Archive for the ‘football’ Category

Sports Time Radio’s 2015 NFL predictions.

Posted: September 11, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in football
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It’s that time again; Dan the Man Schaumburg Stu, Mr Fantasy and I have made our predictions for the upcoming NFL season. Here they are and let;s see how we do.

AFC East

Schaumburg Stu: 1-Patriots 2-Bills 3-Dolphins 4-Jets

Dan the Man 2-Patriots 2-Bills 4-Dolphins 4-Jets

Mr. Fantasy 1-Dolphins 2-Patriots 3-Bills 4-Jets

The Big Jack 1-Patriots 2-Dolphins 3-Bills 4-Jets

AFC North

Schaumburg Stu 1-Ravens 3-Steelers 3-Bengals 4-Beowns

Dan the Man 1-Bengals 2=Ravens 3-Steelers 4-Browns

Mr. Fantasy 1-Steelers 2-Bengals 3-Ravens 4-Browns

The Big Jack 1-Ravens 2-Steelers 3-Bengaks 4- Browns

AFC South

Schaumburg Stu1-Colt 2-Texans 3-Jaquars 4-Titans

Dan the Man 1-Colts 2=Texans 3-Jaquars 4-Titans

Mr. Fantasy 1-Colts 2- Texans 3-Titans 4-Jaquars

The Big Jack 1-Colts 2-Texans 3-Jaquars 4-Titans

AFC West

Schaumburg Stu 1-Denver 2-Chiefs 3-Chargers 4-Raiders

Dan the Man 1-Broncos 2-Chiefs 3-Chargers 4-Raiders

Mr. Fantasy 1-Chiefs 2-Broncos 3-Chargers 4-Raiders

The Big Jack 1-Broncos 2-Chargers 3-Chiefs 4-Raiders

AFC Championship

Schaumburg Stu Colts over Patriots

Dan the Man Patriots over Bengals

Mr. Fantasy Colts over Patriots

The Big Jack Colts over Patriots

NFC East

Schaumburg Stu 1-Cowboys 2-Eagles 3-Giants 4-Redskins

Dan the Man 1-Cowboys 2-Eagles 3-Giants 4-Redskins

Mr. Fantasy 1-Eagles 3-Cowboys 3-Giants 4-Redskins

The Big Jack 1-Giants 2-Cowboys 3-Eagles 4-Redskins

NFC North

Schaumburg Stu 1-Packers 2-Lions 4-Vikings 4-Bears

Dan the Man 1-Vikings 2-Packers 3-Lions 4-Bears

Mr. Fantasy 1-Packers 2-Vikings 3-Lions 4-Bears

The Big Jack 1-Packers 2=Vikings 3-Lions 4-Bears

NFC South

Schaumburg Stu 1-Saints 2-Falcons 3-Panthers 4-Buccaneers

Dan the Man 1-Saints 2-Panthers 3-Falcons 4-Buccaneers

Mr. Fantasy 1-Saints 2-Falcons 3-Panthers 4-Buccaneers

The Big Jack 1-Saints 2-Panthers 3-Falcons 4-Buccaneers

NFC West

Schuamburg Stu 1-Seahawks 2-Cardinals 3-49ers 4-Rams

Dan the Man 1-Seahawks 2-49ers 3-Cardinals 4-Rams

Mr. Fantasy 1-Seahawks 2-Cardinals 3-Rams 4-49ers

The Big Jack 1-Seahawks 2-Rams 3-Cardinals 4-49ers

NFC Championship

Schaumburg Stu Packers over Seahawks

Dan the Man Saints over Packers

Mr. Fantasy Packers over Seahawks

The Big Jack Cardinals over Seahawks

Super Bowl!

Schaumburg Stu Packers over Colts

Dan the Man Patriots over Saints

Mr. Fantasy Colts over Packers

The Big Jack Colts over Cardinals

Offensive M.V.P.

Schaumburg Stu Aaron Rodgers

Dan the Man Tom Brafy

Mr. Fantasy Andrew Luck

The Big Jack Drew Brees

Defensive M.V.P.

Schaumburg Stu J.J. Watt

Dan the Man J.J. Watt

Mr. Fantasy Justin Houston

The Big Jack Luke Kuechely

Offensive Rookie of the Year

Schaumburg Stu Nelson Agholor

Dan the Man Amari Cooper

Mr. Fantasy Amari Cooper

The Big Jack Marcus Mariotta

Defensive Rookie of the Year

Schaumburg Stu Vic Beasley

Dan the Man Vic Beasley

Mr. Fantasy Bud Dupree

The Big Jack Randy Gregory

Wish us luck; we always seem to need it.

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: September 2, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football
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Our fantasy football drafts are getting closer and closer. We have our auction draft Saturday night and then are snake league draft is Sunday night. Mr. Fantasy and I also have our money league draft Sunday morning. They auction draft isn’t so bad as it’s just deciding on how much you want to pay for a player and hitting on that player. Oddly I always seem to think that I got a deal on a guy and he ends up having a terrible season. The money league Mr. Fantasy and I share a team in is also a snake style draft. In case you don;t know snake style means your rounds go from the 1st pick to the in our case 20th pick and then the 20th team gets the first pick of the 2nd round. It goes back down to the team who draft first overall which is the end of round 2 and then they start round 3 with the first pick and so on until the draft is done. There’s a little more on the go strategy in the snake style draft because if you get caught on a run of a position you can get stuck with a lesser player at that position. If you play your pick right in a round you can actual start the run which is where you’d prefer to be. I know Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy prefer the auction draft over a snake style draft, but I still like the snake style draft better. In our two leagues we run through Yahoo it can be tough to get your draft strategy set up as you don’t know were you’ll be drafting until 30 minutes before the draft starts. That situation is much tougher for first time player to handle; so luckily I’m not one of those this season. As the draft gets closer I look more and more forward to it and hopefully I’ll land a good draft position and hit on my players.

