the Charlotte Hornets 126-92 win over the Phoenix Suns. Wesley Matthews scored 21 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks as they beat the Orlando Magic 121-108. Ersan Ilyasova scored 22 for the Magic in the loss. Hopefully some of these guys where in your winning line up last night.

Jimmie Johnson used a pit strategy to win the 2nd race of the NASCAR season at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kevin Harvick had led the most laps and he appeared to have the car to beat, but Johnson pitted as soon as he could get enough gas in the car to make it to the end of the race. For some reason Harvick and the other drivers at the front of the field stayed on the race track longer than expected and with Johnson on new tires he was able to build a lead that no one could cut into. While there was a late caution giving the rest of the field a shot at Johnson; he took the inside lane and was able to hold the field off for the win. Johnson’s teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. came 2nd with Kyle Busch in 3rd his brother Kurt in 4th and Carl Edwards rounding out the Top 5. Harvick led 131 of the 330 laps, but ended up coming home in 6th place. Kyle Busch was one of Chris Olmstead’s choice on the Sunday morning edition of Sports Time Radio; so he did have a Top 5 finish. Now his other two choices; that’s a different story. Chris had Matt Kenseth who did lead 47 laps, but had a pit road penalty and then was black flagged. Even with all that Kenseth finished 19th. Kasey Kahne was Chris’ other choice and he never really factored in the race and came home in 23rd place. With 2 drivers locked into The Chase with wins the series heads out to Las Vegas for the Kobalt 400 Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Will we have a new drivers name entered into The Chase or will Johnson or Denny Hamlin get their 2nd win of the season?

With a win last night the Edmonton Oilers improved to 24-34-7. With last nights loss the Buffalo Sabres are 23-31-8. Now neither of these teams are a threat to make the playoffs this season, but their match up last night drew some interest because it featured Connor McDavid the #1 overall pick in the 2015 draft taking on the #2 draft pick in the same draft Jack Eichel. The Oilers beat the Sabres 2-1 in overtime last night and McDavid scored both of the Edmonton goals in the win. It was almost Eichel who had the game winner in overtime as he spun an Oilers defenseman around, but missed a backhanded attempt on goal. Just seconds later McDavid raced by the Buffalo defense and beat Sabres goalie Robin Lehner for the game winner. While right now this match up might not mean anything as far as a playoff race might go, but are we looking at two guys who could become long term stars in the NHL.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 3, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The National Hockey League returned to the ice last night after the All-Star break with 12 games on the schedule. Connor McDavid returned to action for the Edmonton Oilers and scored a goal and picked up 2 assists in the Oilers 6-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Sidney Crosby scored 3 goals and added an assists in the Pittsburgh Penquins 6-5 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Crosby had a natural hat tick meaning his 3 goals came in a row. In a battle of 1st place teams the Atlantic leading Florida Panthers beat the Metropolitan leading Washington Capitals 5-2. Jonathan Huberdeau scored 2 goals and had an assists in the Panthers victory.Brian Elliott of the St. Louis Blies faced just 16 shots stopping them all as St. Louis picked up a 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators. Pekka Rinne stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced, but all St. Louis needed was that 1 goal to get the win. In the other games the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 4-3. The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Rangers 3-2.The New York Islanders beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3. The Philadelphia beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2. The Dallas Stars beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-2 and the Anaheim Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2. There are just 3 games on the ice tonight and the Canadiens are the only team that is playing back to back as they’re hosting the Buffalo Sabres. Also playing tonight the Detroit Red Wings are at the Tampa Bay Lighting and the Carolina Hurricanes are at the Calgary Flames. After tonight’s games the only team that hasn’t played a game after the All-Star break is the Vancouver Canucks.

The NHL has rescheduled the 3 games that where cancelled because of the snow storm that hit the east coast. The Pittsburgh/Washington game will be played March 1st in Washington. The other two games Anaheim at Washington and Philadelphia at New York (Islanders) will be played on April 10th and will end the regular season.

Behind 38 points from Kobe Bryant the Los Angeles Lakers ended their 10 game losing streak last night beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-115 at the Staples Center. Bryant played 33 minutes going 10-21 from the field. 11 of his attempts where 3 pointers and he made 7 of them. Bryant added 5 rebounds, a team leading 5 assists and 2 steals on the night. Louis Williams scored 20 points. D’Angelo Russell came off the Lakers bench to score 18 points. Jordan Clarkson scored 16 points while Julius Randle added 15 points and a team high 12 rebounds. The Timberwolves had 6 players score in double figures led by Andrew Wiggins with 30 in 41 minutes. Gorgui Dieng had 19 points. Zach LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns had 14 points; Towns also had a team high 9 rebounds. Shabazz Muhammad had 12 points while Rickey Rubio scored 10 points and had a team leading 15 assists.

The win improved the Lakers record to 10-41 this season. Los Angeles will try to extend there winning streak Thursday night as they start a 4 games road trip against the New Orleans Pelicans. After New Orleans the Lakers road trip will see them face the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers and then they wrap up the road trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In other NBA action the Boston Celtics beat the New York Knicks 97-89. Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 20 points while Arron Afflalo had 18 points to lead the Knicks. The Houston Rockets beat the Miami Heat 115-102. James Harden led the Rockets with 26 points while Luol Deng had 17 points to lead the Heat. The Toronto raptors beat the Phoenix Suns 104-97. Kyle Lowry led the Raptors 26 points while Markieff Morris put up a double-double 30 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Suns. The Portland Trailblazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 107-95. C.J. McCollum led the Trailblazers with 30 points while Khris Middleton led Milwaukee with 21 points.

There are quite a few games on the NBA schedule tonight. There are 11 games on the court tonight and it’s an ESPN television night. The first game on ESPN has the Golden State warriors at the Washington Wizards while the night cap features the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Los Angeles Clippers. Interestingly Minnesota is playing back to back games on the road against different teams in the same arena. Alright; maybe that’s just interesting to me.

I have to tell you I’m still not all that excited about the Super Bowl. I guess there could be some solid story lines. If the Denver Broncos win and Peyton Manning could ride off into the sunset as a Super Bowl champion. On the other hand if the Carolina Panthers get the win will that establish Cam Newton as the top player in the NFL. The original line had Carolina as a 4 point favorite. The betting line has jump and now Carolina is a 6 point favorite. The over/under for the game is at 45 and I believe it started around 44 or 44 1/2; so there wasn’t much movement in that betting line. If your not interested in betting your money on either of those two lines there are 37 other prop bets you can wager on. You can bet on stuff like what will the coin flip be heads or tails. How about putting some money down on what Stephen Curry will be wearing if he’s shown on television. Since the game is in San Francisco or I guess technically it’s Santa Clara, but you can actual bet on if there will be an earthquake during the game. On the Sunday Sports Time Radio podcast I’ll have to pull up some of these prop bets and see where Mr. Fantasy stands on these. The Sunday podcast is from 10:00 a.m. until Noon on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com As always will make our picks for the game, but will extend those a little as Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and myself will not only pick the winner of the game, but also what we think the final score will be and who we think will win the MVP. Mr. Fantasy and I will also try to put together a winning FanDuel line up for you as well as a breakdown of Super Bowl 50.

