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How was your week

Posted: December 28, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

I think everyone and anyone with any type of interest in the NFL made some kind of report when they found out that Antonio Brown was having a workout with the New Orleans Saints. Of course most if not all of them forgot to mention that there where seven other people involved in the same workout with Brown, but like I’ve said before; why let facts get in the way of a good story.

Now it’s no surprise that there are teams still interested in Brown. He’s a very talented wide receiver and I’m a little surprised that New Orleans is the first team to take a look at him.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions or starts to report that Brown will be in a Saints uniform tomorrow let’s consider the chances of him actually being signed.

Remember that Brown is still under investigation by the NFL for a domestic violence incident. I have a feeling that if he was signed by New Orleans he’d immediately be placed on the commissioners exempt list and wouldn’t play. You also have to figure that at the end of the NFL’s investigation Brown is going to be suspended.

I am interested to know why a team like the Saints who are locked into the playoffs and seem to have good chemistry would be interested in adding a player with Brown’s track record to their roster. All you have to do is follow how his season has went to question if how he’d be in a locker room. Let’s take a look.

Brown’s troubles started at the end of 2018 season while he was still with the Pittsburgh Steelers. For some reason Brown actually thought it would be a good idea to go live on social media from the Steelers locker room while head coach Mike Tomlin was giving his post game speech. As you can guess this move didn’t go over well. Then even though Brown racked up 104 catches and scored 15 touchdowns he seemed to have a problem with the emergence of Juju Smith-Schuster and then he ended up complaining about quarterback Ben Rothlisberger on social media. The Steelers decided it was time to move on from Brown and they ended up trading him to the Oakland Raiders for a 3rd and a 5th round pick in last years draft. Looking at the trade it might appear that Pittsburgh didn’t get enough in return for Brown, but in the end you can understand why this was the best deal they could get.

Brown’s time in Oakland was much maligned. He actually ended up never playing adown for the Raiders. Between the issues with his foot and then multiple complaints over which helmet he was going to have to wear and jut about anything else you can think of the Raiders actually ended up putting Brown on the non-football injury list and them taking him off of it two days later. The final straw between the Raiders and Brown seemed to be when the team fined him $40,000 for not participating in the teams walk through on August 22nd. Brown then went on to whine his way out of Oakland as the Raiders ended up releasing him.

Brown was then free to sign with any NFL team he wanted which is what most of the experts thought was what he wanted. Brown chose to sign with the New England Patriots. Brown didn’t play in Week 1 for New England, but did get onto the field in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins. Brown was targeted 8 times and caught 4 of those passes. He had 56 yards on those 4 receptions and did score a touchdown. Not too bad for a guy who really had just about a week and a half of actual practice. Then the final shoe dropped on Brown as the Patriots released him on September 20th after Brown was accused of domestic violence.

There’s no doubt that Brown is a talented wide receiver, but there is also a lot of baggage that comes along with bringing him into your organization. Apparently just for his workout yesterday with the Saints he had a camera crew with him. With New Orleans heading into the playoffs; is it worth the gamble to sign Brown?

The Houston Texans are locked into the #4 seed in the AFC playoffs and it appears as though they’ll try to get their players some rest in the final week of the regular season against the Tennessee Titans.

While Houston is trying to find a way to keep their players healthy there is a chance that they’ll get their best defensive players back for that first round playoffs match up against the Buffalo Bills.

The Texans have officially designated defensive end J.J. Watt to return from the injured reserve list. Watt has been out injured since he suffered a torn pectoral muscle in Week 8, but this move opens the door for Watt to return in the playoffs.

With Watt returning to practice this opens up a 21 day window for him to be added to the active roster. Now Watt just underwent surgery on his pectoral muscle eight weeks ago and it typically requires three to four months to recover from pectoral surgery; so this is a quick turn around for Watt.

Now Watt has had his share of recovering from injuries faster than normal. Watt has already returned from two herniated disc surgeries and then also a tibial plateau operation. At the age of 30; this could be Watt’s toughest return yet.

Now Watt wasn’t putting up the gaudy sack stats the 8 games he played this season. Watt had 4 sacks this season, but Watt is double teamed 30% of the time which is more than any other defense end or edge rusher in the NFL. While Watt may not have been getting sacks he did have 21 credited quarterback hits in the 8 games he played; so even with the double team he’s still getting pressure on the quarterback.

Is it at all possible that just having Watt return is enough to help boost the Houston defense?