I mentioned that we run our leagues through Yahoo and they set up a ranking of players for you to use as a guideline. This season their Top 5 picks are all running backs. Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings is ranked #1. Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks is ranked #2. Jamaal Charles of the Kansas City Chiefs is ranked #3. Eddie Lacy of the Green Bay Packers is #4 and Le’veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers is ranked #5. Don’t forget that Bell has to miss the first 2 games of the season. He is suspended for violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse. I downgraded Bell for this, but I guess Yahoo doesn’t feel the same way. As four the other 3 running backs I think you could pretty much put their names in a hat; pull one out and be happy with that pick. There’s almost no way to decide between those 4 players. Peterson did miss almost all of last season; so will him be rested or rusty. I do wonder if Jimmy Graham will take away some goal line attempts from Lynch. Not that Graham is going to run the ball, but would they throw a jump ball to Graham instead of handing the football to Lynch. Who else just had a Super Bowl flashback? With the season ending injury to Jordy Nelson Lacy might be the guy to go with out of this group. Charles has had his share of injury issues and the Chiefs also signed Jeremy Maclin to help the receiving game and that may hurt Charles overall touchdowns. Now there aren’t really huge negatives with any of these players and that;s why their ranked where they are going into this weekends drafts. It really boils down to who you happen to like and then you’ll have to see how the pick works out for you this season.

The San Francisco Giants lost a tough game to the Los Angeles Dodgers last night (Tuesday) 2-1 to fall 5 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West. I think the Giants need to find a way to win these next 2 games against the Dodgers or I believe they’ll miss the playoffs this season. Zack Greinke picked up the win for the Dodgers pitching 7 1/3rd innings giving up 5 hits; allowing just 1 run while striking out 5 and walking 1. Greinke also lowered his major league leading E.R.A. to 1.59. Madison Bumgarner started for the Giants pitching 7 innings giving up 8 hits; allowing 2 runs while striking out 8 and walking 1. Adrian Gonzalez gave the Dodgers the lead by singling home the 1st run of the game in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Joc Pederson gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead by hitting his 24th hoe run of the season off of Bumgarner in the bottom of the 7th inning. Matt Duffy drove in the Giants lone run of the night with a single to centerfield in the top of the 8th inning. Kenley Jansen got the Giants 1. 2. 3 in the top of the 9th to pick up his 28th save of the season and give the Dodgers their 2-1 win. It’s not going to get any easier for the Giants to make up any ground on the Dodgers tonight as Clayton Kershaw will be the Dodgers starting pitcher tonight. San Francisco will counter with Mike Leake. Kershaw is 11-6 with a 2.24 E.R.A. in 26 starts this season. Leake is 9-6 on the season, but 0-1 with the Giants. His season E.R.A. is 3/53, but it’s 3.38 with the Giants. Leake has made 24 total starts this season, but only 3 of them have been with San Francisco. The Giants traded Keury Mella and Adam Duvall.to the Cincinnati Reds for Leake on June 30th. While it’s difficult to say that tonight is a must win for the Giants, but it would be nice if they could take at least one of these 3 games against the Dodgers. Don’t forget that the Giants lost the 1st game of the series 5-4 in in 14 innings on Monday night. The Giants have 30 games left while the Dodgers have 31 games left this season. These two teams do meet for a 4 game series at the end of this month, but for the Giants to still have a chance to win the N.L. West they’ll have to cut into that 5 1/2 game lead the Dodgers have by the time that 4 game series rolls around. San Francisco is actually a game closer to catching the Dodgers in the N.L. West than they are catching the Chicago Cubs for the 2nd wild card spot. We’ll have to watch and see how the last month of the season plays out.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: August 26, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football, sports
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I’ve never been a big fan of early fantasy drafts and the Jordy Nelson (Green Bay Packers) injury is my biggest reason why. Nelson was the 3rd highest scoring wide receiver in our league behind Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Demaryius Thomas (Denver Broncos). As you know Nelson torn the ACL in his right knee. The injury will require surgery and Nelson will miss the entire season. If your draft was before the Packers pre-season game last week Nelson was probably one of the first wide receivers to come off the draft board. Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has a hamstring injury, but they’re saying he’ll be ready to go for Week 1, but with this type of injury you never can tell. There are quite a few players you’ll have to check and see where they are with their injury as you go into your draft. Alshon Jeffery (Chicago Bears) is dealing with a calf injury. Denver’s Emmanuel Sanders also has a hamstring issue as well. Julian Edelman the New England Patriots wide receiver has an ankle injury and hasn’t been practicing. Now all these players are suppose to be ready by Week 1, but when you have a draft too early it’s difficult to follow all the injuries. Luckily all 3 of the leagues that I’m in will be drafting Labor Day weekend; so I’ll have time to see who’s still out injured and if there have been any more players that got injured. If you have a league that has already drafted I’d be interested to know how you like it or why your league decided to draft early.

If you’ve listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast I’m sure you’ve heard us mention our two fantasy football leagues. We have a traditional snake style draft in one league and then the other league is an auction league draft. Both leagues are free so we do them for fun and of course for bragging rights on the podcast. Just for fun in the snake league we have to start 2 tight ends a week. Oh; by the way both of our leagues are 20 team leagues. That means that 40 tight ends start every week in our league and of course you should have a back up on your bench to cover Bye week; so there are about 60 tight ends drafted in our snake style league. I did it just for fun one season and so many people complained about it that there was no way I was going to change it. I want the draft to be challenging and this is one of the ways that make it that way. You’ll hear us joke around about this quite a bit on the podcast during the football season and at some point in time during the season someone will go on our league message board and complain about it. Luckily for us teams throw the football a lot more in today’s NFL; so there are tight ends out there to find if you look in the right places. Obviously there’s Rob Gronkowski (Patriots) and Jimmy Graham (Seattle Seahawks) at the top any tight end list, but who’s after those two. There’s been a lot of talk about Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs taking a step up as that next tight end. Don’t forget that no Chiefs wide receiver caught a touchdown pass last season; so maybe Kelce will be the pass catching threat around the end zone. Greg Olsen (Carolina Panthers) sometimes gets lost when experts talk about top tight ends, but he’s right there and a good weapon for Cam Newton to use.Chicago Bears tight end  Martellus Bennett caught 90 passes last season, but I’m not sold that he’ll get back to that number this season. It’s when you get down to filling that last tight end spot that you really have to hope you landed a sleeper. Lance Kendricks of the St. Louis Rams won’t catch a lot of passes during the season, but he could be used around the goal line. As a 3rd tight end in our league it’s worth taking a chance on a player who may get 1 catch for 1 yard and 1 touchdown. Will it be Richard Rodgers who gets some extra catches in Green Bay’s offense with Nelson gone? He’ll be worth a late round pick or maybe sooner depending upon how you feel about him. Jacob Tamme signed with the Atlanta Falcons this off season; so he may be the tight end catching the passes. The Baltimore Ravens have Maxx Williams and Crockett Gilmore looking to fill the tight end void created when Owen Daniels sign with the Broncos and Dennis Pitta was placed on the P.U.P. (Physically unable to Perform) List. Both Mr. Fantasy and I thought we had something with Jace Amaro of the New York Jets last season, but that didn’t really come through for us. Will Amaro be a bigger factor in the Jets offense this season? So as you can see we have to do some digging to fill our rosters with tight ends, but to me it makes it more fun to draft. I don’t know maybe it’s just me.

