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While we’re waiting for the top starting pitchers to sign as free agents the top closer on the market has signed a new deal. Wade Davis inked a three year deal with the Colorado Rockies.

Davis will be paid $52 million dollars for those three seasons, but the contract has a vesting options for a fourth year that would make the total value of his deal $66 million dollars. Davis will earn $16 million dollars for the 2018 season. His salary goes up to $18 million dollars for the 2019 season and then drop down to $17 million dollars for the 2020 season. The fourth year option in Davis’ contract would be worth $15 million dollars for the 2021 season if it kicks in. The deal also includes a $1 million dollar assignment bonus of Davis is traded. Interestingly if Davis is traded one time he will then have a full no trade rights.

After spending his entire career in the American League Davis pitched for the Chicago Cubs in 2017. Davis went 4-2 with an E.R.A. of 2.30 while saving 32 games. Davis pitched 58 2/3rd innings striking out 79 batters while walking 28. Davis did give up 6 home runs last season and that was the most he had ever giving up as a reliever in a season. We’ll have to see how he does closing the majority of his games in Colorado, but he was clearly the best closer on the free agent market this off season.

With the signing of Davis it would appear that the Rockies won’t be bringing Greg Holland back. Holland served as the Rockies closer for the 2017 season and even thought he had some struggles in the second half of the season he still had good numbers for them,

Holland missed all of the 2016 season after having Tommy John surgery, but bounced back to pitch in 61 games for Colorado covering 57 1/3rd innings. Holland was 3-6 with an E.R.A. of 3.61 while saving 41 games last season. Those 41 saves tied Holland with Kenley Jansen of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League lead. Holland struck out 70 batters while walking 26 last season, but of course pitching in Colorado he gave up a career high 7 home runs.

Holland declined the $15 million dollar option in his contract for the 2018 season and he also turned down the $17.4 million dollar qualifying off the Rockies offered him. Davis also rejected a 2018 qualifying offer; so he’ll cost the Rockies a pick in the 2018 draft with his signing.

Since the Rockies have never seemed to have success bringing in top starting pitchers they’re going to stick with their plan of building a strong bullpen which helped get them into the wild card game last season.

Davis will be added to a Colorado bullpen that also added set up man Bryan Shaw on a three year $25 million dollar deal with an option for a fourth year. The Rockies also brought back left hander Jake McGee who has pitched for them the past two seasons. McGee also signed a three year deal worth $25 million dollars with a fourth year option to stay with the Rockies. Don’t forget that the Rockies still have Mike Dunn who they signed last season to a three year $18 million dollar deal with a fourth year option when he was a free agent last off season.

While it looks like the Rockies bullpen will be solid and since they do play 81 games in Colorado their offense should also be good, but they question always is, do they have good enough starting pitching to win? Colorado got into the wild card game last season; so will see if they can find there way back into the playoffs in 2018.

We’re headed into the last week final week of the NFL’s regular season and I’m sure you’ve been wondering how we’re doing with our picks since I haven’t mentioned in a while. Here’s what it looks like for us heading into Week 17.

Dan the Man is in the lead at 164-76 and unless he just completely collapses should win this season. Mr. Fantasy is in 2nd place with a record of 159-81. I am currently holding on to 3rd place with a record of 154-86, but Schaumburg Stu is just two games behind me at 152-88. While it doesn’t look like any one will catch Dan the Man the other three spots are still up for grabs.

Very much like the NFL does we will wipe the slate clean next week as we head into the playoffs; so everybody gets a fresh start.

While it most of the playoff spots are locked down there are still openings for one more wild card team in each Conference. There could also be some juggling of the seeds in the NFC depending on the outcome of some of the games, but it’s going to take a well played out scenario for that to happen. Let’s just focus on those two last wild card spots.

In the AFC all the Tennessee Titans have to do is win and they’re in. The Titans, Los Angeles Chargers and Buffalo Bills are all 8-7 going into the final week of the season, but the Titans hold the tiebreaker over those two teams due to having the better winning percentage in conference games.

Tennessee is facing the Jacksonville Jaquars tomorrow, but the Jaquars are already locked into the #3 seed; so will have to see if they’ll rest players or if they try to keep the Titans out of the playoffs. Way back in Week 3 the Titans beat the Jaquars 37-16; so maybe Jacksonville wants some revenge.