We’ve been off for the holidays, but the Sports Time Radio podcast is always available on BlogTalkRadio.com and TuneIn.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Christmas

Posted: December 25, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

I know I’ve mentioned this a time or two here; so as you know I live in the Chicago suburbs. And with the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks struggling the talk has continued to be about baseball. Now everyone seems to be very down on the Cubs, but on the other side of town there’s a lot of buzz about the White Sox. Now this isn’t the first time there has been this kind of reaction to a White Sox off season.

In 2015 the White Sox signed Adam LaRoche to be the DH of what looked like an already potent line up. Jeff Samardzija was added to the starting rotation and the White Sox added David Robertson as the closer and Zach Duke as the main set up guy out of the bullpen.

All of these moves led to the White Sox being crowned the winners of the off season which made them a trendy pick to win the AL Central and there where even some Chicagoans that had them going to the World Series.

What ended up happening is they still play the game on the field as the White Sox went 76-86. They ended up in 4th place in the AL Central 19 games back of the division winning Kansas City Royals. The White Sox never spent one day in 1st place in 2015.

Now this off season the White Sox made a big move early signing the top catcher on the free agent market Yasmani Grandal to a 4 year $73 million dollar contract. Jose Abreu accepted the qualifying offer of $17.8 million dollars to stay with the White Sox. James McCann had a career year for the White Sox in 2019 and they where able to bring him back on a 1 year $5.4 million dollar deal.

After those signings there was talk that the White Sox needed at add an outfield bat and pitching help. The White Sox sent one of their what seems to be many prospects outfielder Steele Walker to the Texas Rangers for Nomar Mazara. I’m not sure why, but there seemed to be some complaining about this trade; I guess because you’re not allowed to trade a prospect. Even with that garbage Mazara is a proven run producer and should hit 20 or more home runs.

As far as pitching goes; the White Sox actually offered more money to Zach Wheeler and Steven Strasburg, but they both chose to sign somewhere else. I had hoped that the White Sox would make a big move and bring in Madison Bumgarner and while I heard there was some interest on the White Sox part it didn’t seem like they where even close to getting him signed. As the top pitching free agents slowly started signing with teams it looked like the White Sox where going to miss out. They did managed to sign Gio Gonzalez to a 2 year $5 million dollar contract and it looked like he was going to be the veteran pitcher they where going to add to their rotation. Little did we know the White Sox weren’t done. They went out and added former Cy Young award winner Dallas Keuchel to the starting rotation. Keuchel signed a 3 year $55.5 million dollar deal that has a vesting option that could make his contract a 4 year $74 million dollar deal.

Is Keuchel the top of the rotation starter that the White Sox needed to add to their young arms. Keuchel signed late last season and made 19 starts for the Atlanta Braves. He went 8-8 with an ERA of 3.75. Keuchel made 2 playoff starts for Atlanta, but pitched just 8 innings. Keuchel didn’t get a decision in either of his playoff starts and posted an ERA of 4.50.

Keuchel has stayed relatively healthy throughout his career; so he should make 30 plus starts for the White Sox. He’ll be at the top of a rotation that includes up and coming starters Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez. Giolito is coming off the best of his two full major league seasons. Can Keuchel be the leader of this rotation and help Giolito take that next step? Lopez has been show potential and seems to just need a veteran who’s been through it to give him some guidance. Can Keuchel fill that role?

No there are reports out there that the White Sox aren’t done. They’ve been linked very closely to free agent 1st baseman Edwin Encarnacion. With Abreu already signed you’d have to think that if this signing happens Encarnacion would primarily be used as a DH. If signed Encarnacion would add another legitimate power threat to the White Sox line up. Last season Encarnacion was limited to just 109 games due to injury, but still hit 34 home runs. Those 34 home runs would’ve led the White Sox last season. Will have to see how this scenario plays out, but Encarnacion isn’t the only remaining free agent the White Sox have been linked to.

Nicholas Castellanos is the other free agent who’s name seems to keep being associated with the White Sox. Castellanos was dealt to the White Sox crosstown rival last season and played very well for them. In 51 games with the Cubs Castellanos hit .321 with 16 home runs and 36 RBI’s and was probably the Cubs biggest offensive threat down the stretch. The question I have is where would the White Sox play Castellanos? He played very good defense for the Cubs in rightfield after being traded, but isn’t known for his defense. The White Sox have already added Mazara who’s a better defensive rightfielder than Castellanos. Of course the White Sox do have the DH position open; so that could be an option. I’m not sure if Castellanos would be used as a full time DH as he has played 3rd base, left and right field in his career. I’m sure there’s also a chance that either Castellanos, Mazara or even Grandel could play some 1st base and give Abreu a day off. This is another free agent will have to keep our eye on and see if the White Sox make this move.