Hanley Ramirez told the Boston media yesterday that he will be the Red Sox everyday 1st baseman starting with the 2016 season. I was a little surprised to hear that it would be Ramirez moving to 1st base. I thought it would be Pablo Sandoval who would make the move across the diamond and take over at 1st. The Red Sox do seem to have quite a few outfielders in their system and next years outfield may have Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rusney Castillo in it. I thought there was a chance that Travis Shaw would be given a look at 1st base with the numbers he put up so far this season. In 29 games Shaw is hitting .315 with 6 home runs, but it’s doesn’t appear right now that he’ll be given a chance at 1st base. There doesn’t seem to be a spot for Allen Craig either. Now Craig has struggled since being acquired by the Red Sox for John Lackey last season. Craig hasn’t appeared in a major league game with the Red Sox since May 9th and at this point I’m don’t even think the Red Sox could get much in return for Craig in a deal. 1st base will actually be the 4th full time position Ramirez has had at the major league level. Ramirez started his career as a shortstop and has played 1077 games there. In 2012 he was moved to 3rd base while playing for the Miami Marlins and has played 99 career games at 3rd. This is his first season in leftfield or any outfield position for that matter. He’s played 92 games in leftfield this season for the Red Sox. Ramirez has had some injury issues throughout his career; so a move to 1st base might help that issue and help keep his bat in the everyday line up. There has been some talk of Ramirez getting some games at 1st base this season;s o keep an eye out for his position switch.

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkradio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: August 19, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football
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When the Detroit Tigers and Dave Dombrowski mutually agreed to part ways on August 4th most baseball experts didn’t think he’d be out of work long. Yesterday Dombrowski was hired by the Boston Red Sox   to be their president of baseball operations, effective immediately. General manager Ben Cherington declined the opportunity to continue as GM but has agreed to assist Dombrowski during the transition. It’s being reported that former Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren is hte guy the Red Sox would like to have take over their general manager position. Don’t forget that during John Henry’s three seasons (1999-2001) as owner of the Marlins, Dombrowski was his general manager. The relationship between Dombrowski and Owens helped the Red Sox in their quest to hire Dombrowski, who had also been talking to other organizations. Dombrowski lead the Marlins to a World Series championship in 1997 and built American League pennant-winners with the Detroit Tigers in 2006 and ’12. There were reports that the Toronto Blue Jays had what was described as “serious conversations” with Dombrowski. It seems like the report of those talks prompted the Red Sox to give Dombrowski full power over baseball operations. Dombrowski takes over a Red Sox team that is currently 53-66, 13 1/2 games behind the 1st place New York Yankees and last in the A.L. East. Dombrowski will have the remaining 43 games to look at this Red Sox team and get the off season set up.

After the Toronto Blue Jays took over 1st place in the A.L. East last week a lot of the experts wrote the New York Yankees off and thought they would start to fade back in the division. It turned out not to be the case as the Yankees took 2 of 3 from the Blue Jays over the weekend to reclaim 1st place. With consecutive victories over the Minnesota Twins to start this week the Yankees find themselves with a 1 game lead on the Blue Jays going into today’s games. Of course a 1 game lead isn’t much to bank on, but it’s a lot better than were most experts had the Yankees at after they slipped out of 1st place. Now I am in the camp that thinks the Blue Jays will pass the Yankees and win the A.L. East, but i wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Yankees find a way to hang onto a wild card spot. Just the Yankees being here at this point in time during the season is a bit of a shock. I don;t remember anyone picking the Yankees to contend for a playoff spot be it a wild card or division title, but here they are. You have to wonder how they’re doing it. The Yankees are 7th in the A.L. in team batting average at .255. They only have 1 regular hitting over .280; Brett Gardner is at .283. They are however 2nd in runs scored with 567. They trail only the Blue Jays who lead the A.L. with 630 runs scored. The long ball has been helping the Yankees as well; they are 3rd in the A.L. with 159. Mark Teixiera leads the Yankees with 31 home runs. The last time Teixeira hit over 30 home runs was 2011. Don’t forget that Alex Rodriguez has 25 home runs for the Yankees as well. The Yankees on base percentage is .324 good for 4th in the A.L. their slugging percentage is .430 good for 2nd in the A.L. and they have an OPS of .756 which ranks 2nd in the A.L. The Yankees don;t have a starting pitcher that jumps off the page at you as only Nathan Eovaldi has more than 10 victories; he’s 12-2 this season. The key appears to be the back end of the Yankees bullpen. Andrew Miller has 27 saves and an E.R.A, of 2.08. Dellin Betances has a 6-2 record out of the bullpen an E.R.A. of 1.14 and also picked up 7 saves while Miller was out injured. Justin Wilson has appeared in 55 games with a 4-0 record and an E.R.A. of 2.66 out of the Yankees bullpen. Left handed set up man Chasen Shreve has pitched in 43 games has a 6-1 record and an E.R.A. of 2.09 for the Yankees. Remember last season the Kansas City Royals made it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series last season using a 3-headed bullpen monster. Do the Yankees have a similar set up in their bullpen and if they get into the post season and have a lead after 6 innings is this bullpen lock down enough for them to go a long way. Of course the Blue Jays are going to be difficult to hold off in the A.L. East and there are 5 teams with in 4 1/2 games of the second wild card spot.

