Sports Time Radio

The top two pitchers acquired at the trade deadline made their first starts for there new teams as Sonny Gray started for the New York Yankees on Thursday and Yu Darvish took the mound for the Dodgers on Friday.

Gray made his start on the road against the Cleveland Indians. He lasted 6 innings giving up 4 runs with just 2 of them being earned on 4 hits while striking out 6 and walking 3. Gray threw 98 pitches, but ended up taking the loss as the Indians won the game 5-1. The loss evened Gray’s record at 6-6 this season, but his E.R.A. came down a couple of points to 3.41 on the season.

Darvish also made his first start for his new team on the road as he faced the New York Mets. Darvish pitched 7 innings and didn’t give up any runs. He allowed 3 hits while striking out 10 and walking 1 in the Dodgers 6-0 win. Darvish threw 99 pitches in his outing and with the win improved his record to 7-9 on the season. He also brought his E.R.A. down to 3.81.

While it’s just one start for each guy and you wish people wouldn’t jump to conclusions you know they will. Darvish did have the better first start, but Gray was probably facing the better line up. Darvish also got more run support than Gray did, but I don’t know how many people will see that. These guys will each have more starts down the road to be judge on as it’s too difficult to say that the Dodgers made the better trade after just one start.

The one take away from the game for me was that neither guy threw more than 100 pitches. In this new era of baseball 100 pitches seems to be the magic number as to when you take your starter out of the game. With the kind of money players make in today’s game it’s smart for teams to protect their pitchers as it seems as though just about everyone of them has had Tommy John surgery already. I am starting to wonder if will ever see pitchers get into the 7th, 8th or even 9th inning of games. Now the specialties of major league bullpens have had some affect on this, but there are other reasons for pitchers being handle the way they are now.

It use to be that after baseball season you moved on to the nest sport of that season. In the fall most athletes would play football or run cross country. Then come winter time there would be the basketball team or the wrestling team to play on. Then it was time for baseball season. There may have been more options for you, but these where the choices I had when I went to school. More or less what I’m saying is the lids got a break from a sport even if it as the sport they where best at. Now they may have done workouts for the sport they where best at, but it wasn’t their lively hood like it’s treated now.

It seems as though the way it’s treated now if you show talent at one sport at a young age; that’s your sport for life. Now in some cases it works out wonderfully. Bryce Harper’s parents realized he had a talent for baseball at a young age and his father managed his career to get him into the majors as soon as possible. Of course the question is how many kids who are dedicating their life to baseball right now are going to be the next Bryce Harper?

Now in the majority of these cases it’s not the kids fault. They are just simply listening to their parents. Now it’s understandable that every parent wants to see their child excel at whatever their chosen field might be, but there’s a point in time when you have to know when to pull back especially when it comes to throwing a baseball.

Throwing a baseball is one of the most unnatural motions a body can do. Now imagine if your a 8 or 9 year old kid and you’ve shown that you have pitching talent. How many pitched are you going to throw in your lifetime? and how long will your arm hold up? Now the league the kids play in have been trying to do their best to limit how much these kids throw with inning and pitch counts, but there’s no holding them back in the off season when the parents are in control.

So your baseball season ends and instead of looking into a new sport to play you go right into specialized pitching training. Now these are kids that are anywhere from age 8 to college players. Now even under the best supervision in the world; how much throwing is too much throwing for an arm? There are kids in high school who have had Tommy John surgery.

Now I get it and it’s probably I don’t have a kid to push into a sport and try to live out my dreams through, but you have to learn when to dial it down and give the kids a break. I don’t want to hear the garbage that they could get injured playing another sport because they could get that injury anywhere. They’re kids!

Now it would be nice to see Major League Baseball step up and try to help this situation out, but they’re never going to come out and tell kids to play other sports. Too be fair though none of the other major sports league would do that, The fact that it seems you have to throw 100 m.p.h. to get noticed by a major league team doesn’t help either as kids work to get to that number.

Now I don’t know when or why how hard you throw is what natters instead of how good of a pitcher you are. Think about this. A pitcher like Greg Maddux who won 355 games in his career might not even get a second look from a scout now because he never lit up the radar gun when he was pitching. Let that register for just a minute. A pitcher who is in the Hall of Fame and went in on his first ballot may not of ever played the game because of the way scouting has changed. Maddux is just the one example that popped into my mind, but I’m sure there are many, many more out there.

I remember when getting people out was the most important job the pitcher had, but now it seems like it’s how hard you throw. Of course the idea is for a pitcher to do both; throw hard and get people out, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of pitchers who have put the two together.

Well there’s my soap box about pitching. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comment section. Don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com but you can also listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

The non-waive trading deadline has passed and luckily both Sonny Gray and Yu Darvish where traded so I don’t have to listen to media talk about them until they pitch for their new teams this week.

Now of course teams can still make trades, but a player has to pass through waivers before he can be traded. If a player is put on waivers by their team and they’re claimed by another team I believe there are three choices the team can make with that player. They can pull him back off of waivers and keep him. They can attempt to work out a trade with the team that claimed him on waivers. Or they can simple let the team that claimed the player on waivers have him. The third option doesn’t happen to often, but if a player has a lot of money on his contract the team that claimed him on waivers and was allowed to take him would be responsible for the remained if that players contract.

With the non-waiver trade deadline past there of course are winners and losers and while it seems as though ever contender added at least a bullpen piece there was one team the Houston Astros that didn’t seem to be interested in making any deals.

The Astros did make one trade as they acquired left handed pitcher Francisco Liriano from the Toronto Blue Jays for two outfielders; Norichika Aoki and Teoscar Hernandez. The Astros have said that they plan to use Liriano out of the bullpen. Dallas Keuchel use the word “disappointing” to describe the Astros lack of movement at the trade deadline. Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow went on to say the Astros “did the math” on bigger trades and apparently they didn’t like what it added up to. Now just this week the Astros have placed three pitchers on the disabled list as Lance McCullers Jr. Tony Sipp and Michael Feliz all where placed on the 10-day disabled list.

With the lack of movement by the Astros you have to ask yourself if they’re too attached to their top prospects. Now I seriously doubt that the Texas Rangers would’ve ever given any thought at all of trading Darvish to the Astros. The Rangers have expressed interest in bringing Darvish back in the off season as a free agent. Imagine if he went on to help the Astros win a World Series and then decided he liked playing there and signed with them long term. Now the Oakland A’s had said they where looking for a young outfielder preferably a centerfielder in any deal involving Gray. Now that would’ve meant the Astros would’ve had to part with top prospect Kyle Tucker or the recently called up Derek Fischer in a deal for Gray. Now I understand that you draft these guys you develop these guys and you can get attached to them, but did the Astros just cost themselves a World Series by being to attached to their prospects?

Now last season the two teams that met in the World Series made significant additions to their bullpen at the trade deadline and they had to give up top prospects to do it. The Cleveland Indians sent four prospects Clint Frazier, Ben Heller, Justus Sheffield and J.P. Feyereisen to the New York Yankees for Andrew Miler. Miller was the best pitcher in the playoffs last season and the Indians don’t get to the World series without him. Now the Chicago Cubs also made a deal with the Yankees as they picked up Aroldis Chapman for Adam Warren and three minor league prospects Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford. Chapman solidified the back end of the Cubs bullpen and was used so much in the post season by Cubs manager Joe Maddon that it may be effecting him this season. It’s another case here that the Cubs probably don’t win the World Series without Chapman. I don’t think the pick up of Liriano by the Astros is on par with the moves the Indians and Cubs made?

Should the Astros have looked for a starting pitcher at the trade deadline? They have Keauchel; who is a true #1 starter and can match up with any pitcher, but who’s after him. McCullers is hurt quite a bit and is out right now with a back injury and there’s no timetable for his return. Are Mike Fiers, Charlie Morton or Joe Musgrove enough to get the Astros through the post season. Fiers and Morton have been solid with E.R.A.’s under 4.00, but how will they hold up under playoff conditions. Brad Peacock may be the second best starter the Astros have, but they seem to like him coming out of the bullpen and with all the injuries they’ve had there it may be where he’s needed the most. Now the Astros should cruise into the playoffs and end up with the best record in the American League which means they’ll meet the wild card winner in the ALDS.

You have to wonder if we’re going to be looking back at this season and asking if the Astros would’ve picked up just one more starting pitcher if their season would’ve ended differently. The Astros have been the best team in the American League for pretty much the entire season and you’d have to think that they’d be disappointed if they didn’t get into the World Series. Of course at this point you have to wonder if they’ll be able to get through the first round of the playoffs.

As you may or may not know I’m an avid FanDuel player. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $1 or $2 on a game, but I enjoy playing. Last night I decided to pay for the most expensive pitcher for the night Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals. It all started out well for me as Scherzer worked a 1,2,3 1st inning. In the 2nd inning the Nationals put up 6 runs and part of that scoring was a 3-run home run by Scherzer. Now I don’t get fantasy points for Scherzer’s hitting stats, but a 6-run lead should’ve led to a win and another big fantasy point outing from Scherzer. Oddly as the Nationals came out for the bottom of the 2nd inning Scherzer threw one warm up pitch and took himself out of the game. As it turned out Scherzer has had a crick in his neck for a couple of days and while it didn’t affect his swing it took him off of the mound. I just had to laugh at myself as I normally don’t pay for the top pitcher on FanDuel, but I did last night. In the end I only lost $1, but like everyone else I prefer to win. I guess will see how my luck goes tonight.

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 you can find me on Twitter @Burketime

I’m to the point where I’m tired of the speculation and I just want July 31st to get here so we know if any of the big three starting pitchers are going to get traded. It seems like Yu Darvish, Sonny Gray and Justin Verlander where going to be traded six months ago and none of them have been. Instead of going over the same old thing about the players let’s take a look at the teams they’re rumored to be going to.

Let’s start with the New York Yankees. With the injury to Michael Pineda it appears that the Yankees could use a starting pitcher, but do they? New York just moved into 1st place in the A.L. East last night behind a great start by Masahiro Tanaka. Luis Severino has given up 4 earned runs in his last 5 starts while Jordan Montgomery and C.C. Sabathia both have winning records and E.R.A.’s under 4.00. Now it does look like the Yankees could use a 5th starter, but Darvish, Gray and Verlander aren’t 5th starters. The Yankees have used the last few seasons to build up their farm system an they’ve already said that #1 prospect Gleyber Torres won’t be traded and with the way #2 prospect Clint Frazier has played since being called up you have to think the Yankees would like to keep him. It’s going to take top prospects to land any of those pitchers in a deal and I’m not sure the Yankees are willing to give up the top guys to get them.

Let’s stay in the American League and look at the Houston Astros. Dallas Keuchel just returned to the starting rotation; so that will provide a lift to the team. Houston’s rotations just look like it needs to get healthy more than it does to add another start. Besides Keuchel, Lance McCullers, Joe Musgrove and Charlie Morton have all missed starts due to injuries. When they’re healthy though the rotation has been good. All starters have an E.R.A. under 4.00 with the exception of Musgrove and fill in starter Brad Peacock has been a huge surprise as a starter. Don’t expect Darvish to be wearing an Astros uniform as even though they said they would I don’t expect the Rangers to deal with an inter-state and division rival. Imagine if Darvish helped the Astros win a World Series and then they where able to re=-sign him as a free agent. I don’t think the Rangers want to deal with that. I’m thinking the Astros add bullpen help not a starting pitcher.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a similar spot as the Astros. They appear to have the starting pitching, but it’s a matter of getting them all healthy. Of course the loss of Clayton Kershaw was huge. He’s do back in 4 to 6 weeks, bug if the Dodgers make a big move at the trade deadline it may tell us more about Kershaw’s health than it does about them just wanting to add a pitcher. Alex Wood has been a huge surprise for the Dodgers while Brandon McCarthy and Rich Hill have been quality starters. With a healthy Kershaw you have a good playoff rotation as Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu would be the long men in a playoff bullpen or could be left off of the playoff roster. The funny thing about the Dodgers is for three seasons now we’ve been hearing they should deal their prospects for whatever help they needed, but they held on to them. Those players that people wanted the Dodgers to deal. Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger. Where would the Dodgers be without those three players in their everyday line up? Sometimes it’s better to hold onto a guy.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been a surprise team all season, but have struggled since the All-Star break and really need to figure out if they’re going to be in the market for a starting pitcher. You can quickly throw Darvish and Verlander off the list of pitchers the Brewers would be interested in. Since Milwaukee is young and still re-building they wouldn’t want to rent a pitcher like Darvish and the contract attached to Verlander isn’t something the Brewers would be interesting in carrying. Gray makes the most sense for the Brewers even of they don’t make the playoffs this season. He’s a young top of the rotation starting pitcher with controllable years before he hits free agency. With Chase Anderson and Matt Garza on the DL Milwaukee could use another guy in the rotation, but are they willing to pay the price for Gray. The Oakland A’s have said they want a young centerfielder in any deal for Gray which means the Brewers would have to be willing to part with either Lewis Brinson of Corey Ray who are their top two rated prospects. It’s a high price to pay for a pitcher who’s had the injury problems Gray has had throughout his career, but it looks like that’s what it’s going to take for Milwaukee to land him in a deal.

The Chicago Cubs have already made a move for a starting pitcher getting Jose Quintana from the cross town White Sox, but would they add another one? The Cubs have scouted all three of the available pitchers, but you have to think they’re out on Gray as it would take Ian Happ to bring him back in a deal and I don’t think that would happen. Adding a contract like Verlander’s is no issue for a team like the Cubs and the Cubs could take a shot at re-signing Darvish if he was brought in. The issue may be that the Cubs just don’t have the prospects to get either deal done. While the Cubs want to add a veteran catcher they won’t have to use a top prospect to do that, but both the Tigers and the Rangers are looking for quality prospects in any deal and the Cubs farm system has been dealt away. I’m not sure if a prospect laden centered around Jeimer Candelario is enough to bring either Verlander or Darvish to Chicago.

How about the teams that are in contention for a wild card spot.

The Boston Red Sox suffered a blow when David Price went on the DL with an elbow injury. This injury may make the Red Sox a little more active, but their name hasn’t really come up on any of these pitchers. Maybe they’ll jump in late now and try to add one of these pitchers.

Unless they worked out a deal for Gray the other American League wild card contenders like the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays or Minnesota Twins aren’t going to make a deal for a Darvish or a Verlander as he doesn’t fit the teams long term plans or the way they manage their rosters.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies seem to control the National League wild card spots and both have added coming up to the trade deadline. Would either team be interested in adding a starting pitcher to their rotation.

The Diamondbacks had a scare last night when Robbie Ray was hit by a line drive, but luckily he’s okay and looks to be in line to make his next start. The Arizona rotation has been good as only one starter has an E.R.A. over 3.50 and Chase Field is a hitters ballpark; so that’s pretty impressive. Arizona added offense earlier and it looks like if they make another deal they want to pick up some bullpen help.

The Rockies have a very young starting rotation and could probably use a veteran guy to help mentor this rotation. Of course of they added a Darvish would he consider re-signing with Colorado. I’m sure they could handle adding Verlander’s salary, but how would he do pitching in Coors Field? It looks like a veteran starter would be a good add for the Rockies there not really known for their farm system. Do they have the young assets to acquire a rental like Darvish or a Verlander?

Now we wait and see if these three pitchers end up getting moved by July 31st or if they’re still with their teams.

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

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

Before I get into my ramblings on sports I’d like to take a minute to explain to you why I missed my first blog post since I started writing these for SportsTimeRadio.com.

On Tuesday morning  had a doctors appointment. It was just a check up so the doctor could renew my prescriptions. During the examination I mentioned to the doctor that I had some very minor chest pain. When I say minor it was almost very noticeable, but it was persistent. The doctor thought it was worth checking out; so he had an EKG done. The EKG results showed that I was having a heart attack; so the ambulance was called and off to the hospital I went. They didn’t want me driving to the hospital for fear of what could happen. Now the paramedics also did an EKG and they didn’t think I was having a heart attack, but better safe than sorry. After some more tests I was admitted into the hospital as they wanted to run some more tests on Wednesday. At first they where going to do a stress test, but that was changed to them doing an Angiogram. Luckily for me they did the Angiogram and my heart came up clean. The test showed no damage to my heart. So all I need is some rest, but I have a clean bill of health and hopefully no more interruptions for the blog. Now let’s get back to sports.