If the Titans do lose the Chargers would be the next team ion line for that wild card spot. The Chargers hold the tiebreaker over the Bills since they beat them in their Week 11 match up 54-24. The Chargers are facing the Oakland Raiders this week.

Now for the Bills to get that wild card spot they would need some help. They’d need both the Titans and the Chargers to lose their games and then Buffalo would need to get a win over the Miami Dolphins. While I doubt it had any affect on where these teams are now it is kind of humorous that the Bills started Nathan Peterman in that Week 11 match up the Chargers and he threw 5 interceptions before halftime in that loss.

There are two teams in the NFC looking to claim that last wild card spot. It’s down to the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks with the Falcons being the team that controls their own destiny.

Atlanta faces the Carolina Panthers in Week 17 and if they win they’re in. Now Carolina is part of that odd scenario that could see them end up as the #2 seed and receive a 1st round bye; so they are playing for something. That along with the fact that Carolina can still win the NFC South. With all of this playing out you have to figure that the Panthers won’t be resting players and this will be a competitive game. In week 8 the Panthers beat the Falcons 20-17.

The Seahawks will need that Atlanta loss and a win over the Arizona Cardinals to get into the playoffs as a wild card team. Atlanta holds the tiebreaker over the Seahawks; so If they end up with the same record the Falcons get in. The Seahawks beat the Cardinals 22-16 back in Week 9.

While there aren’t a ton of reasons to watch the final week of the NFL season there are a few teams that still have something to play for.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast in BlogTalkRadio.com, but don’t forget that the podcast is also available for you on TuneIn.com.

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Slowly but surly we’re starting to see more and more Major League teams add the players they need to fill out their rosters. Now while all of these signings are going on we’re still waiting for some of the bigger name free agents to sign.

It was expected that the free agent market would be a little slow as teams waited to see if and where Giancarlo Stanton would end up. Now Stanton was traded a couple of weeks ago and there still hasn’t be a ton of movement with the top named free agents. Why could that be?

Right now it seems like teams are more interested in exploring trade options rather than signing a free agent. There are some big names that might be available as trade pieces. The Manny Machado talk has been out there for a little while now and Gerrit Cole’s name has came up in the last few days. There has also been some reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates might do more of a complete tear down meaning players like Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutcheon would be available. Tis could be one of the reasons we haven’t seen a big name free agent signed, but there are a few more.

It’s possible that pitchers like Alex Cobb and Jake Arrieta have priced themselves out of the market. It’s been reported that Cobb wants a deal for a minimum of $20 million dollars a season while Arrieta wants a contract that totals $200 million dollars. While starting pitching is always going to be expensive and top starting pitching is going to be even more expensive these are big contract numbers for a couple of starters that there are questions about.

Cobb has never started more than 29 games in a season and the most innings he’s every thrown in a season is 179 1/3rd, both last year. With the price tag Cobb has out on himself teams may want a pitcher who can give them at least 200 innings.

Arrieta was the best pitcher in baseball in 2015 and has consistently made 30 plus starts since that season, but his E.R.A, is headed in the wrong direction. Now I don’t think anyone expected him to repeat the 1.77 E.R.A. he posted in 2015, but in 2016 his E.R.A. jumped to 3.10 and then last season his E.R.A. went up to 3.53. Now there’s actually nothing wrong with either of those E.R.A. numbers, but the fact that they seem to be trending up might be an issue for teams.

As for position players it looked as though Eric Hosmer was on a lot of teams radar, but them the sabermetric community chimed in and it seems as though some teams dropped their interest in him. Hosmer tied his career high in home runs with 25 last season while posting his highest batting average for a season at .318 while playing in all 162 games. There have been a few 1st baseman that have signed recently, but they weren’t asking for or going to get the kind of money Hosmer will eventually get. The question now is who’s going to give him that contract as it appears the only real suitor he has ate the San Diego Padres.

J.D. Martinez was the top everyday player on the free agent market coming into the off season, but there has been very little if any interest shown in him right now. Last season playing for the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks Martinez hit 45 home runs and drove in 104 RBI’s while hitting .303. Martinez has also mentioned some big contract demands as he’s looking for a deal in the range of $200 million dollars. The Boston Red Sox have seemed to be the team front and center when there comes to talk about where Martinez would end up, but the Red Sox have a pretty full outfield; so you’d have to think that one of them would have to be moved before Martinez could be brought in.