Mr. Fantasy and I found out that we will be picking in the 7th spot of our co-managed team or as we call it on the podcast our money league team. There are 14 teams in this league; so we are right in the middle and I have to tell you I couldn’t hate this position more than I do. I’ve never enjoyed drafting in the middle of any draft. Now I don;t need to be in the top tier of a draft; I’m just as happy to be at the back end of a draft. If I could some how end up with the last pick of the first round in any snake style draft I’d be thrilled with that. I really enjoy getting those back to back picks and it makes me feel as though I control the draft and I can start runs with my picks. Now Mr. Fantasy is working on trying to trade this pick. We’re not even looking for anything if someone wants to move up to the #7 spot; we just want to move down that badly. Now we where in the middle of our money league baseball draft and where unable to deal out of that spot; so I’m hoping the same thing doesn’t happen to us with the football league. Besides just being in the middle of the draft I also don;t like what the draft board might look like when it gets to the 7th pick. The top running backs should be off of the board and it’s probably too early to take a quarterback. Now there would be players like Dez Bryant and Rob Gronkowski on the board, but I;m not as sold on them as I would like to be to take them at #7. There are some interesting running backs that are ranked a little farther down the draft board; so we could reach for on of them, but who wants to take a reach pick in the 1st round. I just don;t know; so here’s hoping he can come through and make a deal for us.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

How was your Week?

Posted: August 15, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football
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I get it people missed the NFL, but the reactions to how teams played is a little over the top. The New England Patriots lost their pre-season opener to the Green Bay Packers 22-11. Now we know that the outcome of these games don’t matter at all, but the analysis was out of control Jimmy Garoppolo went 20 for 30 in the loss for 159 yards and threw 1 interception. Pretty average numbers for a pre-season game, but I saw a breakdown of his play and the expert was just destroying Garoppolo because he was sacked 7 times. While I get it; you never want to see your quarterback get sacked that many times, but it’s the first game of the pre-season for the Patriots. Garoppolo is expected to fill in for New England’s regular starting quarterback Tom Brady if he ends up having to miss any games because of the Deflatgate situation. It just seemed kind of dumb to me that the Patriots season was pretty left for dead if Garoppolo had to start any games if or when Brady is suspended. Did I mention that it was the first week of the pre-season for New England. Maybe it should’ve been called over reaction week.

The other thing I got quite a laugh about with pre-season was the way they where playing up the Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks game. It was being billed as a re-match of the 2014 Super Bowl and they wrote how the Broncos would be out for revenge. I guess I understand that you’re trying to get people to watch the game on television; it was the late game on the  NFL Network last night. Now Denver beat Seattle last night 22-20, but does a 2 point win in their first game of the pre-season get them their revenge for losing a Super Bowl? Peyton Manning didn’t play; neither did Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson threw 1 pass in the game. Revenge; really!

Kobe Bryant has said that he’d like to play for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Now I would have no problem at all if they just gave Bryant a spot on Team USA; he’s earned that type of award. Bryant has come out and said that he doesn’t want to be a token on Team USA in Rio de Janeiro, but that he wants to earn his spot on the team. Remember that this is Team USA where Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook come off the bench and Klay Thompsom is more or less used as a role player; is there room for Bryant? Don’t forget that Bryant had a relatively minor role in 2012, when he ranked sixth on the team in minutes per game. Now if the 2015-16 season is Bryant’s last in the NBA he’s not going to go out on top with the Los Angeles Lakers. Wouldn’t the best image for the ending of Bryant’s career be with a gold medal around his neck and holding an american flag.

I noticed that the Dallas Mavericks have signed center JaVale McGee to a contrtact, but I didn’t see how long it was for; I’d have to guess it’s just for one year. McGee has averaged 8.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in his seven NBA seasons. The 7-footer has played 382 games with Washington, Denver and Philadelphia. McGee was waived in March by the Philadelphia 76ers, two weeks after he had been acquired in a trade from the Denver Nuggets. He averaged 4.6 points and 2.7 rebounds in his 23 combined games last season for the two teams. The Washington Wizards selected McGee 18th overall in 2008 after he declared for early entry in the draft after his sophomore season at Nevada. McGee’s father, George Montgomery, was a second-round draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in 1985. His mother, Pamela McGee, played in the WNBA. Remember the Mavericks had originally signed free agent D’ Andrea Jordan, but he changed his mind and returned to the Los Angeles Clippers. McGee has a similar skill set to Jordan on the court; so the Mavericks may be looking for him to fill some of the role they had planned for Jordan to fill before he went back to the Clippers.

The Toronto Blue Jays finally lost a baseball game last night. The Blue Jays entered the game on an 11 game winning streak and looked like they would make it 12 with David Price on the mound and a 3-0 lead going into the top of the 8th inning. After Chase Headley doubled home the Yankees first run off of Price Aaron Sanchez came out of the Blue Jays bullpen to replace Price with Yankees on 2nd and 3rd base. Carlos Beltran came off the Yankees bench to face Sanchez and hit a 3-run home run to right-centerfield to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the game. Dellin Betances pitched and bottom of the 8th inning for the Yankees and after New York couldn’t add to their lead in the top half of the 9th inning Andrew Miller came in to try and close the game out for the Yankees. Russell Martin flew out to leftfield for the 1st out of the inning. Chris Colabello pinch hit for Ryan Goins and drew a walk. Cliff Pennington came into the game to pinch run for Colabello. Kevin Pillar singled to center with Pennington moving up to 2nd base. Ben Revere came to bat for the Blue Jays and during his at bat Miller threw a wild pitch to move the base runners up to 2nd and 3rd. With the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd Miller struck out Revere for the 2nd out of the inning. Wouldn’t you know it that the next hitter for the Blue Jays was Troy Tulowitzki. Now the Blue Jays haven;t lost a game that Tulowitzki has started for them and I was wondering if they would intentional walk Tulowitzki and face Josh Donaldson with the bases loaded, but the Yankees choose to have Miller pitch to Tulowitzki. Of course the count had to go full and Tulowitzki fouled off 7 pitches in this 12 pitch at bat. Finally Miller got Tulowitzki to swing and miss on a slider to end the game and a 4-3 win for the Yankees. The win not only ended the Blue Jays winning streak it out the Yankees back in 1st place in the A.L. East by a 1/2 game. Game 2 of the series is at Noon today. The Yankees will have Masahiro Tanaka starting on the mound for them and the Blue Jays are going with Marco Estrada. Tanaka is 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA in his last 3 starts while Estrada is 3-0 with a 1.45 ERA in his last 3 starts. Do the Blue Jays bounce back today? Or will the Yankees add some more room to their A.L. East lead??

How was your week?

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How was your Week?