If your a fan of the Chicago White Sox; how do you feel about what they’re doing? The first move the White Sox made was sending Jose Quintana to the Chicago Cubs for four minor league prospects. Now earlier this week the White Sox sent 3rd baseman Todd Frazier, close David Robertson and set up guy Tommy Kahnle to the New York Yankees for three minor league prospects and a relief pitcher. The White received left handed pitcher Ian Clakin and outfielders Blake Rutherford and Tito Polo from the Yankees farm system along with Tyler Clippard.

This trade gives the White Sox either eight or nine Top 100 prospects depending on who’s ranking you go off of. After the trade with the Yankees the White Sox called up their #1 prospect Yoan Moncada. Now obviously not all of these prospects will turn into top of the line major league players, but even if just half of them work out the White Sox would have four or five big time players either in their line up or on their pitching staff.

Are the White Sox done dealing? They still have veteran outfielder Melky Cabrera on their roster and he could be a good add for a contender as a fourth outfielder and pinch hitter. The White Sox also have some veteran pitchers that I’m sure they would move if other teams where interested. Could the White Sox add one or more Top 100 prospects before this season is over?

Last night the Arizona Diamondbacks did something I had never seen before. In the bottom of the 1st inning Arizona hit back to back to back home runs to start off the inning. David Peralta hit the first one followed by A.J. Pollock and then Jake Lamb. It was the first time since May 10th of 2012 when the Baltimore Orioles did it in a game against the Texas Rangers. This was the first time in Diamondbacks history that this feat has been accomplished and what makes it even more impressive is that they hit these three home runs off of Max Scherzer.

The Diamondbacks have hit three home runs in a row before and actually hit four home runs in a row against the Milwaukee Brewers on August 10th of 2010.

While this had never happened in Diamondbacks history in was also the first time in Washington Nationals history that an opposing team started the 1st inning off with back to back to back home runs. It’s also no surprise that this is the first time that this has happened to Scherzer, but believe it or not the three home runs in the 1st inning aren’t the most Scherzer has allowed in that inning. On July 2nd of 2011 the San Francisco Giants hit five 1st inning home runs off of Scherzer.

Arizona added a 4th run in the 1st inning as all nine Diamondbacks in the starting line up got a turn at bat. Arizona scored their 5th run in the 2nd inning off of Scherzer as Lamb drove in another run with a double.

With a 5-0 lead against one of the best pitchers in baseball it looked like the Diamondbacks would cruise to an easy win, but it didn’t quite go that way. Washington used a run in the 4th, two in the 5th, one in the 6th and then finally a run in the 8th to make it a 5-5 game and get Scherzer off the hook for the loss.

Now the Nationals bullpen has had it’s much publicized issues this season, but after Scherzer exited the game after just five innings Washington’s bullpen had given up just two hits an a walk while striking out six over three innings headed into the bottom of the 9th.

Enny Romero came into the game for the Nationals to pitch the 9th inning. Romero was greeted by a triple off the bat of Pollock to start the inning. Lamb and then Paul Goldschmidt where intentional walked to load the bases. Gregor Blanco flied out to leftfield, but it wasn’t deep enough to score Pollock. Brandon Drury was the next hitter for the Diamondbacks. Drury was hit less in three at bats with a walk as he stepped into the batters box. Romero’s first two pitches to Drury where balls. Drury fouled off the third pitch to make it a 2-1 count. Drury hit the fourth pitch of the a bat into rightfield for a game winning single as Pollock scored the winning run in a 6-5 Diamondbacks victory.

Diamondbacks close Fernando Rodney (4-3) pitched a scoreless top of the 9th to pick up the win. Romero (2-4) took the loss for Washington. It was Arizona’s second win on a row while the Nationals dropped their second game in a row.

The teams will play again Saturday night. Tanner Roark (7-6) makes the start for Washington while Anthony Banda will make his major league debut for Arizona.

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

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