Yu Darvish is the other big name pitcher out there, but he seems to be closer to signing than any of the other top free agents. Darvish had meetings with the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros this week and there where actually reports that Darvish was close to signing with the Cubs, but he denied that. Out of the bigger name free agents out there it appears as though Darvish will be the first to sign with a team.

Where do you see these players signing? and what kind of money do you think that they’re going to end up getting?

It may sound weird, but the Los Angeles Rams lost a key player when they had to place Kicker Greg Zuelien on injured reserve with a back injury. Zuerlein will have surgery in Los Angeles on Thursday morning to repair a herniated disk. This procedure typically comes with a 12-week recovery process.

The Rams tried out about 10 kickers during two separate workouts at their facility Wednesday including notables such as Travis Coons and Roberto Aguayo before signing former Penn State kicker Sam Ficken.

Zuerlein had been kicking through some back issues throughout the year, but they never kept him out of practice, and they never threatened his availability for a game until Sunday. Zuerlein had a disk flare up on him while sleeping the night before the Rams’ matchup against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field.

Zuerlein still played, but most of his kickoffs were short, and he missed an extra point. The his back pain was so bad that the Rams even went for it on a late fourth down attempt despite leading big in the second half.

Rams head coach Sean McVay was aware that Zuerlein was experiencing issues with his back, but never really knew the extent of them. Zuerlein and the Rams were hoping he could continue to kick throughout it and get it taken care of after the season. But the pain he experienced in Seattle became too much to tolerate.

Zuerlein is going to be very difficult to replace, but Ficken is going to have to do the job for the Rams. Ficken was an undrafted free agent back in 2015 and has spent time with the Jacksonville Jaquars and Kansas City Chiefs, but has never actually kicked in a regular season NFL game.

The Rams are 10-4 heading into their Week 17 game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. They’re in 1st place in the NFC West and are looking to clinch a playoff spot and try to get a 1st round bye. These things just became a little tougher for the Rams to do as they just lost the best kicker in the NFL.

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

Remember to look for me on Twitter @Burketime

I wasn’t surprised and I don’t think anyone with any type of football acumen was either when the Green Bay Packers put quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the IR (injured reserve) yesterday. For some reason it was reported as “breaking news”, but I guess that’s how they saw it.

Once the Packers lost to the Carolina Panthers 31-24 on Sunday they where going to need quite a bit of help to get into the playoffs. It all started on Monday night, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t give the Packers any help as they lost to the Atlanta Falcons 24-21. Once Atlanta racked up that win the Packers where officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Rodgers broke his collarbone back in Week 6 against the Minnesota Vikings. Green Bay was 4-2 after Week 6, but without Rodgers at quarterback they went 3-4 and where hanging onto their playoff lives headed into the game against Carolina.

Once Rodgers was medically cleared you knew that if the Packers had any chance at getting into the playoffs Rodgers would be back under center.

Rodgers did look rusty at times and that should’ve been expected since he had been out since October 15th. Rodgers did throw for 290 yards and 3 touchdowns, but he also threw 3 interceptions which actually matched his season total. Of course in true Rodgers form he had the Packers driving late in the game and you have to wonder if Geronimo Allison doesn’t fumble the football if Rodgers would’ve led the Packers to a game tying touchdown.

Now if you saw the game you could tell that Rodgers wasn’t playing at 100%;  so with the playoffs gone for this season it’s much better for the Packers to put him on IR and let him rest and come back at full strength next season.

The Packers will wrap up their season with a Week 16 match up at home against the Vikings and then in Week 17 they go on the road to face the Detroit Lions.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have said that they’d like to get themselves under the leagues luxury tax line and with the trade they made this weekend they took some big steps in doing that.

The Dodgers sent left handed pitcher Scott Kazmir, right handed pitcher Brandon McCarthy, utility man Charlie Culberson and 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez along with $4.5 million dollars to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder and former Dodger Matt Kemp.

The deal appears to be pretty much money motivated and it seems that the Dodgers accomplished what they wanted to do. According to Ken Rosenthal the trade will get the Dodgers below the $197MM luxury tax threshold for the 2018 season.

This will allow the Dodgers to reset the escalating luxury tax penalties, which seems to have been a significant objective for the club this offseason. The money owed to Kemp is spread out across the 2018-2019 seasons, while Gonzalez, Kazmir and McCarthy all have just one year remaining on their contracts.

