Archive for the ‘post season’ Category

How was your week

Posted: May 19, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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One of the things my mother use to say when I was growing up was that if it wasn’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all. Oddly it seems like this is something I’m dealing with right now.

If you’re a FanDuel player I’m sure you’ve participated in the Home Run Derby they’ve had going on this baseball season. It’s a free contest; so why not play. It’s a simple contest to get in on. You select three players you think are going to hit home runs and the person who’s three man team hits the most home runs wins.

When the contest first started I actually went the first week without hitting a home run. I was trying to find the best match us or the ballparks that seem to allow the most home runs and it just wasn’t working out for me; so I decided to make a change.

About 10 to 12 days ago I switched up my strategy. I decided that as long as they where available I’d use Bryce Harper and Mike Trout as two of the three players I’d enter in the contest. Now my co-host on the Sports Time Radio podcast Dan the Man took it one step further. He uses Harper, Trout and Mookie Betts everyday if they’re all available.

Here’s the humorous thing about this. Since we’ve been doing this none of these players has hit a home run during the contest. Now these three players haven’t been available to pick every contest as FanDuel use night games during the week, but they are available the majority of the time.

Now I’m not sayin that we’re the cause of these players not hitting home runs, but Trout was actually in the longest hitless streak of hit career going into last nights game. Trout was 0 for 19 heading into the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays last night. Trout went 1 for 3 last night an his hit was his 13th home run of the season; so maybe the streak is finally over. Even with Trout’s home run the Angels lost 8-3 to Tampa Bay last night.

Let’s hope that Trout’s home run gets him going and for our sake that Harper and Betts join in.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights are just one win away from being the first expansion team in NHL history to make it to the Stanley Cup finals in their first season.

The Golden Knights defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 in Game 4 of their Western Conference finals series last night.

Las Vegas has been trying to set the tone in their playoff games and one of the ways they’re doing that is by scoring first and they did that again last night.

Just 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the game William Karlsson scored the first goal of the game for the Golden Knights on the power play. Karlsson was assisted by Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault.

Karlsson’s goal was the only one of the 1st period as the Golden Knights went into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

In the 2nd period it was Winnipeg’s turn to cash in on a power play opportunity. 9 minutes and 29 seconds into the 2nd period Patrik Laine evened things up for the Jets at 1-1 with a power play goal. Laine was assisted by Blake Wheeler and Dustin Byfuglien on his goal.

The tie game didn’t last long as less than 50 seconds later at 10:12 of the period Tomas Nosek gave Las Vegas the lead back at 2-1 with a goal. Nosek was assisted by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Luca Sbisa on his goal. Nosek was actually the Las Vegas player who was penalized when Winnipeg tied the game.

The 2nd period ended with Las Vegas holding a 2-1 lead.

Early I the 3rd period the Jets had a power play opportunity that they where unable to cash in on, but with 5 minutes and 34 seconds gone in the 3rd period Tyler Myers tied the game up at 2-2 with a goal. Myers was assisted by Jack Roslovic on his goal.

With the game even at 2-2 neither team wanted to make a mistake that the other could take advantage of. Unfortunately for Winnipeg that mistake came in the form of a Dustin Byfuglien give-away. With a little over 13 minutes gone in the 3rd period Reilly Smith took advantage of that give-away and scored an unassisted goal that put the Golden Knights up 3-2.

Marc Andre-Fleury made Smith’s goal stand up as he stopped 35 of Winnipeg’s 37 shots on goal as the Golden Knights picked up a 3-2 win in Game 4. Connor Hellebuyck was solid in goal for Winnipeg as he stopped 26 of the 29 shots Las Vegas threw at him.

With the win the Golden Knights have a 3 games to 1 lead in the series and will and will have a chance their first chance to close out this series and advance to the Stanley Cup finals Sunday in Winnipeg. That game has a puck drop time of 2:00 p.m. Sunday. The game will be shown on NBC.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are 25-19 and are currently in 1st place in the NL West, but they’re not without their issues.

Jake Lamb has played just 5 games for the Diamondbacks this season before he went on the disabled list with a sprained acromioclavicular joint in his left shoulder. Lamb came off the disabled list last night; going 1 for 4 as the Diamondbacks suffered their 8th defeat in 9 games 3-1 to the New York Mets. Arizona has been struggling offensively and they’re hoping Lamb’s return will help turn that around.

The Diamondbacks hope that Lamb can help replace some of the offense they lost when A.J. Pollock went on the disabled list with a broken left thumb. Pollock broke the thumb trying to make a diving catch and is expected to be out anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks.

With Paul Goldschmidt off to a slow start this season Pollock has been the Diamondbacks offensive leader. Pollock leads Arizona in batting average at .293, home runs with 11 and RBI’s with 33. Hopefully for Arizona the return of Lamb along with Goldschmidt picking up his pace can off set the loss of Pollock.

Arizona has had some pitching injuries as well. Robbie Ray has started throwing off of flat ground and the Diamondbacks are hoping he’ll be able to return from his oblique strain by the end of the month. Ray returning soon will help boost the Diamondbacks starting rotation, but they’re still looking for someone to take the place of Tajuan Walker in the rotation. Walker is out for the season. Walker suffered a torn UCL in his right elbow and has already under gone Tommy John surgery.

Arizona has tried a couple of pitchers in the 5th spot of their rotation, but haven’t landed on someone they want to keep there.

Kris Medlen made a start, but lasted just 4 innings giving up 7 runs on 9 hits while walking 4 and striking out 4. Medlen was sent back to triple-A after his start.

Troy Scribner also made a start which was his major league debut. Scribner pitcher 3 2/3rd innings in his start giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, but he walked 6 while striking out 4. Scribner was also sent back to Triple-A after his start.

So where do the Diamondbacks turn now? How about Clay Buchholtz.

Buchholtz has made 5 minor league starts this season, 1 in Double-A and 2 in Triple-A for the Kansas City Royals before being released by Kansas City. Buchholtz has made 2 starts in Triple-A for Arizona and his numbers look good. In those 5 starts Buchholtz is 1-1 with an ERA of 2.93. He’s pitched 27 2/3rd innings in those 5 starts with 19 strikeouts and 12 walks.

Buchholtz spent 10 seasons with the Boston Red Sox before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies last season. Buchholtz pitched just 7 1/3rd innings for Philadelphia before an injury ended his season. Buchholtz has pitched in 208 major league games with 190 of them being starts. He is 81-62 with a 4.01 career ERA. Could he be the Diamondbacks answer until Ray returns?