Who’s your pick to win?

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: January 20, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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What would you be thinking if you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers fan. You’re easily the best team in the Eastern Conference at 28-11. Even if you don’t finish with the best record in your conference are you concerned that the Toronto Raptors would beat you in a 7 game series if they had home court? What you have to start trying to figure out is the fact that you lost to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day 89-83. Okay a close game on the road and Oracle Arena can be a tough place to play; so you can deal with that loss. January 14th a 99-95 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Alright another close game on the road that ended up being a loss. You look and think that the Cavaliers where in those two games and when the Warriors and Spurs come to Cleveland the Cavaliers should be able to get a couple of wins at home. Well Golden State came to Cleveland for a visit on Monday. The Warriors where coming off of a surprising loss to the Detroit Pistons on Saturday. Maybe they were looking ahead to this game against the Cavaliers. If they where they showed it by easily beating Cleveland 132-98. The Warriors built a 30-point lead in the first half, pushed their advantage to 43 after halftime. Only a late flurry of points helped the Cavaliers avoid their worst home loss in franchise history.  Stephen Curry scored 35 points to lead all scorers and he didn’t play in the 4th quarter. Andre Iguodala came off of the Warriors bench to score 20 points while starters Draymond Green )16 points), Klay Thompson (15 points) and Harrison Barnes (12 points) all scored in double figures for Golden State. Green also grabbed a tam high 10 rebounds and also handed out a team high 7 assists. LeBron James did lead Cleveland in scoring, but with just 16 points. James went 7-16 from the field including 0-3 from behind the 3-point line. J.R. Smith was the only other Cavaliers starter to score in double figures with 14 points, but Matthew Dellavedova (11 points) and Iman Shumpert (10 points) each scored double digits off the bench. Kevin Love who only managed to score 3 points in the game did grab 6 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers while Dellavedova led the team in assists with 6. The Cavaliers return to the court tonight in Brooklyn against the 11-31 Brooklyn Nets before beginning a 4-game homestand that will see the Cavaliers host the Los Angeles Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns. If the Cavaliers are going to contend for the NBA title they’re going to have to find a way to beat the best teams in the Western Conference. The Clippers have the 3rd best record (27-14) in the Western Conference; so it will be interesting to see how the Cavaliers perform against them. Then on January 30th San Antonio will visit Quicken Loans Arena for their match up with Cleveland. This game will really be a test for the Cavaliers and will see if they can put up a fight against the Spurs unlike they did against the Warriors. Maybe Cleveland will catch a break and Spurs coach Greg Popovich will decide to rest some of his top players like he likes to do in these games.

It’s conference championship weekend in the NFL; so that means there are only 4 teams left with a chance to win the Super Bowl. The AFC plays first on Sunday with a scheduled 2:05 p.m. kickoff time as the Denver Broncos host the New England Patriots. The NFC championship game is scheduled to kickoff at 5:40 p.m. with the Carolina Panthers hosting the Arizona Cardinals. Mr. Fantasy and I will do the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com  from 10:00 a.m. until Noon on Sunday like we always do. We’ll let you know who we think will win these games as well as let you know who Dan the Man and Scxhaumburg Stu are picking to win as well. Then will do our best to put together the best FanDuel line ups for your money. Now after two weeks of playoffs Dan the man and I are leading the way in the playoff picks 6-2. Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy are just a game behind at 5-3. In a bit of an odd twist when anyone of us is the only person picking a team that team has lost every time.

If you’ve been listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know that I’ve been having Dan the Man pick winners in the NBA or NHL depending on how the schedule is set up. Dan is 24-12 after last night; so he’s doing quite well. I decided last Sunday to try and have Mr. Fantasy make some predictions on top of just picking the games.  I gave him 4 categories; the player with the most passing yards, the players with the most passing touchdowns, the player with the most rushing yards and the player with the most receiving yards. These where Sunday only predictions. Mr. Fantasy liked Peyton Manning to throw for the most yards and most touchdowns. Manning went for 222 yards and 0 touchdowns as it was Russell Wilson 366 yards and 3 touchdowns who ended up being the leader in those categories. Mr, Fantasy was right on with which player would have the most rushing yards as Jonathan Stewart ran for 106 yards. Since Mr. Fantasy liked Manning to throw for a lot of yards he tried to pair up Demaryius Thomas with him as the player who would get the most receiving yards. While he did have the right game it was Martavis Bryant with 154 yards who ended up with the most receiving yards. So in the end Mr. Fantasy went 1-3 on his predictions. We’ll have to see if he can bounce back this Sunday.

John Scott, as it turns out, is still headed to the NHL All-Star Game in Nashville. The NHL announced Tuesday it decided to allow Scott to captain the Pacific Division team even though he got traded out of the conference. On Friday it seemed as Scott’s All-Star appearance was in jeopardy after being traded from the Arizona Coyotes to the Montreal Canadiens and subsequently being demoted to AHL team St. John’s. That came after some in NHL front offices questioned whether Scott and his five career goals deserved an All-Star berth at all. Scott had been voted in by fans as the Pacific Division captain in large part due to the Twitter movement #VoteJohnScott. So even though he’s in the minors right now and it doesn’t look as though the Canadiens will be calling him up any time soon Scott will be allowed to go to the All-Star game and fulfill his captaincy.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

 

How was your week

Posted: January 9, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in fantasy, football, sports, Uncategorized
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The playoffs kickoff this afternoon in the NFL as it’s Wild Card weekend. We have continued your picking of the games and I’ll let you know who we’re going with today at the end of the blog. What I thought I’d try to do is look at both of today’s games from a fantasy perspective. I’ll use the FanDuel system since that’s what Mr. Fantasy and I use on the Sunday podcast of Sports Time Radio when we put line ups in. Mr. Fantasy and I will be here tomorrow (Sunday) from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. to review today’s games, preview tomorrows games, let you know who we think will win and like I mentioned find the best FanDuel plays for your money.

The first game today has the Kansas City Chiefs (11-5) at the Houston Texans (9-7). Houston is the home team because they won the AFC South while Kansas City got into the playoffs as the top wild card team.

Let’s start with the quarterbacks. This may not be the game you want to play a quarterback from as the Texans average giving up just 210.4 yards a game through and the Chiefs give up an average of 231.1 passing yards a game. Of course you only have $60,000 to spend and Alex Smith (Kansas City) at $7100 or Brian Hoyer (Houston) at $6900 might be what you can afford. Smith hasn’t broken the 20 point mark on FanDuel in 5 weeks, but he got close last week at 18.34 points. Hoyer returned to the Texans line up since leaving their Week 14 game with a concussion. Hoyer out up 12.96 points last week on FanDuel. Smith averages a few more fantasy points a week 17.4 to Hoyer’s 15.8. If you’re at the point where you have to go with one of these two quarterbacks; I’d lean towards Smith. With Smith’s running ability he should rack up some rushing yards for you and might end up with a rushing touchdown.