If you’re in the White Sox front office are you leaning towards signing Encarnacion or Castellanos?

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime and have a Merry Christmas.

How was your week

Posted: December 21, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

I’m not surprised that Josh Donaldson seems to have four teams that are very interested in his services. Going into the off season there where multiple looking for a 3rd baseman and Donaldson along with Anthony Rendon where the top free agents at that position. Once Rendon signed with the Los Angeles Angels that left just Donaldson out there for these teams looking to add a top 3rd baseman. Now obviously only one of those teams will sign Donaldson; so which one will it be?

The four teams that are in on Donaldson right now are the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals and Minnesota Twins. Now the Twins and the Nationals have offered four year contracts to Donaldson while the Braves and the Dodgers have only been willing to go to three years on a deal.

This led me to an interesting question. If you’re a National League team how comfortable are you going to be with a 37, 38 year old 3rd baseman?

Now I know that there is a lot of discussion about the designated hitter becoming league wide in the next CBA, but if that doesn’t happen could a four year deal with Donaldson get a team into trouble the final couple of years of that deal? To be fair to Donaldson he has been relatively injury free throughout his career. He played in 155 games for the Braves last season and with the exception of the 2018 season Donaldson has always played 113 games or more since becoming a starter.

So you’ve made yourself comfortable with giving Donaldson a four year deal. Then the question becomes; how much is he going to be paid? Most of the reports out there have Donaldson landing a contract that would pay him between $90 and $100 million dollars on a four year deal.

Donaldson is coming off of a season where he hit 37 home runs and drove in 94 RBI’s. Even though he’s never won a Gold Glove Donaldson has always been looked at as a god defensive 3rd baseman. He made 13 errors last season and had a fielding percentage of .969. Donaldson was 3rd among all of 3rd baseman in assists last season with 304 and he was 2nd among 3rd baseman in double plays last season with 38; so his defense is solid.

Donaldson did post a lower than normal batting average last season .259, but he had a slugging percentage of .521 and a On Base + Slugging Percentage of .900 and he did walk 100 times. How do you feel these numbers will translate over the next four years?

Once Donaldson does sign that will leave three teams possibly in the market for a 3rd baseman. Remember the Dodgers do still have Justin Turner who has said that he’d move across the diamond to 1st bas of the Dodgers acquired another 3rd baseman, but what about the other teams.

There does seem to be a lot of talk about the Colorado Rockies being interested in trading Nolan Arenado. That might seem a little odd as Arenado is just in the 2nd year of a 7-year $260 million dollar contract, but the rumor has been out there for about a week now.

The Texas Rangers seem to be the team that is in pursuit of Arenado. The Rangers have been looking for a franchise type player to build their team around as they open that new stadium and while they missed out on signing Rendon landing Arenado would fit that bill nicely. I doubt the Rockies would deal Arenado to the Dodgers, but with the minor league system the Dodgers have you can never say never. I’m sure the Twins, Nationals and Braves would also have some interest in Arenado if they miss out on Donaldson.

The other big name 3rd baseman who’s name has come up in trade talks this off season is Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs. The big question with Bryant is how many years of control would a team have on him. Right now he has two years of control, but he has a service grievance against Major League Baseball and if he wins that grievance he’ll have just one year of arbitration left. That could affect the type of package a team might offer the Cubs for Bryant.

The team that has been the most closely linked to a Bryant trade have been the Philadelphia Phillies. If Philadelphia would make that move for Bryant that would still leave three of Donaldson’s four suitors looking for a 3rd baseman.

Once Donaldson makes his decision and signs with a team where would the teams that miss out on him look at to fill their spot at 3rd base? There are some options that teams could turn to and while they’re not in the same category as a Donaldson, Bryant or Arenado they could do the job for a season while those teams try to figure out that position.

Asdrubal Cabrera has a solid season first with the Rangers and then with the Nationals. He hit .260 with 18 home runs and 91 RBI’s last season. Todd Frazier had a bit of a bounce back season in 2019. He hit 21 home runs with 67 RBI’s and his batting average was .251 which is the best it’s been since 2015. Starlin Castro started 42 games at 3rd base last season and played in 45 games at that position last season. Castro hit 22 home runs and had 86 RBI’s while hitting .270 on a bad Miami Marlins team. Maybe one of these teams that miss out on a 3rd baseman might look at Castro to make the move there full time.

Those are three possible options for a team if they don’t end up signing Donaldson and they’re not in the dealings for Arenado or Bryant and while these wouldn’t be long term solutions at 3rd base these players are good enough to help a team win some games.