Now the most interesting name going to Atlanta was Gonzalez as he really didn’t have a position there as Freddie Freeman has 1st base locked down for the Braves. Atlanta cleared that situation up very quickly as they designated Gonzalez for assignment making him a free agent.

Injuries limited Gonzalez to just 71 games last season. He hit just .242 with 3 home runs. Gonzalez will turn 36 in May, but has made it clear that he’d like to continue his baseball career. Gonzalez has drawn some early interest from the New York Mets, but there appear to be other teams that would be interested in him if he’s healthy. Gonzalez is a career .288 hitter with 311 home runs and 1176 RBI’s. Gonzalez has always been able to drive runs in. He’s had over 100 RBI’s in seven different seasons. He’s also had 90 or more RBI’s in three other seasons.

Do you have a team you’d like to see Gonzalez sign with?

It seems like the Baltimore Orioles just can’t catch a break heading into the 2018 season.

With the Orioles caught up in what there going to do with Manny Machado. Should they trade him before he reaches free agency or will they keep him for the upcoming season?

Now with all of that going on for them there are reports that their closer Zach Britton has suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon during offseason workouts. Britton is expected to be sidelined for at least six months, meaning the best-case scenario will be a return over the summer.

Britton was preparing and hoping for a healthy 2018 campaign after dealing with arm issues last season. Now Britton  will need to rehabilitate this unexpected injury before building back up into pitching form.

Baltimore has toyed with the idea of trading Britton ever since last summer, when the club nearly did just that. The idea was to cash in the former ace closer to address other needs namely a still-glaring need for starting pitching. Of course, the club was also reluctant to part with a pitcher that had been one of the game’s most dominant relievers in 2015 and 2016.

Britton is in his final season of arbitration with the Orioles and is due to make a little over $12 million dollars for 2018. At this point you have to wonder if the Orioles will just let Britton go as there’s very little chance that he’d be back in time to become a trade piece and there’s very little chance the Orioles would resign him once he reaches free agency. Instead of sitting on an injured Britton the Orioles could take the money that would’ve been dedicated to him and use it to try and fill some of their other needs.

The Orioles appear to be in a very tough spot. The New York Yankees seem to have a lot of top quality prospects in their farm system and they just added Giancarlo Stanton. They Boston Red Sox are also in the Orioles division and while they’ve just brought Mitch Moreland back there’s been a lot of talk about them being the front runners for free agent J.D. Martinez. Will the Orioles be able to compete with the Yankees and the Red Sox along with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays in the A.L. East?

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

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime

The National Football League wrapped up it’s schedule for Thursday night football; so we won’t have to hear all the complaining about those games until next season. With as much as everyone cries about these games you have to think that when the players union and the owners meet to discuss a new Collective Bargaining Agreement the union would want to do away with these Thursday night games.

Anyway the Thursday night schedule wrapped up with two teams having disappointing seasons. The Denver Broncos improved their record to 5-9 as they beat the Indianapolis Colts 25-13. With the loss the Colts record dropped to 3-11.

With neither of these teams anywhere close to being in the playoff race the one thing people where looking forward to where stats for their fantasy leagues. Most if not all leagues are in the playoffs now and there’s nothing wrong with outing up some big numbers on a Thursday to start your week. Sadly there wasn’t much fantasy help in this game either.

Here’s hoping that you didn’t have to use any of the quarterbacks that played in this game. While Trevor Siemian started the game for the Broncos he left the game with an injury after going 5 of 9 for 67 yards with an interception. Brock Osweiler took Siemian’s spot and put up solid numbers. Osweiler went 12 of 17 for 194 yards and threw 2 touchdowns. Osweiler also ran the football 3 times for 17 yards and added a rushing touchdown. Jacoby Brissett had a rough night for Indianapolis. He went 17 for 30 for just 158 yards. Now Brissett did run the football 5 times for 18 yards and had a rushing touchdown.

If you’re a C.J. Anderson owner hopefully you stuck with him this week. Anderson carried the football 30 times for 158 yards, but sadly didn’t find his way into the end zone. Devontae Booker also had 11 carries for 39 yards and 1 receptions for 10 yards. Frank Gore had a huge week in the snow against the Buffalo Bills in Week 14, but on Thursday night he had just 10 carries for 31 yards. Gore actually had more receiving yards as he caught 3 passes for 37 yards. Marlon Mack also carried the football 6 times, but went for just 14 yards.