Maybe you’ll find a better play at running back, but both defenses are solid against the run as well. Kansas City averaged giving up 98.2 yards rushing while Houston was just a little behind them giving up 99.8 rushing yards per game. Charcandrick West is the Chiefs main running back, but in the last two weeks he has failed to score more than 7 points on FanDuel. West has actually managed to score over 15 points in the last 6 weeks. West may look like a good value at $6400, but with his performance as of late and this match up you might want to look elsewhere. Alfred Blue is #1 on the Texans depth chart at running back. Blue has been dealing with a calf injury and is listed as probably for the game. Blue scored 10.9 FanDuel points last week; it was his first time over 10 points in 5 weeks. Blue will cost you $5700 while his back up Chris Polk is at $4700, but remember Polk only got 3 carries in last weeks game because of a knee injury. None of these backs are featured in the passing game; so you won’t find any extra point there. It would be a tough choice here, but West is the only running back coming into the game without a nagging injury; so maybe he’d be the choice, but it’s a toss up.

Kansas City’s Jeremy Maclin ($7200) has had 3 solid weeks to close out the season, but hasn’t scored over 20 FanDuel points in 5 weeks. Albert Wilson ($4900) has played his way into the #2 wide receiver spot for the Chiefs. Even though Wilson has found his way into the starting line up has hasn’t scored more than 7 FanDuel points in 4 weeks and has managed to score over 15 points just once this season. Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins has established himself as not only one of the top wide receivers in football, but a top weekly fantasy pick. Hopkins is one of those fantasy players who seems to get his catches every week no matter what the match up. Hopkins got his catches last week (7), but didn’t find his way into the end zone; so his FanDuel scoring was 12.4 points. Of course there’s a price with this production. Hopkins is the 2nd most expensive wide receiver on FanDuel for today at $8800, but he might be worth it to you. It’s difficult to pick a 2nd Houston wide receiver between Nate Washington, Cecil Shorts who’s returning from injury and rookie Jalen Strong. Shorts could be a under the radar pick if the Texans use him in the wildcat formation, but they’ve never used that formation when Hoyer has been at quarterback. Shorts will cost you $5200 and that gamble might not pay off with Hoyer under center. Maclin and Hopkins are players you can use today, but after them it’s tough to find a reason to get any other wide out from this game in your line up.

Tight end Travis Kelce normally is a major weapon in the passing game for Kansas City, but as of late has been up and down FanDuel wise. Last week Kelce scored just 1.5 points and at $6200 that could end your fantasy day. Of course the 2 weeks before that Kelce scored 13.3 and 10.3 points; so which tight end are you going to get? Kelce has had some groin issues, but practiced all week and should be full strength. I think the best advice I can give you about playing a Texans tight end is DON’T. Ryan Griffin ($4800) averages the most points for Houston’s tight ends at 5.2 points per game while C.J. Fiedorowicz ($4500)averages just 2.2 points per game. Kelce might turn out to be a good play today even against a tough Houston defense as he’ll be a good red zone weapon for the Chiefs if they can get there.  

At kicker Kansas City’s Cairo Santos ($4800) averages 9.7 points per game this season while Houston’s kicker Nick Novak ($4600) averages 7 FanDuel points per game on the season. If you think this might turn into a field goal game since it does feature 2 good defenses one of these guys might be a solid choice. The question you’d have t ask yourself is how many field goal attempts do you think they’ll get?

You would probably be alright using either team defense in this game. Kansas City is the most expensive defense on FanDuel today at $5100 while Houston is the 2nd most expensive defense at $4600. You wouldn’t think this will be a high scoring game; so go with the defense of the team you think will win the game.

Let’s move along to tonight’s game. It’s an AFC South match up as the Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6) take on the Cincinnati Bengals (12-4) in Cincinnati. The Bengals won the AFC South while Pittburgh picked up the last AFC wild card spot.

This looks like the game where you’ll find your quarterback. The Steelers Ben Rothlisberger appears to be the top quarterback on FanDuel for Saturday and at $8400 he’s the highest priced. The Bengals do give up an average of 248.5 passing yards per game. So while it appears that Rothlisberger is the best quarterback start could A.J. McCarron be the sleeper FanDuel quarterback of the day. At $6400 McCarron is the lowest priced of the 4 starting Saturday quarterbacks, but does he have the best match up. Pittsburgh was the worst team in the AFC giving up an average of 271.9 passing yards per game. I always jump in on thee type of match ups and they haven’t really worked out for me, but if you go with McCarron as your FanDuel quarterback you should have some extra money to spend at the other positions.

Like I said with Houston’s tight ends’ I’d stay away from any Steelers running back. DeAngelo Williams has been ruled out for the game. That means that Fitzgerald Toussaint and Jordan Todman will be the Steelers rushing attack. As you’d expect they both are very good values with both Toussaint and Todman costing $5700. Pittsburgh hasn’t really said this, but you’d think Toussaint would get the majority of the carries since Todman hasn’t played in a game since pre-season (9/3) when he was a member of the Carolina Panthers. Oddly that game was against the Steelers. Pittsburgh’s defense is only giving up an average of 91,2 yards per game, but you have to wonder if that number is low because teams are having so much success throwing the football against them. The Bengals feature that 2-back attack. Jeremy Hill ($6700) normally gets most of the rushing attempts, but is effective in the passing game as well. Hill is paired up with Giovani Bernard ($5600) in the backfield. The tough part is picking between the Bengals running backs as Hill averages 10.2 points per game on FanDuel while Bernard’s average is 9.8 point per game on the season. Hopefully you’ll make the right choice if you go with a Bengals running back.

Since this is expected to be a high scoring game wide receiver might be the place to spend your FanDuel money. It’s no surprise that Antonio Brown is the most expensive player listed for Saturday at $9500. Even though teams know Brown is the Steelers top receiving target he still gets his catches and puts up numbers. While it’s a lot of money for one player Brown has proven he’s worth it. Martavis Bryant has had some issues with his neck and has caught 1 pass in each of the last 2 games. I’m sure you heard that Pirrsburgh”s quarterback “Big” Ben challenged Bryant, but will it have an affect on his play. Will you go wit Bryant at $6900 or save the money and take a shot with Markus Wheaton at $5900? Wheaton is the Steelers wide receiver who benefits the most if Bryant struggles. Wheaton has also found his way into the end zone in 4 of the last 6 weeks. It’s an interesting choice, but saving that extra $1000 on Wheaton could mean an upgrade somewhere else. At $8300 is A.J. Green the best wide receiver play on the FanDuel board today?  Remember Green is going up against the worst pass defense in the AFC. Green has scored touchdowns in his last 2 games and remember the last time he went up against the Steelers pass defense he scored 22.2 FanDuel points. Marvin Jones is the Bengals #2 wide receiver and at $5500 could turn out to be a great value against the Pittsburgh defense, but there are a lot of good receiver choices and you might not get down to Jones. If this game goes as it’s expected to this may be the position that helps you win.