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

Look for me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 16, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Yesterday it was announced that Seattle Mariners 2nd baseman Robinson Cano was suspended for 80 games after failing an off season drug test.

Cano tested positive for Furosemide which is a diuretic and is not considered a banned substance by Major League Baseball. Furosemide however is often used as a masking agent for performance enhancing drugs. It was determined that Cano’s use of Furosemide was as a masking agent and that’s why he was suspended. 

Cano had filed an appeal, but decided to drop the appeal last week.

Cano’s suspension begins immediately even though he is currently on the disabled list with a fractured right hand. Cano had surgery on the hand yesterday and was expected to be out up to 8 weeks, but with the suspension he’ll be away from the team for a longer period of time.

Not only will Cano miss 80 games with this suspension, but he’ll forfeit his salary for those 80 games. Cano will lose just about $12 million dollars over that time. Besides the games and the money Cano will not be eligible for post season play if the Mariners get into the playoffs this season.

This is Cano’s 14th season at the major league level and appeared to be building a Hall of Fame candidacy. How will this suspension affect his Hall of Fame chances?

Cano was off to a solid start with the Mariners this season. In 39 games he was hitting .287 with 4 home runs and 23 RBI’s. Now over his career Cano has amassed 2417 hits and looks to be on track to reach that coveted 3000 hit plateau. Cano has a career batting average of .304 with 305 home runs and 1206 RBI’s. Again though will any of these numbers matter when Cano’s name finally hits the Hall of Fame ballot.

As for the Mariners, they’ll have to figure out how to replace Cano in their line up. Gordon Beckham was promoted from Triple-A to take Cano’s roster spot and is expected to share playing time at 2nd base with Andrew Romine. Of course the Mariners have Dee Gordon on their roster. Gordon has been playing centerfield for Seattle and at first the team said that Gordon wouldn’t be brought back into the infield while Cano was out. Yesterday though there where some reports that the Mariners said Gordon would see “some time” at 2nd base while Cano was out. Gordon would need some time to adjust to being a 2nd baseman again as he hasn’t taken a ground ball in the infield since he was acquired by the Mariners.

The Mariners are currently 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot; so maybe instead of shuffling their own players around they’ll look into the possibility of a trade. Mariners general manager Jerry DiPoto hasn’t been afraid to pull the trigger on deals before; so we’ll have to see if that’s the route the Mariners go.

How do you think the Mariners will do without Robinson Cano for 80 games?

The Boston Celtics took a 2-0 lead in their series with the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 107-94 win in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference finals series last night.

The Celtics may have gotten a Game 2 win, but LeBron James did everything he could to get Cleveland that win James put up a triple-double in the loss scoring 42 points handing out 12 assists and grabbing 10 rebounds. James scored 21 of the Cavaliers 27 1st quarter points. With 21 points in a quarter, James tied his career high for points in a quarter. With those 42 points on the night it was the 5th time this post season that James has score 40 or more points in a game.

James left the game with 3:50 left in the 2nd quarter after a collision with Boston’s Jayson Tatum. There was a foul called on Tatum after the collision and James hit both of the free throws before heading to the Cavaliers locker room for treatment.

After the game James was asked if he had been checked for a concussion as Tatum’s left shoulder hit James jaw and head. James mentioned he was checked for a variety of things and cleared all tests nd was allowed to return to the game.

James went 9 of 15 after the collision with Tatum, but the game really turned the Celtics way after the two players collided. Boston ended up out scoring Cleveland by 24 points after the Tatum/James collision to go on to the 107-9 win and take that 2-0 lead in the series.

The Eastern Conference finals take a couple days off as the series heads to Cleveland for games 3 and 4. Game 3 is scheduled to tip-off at Quicken Loans Arena on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

The NBA also held it’s Draft Lottery last night and a couple of teams where able to improve their draft position.

The Phoenix Suns had the best chance at getting the #1 pick in the draft and they did get the #1 overall pick last night. Now the Sacramento Kings had a 18.3% chance of moving into the Top 3 of the draft, but they managed to move up to the #2 pick. The Atlanta Hawks where already sitting at #4 and had a 42.3% chance to move into the Top 3 ad they did just that. The Hawks where able to jump up one spot and now have the 3rd pick in the draft.

Of course if teams moved up well then teams had to move down. The Memphis Grizzles and the Dallas Mavericks each dropped two spots in the draft. Memphis fell to 4 while Dallas fell to 5. The Orlando Magic and the Chicago Bulls each lost a spot in the draft order as well. The Magic fell to 6 while the Bulls fell to 7 in the draft order.

Here’s how the Draft Lottery ended up shuffling out.

#1 Phoenix Suns

#2 Sacramento Kings

#3 Atlanta Hawks

#4 Memphis Grizzlies

#5 Dallas Mavericks

#6 Orlando Magic

#7 Chicago Bulls

#8 Cleveland Cavaliers from the Brooklyn Nets

#9 New York Knicks

#10 Philadelphia 76ers from the Los Angeles Lakers

#11 Charlotte Hornets

#12 Los Angeles Clippers from the Detroit Pistons

#13 Los Angeles Clippers

#14 Denver Nuggets

That’s how it shook out; so now all of the mock drafts can start.

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

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: May 12, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Maybe it was the change of teams o the fact tat he doesn’t have the pressure of pitching for a New York team, but Mat Harvey’s first start for the Cincinnati Reds has to be considered a success.

Harvey threw 55 pitches in the 4 innings he worked. While it was a short outing remember that Harvey hasn’t made a start since April 19th; so he’ll have to build up his arm strength and stamina again. In his 4 innings of work Harvey gave up 1 hit that shouldn’t of even been a hit. Scott Schebler lost a fly ball in the lights that turned into a triple for Cody Bellinger. Harvey also struck out 2 in his start.

This was the first start for Harvey that he didn’t give up a run in since his first start of the season. In the four relief appearances Harvey made for the Mets he only had one outing where he didn’t give up a run.

The Mets wanted to send Harvey to Triple-A to try to work out his issues, but he refused the assignment. The Mets ended up designating Harvey for assignment which gave them 10 days to trade or release him. On May 8th the Mets where able to agree to a deal with the Reds that sent Harvey to Cincinnati for catcher Devin Mesoraco and cash.

