Archive for the ‘football’ Category

2/15/14 How was your Week?

Posted: February 15, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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I’m not a New York Yankees fan; I’m not a Derek Jeter fan, but I have respect for him. Jeter announced his retirement earlier in the week by posting it on his Facebook page. After a 2013 season where Jeter played in just 17 games do to injuries and also the fact that he’ll turn 40 years old during the coming season Jeter’s career is coming to an end. Right now Jeter is 10th all time in career hits with 3316. If Jeter can get 121 hits in the 2014 season he’ll move into 6th all hit on the hits list. The question that has come up through out the week is where does Jeter as a shortstop all time. I’ve heard experts who have him as high as 3rd all time and other who have him just outside of the top 10 all time. Those are all debatable issues and it’s up to you where you where you’d rank Jeter. You can say without a doubt that he’s a 1st ballot Hall of Fame selection and one of the greatest player in the modern era of baseball. We haven’t even brought up his legendary love life, but those are stories of a different blog. While the 2014 baseball season hasn’t even started yet and it’s way, way to early to even discuss this I brought up who would replace Jeter at shortstop for the Yankees. On a special Thursday edition of Sports Time Radio this week I mentioned that the starting shortstop for the Yankees in 2015 will be Starling Castro. The Cubs have Castro under a very good contract making him attractive to other teams. They also have top prospect Javier Baez very close to being ready for the majors. Now the Yankees don’t have the top prospects that Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer would want in this deal; so a third team would probably have to be involved. There’s no one in the Yankees minor league system ready to come up and take Jeter’s spot. They do have Brendon Ryan on the roster, but he’s proven though his major league career that while he’s a great fielder his hitting just isn’t what teams look for in a starting shortstop. It’s an interesting topic to discuss and I’m sure it will come up through out the season as Derek Jeter takes a well deserved 2014 victory tour.

Michael Sam is gay. The University of Missouri defensive lineman is looking to be the first openly gay man to play in the National Football League (NFL). Sam was named SEC Co – Defensive player of the year last season. He has been projected as a 3rd to a 5th round pick in the upcoming draft. Another topic that has come up on out=r show with this is if Sam’s draft stock falls how many writers will come out and say it’s because he’s a gay man. Sam may be a little under-sized to play on the defensive line in the NFL. He’s listed at 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs in at 255 pounds. He did record 11 1/2 sacks last season for Missouri and if he can rush the passer might end up being a specialist along the defensive line. As you can guess there have been both positive and negative reaction to this. What I’m hoping happens is teams judge Sam on his football ability and not on his sexual orientation. For me I don’t care if he’s gay, straight or bi; if he can help an NFL team he should be on an NFL team. The NFL has the combines coming up this month and then the draft in May. I haven’t heard if Sam plans on attending the combines, but he should to try to improve his draft stock. Then will see where Sam is picked in the draft. I just hope the writers are smart enough to make this a football thing and not a gay issue. Sadly I think we all know they’re not.

On Friday’s show Mr. Fantasy and I talked about the release of Ted Wells report on the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin bullying claims. Wells pointed out that it wasn’t just Incognito bullying Martin but two other offensive lineman John Jerry and Mike Pouncey where also involved. This is a tough situation because even with the Wells report out it still more or less one man’s word against another. If you’ve played football at any level you know this kind of behavior right or wrong goes on all the time. I don’t know how far the three Miami Dolphins took this with Martin, but it was enough to make him leave the team. While I’ve never believed that bullying was the right way to describe what happened to Martin that’s the word they chose to use. I still find it hard to believe that a man of Martin’s size could be bullied; maybe harassed is a better term to use. I’m interested to see if and where Martin and Incognito end up playing in the NFL next season, but I’m pretty sure neither will be with the Dolphins. If you’re interested in hearing more of my opinion on this you can go into the archives of http://www.blogtalkradio.com to listen to them. The show title for Friday 2/14/2014 is “I got a new shirt”. If you’re having troubles find the show there you can go to http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com scroll down the right hand side and you can find Sports Time Radio listed with the other shows on the website.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? (2/8/14)

Posted: February 8, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Did the Super Bowl go the way you thought it would go? While I actually had the winner way back before the season started I had no clue the game would go the way it did. Most if not all of the experts I heard and even Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy where picking Denver. Schaumburg Stu finally sided with me and we had the Seahawks against the world. As we all know by now it was a blowout in the Seahawks favorite and no one had that. By now you’ve heard the Super Bowl analyzed every possible way; so I’m not going to do a breakdown for you. Right now I’m just a happy fan who’s team won.

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

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

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

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

So; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

2/1/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 31, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Tomorrow is the Super Bowl; the Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks. Most of the experts I’ve heard make picks are going with Denver. Even Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man are picking Denver to win this game. I guess I am out on my own here going with the Seahawks to win. It’s the best offense (Denver) in the NFL against the best defense (Seattle) in the NFL. If you can believe it or not and with the way we make picks sometimes it might be tough. At the beginning of the season Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy picked Denver and I actually picked Seattle to win it all. Mr. Fantasy had Denver facing Atlanta while Dan the Man had them playing New Orleans. I had Seattle facing New England in the Super Bowl. Who was your pick?

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

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

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

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 1/25/14

Posted: January 25, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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So it turned out to be the New York Yankees who signed Masahiro Tanaka. It took a seven year contract for $155 million to get the deal finalized. Then of course there’s the $20 million posting fee that the Yankees now have to pay to Tanaka’s Japanese league team the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. It had been reported that Tanaka had narrowed his choices to the Yankees or the Chicago Cubs. There was actually a report that another team had offered Tanaka more money than the Yankees did but they never said if that team was the Cubs. A lot of scouts have been saying that Tanaka is a #2 rotation type of pitcher but the Yankees paid an awful lot of money for a guy to be a #2 starter. Of course we won’t know anything until the regular season starts and we see how Tanaka matches up against major league hitters. After the Tanaka signing it was being reported that Matt Garza had signed a four year, $52 million dollar deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers came out and said they hadn’t signed Garza and he needed to pass a physical before they could agree on a deal. We’ll see if the Brewers end up with Garza or if it turns into a Grant Balfour type of situation. Balfour by the way agreed this week to a two year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays for $12 million dollars. Now we start to look and see where pitchers like Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez end up signing as we get closer to the start of spring training.

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

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

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

01/18/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The Anaheim Ducks are on a roll right now. Even with a 4 – 2 loss last night (Friday) to the Chicago Blackhawks the Ducks have won 18 of there last 20 games. Anaheim has 77 points and are in 1st place in the Pacific division. They are 11 points ahead of the 2nd place San Jose Sharks. The Ducks are also 1st overall in the Western conference 4 points ahead of the Blackhawks. Ryan Getzlaf leads the Ducks in scoring with 56 points. Corey Perry leads the team in goals with 27; Getzlaf leads the team in assists with 32. Francois Beauchemin and Hampus Lindholm both lead the team in plus/minus with a +25. Perry has 8 game winning goals for the Ducks while Getzlaf is right behind him with 7 game winning goals. On Wednesday Anaheim put up 9 goals against Vancouver. The Ducks play tonight (Saturday) for the second night in a row against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are 3rd in the Western conference standings with 69 points and it’s a home game for St. Louis.

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

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

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

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 01/11/14

Posted: January 11, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Today (Saturday) starts round 2 of the NFL playoffs. In our picks last week Mr. Fantasy grabbed a one game lead at 3 – 1. Dan the Man is right behind him at 2 – 2. Sadly my week didn’t go as well as I ended up 1 – 3. Our first game today has the New Orleans Saints going to Seattle to take on the Seahawks. On the show last night (Friday) we all picked Seattle to win this game. This is a rematch of a week 13 game that Seattle won 34 – 7. The second game today has the Indianapolis Colts traveling to Massachusetts to take on the New England Patriots. Mr. Fantasy and I have taken the Patriots to win this game, but Dan the Man believes the Colts will pull out a road win. Sunday’s games have the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Carolina Panthers and the San Diego Chargers vs. the Denver Broncos. To get out picks on these games and a review of Saturday’s games you can listen to Mr. Fantasy and I at 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning on http://www.blogtalktradio.com.

The Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes officially got under way this week when Tanaka had his first meeting with a major league team. In a bit of a surprise the Chicago White Sox where the first team to make their pitch to Tanaka. Living in the Chicago area the talk was more that the Cubs where the team that was going to go after Tanaka and the White Sox where hardly even mentioned. I’m sure this is just the start of team after team making their pitches to try to sign Tanaka.

The Hall of Fame added three more members this week as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas won election into the hall. All three where on the ballot for the first time. Craig Biggio missed getting into the Hall of Fame by just two votes. The sad part of this is that there hasn’t been a lot of talk about how great Maddux, Glavine and Thomas are, but of the stunt that one voter pulled. Dan the Man and I went back and forth about this on Tuesday’s show; so I don’t want to get into all of the details here. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the voting process, but my question is what do you think they got wrong? Is there someone in the Hall of Fame that shouldn’t be or is there someone not in that should be.

There was a story out there this week that the NHL may stop sending players to the Olympic games. While it’s nice to see the various NHL players go to the Olympics and represent their country, but what you have to understand is this happens during the regular NHL season. No other sport shuts down its regular season games to allow players to go and play for another team even though it is the Olympics. I enjoying watching the Chicago Blackhawks play for their countries in the Olympics, but I understand why the owners don’t want to continue to let them go and play. I think the bigger question might be if the NHL players stop going to the Olympics will hockey continue to be an Olympic sport.