Tight end is another position that should really pay off today. Heath Miller is a solid tight end for the Steelers that every now and then can have a big game. Miller has averaged 6.5 points per game this season, but against Cincinnati he should go over his scoring average and at $5600 he could turn out to be a good deal. Tyler Eifert is the highest price tight end playing Saturday at $6400. This is the type of season people have been waiting for Eifert to have, but he has missed 3 games this season because of concussions. Eifert has a reasonable price on him and should be a very good play for whoever pays for him.

Again; if this game goes as expected either kicker would be a good choice for your FanDuel line up. Pittburgh’s Chris Boswell will cost you $4900 while Cincinnati’s Mike Nugent is at $4800. On the season Boswell averages 10.5 points per game while Nugent scores 8.2 points per game on the season. It comes down to which team do you think will give the kicker more field goal attempts or you might need the extra $100 to upgrade another position. It looks like both kickers from this game should be good choices.

Defense in this game is a whole other story. The Steelers defense will cost you $4500 while the Bengals defense comes in at $4400. I’d have to lie t you to give you a good reason to play either one of these defenses. Would you use the Steelers defense hoping since it’s McCarron’s first playoff start he’ll have issues or could you possible give Cincinnati’s defense a play hoping that that with a depleted running game Rothlisberger will have to throw the football so many times that he’s bound to have some turnovers.

As we go into the playoffs with a clean slate here are our picks for today’s game. All of us Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and I all like Kansas City to win the first game. Now we’re split on the second game as Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu like Pittsburgh to won and Mr, Fantasy and I have Cincinnati winning.

Don’t forget tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Mr. Fantasy and I host the 2-hour Sunday edition of Sports Time Radio a BlogTalkRadio.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: January 6, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, sports, Uncategorized
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The NFL regular season wrapped up on Sunday and so did our pick competition. Week 17 saw Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and I all go 10-6 for the week. Dan the Man was 8-8. For the regular season I won with a record of 158-97. Mr. Fantasy was able to come all the way back and tie Dan the Man for 2nd place at 147-108. Sadly it was Schaumburg Stu who ended the regular season in the cellar at 145-110. As we move into the playoffs we’ll wipe the slate clean and see how our playoff picks go.

The last game of the NFL regular season featured the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers. The winner of the game would take 1st place in the NFC North while the other would get a wild card spot and be seeded #5. Minnesota won the game 20-13 and will get to host a playoff game. The Packers as a wild card team will go on the road to play the Washington Redskins. The Vikings get to host the other wild card team the Seattle Seahawks. Looking at this did the Packers get the better end of the scheduling? Even though they have to go on the road. The Redskins did win their division, but we’re talking about the NFC East which may have been the worst division in football. For winning there division the Vikings get to play the team that has represented the NFC in the last 2 Super Bowls. In Week 13 the Seahawks went into Minnesota and beat the Vikings 38-7. Now I am in the camp that you should get something for winning your division; even if it’s a bad decision. The Redskins did go 9-7 on the season and where 6-2 at home; so maybe the match ups aren’t as one sided as they seem. If you’re a Vikings fan; who would you rather play this Sunday the Seahawks or the Redskins? These 2 NFC games will be played on Sunday with the Seahawks/Vikings game kicking off at Noon and the Packers/Redskins game scheduled to start around 3:40 p.m.

It’s the AFC who gets to get the wild card weekend started on Saturday. The Kansas City Chiefs are at the Houston Texans to get things started. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:20 p.m. Kansas City is the hottest tam in the NFL entering the playoffs. Kansas City started the season 1-5 and I had cast them off. The Chiefs then proceeded to win their next 10 games to finish 11-5 and grab #5 seed in the AFC. The Saturday night wild card game features a AFC North match up as the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Cincinnati Bengals. In Week 8 the Bengals went into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers 16-10. Then in Week 14 the Steelers returned the favor by going into Cincinnati and beating the Bengals 33-20. Even though the game is in Houston the Chiefs opened as a 3 point favorite. Kansas City isn’t the only team coming into this game on a winning streak. While it’s not as long as the Chiefs winning streak Houston did win their last 3 games to close out the regular season and win the AFC South. The deciding factor in the Steelers/Bengals game might be which injured players make there return for the game. Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton had the cast removed from his thumb yesterday, but Cincinnati is still saying they’re preparing like A.J. McCarron will be the starter. For Pittsburgh DeAngelo Williams exited Sunday’s game with an ankle injury. Williams was due to have an MRI on that ankle, but the results haven’t been released and his status is unknown. Now Dalton has struggled in the playoffs; do you think it would be better for Cincinnati to stick with McCarron? Dalton could be rusty since he hasn’t played since Week 14 loss to the Steelers. Cincinnati started off as just a 1 point favorite for the game.

In the Saturday blog I’ll reveal our picks for the Saturday games. Well I should say I’ll let you know who Schaumburg Stu, Dan the Man and I are picking in these games. If Mr. Fantasy gets me his picks for Saturday in time for the blog I’ll include them.

Today they’ll announce the new members to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. It appears as Ken Griffey Jr. is the only lock t get in. Mike Piazza is the top returning player on the ballot. Piazza got 69.9% of the vote last year. You need 75% of the vote to get into the Hall of Fame. There are a couple other players still on the ballot who might get in or closer to getting in this time around. Jeff Bagwell had 55.7% of the vote last time and Tim Raines was at 55% last year. It’s Alan Trammell and Mark McGuire, but it doesn’t look like either will get to that 75% mark. Trammell was at 25.1% last year and McGuire was at 10% last year. In their first year on the ballot Jim Edmonds, Trevor Hoffman and Billy Wagner should get quite a few votes, but I don;t think any of them will get enough to get in on the first try. Of course the big question when it comes to the Hall of Fame ballot is what about Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Bonds received 36.8% of the vote last year while Clemens got 37.5 % of the vote. With the changes that have been made to who if doing the Hall of fame voting now it will be interesting to see if Bonds and Clemens pick up some more support. There were 100 voters remove this year. The where voters who haven’t covered baseball in over 10 years. At least I believe that’s what I heard. You would think as the voters become younger Bonds and Clemens will find more support and may find there way into the Hall of Fame. I’m still in the camp of I don;t think they belong in the Hall of Fame or if they do go in there should be an asterisk or something that explains what they did or accused of doing. They where both great players and you have to wonder why they choose to go the route they did. Would you put Bonds and Clemens in the Hall of Fame?

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How was your week

Posted: December 26, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Uncategorized
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How much of the NBA on Christmas day did you watch? While I didn’t see an entire game start to finish I did see parts of all 5 games and almost all of the 2nd and 3rd games. I’d be very impressed if you watch every minute of every game. I believe that was a little over 11 hours of NBA basketball.