Demaryius Thomas had 5 catches for 69 yards while Emmanuel Sanders added 7 catches for 68 yards. The Broncos receiving touchdowns went to Cody Latimer who had 3 catches and 60 yards to go along with his touchdown. Jeff Heuerman had 1 reception for 54 yards and the other Broncos receiving touchdown. Jack Doyle had 7 receptions for 47 yards to lead the way for the Colts while T.Y. Hilton add 5 receptions for 41 yards. If you happened to play Ross Travis, he had 2 receptions for 33 yards.

The Colts defense did have 3 sacks and an interception, but had no return yardage. Denver’s defense had just 1 sack and 23 return yards in the game.

I’m not sure if you got much help out of this game for your fantasy playoffs except for maybe Anderson. Of course with 3 touchdowns there’s a chance that Osweiler could be of some help to you.

It’s now the time of year where the NFL adds Saturday games to the schedule. There are two games on the schedule for today. First it’s the Detroit Lions (7-6) hosting the Chicago Bears (4-9). This is pretty much a must won for the Lions if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. Detroit is currently onw game out of a wild card spot.

The second game of the day is pretty much an elimination game for the AFC West title as the Kansas City Chiefs (7-6) host the Los Angeles Chargers (7-6). The winner of this game takes control of the division and their road into the playoffs and while the loser would still have a shot at a wild card spot they’d have some work to do. The Chiefs appear to have righted the ship last week with a 26-15 win over the Oakland Raiders after losing four games before that. The Chargers started off the season 0-4, but have worked their way back into the division and playoff races and are currently on a 4-game winning streak. These two teams met back in Week 3 with Kansas City getting a 24-10 win in Los Angeles.

Baseball’s winter meetings wrapped up for the week and while there where a lot of signings and a few trades with the exception of Carlos Santana the big name free agents still remain unsigned.

Now it had become obvious that there would be very little movement until Giancarlo Stanton was traded and Shohei Otani picked a team. Once those moves where finally made with Stanton going to the New York Yankees and Otani deciding to sign with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim there where some signings. Then the news came out that the Baltimore Orioles might be looking to trade 3rd baseman Manny Machado and just about everything ground to a halt.

Apparently the Orioles decided that it would be in their best interest to see who would be interested in acquiring Machado and what they would be willing to give up to get him. Machado is in his last year of arbitration and is projected to make a little over $17 million dollars for the 2018 season. As Machado heads into free agency the Orioles have a fear that they won’t be able to resign him so they started to look what they could get for him in a trade.

I’m not sure how close Baltimore actually got to moving Machado in a deal, but their asking price was two major league ready young pitching prospects. That would be a lot for a team to give up for a player that they wouldn’t be sure if they could resign after the 2018 season.

Machado has also said that he’d like to move to shortstop which was his position before he broke into the major leagues and the Orioles needed him to play 3rd base.

There are a long, long list of teams that could use a player like Machado, but probably won’t give up what the Orioles are asking for right now. Do you see Baltimore’s asking price coming down and Machado being dealt?

Pending a physical Carlos Santana will be a member of the Philadelphia Phillies for the next three seasons. Santana and the Phillies agreed to a 3-year $60 million dollar deal with an option for a 4th season.

Santana had spent his entire career with the Cleveland Indians and most experts thought that he was a sure bet to resign with them. Santana spent 8 years with the Indians and was a career .249 hitter.

Santana has played multiple positions throughout his career, but the Phillies plan on using him as their full time 1st baseman. That means that Rhys Hoskins will be moved to the outfield and with Odubel Herrera as the everyday centerfielder there’s a possibility that Aaron Altherr or Nick Williams could be traded.

The Phillies name has continue to come up with every big name either free agent or trade candidate as they work on their rebuilding franchise. Do you see the Phillies adding another big name or two to their roster?

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

I am also out there on Twitter @Burketime

The Dallas Cowboys kicked off Week 13 in the NFL by getting their record back to .500 at 6-6 with a 38-14 defeated of their NFC East rivals the Washington Redskins.

With Cowboys finally got their running game going in the absence of Ezekiel Elliott. As a team Dallas ran the football 42 times for 182 yards and 2 touchdowns. Alfred Morris led the way as he carried the football 27 times for 127 yards and 1 touchdown. Dak Prescott ran 5 times for 28 yards and Rod Smith carried the football 10 times for 27 yards and a touchdown. It was the first time since Week 8 that Dallas had a running back rush for 100 yards in a game. Oddly back in Week 8 the Cowboys opponent was the Redskins.