What do you see the teams that miss out on Donaldson end up doing? Do you think they’ll look into or make a trade for Bryant or Arenado? Will they sign one of the remaining free agents? Or is at all possible that they would just turn the position over to one of the young players in their own organization? I guess this will all start to play out once Donaldson signs.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen when you want to.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 18, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

Well here is still quite a bit of activity in the baseball free agent marker as Madison Bumgarner ended up being the next top free agent to sign. It’s not surprise that Bumgarner got a sizeable deal 5 years for $85 million dollars, but it was a bit of a surprise that it was the Arizona Diamondbacks that signed him. There where no rumors or anything linking Bumgarner and the Diamondbacks, but they got the deal done.

Bumgarner’s contract is set up very interestingly. He’ll be paid just $6 million dollars next season. His salary jumps to $19 million dollars in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 he’ll be paid $23 million dollars. Then in the final year of his contract his salary drops down to $14 million dollars. Now in the three middle years of his contract $5 million dollars of his salary from each of those years will be deferred. That money will then be paid out to Bumgarner in the years 2025, 2026 and 2027.

There have been some rumors that Bumgarner took less money to sign with the Diamondbacks, but that hasn’t been confirmed. His name had been associated with teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox, but we don’t know if he received any type of offers from these teams.

It seems that the addition of Bumgarner would give the Diamondbacks a really solid big three in their starting rotation. You’d have to figure to would be Bumgarner, Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver in some order, but there are still reports out their that Arizona is still interested in trading Ray.

I’m not sure how much sense it makes for Arizona to bring in a pitcher like Bumgarner and then turn around and trade away Ray. The Diamondbacks do have veteran starter Mike Leake along with Merrill Kelly, Zac Gallen and the two pitchers they acquired from the Houston Astros in the Zack Greinke deal Jon Duplantier and Corbin Martin to fill out the starting rotation if Ray is dealt.

It is possible that Ray could be use to bring back an outfielder that Arizona seems to need unless they’re going to give Yasmany Tomas a chance. Tomas is in the final year of his 6 year $68.5 million dollar deal; so this is the last chance for the Diamondbacks to get anything out of him. Tomas has spent the better part of the last three seasons in the minors, but don’t forget that he did hit 31 home runs in 2016.

Will have to wait and see what the Diamondbacks do with Ray and how their outfield shuffles out.

The Milwaukee Brewers made a couple of signings this past week and I think the best way to describe them is they where very Brewers like signings.

First Milwaukee signed outfielder Avisail Garcia to a 2 year $20 million dollar deal. Then the Brewers added 1st baseman/3rd baseman Ryon Healy to 1 year deal. The terms of Healy’s deal haven’t been disclosed yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

With the signing of Garcia and the fact that Milwaukee hasn’t made any real effort to bring back free agent Eric Thames appears to mean that Ryan Braun will be moving to 1st base. There was talk of this happening last season and it didn’t, but with these moves it appears as though it’s almost a certainty this season.

Right now Healy would be the Brewers starting 3rd baseman unless they think that either Lucas Erceg or Blake Allemand might be ready to play full time at the major league level. There’s also a possibility that Milwaukee will bring in another veteran free agent to platoon with Healy at 3rd base.

The Brewers have been very busy in this early off season. Not only have they added Garcia and Healy, but they’ve also added two starting pitchers. Milwaukee has added left hander Brett Anderson to the starting rotation. They’ve also signed Josh Lindblom who’s been pitching in the Korean league the last couple of seasons. Lindblom should also find a spot in the Brewers starting rotation.

These are the kind of interesting under the radar type of moves that help keep the Brewers in the hunt for a playoff spot. Will have to see how these signing workout and if they add anyone else.

As far as big names go it seems that Josh Donaldson is the only one left on the free agent market.

There where reports a few days ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers where out on Donaldson, but yesterday anther report came out that the Dodgers are still interested in signing him. The Washington Nationals have made it clear that they’re interesting in signing Donaldson. National general manager Mike Rizzo came out yesterday and confirmed all these reports. There are also some reports that the Minnesota Twins would be interested in bringing Donaldson on board. Also the team that Donaldson played with last season the Atlanta Braves would also like to have him back.

It seems like the biggest question with signing Donaldson is how many years to give him. There are reports that Donaldson is looking for a 4 year contract. Donaldson just turned 34 years old earlier this month; so teams have to decide how they think Donaldson will be as a 38 year old.

Where do you think Donaldson will end up? and how many years do you think he’ll sign for?