Posted: August 8, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football
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We had our first few waiver wire deals in Major League Baseball yesterday. It started with the Atlanta Braves sending 3rd baseman Chris Johnson the the Cleveland Indians for outfields Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn and cash considerations. There had been reports out for a while now that the Braves were interested in moving Johnson. Johnson is signed through 2017 with a $10 million dollar option for 2015. Bourn who played for Atlanta in 2011 and 12 is signed for 2016 at $14 million with a $12 million dollar option for 2017. Swisher is signed through 2015 as well for $15 million with a $14 million dollar vesting option for 2017 if he 550 plate appearances in 2016 and passes a physical. The next deal saw the Boston Red Sox send Mike Napoli and cash to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Napoli will also be returning to a team he has played for before. Napoli was with the Rangers for the 2011 and 12 seasons. Napoli is in the last year of his contract and it’s being reported that the Rangers will be responsible for paying $1.5 million of his $16 million dollar 2015 salary. The New York Mets picked up some bullpen help as they acquired left-handed reliever Eric O’Flaherty and cash considerations from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for a player to be named later. O’Flaherty had been designated for Assignment by Oakland over the weekend; so they had 10 days to trade, release him or have him accept a minor league assignment. In a corresponding move left handed reliever Alex Torres has been designated for assignment by the Mets to clear space for O’Flaherty on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. With these three deals getting the waiver period started will see if we get some more deals over the weekend.

So which division leader is going to get caught before the season ends? The New York Yankees (3 1/2), the New York Mets (2 1/2), the Kansas City Royals (9 1/2), the St. Louis Cardinals (6), the Houston Astros (1 1/2) or the Los Angeles Dodgers (3). Now the Mets may be the obvious choice, but it may be the other New York team that is in the most danger of losing their division lead. The Toronto Blue Jays have been closing the gap on the Yankees. With the acquisitions of Troy Tulowirzki and David Price the Blue Jays 9-1 over their last 10 games and are currently on a 6 game winning streak. Over that same 10 game stretch the Yankees are 5-5. Last night (Friday) these two teams started a 3 game series in New York. The Blue Jays got the win on Game 1; 2-1, but it took 10 innings. All 3 runs were scored on solo home runs. Josh Donaldson hit his 30th home run on the Top of the 1st inning to give the Blue Jays a 1-0, but it didn’t last long as Mark Teixeira tied the game at 1-1 with his 30th home run. The game stayed 1-1 until the Top of the 10th inning when Jose Bautista hit his 25th home run of the season off of Yankees reliever Branden Pinder to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. Roberto Osuna pitched the Bottom of the 10th for Toronto to pick up his 9th save while Brett Cecil got the win to move his record to 3-4. Pinder took the loss in his first decision of the season; so he’s 0-1. Both teams had 8 hits apiece in the game. Bautista was the only Blue Jays player with 2 hits in the game while Teixeira, Jacoby Ellsbury and Didi Gregorius all had 2 hits apiece for the Yankees. R. A. Dickey started the game for Toronto while Nathan Eovaidi made the start for the Yankees. Dickey pitched 7 innings giving up 1 run on 6 hits while striking out 3 and walking 2; he also threw a wild pitch. Eovaildi pitched 6 inning giving up 1 run on 5 hits while also striking out 3 and walking 2. Game 2 of the series is set for Saturday afternoon in New York and David Price is starting for the Blue Jays while the Yankees are going with Ivan Nova on the mound. Price was dominant on his Blue Jays debut; striking out 11 and retiring the last 15 batters he faced. Nova has made 7 starts for the Yankees since returning from Tommy John surgery and has an E.R.A. of 3.10. Look for Brian McCann to be a key factor in the Yankees line up against Price as he is a career .563 hitter against him with 3 home runs and 7 RBI’s. Jacoby Ellsbury also has good career numbers against Price hitting .370 in 46 career at bats. Both Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista average over .300 against Nova. Encarnacion at .364 and Bautista at .333 and each have 1 home run off Nova.  The Blue Jays (589) and Yankees (529) are the Nos. 1 and 2 teams atop the Major League leaderboard in runs scored; so will we see more than a 2-1 game like last nights?

On the Sunday Sports Time Radio podcasts Mr. Fantasy and I have tried to pick the best line up for Fanduel and sadly haven’t done very well. Now we’re going to continue to try and find ways to help you win money during the remainder of the season on Fanduel, but we’re also going to start taking a look at the upcoming football season. Our drafts will be held over Labor Day weekend; so we’re starting to get ready for them. If you’re interested in being in either of our league; they’re free and we run them through Yahoo. Both leagues are 20 team leagues; one is a traditional snake league style draft and the other league is an auction league. Again they are both free and if you’re interested in playing please e-mail us SportsTimeRadio@Hotmail.com and we’ll send you the link to sign up. One league has 5 spots left and the other has 8 spots left. Feel free to play in one or both leagues with us. Just please be a serious fantasy football player who’ll stay through the season even if your team struggles.

I was looking at the pre-season rankings for tight ends and they have Rob Gronkowski as the #6 rated player overall. I have to tell you I don;t think I would draft a tight end that high and in one of our leagues we start 2 tight ends a week. While there’s a bit of a drop off from Gronkowski to Jimmy Graham and then even a bigger drop off from Graham to the #3 ranked tight end Travis Kelce; I’m not sure if taking a tight end at #6 is the best choice. There’s also the issue of if there’s a Tom Brady suspension. How much will that affect Gronkowski’s numbers? be it for the 4 games that’s in place right now or even 1 or 2 games if it’s brought down in court. Now I won;t be surprised at all when Gronkowski comes off the draft board in the Top 10 and while he’s a great player and the best at his position can you win your league taking a tight end that high?

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime 

How was your Week?