With the running game going Prescott only threw for 102 yards in the game. He was 11 for 22, but did throw for 2 touchdowns.

The Dallas defense also had a good night. The Cowboys held the Redskins to just 56 yards rushing. Kirk Cousins did throw for 251 yards and 2 touchdowns, but was sacked 4 times and threw 2 interceptions. The Dallas defense also forced 3 fumbles, recovering 2 of them.

Anthony Hitchens made 12 tackles for the Cowboys while DeMarcus Lawrence added 2 sacks. Taco Charlton and David Irving had the other sacks. Anthony Brown and Jeff Heath where the Cowboys defenders with interceptions.

The Cowboys also had a special teams touchdown as Ryan Switzer returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter.

The game was pretty much a playoff elimination game. Neither team was going to be able to win their division with the way the Philadelphia Eagles have been playing; so they needed to get into the playoffs as a wild card team. The win puts the Cowboys 1 1/2 out of a wild card spot, but they’ll have to find a way to jump four teams to get a playoff spot. The Redskins fell to 5-7 with the loss and while they’re still mathematically alive in the playoff race it’s going to be tough for them to make it. Washington is currently 2 1/2 games out of a wild card spot, but will have to find a way to get past seven teams to claim a wild card spot.

To keep their playoff hopes alive the Cowboys will have to win their final four games of the season. That won’t be an easy task for the Cowboys and to make it just a little tougher three of their four final games are on the road. Next week they’ll face the New York giants on the road. In Week 15 they’ll travel to Oakland to face the Raiders. On Christmas Even they’ll not only get Elliott back from suspension, but they’ll also host the Seattle Seahawks. The Cowboys wrap their season up on the road against the NFC East leading Philadelphia Eagles. If Dallas can hang around in the playoff race that final game may work to their advantage as the Eagles might not be playing for anything in the final week of the season.

The Redskins would also have to win out to have any shot at making the playoffs and that might not even be enough. In Week 14 the Redskins are on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers. They’ll host the Arizona Cardinals in Week 15 followed by a home game against the Denver Broncos in Week 16 before wrapping the season up on the road against the New York Giants.

It’s going to be a difficult road for either the Cowboys or the Redskins to get into the playoffs. How do you see the playoff future shaking out for this season for these two teams?

There where six candidates for the New York Yankees managerial position. Hensley Meulens, Rob Thomson, Eric Wedge, Aaron Boone, Chris Woodward and Carlos Beltran.

As of yesterday reports where that the list was down to two, Meulens and Boone. Then last night it was being reported that Aaron Boone will be named the new manager of the Yankees. Now of this is official as we’re waiting for the Yankees to make an announcement.

While Boone has no managerial experience he does come from a baseball family. His grandfather Ray played 13 seasons in the major leagues for 6 different teams. His father Bob was a catcher for three different teams covering 19 major league seasons. Bob was a 4 time All-Star and a 7 time Gold Glove winner who won a World Series championship with the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies. Aaron’s older brother Brett spent 14 seasons in the big leagues playing with 5 different teams. Brett was a 3 time All-Star, a 4 time Gold Glove winner, a 2 time Silver Slugger award winner and led the American League in RBI’s with 141 in 2001. Boone also has a younger brother named Matt who spent 7 seasons in the minor leagues playing in the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers farm systems.

If you’re a baseball fan I’m sure you’ve seen the highlight that made Boston Red Sox fans hate Boone. In the 2003 American League Championship Series Boone hit a Game 7 walk off home run in the 11th inning off of Tim Wakefield to give the Yankees a 6-5 win over the Red Sox.

Boone actually only has 54 career games with the Yankees. He was acquired at the trade deadline of the 2003 season from the Cincinnati Reds for pitchers Charlie Manning, Brandon Clausen and cash. I January of 2004 Boone torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while playing in a pick up basketball game. Playing in that game was a violation of his Yankees contract and they ended up releasing him in February of 2004.

While Boone may not have any managerial experience he has stayed close to the game of baseball. Boone has been working for ESPN as a baseball analyst since 2010 and has been a color commentator for game starting with the 2014 and 2015 World Series games and then taking that job full time for the 2016 season.

The Yankees have a storied history as a baseball franchise and being named their manager is held in high esteem. How do you think Boone will do as the Yankees manager?

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

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime