Archive for the ‘Sports Time Radio’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 9, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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It’s tough for me to get to watch the Golden State Warriors with my work schedule unless they’re playing on the weekend. Luckily for me last night they had their game against the Indiana Pacers shown on NBA-TV; so I got to sit down and watch 3 quarters of the game. The Warriors actually struggled shooting the basketball early in the game before finding their shot and putting up a 44 point 1st quarter. Golden State had a 16 point lead after the 1st quarter 44-28. Golden State out scored Indiana 35-32 in the 2nd quarter for a 79-60 lead at halftime. Golden State came out after the half and added 9 points to their lead by out scoring the Pacers 32-23 in the 3rd quarter. Golden State had a 111-83 lead at the start of the 4th quarter and this is where I had to stop watching.  What I missed was the Pacers putting up a 40 point 4th quarter while Golden State only managed to score 20 points in the 4th quarter. While Indiana was able to take a big chunk out of the Warriors lead it was still an 8 point Golden State win 131-123 for their 23rd straight win to start the season.

Klay Thompson led Golden State in scoring with 39 points. Thompson went 13 of 21 from the field. Thompson picked up the bulk of his points from behind the 3-point line where he went 10 of 16 in the game. Stephen Curry had a double-double with 29 points and a team high 10 assists. Andrew Bogut also had a double-double for Golden State with 14 points and a team high 10 rebounds. Brandon Rush (13) and Festus Ezeli (12) also scored in double figures for Golden State. Golden State shot 44.4% from the 3-point line going 16-36.

Paul George led the Pacers in scoring with 33 points and also handed out a team high 6 assists. C.J. Miles added 24 points while George Hill and Chase Budinger (off the bench) scored 12 points apiece. Jordan Hill came off the Pacers bench to score 12 points while Solomon Hill grabbed 9 rebounds to lead Indiana. The Pacers also shot well from behind the 3-point line going 14 for 33 (42.4%) in the game.

Golden State is 5-0 on this road trip and 13-0 on the road which is a new record. They’re off until Friday when there road trip takes them to Boston to face the Celtics. They have a back to back over the weekend after Friday in Boston the warriors turn right around Saturday and face the Milwaukee Bucks to wrap up this road trip. Will one of these games see the end of the Golden State winning streak? Or will they return to California 25-0?

We’ve seen quite a bit of player movement during the baseball winter meetings in Nashville Tennessee and the meetings aren’t over. We’ve covered most of the teams moves on the Sports Time Radio podcast, but after we went of the air last night a couple of more deals where announced.

The Arizona Diamondbacks where finally able to work out a deal with the Atlanta Braves involving Shelby Miller. The Diamondbacks will send outfielder Ender Inciarte along with right handed pitcher Willie Blair and last years #1 overall pick shortstop Dansby Swanson to Atlanta. In return the Diamondbacks receive Miller and left handed pitcher Gabe Speier. The Braves where able to pick up and outfielder they seemed to have been looking for. They also got a couple of young prospects to work towards their goal of being a contending team when they open that new ballpark in 2017. The Diamondbacks add a young starter for their rotation that features the newly signed Zack Greinke and the returning Patrick Corbin. I’ve heard this question thrown out there a couple times after this deal was made so I’d like your answer. Are the Arizona Diamondbacks the best team in the National League West?

The other 2 deals made last night feature the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs turned out to be the surprise team in the Ben Zobrist free agent derby as he inked a 4 year $56 million dollar deal last night. Most if not all reports had the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets and the Washington Nationals being the main team interested in Zobrist services. With the signing of Zobrist the Cubs made a corresponding move by trading Starlin Castro to the New York Yankees for pitcher Adam Warren and infielder Brendan Ryan. Looking at this deal it appears that the Yankees real got the better of it and you have to wonder if the Cubs just wanted to ship Castro anywhere once they signed Zobrist. Don’t forget that I actually predicted last year that Castro would end up with the Yankees. Does it count a year late? The Yankees get a 3-time All-Star and a career .281 hitter who seems to have found his position at 2nd base. In return the Cubs get a journeyman infielder (Ryan) who’s a career .234 hitter and the right handed throwing Warren who is 13-15 over his 3 seasons in the majors, but does have a very good ERA of 3.39. Will the Cubs try to force Warren into their rotation or did they give up a quality player for a middle reliever?