While Harvey was making his first start for Cincinnati last night Mesoraco was getting his first hit in a Mets uniform. Mesoraco hit a solo home run in the top of the 9th inning as the Mets picked up a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

As for Harvey and the Reds. They went on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 last night.

On Wednesday Dwane Casey was named NBA Coach of the Year as voted by the other coaches in the league. On Friday Casey was out of a job as he was fired by the Toronto Raptors after seven seasons as their head coach.

Casey is the most successful coach in Raptors history. He has a career record of 320-238 and Toronto just posted it’s best regular season record in team history at 59-23, but after consecutive seasons of being swept out of the playoffs in the 2nd round by the Cleveland Cavaliers the Raptors decided to make a change.

Casey had one year left on his contract with the Raptors at $6.5 million dollars.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if Casey is hired very quickly by one of the teams still looking for a head coach. The Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic are still looking for a new head coach.

The Bucks are in a similar situation that the Raptors where in when Casey took over that team. Could that be the landing spot for Casey? Milwaukee is the only team out of the four still looking for a had coach that was in the playoffs this season.

As for the Raptors. Reports have come out that former Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer is the first candidate they’d like to interview for their current vacancy. Since the Raptors are a little late in looking for a head coach Budenholzer has already interviewed with the Bucks.

A coupe of other names that have came up as people the Raptors would like to interview are Nick Nurse who has been an assistant with the Raptors since 2013. Former NBA player and current coach of the Raptors G-League team Jerry Stackhouse is another name that’s come up as someone Toronto wants to interview.

While neither Nurse or Stackhouse have NBA head coaching experience Budenholzer spent 5 seasons as Atlanta’s head coach. Budenholzer led the Hawks to the playoffs his first four seasons with the team before Atlanta decided to rebuild last season.

No matter who the Raptors decide to hire they’ll be coming into a team that is coming off it’s best regular season in team history, but have only reached the Eastern Conference finals one time.

While we’re in the Eastern Conference the finals will get started tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. as the Boston Celtics will host the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of their series.

The Cavaliers haven’t played since Monday when they eliminated the Raptors; so they’ll be coming into Game 1 with 5 days off.

The Celtics wrapped their 2nd round series against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday; so they haven’t had quite as much time off as Cleveland as they’ll be coming into Game 1 with 2 days off.

As for the Western Conference finals; well they have to wait until Monday night to tip off their series. The Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors both wrapped up their 2nd round series on Tuesday; so they’ll both come into Game 1 with 4 days off.

The playoff scheduling for the NBA has always seemed odd to me. While the Rockets and the Warriors will get one day off between Game 1 and Game 2 the Cavaliers and the Celtics will get 2 days off in between Game 1 and Game 2. Then everybody gets 2 days off before they play Game 3. No wonder why the NBA season doesn’t end until June.

Most of the people believe that even though it’s just the Western Conference finals match u that the winner of the Rockets/Warriors series will be the NBA champion. I’ve even heard this series being called the “actual” NBA finals. Are you on board with this theory? Or do you think which ever Eastern Conference team gets into the NBA finals they have a chance to win a title?

Even though they lost their 2nd round playoff series to the Celtics 76ers guard T.J. McConnell showed his worth to the team. Yesterday the 76ers announced that they will be picking up the option on McConnell’s contract for next season. McConnell’s option is for $1,600,520 making him a steal in today’s NBA.

McConnell is 26 years old and just finished up his 3rd season with the 76ers. Last season  in 76 regular season games this season, he averaged 6.3 points per game, 4.0 assists per game, and 3.0 rebounds per game.

McConnell’s salary for 2018/19 season remains non-guaranteed even after his option is exercised. That shouldn’t be an issue since Philadelphia won’t be waiving him.

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

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 9, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We’ve got a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs tonight. The Nashville Predators will host the Winnipeg Jets tonight after the Predators where able to force a Game 7 with a 4-0 Game 6 victory in Winnipeg on Monday.

This is the only 2nd round series still playing. Tonight’s winner will move on to face the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference finals. In the Eastern Conference the Tampa Bay Lighting will host the Washington Capitals Sunday night in the opener of that series.

Home ice hasn’t meant much in the Predators/Jets series as both teams have won the others ice multiple times in this series.

Nashville was the President’s trophy winner with 117 points this season, but Winnipeg was the next closet team to them with 114 points.

Nashville has is being led in scoring this post season by Filip Forsberg with 15 points. Mark Scheifele has been the Jets leading scorer so far this post season with 14 points. The Predators rely on Pekka Rinne in goal, but back up goaltender Juuse Saros has appeared in 3 games this post season. Rinne has a Goals Against Average of 2.94 this post season, but his record is just 7-5. Rinne does have 2 shutouts in 12 post season games including Game 6 in Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck has manned the net for the Jets this post season. Winnipeg’s back up Steve Mason has made 1 post season appearance. Hellebuyck has a Goals Against Average of 2.36 with a record of 7-4. Hellebuyck has posted 1 shutout this post season.

The Predators where last years Cinderella story making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before coming up short to the eventual champions the Pittsburgh Penguins. Winnipeg didn’t even get into the playoffs last season. The series has lived up to the hype, but one of these teams has to go home.

The puck should drop for Game 7 in the Bridgestone Arena about 7:00 p.m. Who do you have winning tonight; Nashville or Winnipeg?

For the second time in baseball history a pitcher born in Canada threw a no-hitter and it just so happened that the game was being played in Canada.

Seattle Mariners left hander James Paxton, who’s nickname is Big Maple no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays last night as the Mariners won the game 5-0. Paxton is from Ladner, British Columbia.

Paxton struck out 7, walked 3 and threw just 99 pitches in his no-hitter. Josh Donaldson made the final out hitting a hard ground ball that Mariners 3rd baseman Kyle Seager cut off, throwing Donaldson out at 1st to seal the no-hitter.

With 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning Seager made the defensive play of the game that really saved the no-hitter. Kevin Pillar hit a down the 3rd base line that looked like it had a chance to get down into the leftfield corner. Seager made a full out dive to snag the baseball. Seager made a bit of an off balance throw to first base, but Ryon Healy was able to pick the throw on one hop and record the out.

Russell Martin did lead off the bottom of the 8th inning for the Blue Jays with a long drive to leftfield, but Ben Gamel easily made the catch near he wall for the 1st out of the inning.