Even with a loss last night the Los Angeles Lakers are still the top team in the Western Conference. At 24-4 the question was posed to LeBron James about the hot new term in the NBA load management and James had some interesting answers. James said “if I’m healthy I play” he added “I mean, that should be the approach. I mean unless we’re getting to like late in the season and we’ve clinched and we can’t get any better or any worse, it could benefit from that, but why wouldn’t I play if I’m healthy? It doesn’t make any sense to me, personally. “I mean, I don’t know how many games I got left in my career. I don’t know how many kids that may show up to a game and they’re there to come see me play and if I sit out, then what? That’s my obligation.”

James has played in all 28 of the Lakers game this season and is averaging 34.7 minutes per game. Now as the season goes on it wouldn’t be a surprise to see James sit out the 4th quarter of blow out games. It’s just common sense for the Lakers to want and James to be healthy for the playoffs, but it is nice to hear an NBA player that actually seems like he wants to play.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you want.

Jump on Twitter and follow me @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: December 14, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

In Thursday nights 42-21 victory over the New York Jets Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson pretty much secured the NFL MVP award for himself. Jackson only threw the football 23 times, but completed 15 of those passes for 212 yards. You might not think those are very impressive number until you see that he didn’t throw an interception and oh yeah also threw 5 touchdown passes. Jackson was also the Ravens leading rusher in the game. He ran the football 8 times for 86 yards and in the process of gaining those yards surpassed Michael Vick’s record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a season. The victory also put the Ravens record at 12-2 and clinched the AFC North division title. That 12-2 record also put the Ravens in the drivers seat for the #1 seed in the playoffs. Which means they wouldn’t have to leave M&T Bank stadium until the Super Bowl. Baltimore is currently 6-1 at home this season. They’ll play their final home game next week as they host the Cleveland Browns.

What makes Jackson’s numbers from Thursday night even more interesting is that he was battling a quad injury. Once the injury news broke there where quite a few pundits on the television talking about how they knew this was going to happen with a running quarterback and the Ravens needed to sit Jackson against the Jets. It’s odd, but it almost seems like these people want Jackson to get injured so they can prove their point. I don’t understand that at all, but I guess they need to be right that badly.

Jackson is the clear cut MVP frontrunner and I believe even if he did get injured he’d still win the award. Now besides having an MVP season Jackson still has something to prove come playoff time. I’m sure that will begin to hear quite a bit about Jackson’s dismal performance against the San Diego Chargers in last seasons playoffs and yes they where still the Chargers.

Jackson did throw 2 touchdowns to 1 interception in that playoff game, but he complete just 14 of the 29 passes he threw for 194 yards as the Ravens where beaten 23-17 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. The Chargers even did a decent job of slowing down Jackson’s running ability. In that game he ran the football 9 times for 54 yards and had 3 fumbles in that game.

There where a lot of people who didn’t understand why Ravens head coach John Harbaugh didn’t make a quarterback change in that game and go to Joe Flacco, but he choose to stay with Jackson and it sure has paid off for him this season. Of course we don’t know if Jackson would’ve played any different this season had he been pulled from that playoff game, but you’d have to imagine it would shake his confidence a little. Plus he had already replaced Flacco as the Ravens starter and it was clear that Flacco’s days with Baltimore where numbered. Can you just imagine the uproar had he led them to a comeback win and then they let him go.

Now that Jackson has pretty much locked down the MVP award the question that came up is will he be a unanimous selection for the award. In 2010 Tom Brady of the New England Patriots was a unanimous selection, but I believe he’s the only one. Could Jackson be the second?

Now there are some other candidates for the MVP award and with the way the voting is done there’s a good chance that one of them will pick up a 1st place vote.

While I do believe Jackson will win in a landslide expect Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks to probably finish 2nd. You have to think that the other quarterback from the playoff teams will get votes. So expect to see Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Kurt Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings and maybe even Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys get some votes. Prescott may seem like an odd choice with the Cowboys hanging around at .500, he’s currently leading the NFL in passing yards and well he is a Cowboy.

I know you’re saying to yourself that I only listed quarterbacks. Well the NFL is a quarterback driven league and while there are some running backs that may pop up o an MVP ballot hear or there they don’t have enough backing to be a contender for this award. The same goes for any receiver even though I did hear someone try to bring Michael Thomas of the New Orleans Saints into the MVP conversation. I just don’t see that happening Jackson is going to win the MVP award and his closest competition will be another quarterback.

Is Jackson your choice for NFL MVP? Or do you have someone else in mind that you think you’d vote for?