There are a couple of deals we may see get done today. The Seattle Mariners are trying to make another deal as reports are they are very close to working out a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for left handed hitting 1st baseman Adam Lind. I’ve also seen multiple reports that the Chicago White Sox are having “serious” discussions with the Oakland A’s on 3rd baseman Brett Lawrie. Maybe one or both of these deals get done or possible we get a free agent signing or two.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also follow me on Twitter@Burketime

How was your week

Posted: November 28, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, sports, Sports Time Radio
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For Thanksgiving the NFL gave us 2 blowouts and an upset. The day in football started out with a game I thought would be closer than it turned out to be as the Detroit Lions blew out the Philadelphia Eagles 45-14. In the second game the Dallas Cowboys where a 1 point favorite going into it. I hope you bet what would’ve been the underdog and took the 1 point and went with the Carolina Panthers. Even before Tony Romo got injured and had to leave the game Carolina was far and away the better team in this game and easily won 33-14. The third game of the night brought us an upset as the Chicago Bears went into Lambeau Field and defeated the Green Bay Packers 17-13.  Green Bay had 4 chances inside the Bears 10-yard line with under a minute to go in the Chicago defense kept the Packers out of the end zone to win the game.

Believe it or not we actually pick 2 out of the 3 games correctly for a 2-1 start to our week in picks. Schaumburg Stu, Dan the Man, Mr, Fantasy and I all had Detroit, Carolina and even though we all live in the Chicago suburbs we had Green Bay. Of course I think us living in the Chicago suburbs may have made us pick Green Bay to win that game.

Fantasy football wise in Thanksgiving if you had Matthew Stafford as your quarterback you got off to a good start. Stafford scored right around or in the 40 point range depending on how your league is scored. No matter how it’s scored he was the best quarterback on Thanksgiving.Cam Newton came in right around the 20 point mark while Mark Sanchez, Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers all finished in the 12 to 15 point range. Matt Cassell actually outscored Tony Romo as Cassell end up at about 10 points and Romo was in the negatives if your league scores negative points. With the way our longest running league is scored Stafford had 37.54 points. Then it was Newton (16.66), Sanchez (11.88), Cutler (11,40), Rodgers (11.34), Cassell (10.76) and Romo with -4.38 points.

Eddie Lacy was the top fantasy running back on Thanksgiving. Lacy ran for 105 yards and caught a touchdown pass as well. Lacy totaled 25.15 points in our fantasy league. Two Lions running backs came in 2nd and 3rd on the day. Joique Bell scored 17.45 points and Theo Riddick scoced 17.05 points. Bell rushed for 57 yards, but out one in the end zone. Riddick rushed for just 6 yards, but caught 5 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart scored 15.20 fantasy points with 68 rushing yards and the Bears Jeremy Langford scored  15.05 points 48 rushing yards and a touchdown to round out the Top 5 running backs.

It’s not a big surprise that the Lions had the 2 highest scoring wide receivers on Thursday. Calvin Johnson led the way with 33.30 fantasy points. Johnson caught 8 passes for 93 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. Golden Tate was 2nd with 16,43 points. Tate caught 7 catches for 50 yards and 1 touchdown. Cole Beasley is a free agent right now in our longest running league. Beasley scored 14.90 points on 6 catches, 44 yards and a touchdown. Jordan Matthews and Alshon Jeffeys tied for 4th with 14.25 points. Jefferys had more catches 7 to 3 and more yards 90 to 60, but Matthews scored a touchdown and Jefferys didn’t. Randall Cobb rounds out the Top 5 receivers with 11.92 points catching 6 passes for 74 yards.