Posted: August 1, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, football, NASCAR, sports
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Right before their first training camp practice the Seattle Seahawks announced they had signed quarterback Russell Wilson to a 4 year, $87.5 million dollar contract. Wilson was entering the final year of his four-year, $3 million rookie contract. Wilson’s rookie contract did not include a fifth-year option because he wasn’t a first-round pick. Because of that, Seattle would have had to use the franchise tag on him in 2016 currently projected at more than $25 million; if no extension had been signed by then. $31 million in Wilson’s new deal s a signing bonus and $60 million is guaranteed. In 2014, Wilson completed 285 of 452 passes (63.1 percent) for 3,475 yards with 20 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He also rushed for 849 yards and six more touchdowns. The Seahawks have a 36-12 record through three seasons with Wilson at the helm, no quarterback in NFL history has helped his team win more games. Wilson’s career numbers match up very well with the best quarterbacks in the NFL over the last three years. He’s one of six quarterbacks with at least 9,000 passing yards, 60 touchdowns and 500 rushing yards during that time frame. Now that Wilson is signing and being paid well; the Seahawks may have to deal with the issues of trying to pay all their other key players enough to keep the team a championship contender. In some cases these issues may have already started on the defensive side of the football of the Seahawks. Kam Chancellor was a no show for the opening of camp. Chancellor’s holdout is due to him being unhappy with the compensation in his contract signed before the 2013 season that will pay him $4.5 million in 2015. There was some reports that 2 other Seattle defensive players might skip the start of training camp, but both defensive lineman Michael Bennett and linebacker Bobby Wagner were there for the opening of camp. Bennett has been the most vocal about his contract. Bennett is hoping his versatility along the defensive line will merit a pay raise from the Seahawks. Bennett has lined up at both defensive end positions and defensive tackle at various times during his two seasons with the Seahawks. It looks like both Chancellor and Bennett will have to wait until Wagner is signed to a new deal before they can get one. All reports seem to point to Wagner being the next in line. He was an All-Pro last season despite missing five games with a painful toe injury and has been Seattle’s starting middle linebacker since being a second-round pick in 2012. After back to back Super Bowl appearances it looks like it’s time for Seattle’s top players to get paid.

With NFL training camps open it’s time to start looking forward to your fantasy football draft. Now last season all the experts had 2014 pegged as the year of the running back, but that didn’t really came to pass. What will this season be called? Now there are still top running backs out there, but will it be suggested that you need to grab one in the 1st round to be competitive in our league. How many running backs will be considered elite heading into your draft? 6, 7 or maybe 8 at the most. There are your Jamaal Charles (Chiefs). LeShon McCoy (Bills) Matt Forte (Bears), Eddie Lacy (Packers) and even though he’ll be suspended to start the season I think you have to count Le’Von Bell (Steelers) and I can’t forget Marshawn Lynch (Seahawks). After that you’ll have to make some choices. Will DeMarco Murray repeat his success with Philadelphia? Does Arian Foster have another good fantasy season in him with Houston? Of course the biggest running back question may be; what will Adrian Peterson give you after missing almost the entire 2014 season? Now there may be some new running backs moving up that you’ll be able to find a little later in your draft. Players like Carlos Hyde (49ers), will C.J. Anderson (Broncos) take over the #1 role in Denver. Todd Gurley (Rams) and Melvin Gordon (Chargers) were both 1st round picks and are expected to take lead backfield roles for their teams. Latavius Murray (Raiders) showed some potential last season and it looks like Mark Ingram (Saints) is the lead running back; finally. One of the bigger surprises a fantasy owner may get this season if he can actually find a way to stay healthy is  Darren McFadden (Cowboys). McFadden looks like he’ll get to line up behind the best offensive line in the NFL, but that big if will him has always been can he play 16 games. Fantasy owners should have a little over a month to figure this out before the season gets rolling along. Of course will have the pre-season to look at guys and try to find sleepers, but what I want to know is are you taking a running back in the 1st round this season?

I’ve been trying to stay away from discussing the Tom Brady suspension, but I do have some questions that I’m guessing will never be answered. How does deflating footballs get you suspended for more games than getting arrested for smoking pot? Brady got 4 games and Le’Von Bell had his suspension reduce to 2 games for his arrest. I think the biggest oddity is the fact that Greg Hardy was convicted; appealed that conviction and was found innocent when the victim couldn’t be found to testify and reports came out that her and Hardy reached a monetary settlement. Sadly I’m drawing a blank on what the original conviction was, but I believe it was a pretty violent encounter. Hardy was on the exempt list for all but 1 game last season and he was then suspended for 10 games this coming season. After his appeal; was by the NFL that suspension was reduce to 2 games. After reading all of that remember that Brady got 4 games for deflating footballs.

I want to remind everyone that tomorrow (Sunday) on Sports Time Radio Chris Olmstead from BeyondtheFlag.com will join me on the podcast to preview the Windows 10 400 at Pocono Speedway. Brad Keselowski had the fastest practice time yesterday, but will that be enough for Chris to pick him as one of his three drivers who might end up in victory lane?

Listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: July 15, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, golf
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The American League beat the National League 6-3 in the All-Star game last night. The win for the American League means that the team that represents them in the World Series will have home field advantage. Home field advantage in the World Series is one of the things that makes baseball’s All-Star game different than any other sport. Baseball has the one All-Star game that is similar to what actually happens during a regular season game. That’s the one reason I’ll watch the Baseball All-Star game over the other three sports NFL, NHL, NBA various All-Star games. They will actually play defense in baseball’s All-Star game and if you’ve seen the other sports All-Star games you know that defense is the last thing on anyone’s mind. Now there are always complaints about the fan voting or who should’ve been selected for the team, but when the game is on the field it’s an actual baseball game not a facade of itself.

Now you know that the network executives at Fox where doing cartwheels when Mike Trout led the game off for the American league by hitting a home run. While Trout is the best player in baseball right now by hitting that home run he allowed the broadcasters to bring his name up all night without having to find a reason to. You also had to know that as soon as Trout hit that lead off home run there was nothing any other player could do to win the MVP.  The home run was Trout’s only hit in 4 at bats during the game. He did walk and score another run later in the game. While the MVP pretty much has to come off the winning team.  You’d think Trout was a good of a choice as any, but I really thought that Prince Fielder deserved the award more. Lorenzo Cain was the only player in the game to get more than 1 hit and he also stole a base, but I don’t think he got much consideration for MVP. The most impressive player might’ve been Wade Davis the Kansas City Royals relief pitcher. Davis pitched the 7th inning for the American League and struck out 2, but once he gave up a hit you knew they wouldn’t consider him for MVP.  While I’m not sure that Trout should’ve won MVP no one else stood out enough for anyone to jump up and down about it and scream. Trout becaomes the first player to win the MVP award in back to back All-Star games.

How did your favorite player do last night? Locally for us Anthony Rizzo was 0-2 and Kris Bryant was 0-1 with a walk. Besides Trout’s lead off home run there where 5 other extra base hits. Cain and Manny Machado doubled for the American League and Brian Dozier homered in the 8th inning. On the National League side Ryan Braun tripled in the bottom of the 9th and Andrew McCutchen homered in the 6th inning. On the mound Jacob deGrom is getting rave reviews for his inning of work. deGrom pitched the 6th inning and struck out all 3 batters he faced. Aroldis Chapman of the host team Cincinnati reds also struck out all 3 batters he faced pitching the top of the 9th inning for the National League. National League pitchers totaled 15 strikeouts in the game while the American League pitchers stuck out 9. There were only 13 hits in the game and Clayton Kershaw was the pitcher who gave up the most with 3. Kershaw also gave up 2 runs and took the lost for the National League. David Price worked the right inning for the American League and picked up the win.