Vic Fangio is in his first season as the Denver Broncos head coach. Actually he in his first season as a head coach anywhere, but he had an interesting idea for the NFL scheduling wise.

Fangio mentioned that the NFL should get rid of the division and just have two conferences. Now this would give each conference 15 teams. As for the scheduling Fangio said that you could play each team in your division one time which would give you 15 games and then if the NFL and their owners wanted to stay with a 16 game schedule that 16th game could be against a natural rival.

I know that I’m way in the minority here, but I like this idea. I remember how much I enjoyed inter-league play in Major League Baseball until they started doing it every week. It would be a throwback to the days when the AFL champion use to meet the NFL champion in the Super Bowl. Not that the NFL needs another reason to build up the Super Bowl anymore than it is imagine what they could do if they knew this was the only time in a season that these two teams would meet.

Now I do see the negatives here, but imagine if the only time Tom Brady played Aaron Rodgers it was in the Super Bowl. Or how about if Lamar Jackson only faced the top defense in the NFC in the Super Bowl. I think it would make the game mean even more than it does now.

I don’t expect anyone to actually consider this, but I have to day that I liked it.

Don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you want.

Fell free to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 11, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

What a difference a year makes when it come to the baseball free agent market.

Last off season everything was Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. When will they sign, who will they sign with and how much will they sign for. This went on and on and on all through the off season. Machado and Harper dominated all of the off season of the off season news and it was the lead story on every show that discuss baseball. It was a gigantic dog and pony show, but we waited and waited to see who they’d sign with. When the winter meetings came around last year there was a lot of talk that this would be the time that something would get done and there would be something to report. Well as you know they where way, way off on that. In the end Machado signed with the San Diego Padres on February 21st while Harper didn’t sign with the Philadelphia Phillies until March 2nd.

Headed into this off season the two big free agents where pitchers, Steven Strasburg and Gerrit Cole. Just like last season there was a lot of talks about which teams would be in on trying to sign them and just how much either would end up getting. It seems as though everybody was getting ready to settle in for the long haul like last season. Well surprise it didn’t take that long.

On December 9th Strasburg officially re-signed with the Washington Nationals. Strasburg got a 7-year deal worth $245,000 million dollars. Strasburg’s salary is $35 million dollars a season, but there is some deferred money in his contract; so he’ll actually make $23,571,482 million dollars a season. There’s a total of $80 million dollars in deferred money in Strasburg’s contract which will be paid out from 2027 to 2029. The contract has a full no-trade clause, along with bonuses for winning the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove set at $100,000 each. There’s also a $100,000 for making the All-Star team. As far as Cy Young and MVP Strasburg will receive $500,000 for winning either award, $250,000 for finishing 2nd, $150,000 for finishing 3rd, $100,000 for finishing 4th and $75,000 for finishing 5th.

With Strasburg off of the board that left Cole out there as the top pitcher. Remember Zach Wheeler has already signed with the Philadelphia Phillies; so two of the top three rated free agent pitcher had been signed.

Well it didn’t take all that long for Cole to find a new team. Yesterday Cole agreed to a record setting 9-year $324 million dollar deal with the New York Yankees. This is the largest deal ever for a pitcher and the second best payday in the history of free agency. Since the deal was just agreed to there aren’t a lot of details available on it just yet. We do know that Cole will be paid $36 million dollars a season.

I have to tell you I always get a good laugh when I hear some expert on television start saying that so and so is going to sign with this team because it’s close to where he grew up. Well both Strasburg and Cole grew up in California. Strasburg was born in San Diego California and went to college at San Diego State Cole was born in Newport Beach California and went to college at the University of California. Most of the experts had Cole going back out west to either the Los Angeles Angels or the Los Angeles Dodgers with the possibility that the San Diego Padres could be an option. I believe that most of those same experts thought Washington was the front runner to bring Strasburg back, but there where a few that thought he’d land in San Diego with the Padres. You can throw Wheeler into this mix as well as the experts had him headed to Atlanta because he was born in Smyrna Georgia.

Now I’m sure there are some players out there who’d like to play closer to where they grew up, but it’s no where close to as many as they talked about this off season. In not sure why they didn’t factor winning into the equation more that where someone grew up, played high school or college baseball at. Maybe they’ll be smarter looking at the free agent market next off season.

With Strasburg, Cole and Wheeler off of the free agent market it looks like Madison Bumgarner is the top free agent pitcher now. There have been some reports that the Dodgers have shifted their focus to signing Bumgarner. There is also a rumor that the Chicago White Sox have interest in him.

After Bumgarner is signed it appears that teams will look at Dallas Keuchel and Hyun-Jin Ryu to strengthen their starting rotations.

While the starting pitchers are finding big money and new teams in some cases the free agent market for the top position players hasn’t real heated up yet.

Anthony Rendon is considered the top position player on the free agent market and he’s been linked to quite a few teams. I did find it interesting that the Angels sent Zack Cozart to the San Francisco Giants in a trade yesterday. That opens up a spot at 3rd base for the Angels and you have to think that they’ll take a serious run at Rendon or possibly Josh Donaldson to fill to spot.

Most teams like the Angels seem to be focusing on Rendon, but once he signs look for those teams to quickly switch their focus to getting Donaldson. After that there seems to be a lot of interest in Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have said that they’re open to trading a star player and with a Rookie of the Year and MVP award on his resume Bryant fits that profile. Reports are the Phillies have kicked the tires on a deal for Bryant.

The problem right now in trading for Bryant is teams don’t know how long he’ll be under their control. Bryant currently has a grievance against the Cubs and Major League Baseball about his service time. If you remember Bryant like a lot of top young players in today’s game was kept at Triple-A for enough time to push his arbitration clock back a season. So it’s unknown right now if Bryant has one or two years left of arbitration. Teams may wait for that to be cleared up before they make a trade for him.

I’m happy to see the free agent market moving like it is and I hope it keeps going.

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How was your week

Posted: December 7, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

Did you know that the Milwaukee Bucks have won 14 straight games? I just learned that they where on that long of a winning streak when they beat the Los Angeles Clippers 119-91 last night for that 14th straight win.

Now you would think a team on this kind of a run would be highlighted, but as I was checking the top NBA stories on the ESPN website the Bucks weren’t even listed as a top story. Of course I wasn’t surprised at all when there was a story about LeBron James listed as a top story.

You have to wonder if this is part of the reason that the NBA ratings are in the tank. I’m not a huge basketball fan; so all I do is look at the final scores and see who’s winning. If it would’ve been pointed out to me that the Bucks where on this type of winning streak I would’ve taken the time to watch a little bit of their game. Instead they’ve won 14 games in a row and I haven’t seen a minute of any of those games.

People might also be surprised to know tat the Bucks have the same record 20-3 as the Los Angeles Lakers even tough you’d think that the Lakers might be the only team that is in the NBA. While the Lakers are a good team there are fans of other teams and they’re not going to care what the Lakers are doing; so they’re not going to tune into those games.

Now I get that the Lakers are a good team; with quite a bit of help from tampering and the NBA they’ve found their way back into the limelight and apparently ESPN thought that this would be good enough to bring the ratings back up. If you remember everyone was under the impression that the television ratings where down because the Lakers weren’t a playoff team. Now the Lakers are clearly the best team in the Western Conference are the ratings are lower now than they where last season.

It does seem that the NBA itself might’ve realized that something is going on with their television ratings as there has been some talk about making changes. Would a mid-season tournament help the ratings? Would a shorter regular season get fans more interested in watching? How about expanding the playoffs; would that help regular season ratings? I don’t think that any of these changes would make that big of a difference in the ratings, but a mid-season tournament could be of some interest. Of course I would have to see how they lay things out and if all of the teams where involved.

The problem with the NBA might not be the way it’s formatted for television, but the actual on court product. The game has really become focused on the 3-point shot. How many times during a game do you see a player pounding his dribble at the top of the key trying to either get a 3-point shot for himself or to beat his defender off the dribble. Now if he does beat that defender and drives to the hoop that player is rarely looking to score in today’s game. In most cases that player is going to kick it out to one of his four teammates who have been standing out at the 3-point line while he’s been dribbling. How exciting is this to watch? NBA players are all fantastic athletes and fans don’t want to watch players stand at the 3-point line and catch and shoot the basketball unless it All-Star weekend and they’re competing to win the 3-point shooting contest.

Another part of he problem is that the league may just be too top heavy. Even though the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets are off to good starts to the season; do you believe either one of those teams will represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals? It’s been pretty clear since Anthony Davis was traded to the Lakers and the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George that one of the team from Los Angeles will be the Western Conference team that’s in the NBA Finals. Now normally we’d throw the Golden State Warriors into this conversation, but injuries have decimated their team and instead of playing for a championship this season they’ll be headed into the draft lottery.

Now the Eastern Conference is a little more wide open. Milwaukee has established itself right now as the top team, but there are challengers. It’s possible that the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and even the defending champion Toronto Raptors could all compete for the Eastern Conference title.