Greg Olsen of Carolina was the top scoring tight end on the day with 10.75 fantasy points. We start 2 tight ends a week in our league and no one has Philadelphia tight end Trey Burton who ended up being the 2nd highest scoring tight end on the day with 8.90 points. The other Philadelphia tight end Brent Celek was tied with Zach Miller of the Bears for 3rd with 8.50 points. Jason Witten was 4th with 6.60 points and Richard Rodgers was 5th with 6.00 points.

Carolina’s Graham Gano was the best kicker to have as he totaled 20 points on the day.  Matt Prated (Detroit) and Mason Crosby (Green Bay) each had 10 points. Dan Bailey had 7 fantasy points for the Cowboys while Robbie Gould put up 5 in the Bears victory. The eagles Caleb Sturgis came in at the bottom of the kicker list with 2 points on the day.

It was Carolina’s defense that led in fantasy scoring with 22.62 points. They where followed by the Bears (13.26), Detroit (12.90), Green Bay (6.57(, Dallas (3.57) and Philadelphia (-2.38); I’m hoping you didn’t play Philadelphia’s defense.

As far as my team. I had Jay Cutler, Eddie Lacy and Green Bay’s defense; so I ended up with a total of 43.12 fantasy points. I am off to a little better start than I was projected to have. My outlook for the day was 37.87 points; so all in all it was a good fantasy day for my team.

The Golden State Warriors improved to 17-0 last night with a 135-116 win over the Phoenix Suns. The Warriors set the tone for the game with a 44 point 1st quarter. Stephen Curry led the way for the Warriors with 41 points. Curry was 11 for 20 from the field going 9 of 16 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 10 assists to lead Golden State in those categories. Green also had 14 points on the night for a triple-double.  Leandro Barbosa came off the Golden State bench to score 21 points while T.J. Warren came off the Suns bench to lead them in scoring with 28 points. The Golden State 17th win to start the season was the first of back to back games as tonight they host the 6-11 Sacramento Kings. Will it be 18-0 for Golden State? Or can the Kings be the team that hands then their 1st loss?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 25, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, fantasy, football, hockey, sports, Sports Time Radio
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Week 11 went much better for us as everyone ended up over .500 picking the NFL games. I managed to win the week going 10-6 while Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy all went 8-6 for the week. Overall Dan the Man is still in the lead with a record of 93-67. I’m in 2nd place 3 games behind Dan the Man at 90-70. Mr. Fantasy is in 3rd place with a record of 87-73 and Schaumburg Stu is still in the cellar with a record of 85-75. There are no byes in Week 12; so we’ll have a full slate of games to pick starting with 3 games tomorrow.

Thanksgiving is definitely a football holiday and it starts with the Philadelphia Eagles at the Detroit Lions. They have an 11:30 a.m. kickoff where I live. Game 2 has the undefeated Carolina Panthers at the Dallas Cowboys. I found it interesting that in the Las Vegas betting line Dallas was the favorite in this game. This game is scheduled to kickoff at 3:30 pm cst as long as the first game doesn’t run long. The night in the NFL wraps up with a big time rivalry game. It’s the Chicago Bears at the Green Bay Packers at 7:30 pm central. I have not received Mr. Fantasy’s picks for the Thursday games, but I can tell you that Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and I like Detroit to win Game 1, Carolina to stay undefeated in game 2 and the Packers to night game 3. We’ll see if Mr. Fantasy reads this before he sends me his picks and tries to make up some ground by going a different way with his picks.

The Golden State Warriors set the NBA record for victories to start a season last night by easily beating the Los Angeles Lakers 111-77 at the Oracle Arena. The game was almost never in doubt as Golden State took a 30-11 lead after the 1st quarter. Los Angeles did cut into the lead at little going into halftime as they outscored Golden State 27-24 in the 2nd quarter. Golden State still sent into the half leading 54-38. Golden State pretty much put the game away in the 3rd quarter outscoring the Lakers by 18 points 35-17. Golden State ended the 3rd quarter with a 89-55 lead and the record looked to be there’s. Both teams scored 22 points in the 4th quarter to get the final score of 111-77 and the Warriors had there 16th straight win to start the season. Stephen Curry led Golden State with 24 points going 10 of 21 from the floor, but just 4 of 12 from behind the 3-point line. Draymond Green added 18 points led the team in assists with 5 and tied for the team lead in rebounds with Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli with 7. Leandro Barbosa came off the Golden State bench to score 13 points while Klay Thompson also snuck into double digits with 11 points. Julius Randle was the only Lakers stater to score in double digits. Randle scored 10 points and tied for the team lead in scoring with Larry Nance Jr. and Louis Williams. Randle along with Kobe Bryant, Roy Hibbert and Tarik Black tied for the team lead in rebounding with 6. Metta World Peace led the Lakers in assists with 3. As for Bryant he was 1 for 14 from the floor going 1 of 7 from behind the 3-point line. He also went 1 of 2 from the free throw line for a total of 4 points in the game.

Now that the Warriors are at 16 straight wins to start this season the question becomes; how many more can they win. They have a back to back set of games this Friday and Saturday. They play in Phoenix against the Suns on Friday and then they come home to play the Sacramento Kings Saturday. There last game of November is Monday on the road against the Utah Jazz. You’d have t think that Golden State has a very good chance of having an undefeated month. That Monday game in Utah is the first of 7 games in a row on the road as the Warriors head east. Will that road trip be their downfall and they’ll drop a game then.

There where 2 games in the NHL last night and when there is a small amount of games I like t make Dan the Man pick the winners of those games on the Sports Time Radio podcast. He had been doing better with these picks, but that ended last night as he lost both games. The Ottawa Senators scored 7 goals against the Dallas Stars last night; 5 of which cam against Dan the Man’s fantasy goalie Anti Niemi on their way to a 7-4 victory. Mike Hoffman and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each scored 2 goals for the Senators while Jamie Benn had 2 goals for Dallas. I the late game the Anaheim Ducks beat Dan’s pick to win the Calgary Flames 5-3. Michael Frolik netted 2 of the 4 Calgary goals while Rickard Rakell and Corey Perry each scored 2 goals for the Ducks. If you’re a fantasy hockey player hopefully you had Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf in your line up as he assisted on all 5 goals Anaheim scored.

There are 13 games on the NHL schedule tonight; so I won’t make Dan pick that many games on today’s edition of Sports Time Radio, but it will give you a lot of choices for daily fantasy. The nationally televised game tonight is the Philadelphia Flyers at the New York Islanders. It’s what the NBC Sports Network advertises as rivalry Wednesday.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

You can Follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Happy Thanksgiving!

How was your Week?