Those where really the two closest times that the Blue Jays came close to getting a hit. Paxson was rolling along most of the night and in the 9th inning he got top prospect Anthony Alford to foul out for the 1st out of the inning. Teoscar Hernandez has been one of the hotter players in the Blue Jays line up, but Paxson struck him out for the 2nd out of the 9th inning. That led to the Donaldson ground out that Seager snagged to end the game.

Paxson’s no-hitter was the 6th in Mariners history. The last Seattle no-hitter was on August 12th 2015 when Hisashi Iwakuma threw one against the Baltimore Orioles. ‘The King” Felix Hernandez has the only perfect game in Mariners history. Hernandez threw that on August 15th 2012 against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Can you name the other Canadian born pitcher to throw a no-hitter?

If you said Dick Fowler you where correct. Fowler no-hit the St. Louis Browns on September 9th 1945. This was actually Fowler first start of that season. Fowler had been serving in the Canadian military during World War II and had just recently returned to the Philadelphia Athletics.

Fowler spent his entire 10-year career with the Athletics. He did miss all of the 1943 and 1944 season because of his military service. Fowler pitched in 221 career games with 170 of them being starts. Fowler went 66-79 with 4 saves. His career ERA was 4.11.

The Western Conference finals in the NBA where set last night. The Houston Rockets advanced by beating the Utah Jazz 112-102 and winning that series 4 games to 1. The Golden State Warriors moved on with a 113-105 win over the New Orleans Pelicans winning that series 4 games to 1. The Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Toronto Raptors out of the playoffs to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Cleveland is waiting to see who’ll they’ll be playing and might find out tonight.

The Boston Celtics host the Philadelphia 76ers I Game 5 of their 2nd round series tonight. Boston is ahead 3 games to 1; so if they get a win tonight they’ll be the team that moves on to face the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals. If the 76ers get a win tonight the series will head back to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Friday night.

With the Western Conference 2nd round wrapped up the Rockets and the Warriors will get some time off. The Western Conference finals don’t start until Monday May 14th in Houston.

Most people believe that the Rockets and the Warriors are the two best teams in the NBA and that the winner of this series will be the eventual NBA champions. Are you in this camp? Do you believe that whoever wins this series will win the championship or do you believe that which ever teams coms out of the Eastern Conference has a chance.

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

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: May 2, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Yesterday I was watching some of the previews for Game 1 in the Cleveland Cavaliers/Toronto Raptors series. Of course the main focus of any of these reports is LeBron James. Occasionally there will be a mention of one of his Cavaliers teammates, but anything the Raptors bring to this series was just an after thought.

There seemed to be one common theme to all of these reports and that was James would be tired after having go seven games in Round 1 against the Indiana Pacers. Now I only listened to this for a short period of time as I wasn’t buying what they where trying to sell me.

James is currently the best basketball player in the world. He’s also has access to the best trainers and medical staff there is. Now maybe if James walked from Cleveland after Game 7 to Toronto for Game 1 he would’ve been tired. Not only was there a day off between games I’m sure James and the Cavaliers have people on staff that make sure he’s getting proper rest and that he’s eating properly. All James had to do after Sunday’s 105-101 win over the Pacers was go home. It’s not like he was scheduled to run a triathlon on Monday or fly the plane to Toronto for Monday’s game.

Well a tired Lebron took the floor last night for Game 1 of the Cavaliers 2nd round series. Cleveland’s head coach Ty Lue had said that he’d monitor James minutes. I guess by monitoring he meant watch him play. James was on the court for 47 minutes last night. He posted a triple-double 26 points, 13 assists and 111 rebounds as the Cavaliers won game 1 over the Raptors 113-112 in overtime.

So much for James being tired. Now Game 2 is schedule for Thursday and I hope that whoever is reporting on the game doesn’t try to sell us that James is tired again. If you actually believe that he’s tired I have some swamp land in Florida that I’ll sell you or maybe you’d be interested in a bridge in New York.

While all of the 2nd round series have Game 1 in the books the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans played Game 2 of their series last night.

The Pelicans where able to keep this game closer than Game 1, but they still dropped a 121-116 decision.

Steph Curry made his first playoff appearance of this season. Curry came off the Golden State bench playing 27 minutes and scoring 28 points. The only Warriors player to out score Curry was Kevin Durant who had 29 points.

Curry came off the bench at the 4:20 mark of the 1st quarter and it took him all of 11 seconds to make his first 3-pointer. It was the first game action Curry has seen in six weeks since injury his knee.

Curry made 8 of the 15 shots he took and was 5 for 10 from behind the 3-point line. He made all 7 of his free throw attempts. Curry also grabbed 7 rebounds handed out 2 assists and had 3 steals.

All five of New Orleans starters scored in double figures led by Anthony Davis. Davis had a double-double with a team high 25 point and a game high 15 rebounds. Rajon Rondo also posted a double-double for the Pelicans with 22 points and 12 assists. Jrue Holiday had 24 points, Nikola Mirotic had 18 points and E’Twaun Moore was the final New Orleans starter in double figures with 14 points.

The teams will get that extra day off as Game 3 is scheduled for Friday night with the series moving to New Orleans.

Now the los Angeles Dodgers suffered another big injury to one of their starters. Corey Seager needs Tommy john surgery and will miss the rest of the 2018 season.

Seager was officially placed n the disabled list by the Dodgers yesterday. Seager will be joining quite a few notable names on the Dodgers disabled list.

Seager joins the likes of Justin Turner, who hasn’t played all season due to non-displaced fracture of his left wrist. Yasiel Puig went on the disabled list two days before Seager with a left hip pointer and a left foot contusion. Logan Forsythe is the final position player on the disabled list as he’s sidelined with right shoulder inflammation. The Dodgers also have three pitchers on the disabled list. I’m sure no one is surprised that Rich Hill is one of those three pitchers. Hill is currently out with a crack on the fingernail on his left middle finger. The Dodgers added Tom Koehler to their bullpen this off season hoping he could help fill the role that Brandon Morrow did last season. Koehler hasn’t pithed this season for the Dodgers as he’s been out with anterior capsule strain in his right shoulder. Who knows what role Julio Urias would’ve played for the Dodgers this season. Maybe will find out after the All-Star break as that’s when Urias could possibly return. Urias is recovering from surgery to repair the anterior capsule in his left shoulder.

There are the injurie the Dodgers are dealing with, but let’s focus on Seager and the shortstop position right now.