The day started with the Miami Heat getting a 94-88 win in overtime over the New Orleans Pelicans. Looking at the box score for this game Miami was good in the 1st and 3rd quarters while New Orleans was the better team in the 2nd and 4th quarter. I guess it makes sense that overtime was the 5th quarter; so Miami picked up the win. Dwayne Wade led the Heat in scoring with 30 points.Hassan Whiteside grabbed 17 rebounds to lead the Heat while Goran Dragic’s 6 assists where a team high. Anthony Davis led New Orleans in scoring with 29 points and rebounds with 15 while playing 50 minutes in the game. Tyreke Evans led the Pelicans in assists with 7.

The second game of the day saw the Chicago Bulls beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-96. I got to see all of this game except for the first 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter. The Bulls scored the first 11 points of the game and they seemed to control most of the action. The Bulls would build a lead and then Oklahoma City would make a run. The Thunder made a big run at the Bulls in the 4th quarter, but Chicago was able to hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Jimmy Butler led the Bulls with 23 points. Pau Gasol led the Bulls in rebounds with 13 and assists with 6 to go along with his 21 points. Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 29 points while Enes Kanter grabbed a team high 13 rebounds. Russell Westbrook led Oklahoma City with  8 assists while adding 26 points.

While I think most people thought the 3rd game a finals rematch between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors was looked at as the marquee match up. It didn’t really live up to the hype or any offensive predictions everyone made about the game. Golden State did pick up a 6-point victory 89-83. The Warriors looked good coming out of the gate and took a 9 point lead. Then Stephen Curry went to the locker room with either a foot or a calf issue and things started to go Cleveland’s way. Curry came out of the locker room to return to the game just as the television announcers where saying it would be a good idea if he didn’t return to the game. While Curry helped the Warriors to the victory it was Draymond Green who was the Warriors star. Green led Golden State in scoring with 22 points; he also grabbed a team high 15 rebounds and tied Curry for the team lead in assists with 7. LeBron James was the Cavaliers leading scorer with 25 points. Kevin Love grabbed 18 rebounds to lead Cleveland and Love also had a team high 4 assists. Part of the Cavaliers issues in the game was the fact that Love and Kyrie Irving where a combined 9 for 31 on the night and 0 for 11 from behind the 3-point line.

The 4th game of the night saw the Houston Rockets surprise the San Antonio Spurs 88-84. The Rockets where able to build a consistent lead of about 8 points; so San Antonio started to employ the “Hack-a Player” method.  The Player of choice was Dwight Howard who went 3 of 8 from the free throw line and helped keep San Antonio in the game. Even though Howard had issues at the free throw line the Spurs couldn’t convert those misses into points and the Rockets held on for the win. James Harden led the Rockets with 20; Harden also handed out a team high 9 assists while Howard grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Houston. Kawhi Leonard led San Antonio in scoring with 20 points and assists with 4. Tim Duncan hauled down 11 rebounds to lead the Spurs.The win pushed the Rockets over .500 at 16-15. It was San Antonio’s (25-6) 6th loss of the season all on the road.

The night in the NBA wrapped up with the Los Angeles Clippers cruising to a 94-84 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. The Clippers might’ve had a larger margin of victory, but a 9 point 4th quarter along with the Lakers putting up 27 4th quarter points cut the winning margin to 10 points. Chris Paul led the Clippers in scoring with 23 points. DeAndre Jordan grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Clippers. Blake Griffin was the Clippers leader in assists with 7 and grabbed 12 rebounds as well. D’Angelo Russell led the Lakers in scoring with 16 points.Julius Randle had 8 rebounds to lead the Lakers. Russell and Randle came off the Lakers bench. Kobe Bryant and Jordan Clarkson tied for the team lead in assists with 3 apiece. I know everyone is going to want to know how Bryant did. Kobe was 4 of 10 shooting on the night, but made 3 of the 5 3-point shots he took. Bryant had a poor night at the free throw line making just 1 of 4 attempts. Bryant did grab 3 rebounds; had 2 steals and committed 3 turnovers.

Did you like the Christmas day scheduling? It was interesting that the two worst teams record wise from the Western Conference the Lakers and the Pelicans where in the game line up. The Lakers are 5-25, but of course they have Kobe Bryant and it’s his farewell season. The Pelicans are 9-20, but they have an up and coming superstar in Anthony Davis. Otherwise we saw the top 4 teams in the Western Conference along with the 7th team in the standings. From the Eastern Conference we got to see the #1, #3 and #5 teams record wise. Was their a team or a player that you would’ve wanted to see play and which team would you take out?

Our week in NFL picks started off well on Thursday night as we all had the Oakland raiders to win, but it wasn’t easy. The Raiders needed overtime to beat the San Diego Chargers 23-20. We’ve got another Saturday night NFL game as the 1st place Washington Redskins look to wrap up the vaunted NFC East as they travel to Philadelphia to take on the 2nd place Eagles. A win by the Redskins would make them 8-7 and would drop the eagles to 6-9 knocking them out of any playoff spot. If the Redskins do get a win tonight the only thing standing in there way of winning the NFC East would the 6=8 New York Giants. The Giants are featured on Sunday Night Football this week as they play the Minnesota Vikings. Things are lining up for the Redskins to win their division and they might even have a winning record on top of that. Pick wise for us Schaumburg Stu and I like Washington to win, but Dan the Man thinks that Philadelphia gets the win and keeps there playoff hopes alive. As always I can’t tell you who Mr. Fantasy is going with in tonight’s game as he’ll let me know right before kickoff.

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

 

How was your week

Posted: December 19, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Uncategorized
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Week 15 in the NFL kicked off with the St. Louis Rams getting a 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in what may be the last game the Rams play in St. Louis. The Rams are one of the teams looking to make the move to California. Te Rams jumped out to a 14-3 lead after the 1st quarter. 2 Case Keenum touchdown passes a 17-yarder to Tavon Austin and then a 60-yarder to Kenny Britt sandwich a 53-yard Connor Barth field goal to give the Rams their lead. Todd Gurley’s 3-yard touchdown run was the only scoring in the 3rd quarter and the Rams went into halftime with a 21-3 lead and you had to think we had another Thursday night blowout on our hands. A 32-yard field goal by Barth got the Buccaneers on the board first in the 3rd quarter, but the Rams came back with a Austin 21-yard touchdown run; his 2nd touchdown of the night and the Rams had a 28-6 lead going into the final quarter. Tampa Bay turned things around in the 4th quarter. Luke Stocker caught a 3-yard touchdown pass to get the Buccaneers in the end zone for the first time. Greg Zuerlein’s 19-yard field goal ended up being the last points of the night for St. Louis. Barth hit his 3rd field goal of the night a 24-yarder to make the score 31-16 St. Louis. Tampa Bay was able to get into the end zone one more time with a Austin Seferian-Jenkins 9-yard touchdown catch with 1:34 left in the game to get to the final score of 31-23. Both teams are now 6-8 with very little chance of making the playoffs.

Jamies Winston threw the football 50 times in the game. He completed 29 of then for 363 yards and 2 touchdowns. Winston did throw 1 interceptions and lost a fumble, but wasn’t sacked and ran the football 2 times for 5 yards. Case Keenum threw just 3 incompletions on the night. Keenum was 14 of 17 for 234 yards and touchdowns, but was sacked 2 ties for 13 yards. Keenum did have 3 rushing attempts, but they went for -3 yards.

Tampa Bay had a good night running the football, but fantasy wise they where hurt by not scoring a touchdown. Doug Martin carried the football 18 times for 91 yards and caught 1 pass for 6 yards.Charles Sims had 7 attempts for 50 yards and caught 3 passes for 22 yards. The Buccaneers defense was really focused on stopping Gurley as he had 21 carries for just 48 yards, but did score a touchdown. Gurley also caught 2 passes for 31 yards. Tre Mason added 3 carries for 13 yards and Bennie Cunningham carried the football 2 times for 8 yards.

There were a lot of fantasy experts saying that it wasn’t a goof week to play Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans. If you sat him you missed out on 9 receptions and 157 yards. Adam Humphries filling in for the injured Vincent Jackson caught 6 passes for 60 yards. All 3 Tampa Bay tight ends had 3 receptions in the game. Seferian-Jenkins had went for 29 yards and a touchdown. Stocker went for 25 yards and a touchdown while Cameron Brate went for 20 yards. Donteea Dye also added 1 catch for 44 yards. After the long touchdown catch Britt only had 1 other receptions, but he led the Rams with 71 receiving yards. Jared Cook had 3 catches for 64 yards. Austin caught 3 passes for 41 yards and a touchdown. Austin also carried the football 4 times for 32 yards and also scored a rushing touchdown. Lance Kendricks also had 3 catches for 27 yards on the night.

Neither kicker had a miss in the game. Connor Barth hit both of his extra points and was 3 for 3 on field goals with a long of 53 yards. Greg Zuerlein made his only field goal attempt from 19 yards out and made all 4 of his extra point attempts.

With the college football regular season over the NFL has added a Saturday game for you to watch. Tonight they give us the 8-5 New York Jets at the 4-9 Dallas Cowboys. The Jets need a win to stay in playoff contention in the AFC while Dallas has been eliminated from the playoff race. The Jets are 3-3 on the road this season while the Cowboys are just 1-5 at home. I know that Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and I have all picked the Jets to win this game. I haven’t received Mr. Fantasy’s pick as he likes to wait to the last minute to make his selection. By the way Dan the Man and I had St. Louis winning on Thursday night while Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy started their week off 0-1 as they went with Tampa Bay.

The Golden State Warriors got some revenge last night. Golden State beat the only team that had beaten them this season the Milwaukee Bucks 121-112 at Oracle arena. While it was a 9-point win for the Warriors it didn’t come easy. Milwaukee took the lead after the 1st quarter 36-33. The Bucks added 9 points to their lead in the 2nd quarter putting up 36 points to the Warriors 25 points for a 70-58 lead at the half. Golden State only cut 4 points off the Milwaukee lead in the 3rd quarter outscoring the Bucks 27-23. Milwaukee had a 90-81 lead at the start of the 4th quarter. Golden State put up a 36 point 4th quarter while Milwaukee really struggled and scored just 19 points in the 4th quarter. So while the 9-point win for the Warriors might look like it was easy it wasn’t.

Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 27 points while Stephen Curry just missed a triple-double putting up 26 points to go with team high in rebounds with 10 and assists with 9. Draymond Green had 21 points and Brandon Rush added 10. Festus Ezeli was the only Golden State bench player to score more than 10 points. Ezeli had 14 points and tied Curry for the team lead in rebounds with 10. Every Milwaukee starter score 10 or more points and 2 bench players also went over 10 points in the game. Michael Carter-Williams led the Bucks with 24 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo 20 points, Khris Middleton 16 points, Jabari Parker 14 points and Greg Monroe 10 points where the other Milwaukee starters in double digits. Miles Plumlee 13 points and O.J. Mayo 12 points came off the Bucks bench to score on double digits. Monroe also led the Bucks in rebounds with 13 and assists with 7.

On yesterday’s Sports Time Radio podcast Dan the Man predicted the final score of this game and how many points Curry would score. He had Golden State winning 112 to 96 with Curry scoring 36 points. He missed the Warriors score by 9, the Bucks score by 16 and Curry’s point total by 10. What Dan the Man didn’t know is I matched him up against a former Sports Time Radio guest Jamie Faue @BrickWallJamieF on Twitter. She had Golden State winning 121-95 with Curry scoring 35. She was right on the Warriors score, she missed the Bucks total by 17 and Curry’s total by 9 points. It was a pretty close match up, but Jamie getting the Warriors point total right on the number gives her the win.

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 16, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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We’re through 14 weeks in our NFL picks. For Week 14 Dan the Man and I went 10-6 while Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy went 8-8. For the season I’m in the lead with a record of 125-82. Dan the Man is in 2nd place with a record of 120-87. Schaumburg Stu is in 3rd place with a record of 114-93. That means Mr. Fantasy finds himself in the cellar, but by only 1 game with a record of 113-94. Week 15 starts tomorrow (Thursday) night and then there’s also a Saturday game this week; so will see how are picks go this week.

What’s the worst division in the NFL? Is it the NFC East where 3 teams are tied for the lead with records of 6-7. Or is it the AFC South where 6-7 is also the record you need to lead that division as 2 teams have. It’s looking like 8-8 or a 7-9 record will send a team into the playoffs. I don;t have so much of an issue with teams from these divisions making the playoffs. I believe that you should get something for winning your division even if it’s a bad division. I don’t like the fact that these teams get to host a playoff game. I’d be surprised to see either of these divisions winners getting past the wild card weekend of the playoffs, but you never know. Maybe the Indianapolis Colts could make some kind of run if their quarterback Andrew Luck comes back healthy. If the New York Giants win the NFC East could they get something going in the playoffs and win a game or two. I’m not as sold on teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins or Houston Texans getting a playoff win. The difficult part is I’m not sure if there’s a good way to reconfigure the playoffs when teams win divisions with .500 or below records. I’d be open to listening to ideas if you guys have any.

Patrick Kane’s scoring streak came to an end last night at 26 games. Kane’s Chicago Blackhawks where shutout by the Colorado Avalanche 3-0 on Tuesday night to end the streak. It was the longest scoring streak in the NHL since Mats Sundin picked up a point in 30 straight games during the 1992-93 season. Kane’s 26 game scoring streak ranks as the 6th longest scoring streak in NHL history. Guy Lafleur (1976-77), Wayne Gretzky (1984-85), Mario Lemieux (1985-86), Paul Coffey (1985-86) and Steve Yzerman (1988-89) had points streaks of 28 games. Gretzky had a 30 game scoring streak in 1982-83. Sundin had his 30 game streak in 1992-93. Gretzky also had a 39 game scoring streak in 1985-86. Lemieux had a scoring streak of 46 games in 2989-90. Gretzky has the longest scoring streak in NHL history at 51 games in 2983-84. While it was a great streak for Kane it’s hard to believe he was 25 games away from catching Gretzky.