So how was your week?

You can follow me @Burketime

01/01/14 How was your week?

Posted: January 4, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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I’ve heard lots of talk this week on the various sports shows I watch that they don’t like the way the 1st round of the NFL playoffs are set up. The complaint is the San Francisco 49ers who had a 12 – 4 record this season have to go on the road to play the Green bay Packers who had a 8 – 7 – 1 record. The Packers won the NFC North while the 49ers finished a game behind the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West. The other NFC 1st round match up has the same set up as the new Orleans Saints who finished the regular season at 11 – 5 have to play the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia. The Eagles had a 10 – 6 record, but won the NFC east. So if you take these home games away from division winners; what do you get for winning your division? If winning a division doesn’t matter why do we have them? If this is changed, the NFL should just go to two conferences the NFC and the AFC because winning your division or even being in a division would become meaningless. Yes its a tough break the 49ers and the Saints have to go on the road for the 1st round of the playoffs, but if they didn’t want to travel they should’ve won their division. Dan the Man and I talked about this on Friday’s show and I just believe that a team deserves a home game for winning it’s division.

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

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

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

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

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

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

So; how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime8

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How was your Week? (12/28/13)

Posted: December 28, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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So how many NBA games did you watch on Christmas day? I watched all of the Chicago Bulls win over the Brooklyn Nets. I also watched all of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s win over the New York Knicks. I only made it about half way through the Miami Heat victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. I managed to catch a total of about half of the game where the Houston Rockets defeated the San Antonio Spurs. I was unable to see any of the last game a Golden State Warriors win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The teams also wore jerseys with sleeves. Most of the people I heard talk about the jerseys didn’t like them but I actually did. I’d have to guess that the NBA referees didn’t like the jerseys since there where no numbers on the back and they had to search for the players number to make foul calls. It will be interesting to see if the NBA will pull these jerseys out again this season or if we’ve seen the last of them for now?

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

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

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

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

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime

How was your Week 12/14/13

Posted: December 14, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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The NFL Thursday night games aren’t always the best game of the week, but this week the match up had the San Diego Chargers vs. the Denver Broncos. The Broncos have pretty much wrapped up the AFC West while the Chargers are fighting to get into the playoffs. San Diego upset Denver 27 – 20 on Thursday night. The key to this game and what I’ve heard a lot of experts talking about is; did the Chargers show the rest of the NFL how to beat Peyton Manning and the Broncos? Manning was sacked once and threw a late interception to seal the victory for San Diego. The Chargers running game helped them control the game and keep the high-powered Denver offense on the sidelines watching the game. The Chargers ran 44 times for 177 yards and 1 touchdown. Ryan Matthews led the way for San Diego with 29 carries and 129 yards. Do you think the Chargers showed the rest of the NFL something?

We don’t talk a lot of UFC on the show but yesterday there was a big story concerning the UFC. Welterweight champion George St. – Pierre announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the UFC and was vacating his welterweight championship. St. Pierre has long been talked about as the best pound for pound fighter in the world but a lot of people think he lost his last fight. St. Pierre was awarded a split decision victory over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on November 16th. After that fight St. Pierre talked about hanging up his gloves and retiring from UFC. UFC President Dana White talked that there would be a rematch and even said he thought St. Pierre lost the fight. White hasn’t made a statement on this situation yet and I’m interested to see what he has to say. It was announced that Hendricks will fight Robbie Lawler to fill the vacant welterweight title on March 15th 2014 in Dallas, Texas.

While baseballs winter meetings ended this week the Kansas City Royals jumped out and signed 2nd baseman Omar Infante to a four-year deal worth $40 million. It would be difficult to go over ever signing that has happened in the last week; so I’ll just have randomly come up with some of them. A move I found really interesting was the Tigers signing Joba Chamberlain to a one year deal for $2.5 million. This could turn out to be one of the better free agent moves. Chamberlain always had a lot of potential but injuries have really derailed his career and you wonder if a change of scenery will allow him to get back on track. If it does he’ll be a great addition to the Tigers bullpen. Shin – Soo Choo and Nelson Cruz are the two most mentioned names still out on the free agent market. I think I’ve heard Choo’s name linked with just about every team in major league baseball. Cruz hasn’t been has talked about, but once Choo signs Cruz will become more popular on the free agent market. Did your team make a move?

So I have to ask you. How was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime

How was your 11/30/13

Posted: November 30, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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I’ll start out this week by wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you and your family had a good time.

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

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

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

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

So, how was your week?

You can follow me on @Burketime

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