The Dodgers have some options on their roster to take over at shortstop for Seager. Chris Taylor and Enrique “Kiki” Hernandez have played the position at the major league level. Los Angeles also called up Breyvic Valera to take Seager’s spot on the roster nd while Valera has only played 2nd base in the minors maybe the Dodgers will give him some innings at shortstop while he’s up. It’s also possible that when Forsythe returns from injury he could pick up some innings at shortstop.

Now besides the guys the Dodgers have on their roster there is the possibility they could make a trade for a shortstop. Of course like they love to do the media jumped out and had the Dodgers trading Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles.

Now it’s possible that Machado could end up with the Dodgers via trade, but he could also end up with any other team in baseball via trade.

Even though Machado is in the last year of his contract and it appears as though the chances of him returning to Baltimore next season don’t look good you have to remember that Orioles owner Peter Angelos doesn’t like to trade his star players.

Now the Dodgers do have the farm system to make this deal, but there are some questions. What do you give up for a possible rent-a-player? Is it two prospects, three prospects or just one. Machado will make $16 million dollars this season, How much of his salary would the Dodgers be willing to pick up? Remember that Los Angeles really wanted to stay under that luxury tax line and a salary like Machado’s would push them over that line. Of course on the flip side of that of the Orioles are willing to deal Machado, how much of his salary would they be willing to pay?

While this looks like it’s the best fit for the Dodgers to fill that spot. It’s not going to be as easy as people might think it’s going to be. I’m sure there’s a chance that Machado is the guy the Dodgers bring in to fill Seager’s spot, but they could go a different route.

I’m sure the rebuilding Detroit Tigers would move Jose Iglesias for the right prospect. Iglesias is making $6.275 million dollars this season. Which might make him a cheaper option for Los Angeles. Iglesias will also be a free agent at the end of the season; so there’s no commitment for the Dodgers past 2018.

Maybe another rebuilding team like the Kansas City Royals would be willing to part with their shortstop. Alcides Escobar signed a one year $2.5 million dollar deal to return to the Royals this off season; so he could be the cheapest option of them all.

Will have to watch and see what if any type of move the Dodgers decide to make. Who do you see the Dodgers going after if they decide to make a trade for a shortstop?

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

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 18, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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When it’s baseball season the first thing I do when I get home from work is turn on the MLB Network and catch up on what happened the night before.

Going into last night all of the talk was about Shohei Otani pitching against the Boston Red Sox. Now humorously there where some stupid people out there who where ready to give Otani the AL CY Young along with the MVP and the Rookie of the Year. The frightening thing about this is the people who are saying he should be given those awards already are a lot of the people who vote for them at the end of the season. Now I was part of the group that wanted to wait and see.

Through 8 games Otani’s hitting has been solid. He’s hitting .367 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI’s There’s nothing wrong with those numbers and Otani himself has asked for more at bats and with the way he’s been hitting he should get them.

Now on the pitching side he had an average first start against the Oakland A’s, but did pick up a win. Otani’s second start was also against the A’s and he was fantastic. He went 7 innings gave up just 1 hit while walking 1 and striking out 12. This outing sent people into a tizzy and they started shooting off their mouths before thinking about what they where saying. Well Otani’s third start was scheduled for Sunday, but the game was postponed; so he made that third start last night. Now this time he wasn’t facing the sub .500 A’s. This outing was against the 13-2 Boston Red Sox.

Otani stepped up I competition and lasted just 2 innings. He threw 66 pitches gave up 3 runs on 4 hits while walking 2nd striking out just 1. Magically during an incredibly poor outing Otani developed a blister on his pitching hand and had to be removed from the game.  Otani also got tagged with his first loss.

Now I don’t believe that he’s as bad of a pitcher as he was last night, but I also don’t believe that he’s as good of a pitcher as he was in his second outing against the A’s. Of course I wasn’t stupid enough to go on television and say that Mike Trout was now the second best player on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I also wasn’t handing him the Cy Young after just two starts.

I’ll be interested to see if an outing like this shuts these morons up or if they’ll just jump on the blister excuse and ride that. Now I don’t expect any of them to recant or admit they where stupid by saying some of the things they said, but it would be a nice change of pace if they did.

Is it time for the New York Yankees to move Giancarlo Stanton down in their batting order? Stanton has been hitting 3rd for the Yankees in between Aaron Judge and either Didi Gregorius or Gary Sanchez.

Stanton has played in all 16 games for the Yankees this season and has 66 at bats. Stanton does have 3 home runs and 10 RBI’s through the first 16 games, but he’s hitting just .197 and has struck out 29 times.

The Yankees have the kind of line up where they could comfortably move Stanton down the 5th spot on the and take some of the pressure off of him. Of course with the contract he has there will always be a certain amount of pressure on him. A move down in the order might also help with the fans as they’ve taken to booing Stanton any time he doesn’t come through with a hit.

If the Yankees could find someone else to plug into the two hole Judge could easily slid into the three spot. Judge is off to a good start hitting .339 with 4 home runs and 11 RBI’s. Judge does seem very comfortable hitting second; so maybe the Yankees would be better off leaving him there and moving Gregorius into the three spot. Gregorius is also off to a good start hitting .333 with a team leading 5 home runs and 16 RBI’s. Sanchez is actually off to a worse start than Stanton, but without the strikeouts. In 14 games Sanchez is hitting just .190, but does have 3 home runs and 13 RBI’s. Of course there is a chance that plugging Sanchez in the third spot between Judge and Gregorius it might get him hitting.

This may be the first difficult call that rookie manager Aaron Boone might have to make with the everyday line up. Let me know if you think the Yankees should move Stanton down in the line up.

Last night the Las Vegas Golden Knights became the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep a playoff series.

Brayden McNabb scored the only goal in the game and Marc Andre-Fleury made it stand up making 31 saves as the Golden Knights won Game 4 1-0 over the Los Angeles Kings. This was Fleury’s second shutout in the series.

The Kings by no means where blown out in this series as every game was decided by one goal. Game 1 was a 1-0 game. Game 2 was a 2-1 overtime game. Game 3 was the highest scoring game in the series as it ended 3-2 and then of course Game 4 last night was another 1-0 game.

With last nights win Fleury passed Dominik Hasek for 11th place on the NHL’s all-time list with his 66th career playoff win. He tied Terry Sawchuk for ninth place with his 12th career playoff shutout.

The Golden Knights will face the winner of the Anaheim Ducks/San Jose Sharks series. San Jose is ahead in that series 3 games to none and have a chance to sweep the Ducks out of the playoff tonight.

San Jose is actually the only other team left that can sweep their 1st round series. Will see if they can get it done tonight at home in Game 4.

Are you surprised that the Golden Knights swept their opening round series? How do you think they’ll do in the next round? Let me know in the comments.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live at BlogTallkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is also available any time you want to listen to it at TuneIn.com.

Don’t forget that I’m on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your week

Posted: April 14, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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On Friday’s in have a routine that I more or less follow after I get off work and here’s what I do.

I get done working at 8:15 a.m. and I head to the grocery store to do my shopping. I shop at two different stores for my items to save myself some money.

The first store I go to is the place where I buy my fresh items. I get my fruits, my vegetables, my meats and cheeses. This grocery store is already open by the time I’m off work; so I like to get that done and over with. Then I hit a delay.

The second store I shop at is what you could describe as a discount grocery store. I’m sure you’d know the name of this store, but since they don’t sponsor this blog or the Sports Time Radio podcast we’ll leave the name out.

This discount store has all the items you’re use to seeing they just have names that you’re not use to and they’re cheaper price wise. They do have some brand named items, but they don’t carry them on a regular basis. The issue I have is that they don’t open early like most stores and I have to find a way to kill some time in between stores.

To fill the time in between my shopping trips I’ll stop and have breakfast at this little café that I like. Now this is what I did yesterday. I’m sure you’re wondering how this relates to sports since this is a sports blog; well here goes.

Since I’ve been to this café multiple times they sit me at the same table and I have the same waitress. As I took my seat I noticed that there was an older gentleman sitting in the booth across from me. He finished his breakfast a little before I did and as he got up to leave he noticed the t-shirt I was wearing.

I just happened to have on my Hunter Pence t-shirt which is styled like a San Francisco Giants jersey. Since it just says Giants on the front this gentleman asked me if it was a San Francisco jersey. When I told him that it was he started to tell me about the greatest baseball player he had ever seen play Willie Mays.

Now this gentleman was probably 10 or 15 years older than I am and he was talking to me about how he saw Mays play live. We went on to discuss different aspects of his game. We talked about this for about 15 minutes.

After talking about Mays the player this gentleman went on to tell me the story about the two times he met Mays. He said that he was surprised to learn that Mays was just as nice in person as he sounded in his interviews. I could see the admiration in this gentleman’s eyes as he talked about meeting Mays for about 10 minutes.

Now I have a lot of sports t-shirts, most of them bought for me by Dan the Man, but that’s a different story. This however was the first time that anyone has ever stopped to talk to me about one of them and then shared their own sports stories with me.

Does this happen a lot? Or has this ever happened to you? I really enjoyed talking baseball with this gentleman and I’d be interested to know if you have a story similar to this. If you do feel free to leave it in the comments section.

In Wednesday’s blog I mentioned that the NHL playoffs where getting ready to start. Well today it’s the NBA’s turn to get their playoffs underway. There are four games today and four games tomorrow to tip-off the opening round.

At 2:00 p.m. my time the NBA playoffs start with a Western Conference match up as the San Antonio Spurs are at the Golden State Warriors. We Move into the Eastern Conference for the next two games starting with the Washington Wizards at the Toronto Raptors. The third game of the day has the Miami Heat at the Philadelphia 76ers. It’s back to the Western Conference for the final game of the day has the New Orleans Pelicans at the Portland Trailblazers.

If you’re looking for these games on television the first game is on ABC while the next three will all be on ESPN.

On Sunday the game start a little earlier with the first game tipping off at Noon. We have back to back Eastern Conference match ups today starting with the Milwaukee Bucks at the Boston Celtics. The second game of the day has the Indiana Pacers at the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then it’s over to the Western Conference for the final two games of the day starting with the Utah Jazz at the Oklahoma City Thunder. The final game one of the opening round has the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Houston Rockets.

As for the television schedule with these games the first one is on TNT. The second game will be shown on ABC, but then the final two games will be back on TNT.

Do you see any upsets in these first round match ups? The opening round of the NBA playoffs usually stay pretty true to form with the higher seeds advancing. Could this season possibly be different since there are teams that will be going into this opening round without their star players.

You have the Warriors playing without Steph Curry. While also in that series the Spurs will play without Kawhi Leonard. The Boston Celtics will be playing without Kyrie Irving and it appears that the 76ers will go into round one without Joel Embiid. While not considered a star player the Thunder will be without Andre Roberson. John Wall has also just returned from injury, but only played in consecutive games once since returning. Will Wall be at full strength for the Wizards?

Do you see any of these injuries having an affect on these first round playoffs series?

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

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter @Burketime.

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: April 11, 2018 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now I understand that it’s exciting for fans if your favorite team gets off to a hot start or if one of your favorite players comes out of the gate playing very well. Now I’ll always give fans a break when they get a little carried away about their favorite team or player, but when the people who are suppose to be experts on these things start doing they need to be call out.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Shohei Otani had a very good outing as a pitcher against the Oakland A’s on Sunday, but people got a little carried away by it. Otani pitched 7 innings threw 91 pitching and gave up just 1 hit. He also struck out 12 while walking just 1 and improved his record to 2-0. Both of Otani’s starts have come against the A’s. Now after this start people got a little bit crazy. They’ve already have pretty much handed him the AL Rookie of the Year award, but I also heard someone say he should be the AL Cy Young award winner. Now surprisingly that’s not all. I also heard that he should be the AL MVP and one person went so far as to say that Mike Trout is now the second best player on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Now all of this is happening after just 2 starts and 19 at bats. Am I the only one who thinks it might be a little too early to start handing him all of the awards. Don’t forget that these are the same people that wanted Otani to start the season in the minor leagues after the spring training he had.

The Angels plan is for Otani to pitch every Sunday. If he’s healthy and makes ever start he’ll end up with 27 starts. That will put him three to five starts behind guys he’ll be competing with for the Cy Young. Will voters take that into consideration when they’re casting their votes. Would he need to win 18 games to be a serious Cy Young contender?

You can look at the MVP race the same way. If Otani is going to be the Angels DH three times a week; will he get enough at bats to be a serious contender for the MVP? He’ll be in a race with guys who are hitting six or seven days at week and getting 600 plus at bats. Can you really look at him as an MVP when he’ll have a limited number of at bats compared to his competition.

Right now it’s a great baseball story, but the people who get paid to talk about baseball for a living have to learn to get themselves under control and stop handing out end of the season awards after 10 games.

Otani is going to be fun to watch, but now that he’s gotten some at bats under his belt in the regular season teams will start to adjust to him. How are these people going to react if he’s to go into a slump. How quickly will they jump off of the Otani bandwagon?

The NHL playoffs get started tonight with three game. There are two games dropping the puck at 6:00 p.m. in my time zone. One game has the Minnesota Wild at the Winnipeg Jets while the other game has the Philadelphia Flyers at the Pittsburgh Penguins. The late game tonight has the Los Angeles Kings at the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

The other five first round series get started on Thursday night. Again there are two games that will start at 6:00 p.m. in my area. The New Jersey Devils visit the Tampa Bay Lighting while the Toronto Maple Leafs are at the Boston Bruins. 30 minutes after that the next game starts. That game has the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Washington Capitals. The 8:30 p.m. game in my area has the Colorado Avalanche at the Nashville Predators. The night wraps up with the San Jose Sharks at the Anaheim Ducks.

I am playing the bracket challenge on NHL.com. I have the Predators facing the Capitals in the Stanley Cup Finals with the Capitals winning the Cup in six games.

Today is the last day of the NBA regular season and there are 12 games on the schedule and believe it or not there is still some drama in the Western Conference.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets are tied for the 8th and final Western Conference playoff spot. The Timberwolves hold the tiebreaker, but that’s not going to matter. These two teams face each other tonight in Minnesota. So quite simply the winner gets in and the loser goes home.

The Nuggets are coming in as the hotter team as they’ve won six in a row and are 8-2 over their last 10 games. Minnesota has won their last two games, but they are just 6-4 in their last 10 games.

Who do you have grabbing that last Western Conference playoff spot the Nuggets or the Timberwolves?

Heading into the playoffs how big of a winning streak do you want to be on? There is always talk that a team can peak to early and that may be the question right now with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia won it’s 15th game in a row last night and they are currently a game ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers for the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia will try to make it 16 in a row tonight as they host the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks aren’t playing for anything tonight as they are locked into the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference. Now if the 76ers do win this game and claim the #3 spot this will be the first round playoff match up.

Now if the 76ers winning streak ends tonight and the Cavaliers get a win over the New York Knicks it will be Cleveland that is the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference and they would face Milwaukee in the first round of the playoffs.

While the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference will face the Bucks whoever ends up as the 4th seed will face the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

The question ight be here would it be better for the 76ers to drop this final game heading into the playoffs just to possible remind them of what it’s like to lose. Or do you think it’s better for them to keep rolling and head into the playoffs on a 16 game winning streak?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalklRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: October 11, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

If you were like me then you were looking forward to Game 4 of the NLDS game between the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals. It was a scheduled 4:38 pm start time, but when I tuned in the game was under a weather delay. I tried to stay with the game, but instead decided just to check in on it from time to time to see if they had started. In the end Major League Baseball decided it was best to postpone the game until today as there was rain forecast throughout Wednesday for the Chicago area and it did rain.

Now the reason I started with my little story is there is some background information about how the game could’ve been played, but that didn’t happen.

It appears that the Cubs and the Nationals knew that there was going to be a significant weather system in the area that would make it difficult to get the game in if it started at the scheduled 4:30 pm start time. Believe it or not both teams actually agreed that the game needed to be moved up and asked if they could start it at 1:00 pm. Now there was no report on if Major League Baseball had any issues with this change, but the television station carrying the game, TBS said no to moving the game up. There was no reason given on why TBS wouldn’t allow the game to be moved up, but it was clearly a very stupid move on their part. So with just a little bit of intelligence and possible the ability to look at a weather forecast we could’ve played Game 4 last night instead of having the game cancelled and rescheduled to today.

From the conspiracy side of things you have to wonder if maybe TBS would like to see the Nationals advance and that’s why they refused to move the game to 1:00 pm Why do I say this? Well the pitching match up for Game 4 is Jake Arrieta for the Cubs against Tanner Roark for the Nationals. Now just looking at this pitching match up there’s a clear advantage for the Cubs. Arrieta has had some trouble against the Nationals including his last start against them when he lasted 4 innings giving up 6 runs, 5 of which where earned. Arrieta also walked 6 and struck out 4 in that game. Roark was 13-11 on the season with an ERA of 4.67. Even with Arrieta’s issues I think that the majority of people would take him over Roark as a starter in this game.

Now even though the Nationals have came out and said that they’re going to stay with Roark as their Game 4 starter, but with the rain out Game 1 starter Steven Strasburg is back in play. Strasburg pitched 7 innings in Game 1 on October 6th; so it’s a bit of a surprise in an elimination game that the Nationals didn’t turn to him. The Cubs did win Game 1 3-0 with Strasburg taking the loss. Strasburg gave up 3 hits and 2 runs, but both of those runs where unearned. He walked just 1 batter while striking out 10 and threw 81 pitches. It looked like the perfect set up for the Nationals, but it looks like Roark will make the starts. There are some reports that Strasburg is suffering from an illness, but you have to wonder if he’ll be available for a relief appearance if Roark runs into early trouble.

Now also with this rain out if the Nationals can get a win in Game 4 it would set up for them to bring back Max Scherzer for Game 5. Scherzer returned from a hamstring injury to start Game 3 and went 6 1/3rd innings giving up 1 run on 1 hit while striking out 7 and walking 3. It almost seems like a set up to good to be true for Washington, but will they be able to take advantage of this situation?

The Boston Red Sox won back to back American East titles, but where knocked out of the playoffs in the division series in both of those years. Last season they where swept out by the Cleveland Indians and this season they where beaten in four games by the Houston Astros. It appears as those two early playoff exits have cost John Farrell his job as Red Sox manager.

Farrell took over the Red Sox in 2013 and led the team to a World Series title. The Red Sox finished under .500 in 2014 and 2015, but bounced back to win the division in 2016 and 2017. Farrell was 432-378 as manager of the Red Sox. Before managing the Red Sox Farrell spent two seasons as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays where he went 154-170. Farrell is 55 years old and with a winning record you have to think that he’ll manage again somewhere if he wants to.

With the firing of Farrell this turns the focus of the Red Sox to Dave Dombrowski. Dombrowski was brought in as President of baseball operations in August of 2015; so Farrell wasn’t his hire.

The Red Sox did hit the lowest number of home runs in the American League this season with 168. Of course they where 4th in doubles with 303 and Fenway Park can play to doubles for the right hitter.