With the NHL season coming up on it’s halfway point the Dallas Stars have  the most points in the league with 48. The Washington Capitals are 2nd and the leader in the Eastern conference with 44 points. The Montreal Canadiens are 3rd with 43 points. The New York Rangers are 4th with 42 points and the New York Islanders round out the Top 5 with 41 points. While the Stars have looked like the best team in the NHL you’ll notice that the next 4 teams are all from the Eastern conference. The Western conference has won the last 4 Stanley Cups and 5 out of the last 6. Is Dallas the team in the Western conference to keep that going or will one of those Eastern conference teams step up and take the Cup home.

We have a fantasy hockey league associated with the Sports Time Radio podcast. We do an auction style draft for hockey and this season we put in a minimum  of 3 starts per week for a teams goaltenders. This rule has been difficult for some owners to work with. It’s just Dan the Man and I who are playing in the 16 team league. Dan is currently 8th overall in the standings while my team is 3rd right now. With his 26 game scoring streak Patrick Kane has been the  top player in our league. Tyler Seguin and his teammate Jamie Benn of the Stars are ranked #2 and #3. Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers ranks as the 4th best player and rounding out the Top 5 is Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks. Sadly for Dan and I none of these 5 players are on our teams.

With the Golden State Warriors running off to a record 24-0 start and even after just dropping their 1st game they’re still getting a lot of the headlines. With all this interest in Golden State the San Antonio Spurs have quietly gotten off to a 21-5 start to the season. As Tim Duncan’s and Tony Parker’s careers head towards the finish the Spurs have seem to become Kawhi Leonard’s team. Leonard leads San Antonio in scoring averaging 20.8 points per game. Leonard is also averaging 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2 steals and just over 1 block a game while turning the basketball over an average of 1.3 times per game. Leonard is also averaging more minutes than any other San Antonio player at 33 minutes per game. San Antonio went out in the off season and made a big free agent signing bringing in LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge is the 2nd on the Spurs in scoring with an average of 15.8 points per game. Aldridge does lead the team in rebounding averaging 8.8 rebounds per game. Aldridge also plays the 2nd most minutes on the Spurs with an average of 29.2 minutes per game. Now when you talk about the Spurs you’re use to using the names Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili; they’re all still there. Duncan is playing 26.5 minutes per game and is averaging 9 points per game. Duncan is also grabbing an average of 8.3 rebounds per game and is the team leader with 1.4 blocked shots per game. Point guard Parker is averaging 26.7 minutes per game. He averages 12.8 points per game and is the Spurs leader in assists with 4.9 per game. With Danny Green filling the role in the starting line up Ginobili is back to his 6th man role. Ginobili is averaging just 19.6 minutes per game, but is scoring 10.8 points per game. As the NBA season moves along will the Spurs be able to continue to control the minutes of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili and will this pay off for them come playoff time. If things go as planned will we see a San Antonio Spurs vs. the Golden State Warriors Western conference finals match up?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week?

Posted: December 5, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football, sports
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It looks like the Top 2 free agent starting pitchers are going to be off the market before the winter meetings even start. Earlier in the week Price signed a 7 year deal worth $217 million to pitch for the Boston Red Sox. Then last night news broke that Zack Greinke will sign a 6 year deal worth $206 million to pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks.  It had more or less been decided that when Greinke made a decision on who to play for he would either return to the Los Angeles Dodgers or sign with the San Francisco Giants. The Diamondbacks where able to sneak in last minute and make Greinke the offer he liked. Like all the deals top pitchers get in free agency it’s a lot of years and a lot of money for a pitcher, but that’s the going rate and you have to pay this price if you want to add this type of pitching. At first the big pitching signing on Friday was the Chicago Cubs signing John Lackey to a 2 year deal worth $32 million, but then the Greinke news broke and that deal took center stage.

Now the question has to be do these signings make Boston and Arizona contenders to win the World Series. The Red Sox finished 2015 78-84 and in last place in the American League East. The Diamondbacks where 79-83 in 2015, but that was good enough for 3rd place in the National League West. Boston finished 15 games out of 1st place while Arizona was 13 games of of 1st. While both Price and Greinke will be the “Ace” of their new pitching staffs will there new teams be able to put together a good enough 2 through 5 spots in the starting rotation to contend. The Red Sox went into last season without a real #1 starter and it showed. Price fills that role and he’ll pitch with Rick Porcello, Wade Miley, Joe Kelly, Clay Bucholtz or maybe Eduardo Rodriquez and Henry Owens in some form of a pitching rotation. Will the Red Sox look to trade a veteran starter to make room for one of their younger starters or will the pair of 22 year old (Owens & Rodriguez) start the season in the minors. Greinke joins a much younger starting rotation in Arizona. Rubby De La Rosa led the Diamondbacks in wins last season with 14; so he looks to slot in behind Greinke in the rotation. Patrick Corbin made 16 starts in 2015 after returning from Tommy John surgery; so he’ll be ready for 2016. Then we’ll have to see if Arizona fills the rotation with Chase Anderson, Robbie Ray or Archie Bradley, but there where some reports that the Diamondbacks may still be looking to sign another free agent for the starting rotation.

You have to think that other teams will start to scramble and try to get a pitcher signed. I mentioned Lackey got a deal with the Cubs and there have been multiple reports that Jeff Samardzija was offered a deal worth $90-$100 million, but the team that made the offer was never disclosed. Starting pitchers like Johnny Cueto; who turned the Diamondbacks offer of 6 years $120 million down, Mike Leake and Scott Kazmir should be very popular at the winter meetings this week. Wei-Yin Cheng has been kind of an under the radar player, but with the Top 2 pitchers now off the market his name should start to come in play as well. There is still a decent amount of quality starting pitching on the free agent market and this week should give us an indication of where some of these pitchers are headed.

Hey; we finally got a great finish to a Thursday Night football game. The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions 27-23 on a 61-yard hail mary from Aaron Rodgers to Richard Rodgers with no time on the clock. Now we’ve all seen the highlights by now and everyone knows that the Packers shouldn’t of even gotten the play that won the game for them. The play before the game winner the Packers completed a short pass and then the laterals started as this looked like Green Bay’s last chance. The football ended up in Aaron Rodgers hands and there didn’t appear to be anyone behind him to pitch the football to and he was tackled high around the head area. When you look at the play going full speed it appears that Rodgers is taken down by his facemask and a penalty flag was thrown. When the play was looked at in slow motion you can clearly see that Rodgers facemask was never grabbed, but just brushed by the Detroit player. Of course penalties aren’t reviewable and the Packers got 1 last offensive play with no time on the clock and that play was Rodgers to Rodgers for the 61-yard game winner. Now the referee is at fault for missing the call and he’s getting his share of abuse for it you can’t tell me at full speed you didn’t think it was a facemask. While this call stinks for the Lions and there fans it may actual save the Packers season as it allowed them to stay in control of there playoff hopes.

Fantasy wise Rodgers was 24 of 36 for 237 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception. Rodgers was also the Packers leading rusher on the night running 4 times for 27 yards and a touchdown. Matthew Stafford was 23 of 35 for 220 yards and 1 touchdowns. Stafford also ran the football 2 times for 22 yards.