Posted: September 5, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, NASCAR, Sports Time Radio
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If you’re a Kansas City Royals fan are you worried that your team has a 13 game lead in the American League Central and are pretty much cruising into the playoffs. Some experts seem to think that it’s a bad thing that Kansas City won’t have any high tension games going down the stretch to end the regular season. I’m kind of on the other side of this and while I get it that a team can’t turn it on and off as needed I think Kansas City is in a great spot. Kansas City has 28 games left in the regular season; they are 82-52 and like I mentioned 13 games ahead in the A.L. Central. This can work to Kansas City’s advantage. They’ll be able to get their pitching rotation in whatever order they decide. They should also be able to get some players like Kendrys Morales (133), Eric Hosmer (131) and anyone else they thin needs a day off as their regular season comes to an end. While Salvador Perez is one of the better young catchers in baseball; he has caught a lot of games this season (117) and if Kansas City can get him some time of as their season wraps up he’ll be at or close to at the top of his game going into the Division series. Kansas City made one of the bigger moves at the trade deadline giving up 3 players to get Johnny Cueto from the Cincinnati Reds. Cueto has made 7 starts for Kansas City; he has a 2-4 record with andERA of 4.21 not the top of the rotation pitcher they thought they where getting in the deal. Cueto has really struggled in his last 2 starts. He gave up 7 runs (6 earned) on 13 hits over 6 innings 2 starts ago to the Boston Red Sox and in his last start he gave Cueto gave up 6 runs on 8 hits over 5 innings against the Baltimore Orioles. Now with the lead the Royals have in their division they’ll be able to let Cueto go out and continue to work on whatever he needs to as he faces American League hitters on a regular basis for the first time in his career. Kansas City will also be able to use the rest of the regular season to evaluate the bullpen. While the Royals bullpen is still one of the best in baseball closer Greg Holland has battled injuries off and on all season and while he has saved 29 games his ERA is on the higher end for a closer at 3.83. Any time Holland has had to miss games due to injury Wade Davis has filled in and has been very good. Davis has picked up 13 saves in place of Holland this season. Davis also has a record of 7-1 and an ERA of 0.97; yes you read that right his ERA is under 1. Kansas City still has Kelvin Herrera setting up games before Davis and Holland and they’ve even gotten Ryan Madson helping out in the bullpen. Madson hadn’t pitched since 2011 because of injuries. Kansas City brought him into spring training and it’s paid off for them. Madson has appeared in 55 games for Kansas City this season; he has a 1-2 record with an ERA of 2.45 over 51 1/3rd innings. Madson has also gotten 2 saves this season out of the Kansas City bullpen. As good as the Royals bullpen was in the playoffs last season if Holland is 100% and with the addition of Madson believe it or not it might be better this season. Having as big of a division lead as the Royals do will allow them to get Holland rested and healthy and not worry about the bullpen. Also with the re-emergence of Madson not all the closing duties will fall on Davis and he’ll be able to get some days off down the stretch. So I have to wonder if Kansas City have a big division lead is really an issue.

I believe that I’ve mentioned on Sports Time Radio podcast that I watch way too much of the MLB Network. Earlier this week they had a plug that they would be discussing the race for the National League Cy Young award. I sat through the commercials and waited for them to start talking about it. After a couple of boring segments and another commercial break they finally said let’s look at the Top 3 contenders for the N.L. Cy Young award. Teammates Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner where the 3 names they threw out. Greinke may be the front runner for the award as he is 15-3 through 27 starts with a fantastic ERA of 1.59. Kershaw is 12-6 with an ERA of 2.16 over 27 starts. Bumgarner has started 27 games as well and is 16-7 with an ERA of 2.96. Three very good  candidates, but for some reason they seem to have overlooked a top Cy Young Award contender. Now I don;t know if it’s because he’s not a big name like the other 3 pitcher they brought up, but Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs should really of been mentioned with the other 3. Arrieta has more wins (17) than any of the 3 pitchers they brought up and his ERA (2.11) is 2nd in the National League among starting pitchers behind Greinke. Why was Arrieta left off of their list? He’s pitching for a winning team as the Cubs are in control of the last N.L. wild card spot and he just threw a no-hitter which the MLB Network did completely devalue after he pitched it. I don’t understand the stupidity of not looking at every pitcher especially one that’s putting up the numbers Arrieta is this season. The sad part is I’m sure there are a lot of guys who work for or appear on the MLB Network that hold votes for the end of the year awards and if they’re not believing in Arrieta he’ll have no chance at winning anything no matter how well he pitches or if his team makes the playoffs.

Now even though Mr. Fantasy and I will be at our money league fantasy football draft Dan the Man is going to step in and talk to Chris Olmstead from BeyondtheFlag.com tomorrow (Sunday) on Sports Time Radio. They’ll preview the Bojangles Southern 500 for you. The race is at Darlington Speedway and is a Sunday night race. You’ll want to listen to Chris as he makes his Top 3 picks on which driver will end up in victory lane.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast at BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime.  

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