As it gets closer and closer to the NFL season there are 4 top players who haven’t signed their franchise tender. Those 4 players are Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys, Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos, Justin Houston of the Kansas City Chiefs and Jason Pierre-Paul of the New York Giants. Most of the talk has been about Bryant and if he’ll skip mini camp or sit out regular season games if he doesn’t get a long term deal. Now these 4 players have until today to sign a contract or else they have to play for whatever the franchise dollar amount is for their position. It’s been reported that Thomas and the Denver Broncos have had some contract talks, but Thomas wants more money than the highest paid receiver in the NFL Calvin Johnson. You have to think that Thomas and his agent realize they have to cash in before Peyton manning retires and someone else is quarterbacking the Broncos. The Kansas City Chiefs and Houston were expected to meet on Tuesday, but they’ll have to move quickly if they want to get a deal done. It’s been reported that there hasn’t been any negotiation between the sides lately. There seems to be some optimism about Houston getting a long-term deal as Kansas City has made it clear they’d like Houston to be a Chief for a long time. Now Pierre-Paul and the New York Giants are in a unique situation and  after Pierre-Paul suffered injuries from fireworks that included having his right index finger amputated. Don’t forget the fiasco that occurred when the Giants personnel went to visit Pierre-Paul and weren’t allowed to see him. The franchise tag for Pierre-Paul would be $14.8 million, but there have been some reports that the two sides are discussing a lower dollar amount. Will any of these 4 players get the long term deal they want before the deadline. If they don;t get that long term deal will they skip mini camp or would they actually sit out one or more regular season games to get that deal. How much would it affect these 4 players teams if they did decide to sit out during the regular season?

Now we don’t talk much golf if any on the podcast, but the British Open starts tomorrow at The Old Course at St. Andrews. Jordan Spieth has won the first 2 majors of the season and is the odds on favorite to win the British Open. Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose players with good odds to win this week. I’m not going to pretend that I know anything at all about golf except for the fact that I play the game poorly, but I’d like to see Spieth win and continue to chase the grand slam.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRado.com

How was your Week?

Posted: May 23, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports
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It’s Memorial Day weekend and that means the Indianapolis 500 will be run. NASCAR has pretty much taken over any type of racing news, but the Indianapolis 500 is the one still mainstream open wheel race that gets covered. When I was younger I would watch the race, but not so much anymore. While I’ll still try to catch the end to see who wins the race there’s not a connection you might feel for your favorite NASCAR driver with this series for me. While I still recognize some of the names like polesitter Scott Dixon after looking at the starting grid there where only 4 other drivers starting in the Top 10 who’s names I recognized. I’m sure if I followed this racing series a little closer I would know the other drivers in the Top 10, but I don’t even know if their other races are shown on television. While I would never want to see the Indianapolis 500 not be televised this weekend or moved to another network I would like to be able to find the other races in this series easier. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in 1st place in the NL West by 1 1/2 games over the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers and Giants just finished a mid-week 3 game series that saw the Giants sweep all 3 game from the Dodgers in that series. Not only did the Giants get a sweep in that series the Dodgers were shutout in all 3 games. San Francisco seems to be getting healthy while Los Angeles is going through some injuries. Even though the Dodgers did win their game last night they still only put up 2 runs. I don;t think anyone thought that offense would be an issues for the Dodgers and when Yasiel Puig returns from his hamstring injury the offense should return to were it was at the start of the season. What I’m wondering is if there’s going to be a move made for a starting pitcher. Los Angeles still has the best 1,2 top of the rotation in baseball with Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke in those roles, but there are some questions after that. Brett Anderson has been solid at 2-2 with an ERA of 3.61 in his 8 starts. The 8 starts Anderson has made this season match his total from all of last season and he hasn’t made more than 30 starts in his career. Anderson made 30 starts as a rookie in 2009; so will he hold up over a season in the Dodgers rotation. Brandon McCarthy has been lost for the season and it was announced yesterday that Hyun-jin Ryu will have season ending shoulder surgery. Ryu didn’t make any starts for the Dodgers this season. Carlos Frias has made 6 appearances with 4 of those being starts and is 3-1 with a 2.55 ERA. Mike Bolsinger has made 3 starts for the Dodgers as well and is 2-0 with an ERA of 1.04. Will the Dodgers stick with Frias and Bolsinger at the back of the rotation or will they go out on the trade market and try to find pitching. I’d be surprised to see Cole Hamels in a Dodgers uniform unless the Philadelphia Phillies come way down on what they want in return for Hamels. Now there is another Phillies pitcher that has gotten some attention early in the trade market. Could the veteran Aaron Harang be someone the Dodgers might be interested in. Harang is 4-3 in 9 starts for the Phillies with an ERA of 1.82. I’d be surprised to see Harang still with the Phillies at the end of the season, but which contender or contenders might be interested .

I was a little surprised to see the Cleveland Cavaliers more or less coast to a 12 point win 94-82 in Game 2 of the Eastern conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks. The Cavaliers took a 5 point lead after the 1st quarter 26-21. Cleveland kept the lead at 5 going into halftime 54-49, but pulled away in the 3rd quarter out scoring Atlanta 30-17 and taking a 84-66 lead. The Hawks did out score the Cavaliers in the 4th quarter 16 to 10, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to get Atlanta back into the game or close to a win. LeBron James led Cleveland and all scorers with 30 points. James also had 11 assists and 9 rebounds missing a triple double by just that 1 rebound. Iman Shumpert (16) Matthew Dellavedova (11) and Timofey Mozgov (10) were the other Cavaliers scoring in double figures while Tristan Thompson grab a game high 16 rebounds for Cleveland. Dennis Schroder led Atlanta with 13 points, but Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and Al Horford all scored 12 points for the Hawks. Cleveland has a 2 games to 0 lead in the series and they are headed back to Cleveland for Game 3 on Sunday night. Can Atlanta win a game in Cleveland and keep the series alive and return home or are the Cavaliers looking at a sweep. 

If you’re a Houston Rockets fan are you going to end up looking back at this Western conference finals series against the Golden State Warriors and wonder what if. The Rockets lost Game 1 by 4 points 110-106 and had their chances to take that game. Thursday night though might be the heartbreaker for Rockets fans. The Rockets were down 1 point with under 10 seconds to play and they had the basketball. James Harden was doubled teamed and unable to get a game winning shot off as the Rockets lost 99-98 in Game 2. Golden State has a 2-0 lead in this series, but it could just as easily be the other way around and if you’re Houston you have to think those missed chances will cost you this series. The series heads back to Houston for Game 3 tonight and the Rockets are kind of in the same boat the hawks find themselves in. Can they win a game at home to keep the series alive or will they be swept out of the conference finals.

On the podcast we always notice how the NFL finds ways to keep themselves in the news all year long, but lately all I’ve heard is the negative “Deflate Gate” news. I doubt this is the kind of news the NFL wants to generate in the off season and I have to tell you; I’m over this already. While I do think that a 4 game suspension was too much for Tom Brady I have no real interest in this situation. I side with Dan the Man on this when he has said over and over on the Sports Time Radio podcast that this is really the NFL’s fault. With all of the money the NFL makes they couldn’t have someone in charge of the game footballs. That’s enough of that garbage. When does mini-camp start?

How was your Week?

Posted: May 9, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, NASCAR, sports
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Derrick Rose banked in a 3-pointer to give the Chicago Bulls a 99-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of their 2nd round playoff series. On the radio there was just as much talk after the game about a couple of other plays as there was Rose’s game winner. Late in the 3rd quarter LeBron James drove to the basket and was clearly tied up by Jimmy Butler for what should’ve been a jump ball. The referees saw it differently and called Butler for a foul. Then on the play right before Rose hit the game winning shot James ran at Rose banged into him and luckily for the Bulls the basketball ended up going out of bounds. I get it; there where 3 seconds left and no referee in the NBA is going to call a foul on the best player in the league in that situation. Fans rooting against the Cavaliers forget how much pull James seems to have. Remember 2 seasons ago he complained that the All-Star break wasn’t long enough and this season they magically had a couple of extra days added to All-Star weekend. Any referee who likes his job and wants to keep it is going to swallow his whistle when it comes to a play like that and James is involved. Was the first play a jump ball; yes. Was the second play a foul; yes. Was either play called correctly; no and they won’t be. I was a little surprised by the Bulls fans being as upset as they were with these two blatantly missed calls. I guess they forgot how the Bulls used to benefit from this same situation when Michael Jordan was wearing a Chicago uniform.

Rose led all scorers with 30 points and finally got to the free throw line in the series making 9 of 10 free throws. Rose was 10 of 26 from the field and 1 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. That means the only 3-pointer Rose hit was the last second bank shot to win the game. Butler had 20 points, Mike Dunleavy scored 16 points and Nikola Mirotic added 12 points off the bench. Pau Gasol was injured and played just a little under 22 minutes in Game 3. James led the Cavaliers with 27 points. James was 8 of 25 from the field and made just 1 of his 7 3-points attempts on the night. Kyrie Irving went 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line, but those where the only 3 shots he made from the field going 3 for 13 while scoring 11 points. Tristan Thompson was the other Cavaliers starter to score double digit points with 10 while J.R. Smith scored 14 point off the bench included the late 3-pointer that tied the game at 96, .Matthew Dellavedova also came off the cavaliers bench to score 10 points. Game 3 is Sunday afternoon in Chicago with the Bulls holding a 2-1 series lead.

In the late game last night (Friday) the Los Angeles Clippers took a 2 games to 1 lead over the Houston Rockets in their Western conference 2nd round series by winning Game 3 124-99. J.J. Reddick went 5 of 6 from behind the 3-point line and 11 of 14 from the field overall for a game high 31 points. Austin Rivers scored 25 points and Blake Griffin added 20 points as the Clippers shot 55.4% from the field and 44.8% from behind the 3-point line in their win. The Rockets were led by James Harden with 25 points, but shot 39.8% from the field and 33.3% from behind the 3-point line in the game. Harden did hand out 11 assists and Dwight Howard had a double-double 14 each points and rebounds. In true Howard fashion he went 4 of 11 from the free throw line and as a team the Rockets where 18 of 31 (58.1%) from the free throw line. Chris Paul did return for the Clippers and played a little over 23 minutes. Game 3 is Sunday for these two teams in Los Angeles.

Have you ever thought that your favorite NFL team might be cursed or jinxed or something along those lines. If you’re a fan of the Jacksonville Jaquars and I know there are some of you out there you have to be wondering about this. Jacksonville had the 3rd pick in the draft last weekend and they decided to go with a pass rusher to help their defense instead of taking the player that most if not all experts thought was the best player in the draft;; Leonard Williams a defensive lineman. Since Jacksonville wanted a true edge rusher they drafted Dante Fowler Jr. a linebacker/defensive end with the 3rd pick. Well on the 1st day of rookie mini camp Fowler torn the ACL ligament in his left knee and will miss the 2015 season. Fowler was already talked about as a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate. It was report that Fowler’s left knee bent awkwardly during 11 on 11 drills and he had to be carted off of the field. Fowler was set to play Jacksonville’s “Leo” position in their defense. The Jaquars where also hoping a “high motor” player like Fowler would add to their young defense that finished 6th in the NFL last season with 45 sacks. Even though he;s out of college it looks like Fowler will be taking a red shirt year instead of rushing quarterbacks in the NFL.

The NASCAR circuit heads to the Kansas Speedway for The Spomgebob Squarepants 400 tonight. Joey Logano won the pole in qualifying yesterday  with a speed of 192.397 M.P.H. Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards round out the Top 5 qualifiers for the race. Dan the Man’s favorite driver Clint Bowyer starts 21st. This is the first race where Erik Jones will take over the #18 Jo Gibbs Racing (JGR) car from David Ragan who was filling in for an inured Kyle Busch. Ragan is now driving the #55 car for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) for what looks like the rest of the race season. Brian Vickers started the season in the #55 car, but has been out with blood clots and there hasn’t been a timetable set for his return. Jeff Gordon is the defending champion and could use a win to lock down a spot in The Chase. Chris Olmstead from BeyondtheFlag.com was unable to join us on the podcast Friday to preview the race and give us his picks, but he will be joining us tomorrow to recap the race. We did receive Chris’s picks via e-mail. Here’s what he said ” I think there is going to be another different winner this weekend so I am going to go with Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon or Kasey Kahne”

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

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