There wasn’t much to the Green Bay running game on the night. John Crockett carried the football 5 times for 22 yards. James Starks had 9 carries for 15 yards, but added 5 catches for 45 yards while Eddie Lacy had 5 carries for 4 yards. Lacy also had 1 reception, but it went for -4 yards Detroit’s Ameer Abdullah had the most success running the football. He had 13 carries for 67 yards in the game. Joique Bell had 8 carries for 5 yards along with 2 catches for 25 yardrs and Theo Riddick got 1 carry for 4 yards while catching 5 passes for 27 yards.

Richard Rodgers had a big night in the Packers passing game. Rodgers caught 8 passes for 146 yards and that 1 touchdown. Randall Cobb had 4 catches for 29 yards and 1 rushing attempt for -1 yards. DaVonte Adams caught 4 passes for 21 yards, but did have a touchdown. James Jones had 1 catch 19 yards and Jared Abbrederis also had 1 catch for 16 yards. Golden tate led the Lions with 8 catches for 63 yards and he also had a rushing attempt that went for -3 yards. Calvin Johnson caught 3 passes for 44 yards and a touchdown. T.J. Jones caught 2 passes for 37 yards while Eric Ebron also caught 2 passes for 9 yards, but had a touchdown. Corey Fuller also had 1 catch for 15 yards.

Jake Ryan led the Packers in tackles with 10 while Julius Peppers, Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix and Micah Hyde all recorded a sack.  Isa Abdul-Quddus was the Lions leading tackler with 11 while Devin Taylor had 2 sacks and Ezekiel Ansah added a sack as well.

It wasn’t the best of fantasy games, but if you had a guy who found his way into the end zone that always helps your team. Hopefully Richard Rodgers was in your starting line up.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

How was your week

Posted: November 28, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Sports Time Radio
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For Thanksgiving the NFL gave us 2 blowouts and an upset. The day in football started out with a game I thought would be closer than it turned out to be as the Detroit Lions blew out the Philadelphia Eagles 45-14. In the second game the Dallas Cowboys where a 1 point favorite going into it. I hope you bet what would’ve been the underdog and took the 1 point and went with the Carolina Panthers. Even before Tony Romo got injured and had to leave the game Carolina was far and away the better team in this game and easily won 33-14. The third game of the night brought us an upset as the Chicago Bears went into Lambeau Field and defeated the Green Bay Packers 17-13.  Green Bay had 4 chances inside the Bears 10-yard line with under a minute to go in the Chicago defense kept the Packers out of the end zone to win the game.

Believe it or not we actually pick 2 out of the 3 games correctly for a 2-1 start to our week in picks. Schaumburg Stu, Dan the Man, Mr, Fantasy and I all had Detroit, Carolina and even though we all live in the Chicago suburbs we had Green Bay. Of course I think us living in the Chicago suburbs may have made us pick Green Bay to win that game.

Fantasy football wise in Thanksgiving if you had Matthew Stafford as your quarterback you got off to a good start. Stafford scored right around or in the 40 point range depending on how your league is scored. No matter how it’s scored he was the best quarterback on Thanksgiving.Cam Newton came in right around the 20 point mark while Mark Sanchez, Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers all finished in the 12 to 15 point range. Matt Cassell actually outscored Tony Romo as Cassell end up at about 10 points and Romo was in the negatives if your league scores negative points. With the way our longest running league is scored Stafford had 37.54 points. Then it was Newton (16.66), Sanchez (11.88), Cutler (11,40), Rodgers (11.34), Cassell (10.76) and Romo with -4.38 points.

Eddie Lacy was the top fantasy running back on Thanksgiving. Lacy ran for 105 yards and caught a touchdown pass as well. Lacy totaled 25.15 points in our fantasy league. Two Lions running backs came in 2nd and 3rd on the day. Joique Bell scored 17.45 points and Theo Riddick scoced 17.05 points. Bell rushed for 57 yards, but out one in the end zone. Riddick rushed for just 6 yards, but caught 5 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart scored 15.20 fantasy points with 68 rushing yards and the Bears Jeremy Langford scored  15.05 points 48 rushing yards and a touchdown to round out the Top 5 running backs.

It’s not a big surprise that the Lions had the 2 highest scoring wide receivers on Thursday. Calvin Johnson led the way with 33.30 fantasy points. Johnson caught 8 passes for 93 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. Golden Tate was 2nd with 16,43 points. Tate caught 7 catches for 50 yards and 1 touchdown. Cole Beasley is a free agent right now in our longest running league. Beasley scored 14.90 points on 6 catches, 44 yards and a touchdown. Jordan Matthews and Alshon Jeffeys tied for 4th with 14.25 points. Jefferys had more catches 7 to 3 and more yards 90 to 60, but Matthews scored a touchdown and Jefferys didn’t. Randall Cobb rounds out the Top 5 receivers with 11.92 points catching 6 passes for 74 yards.

Greg Olsen of Carolina was the top scoring tight end on the day with 10.75 fantasy points. We start 2 tight ends a week in our league and no one has Philadelphia tight end Trey Burton who ended up being the 2nd highest scoring tight end on the day with 8.90 points. The other Philadelphia tight end Brent Celek was tied with Zach Miller of the Bears for 3rd with 8.50 points. Jason Witten was 4th with 6.60 points and Richard Rodgers was 5th with 6.00 points.

Carolina’s Graham Gano was the best kicker to have as he totaled 20 points on the day.  Matt Prated (Detroit) and Mason Crosby (Green Bay) each had 10 points. Dan Bailey had 7 fantasy points for the Cowboys while Robbie Gould put up 5 in the Bears victory. The eagles Caleb Sturgis came in at the bottom of the kicker list with 2 points on the day.

It was Carolina’s defense that led in fantasy scoring with 22.62 points. They where followed by the Bears (13.26), Detroit (12.90), Green Bay (6.57(, Dallas (3.57) and Philadelphia (-2.38); I’m hoping you didn’t play Philadelphia’s defense.

As far as my team. I had Jay Cutler, Eddie Lacy and Green Bay’s defense; so I ended up with a total of 43.12 fantasy points. I am off to a little better start than I was projected to have. My outlook for the day was 37.87 points; so all in all it was a good fantasy day for my team.

The Golden State Warriors improved to 17-0 last night with a 135-116 win over the Phoenix Suns. The Warriors set the tone for the game with a 44 point 1st quarter. Stephen Curry led the way for the Warriors with 41 points. Curry was 11 for 20 from the field going 9 of 16 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists to lead Golden State in those categories. Green also had 14 points on the night for a triple-double.  Leandro Barbosa came off the Golden State bench to score 21 points while T.J. Warren came off the Suns bench to lead them in scoring with 28 points. The Golden State 17th win to start the season was the first of back to back games as tonight they host the 6-11 Sacramento Kings. Will it be 18-0 for Golden State? Or can the Kings be the team that hands then their 1st loss?

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