With Farrell out, who could be the next Red Sox manager? I’m sure a very popular name will be former Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek. Varitek spent his entire major league career with the Red Sox, but has no managerial experience. I’m not sure if Dombrowski would turn a team that has won back to back division titles over to someone that hasn’t managed anywhere.

Could Dombrowski hire Brad Ausmus again? Dombrowski brought Ausmus in to manage the Detroit Tigers before he left for Boston. Ausmus was let go by the Tigers at the end of the season; so could he be the guy?

If the Red Sox are looking for new blood maybe they’ll hire one of the Cora brothers be it Alex or Joey. Alex is currently the bench coach for the Houston Astros and with the success they’ve had this season you have to figure he’ll be a very popular candidate for any managerial opening. Joey spent 2016 managing the Pittsburgh Pirates Double -A team and last season he was a base coach for the Pirates. Joey’s name has been out there for a long time as a possible hire for a manager position; so maybe this will be his chance.

I’m sure will hear quite a few names attached to this opening before the Red Sox actually make a hire.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

Don’t forget that I’m on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: October 7, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Well it took two wild card games and five games in the NLDS before we finally got two pitchers who controlled the game.

Steven Strasburg no-hit the Chicago Cubs for 5 2/3rds innings and while his counterpart Kyle Hendricks gave up 2 hits and walked 3 batters over his 7 innings of work he kept the Washington nationals off of the scoreboard. Strasburg also pitcher 7 innings and was overpowering striking out 10.

Strasburg’s downfall in the 6th inning was an error by Anthony Rendon to put the lead off man on base. Now it looked as though Strasburg was going to work his way out of the jam. After Hendricks sacrificed the runner to 2nd base Ben Zobrist flew out for the 2nd out of the inning. Kris Bryant came through with the big two out hit for the cubs, a single to right-centerfield to score Javier Baez who reached on the error. Bryant was able to advance to 2nd base on the throw home. Anthony Rizzo then came through with another big two out hit for the Cubs as he singled to rightfield scoring Bryant to give the Cubs what appeared to be and insurmountable 2-0 lead.

After the starters departed Ryan Madson was the first pitcher out of the Nationals bullpen. Jon Jay greeted him with a double to left, but a strikeout and then a ground out to 2nd where Jay advanced to 3rd on put the Cubs in another two out runner in scoring situation. It was Rizzo who cane through again for the Cubs as he doubled to left to drive in Jay and give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

Now the Cubs bullpen has had some issues throughout the season, but there where none tonight. Carl Edwards Jr. pitched a 1,2,3 8th inning striking out two. Wade Davis closed out the bottom of the 9th with a 1,2,3 innings as well recording one strikeout in his inning of work.

I’m sure there where some Nationals fans worried that Max Scherzer was unavailable for Game 1 and while Strasburg did give up 2 runs they where both unearned and he kept the Nationals in the game.

Kyle Hendricks was a bit of a surprise when he was named the starter for Game 1 as most people expected Jon Lester to make the start. Hendricks proved to be the right choice as he pitched the Cubs to a Game 1 victory.

Now the Cubs and the Nationals both have very good offenses, but they where shut down by quality pitching. Now you have to wonder what Hendricks and Strasburg had going on that the other starters didn’t have in their outings. Even what you say are the best of the best in starting pitcher had their issues.

Now to be fair the Houston Astros got two solid outings from their starting pitchers, Justin Verlander in Game 1 and Dallas Keuchel in Game 2. Verlander pitched 6 innings giving up 2 runs while Keuchel pitched 5 2/3rd innings giving up 1 run. Trevor Bauer also came through for the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of their series as he pitched 6 2/3rds scoreless innings giving up 2 hits while striking out 8. All three starters gave their teams what they need while picking up a victory, but they weren’t as dominant as Strasburg and Hendricks where last night.

Along with those starts there are starts like Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who did pitch 6 1/3rd innings, but gave up 4 runs. C.C. Sabathia was solid giving up 4 runs with just 2 of them being earned in his 5 1/3rd innings. Chris Sale of the Boston red Sox will probably win the A.L. Cy Young this season, but he had his issues in his first post season start. Sale pitched 5 innings and gave up 7 runs. The Arizona Diamondbacks gave Zack Greinke a big lead in the wild card game and that turned out to be a good thing as Greinke lasted just 3 2/3rd innings giving up 4 runs. Sonny Gray made his post season debut with the Yankees, but lasted just 3 1/3rd innings giving up 3 runs and walking 4. Corey Kluber will probably finish 2nd to Sale in the Cy Young voting was the Indians Game 2 starter to keep him on his regular rest. Kluber pitched 2 2/3rd innings and gave up 6 runs. The Minnesota Twins gave Ervin Santana a lead to start the A.L. wild card game, but he couldn’t hold it as he lasted just 2 innings and gave up 4 runs. The Red Sox got another poor starting effort out of Drew Pomeranz as he managed to pitch just 2 innings giving up 4 runs. Jon Gray made the start for the Colorado Rockies in the wild card game, but lasted just 1 1/3rd innings giving up 4 runs. Tajuan Walker gave up 4 runs in his inning of work for the Diamondbacks in his playoff start. Finally Luis Severino was the starter for the Yankees in their wild card game, but only got one out as the gave up 3 runs before being removed from the game.

Now you have to ask yourself, what is going on here? These are pitchers that will be in contention for post season awards and have had quality seasons for their teams that helped get them into the position their in now. I guess in some cases it could be nerves as some of these pitchers where making their first post season starts. In other cases there are starts where a pitcher doesn’t have his good stuff; so maybe that could account for some of these short outings. Of course the baseball is different this season and the best way to describe it is to say that it is hitter friendly. You can just look at the number of players who’ve set career highs in home runs to know something is going on, but you have to remember that MLB likes offense. Of course there is the old tagline that good pitching beats good hitting and while it did for some teams there where quite a few others where their good pitcher didn’t deliver for them.

The National League has the stage to itself today as the American League series are switching cities. Will get a pair of Game 2’s as the Cubs go with Jon Lester to try to win the first two road games in their series. The Nationals turn to Gio Gonzalez to even things up for them. The second game has Robbie Ray scheduled to start for the Diamondbacks as they look for a split against the Dodgers who are going with Rich Hill as their starter. What kind of starts will these pitchers have?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that you can listen to the podcast any time you choose to at TuneIn.com

Remember that I’m on Twitter @Burketime

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