You would think that competitive Eastern Conference would be good for television ratings and maybe it will come playoff time, but for some reason fans just don’t seem to have a lot of interest in the NBA regular season. Maybe as the season goes on and it’s gets closer to the playoffs fans will be interested in regular season games to see which team gets the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Of course this also brings me back to my point of how the league is televised. Will they take the focus off of LeBron James and actually give some television time to an Eastern Conference team. We’re talking about a 30 team league that just seems to just try and focus on a few teams and players. It’s clear that this approach isn’t working and they’ll have to try and do something else, but will they? It’s generally and older generation that runs television and you have to wonder if they will be able to understand that or how things need to be changed.

Now I have heard that there are people who dislike the game because of the officiating and I can understand being upset about some of the calls and on-calls. I mean just this week the referees missed a clear dunk by James Harden in a game that the Houston Rockets ended up losing by 2 points. They also miss James taking 3 1/2 steps with the basketball without dribbling while a referee was looking right at him. I’m not sure why that referee didn’t call traveling, but I bet it had something to do with the fact that it was James that had the basketball and not some unknown player. I don’t think that poor officiating is a cause for poor ratings, but it might turn a few people away that the NBA might want back.

What do you think of the NBA game right now?

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 4, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

It seems that every week there’s an NFL coach on the hot seat. Well for the last few weeks that head coach has been Ron Rivera of the Carolina Panthers. Most people expected the Panthers to make a coaching change since they have new ownership and normally that includes a coaching change, but they thought the change would happen after the regular season. Panthers owner David Tepper decided not to wait until the off season and fired Rivera after Carolina lost 29-21 to the Washington Redskins.

Rivera was in his 9th year as the Panthers head coach and had just coached his 140th regular season game. Rivera had a 76-63-1 in the regular season. Carolina made the playoffs four times under Rivera and the Panthers went to the Super Bowl under Rivera in 2015. Carolina played 7 playoff games under Rivera and went 3-4.

The Panthers are 5-7 this season, but have had their starting quarterback Cam Newton for just two games. Rivera has been dealing with Newton and his injuries for a couple of seasons now and will have to wait and see what Tepper decides to do in the off season with Newton.

Carolina got off to a rough start with Newton as their starting quarterback going 0-2. Kyle Allen took over at quarterback and the Panthers ran off 4 straight wins. Carolina split their next 2 games before dropping 4 in a row and ending Rivera’s coaching stint with the team.

Perry Fewell is taking over as Panthers interim head coach. This is Fewell’s second stint as an interim head coach. In 2009 Fewell went 3-4 after taking over the Buffalo Bills. Fewell is in his 10h year as an NFL coach. He was the Bills defensive coordinator for 4 seasons. He then spent 5 seasons as the New York Giants defensive coordinator. This was his first season on the Carolina coaching staff as defensive backs coach.

With the firing of Rivera Carolina has the first coaching opening in the NFL and they’ll have the first chance to interview whichever hot college coach they might be interested in hiring. There are yet to be any names linked to the Carolina job, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before we hear a few come up.

With Fewell taking over there are some other changes that Carolina is making to the coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner is now the special assistant to the head coach. Quarterbacks coach Scott Turner will move to offensive coordinator. When it comes to the front office it appears as General Manager Marty Hurney will keep his job. Tepper has said that he’ll search for a assistant general manager or a vice president of football operations.

Who do you think the Panthers will hire as their next head coach?

The NFL draft isn’t until April 23rd, but there have already been seven under classmen who have declared for the draft.

There are three wide receivers who’ve declared. Jalen Reagor of TCU, Isaiah Hodgins of Oregon State and Laviska Shenault Jr. of Colorado. Also declaring are Maryland running back Anthony McFarland Jr. along with three players from Missouri defensive lineman Jordan Elliott, offensive lineman Trystan Colon-Castillo and tight end Albert Okwuegbunam

The one player most of not everyone expects to declare for the NFL draft is Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama, but in an interview Tagovailoa has said that he’s unsure if he’ll enter the NFL draft or return to Alabama for his senior season.

Tagovailoa is rehabbing from a hip injury and it’s unclear right now what his health situation will be by the time the draft rolls around or when teams want to work him out and you have to wonder if this will affect his decision. Tagovailoa has a chance to be the first player taken in the draft, but with his hip injury there’s also a chance that he’ll slide down the draft board.

The Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made official what seemed pretty clear after Sunday’s 20-13 win over the Cleveland Browns. Devlin “Duck” Hodges will continue to be the Steelers starting quarterback this week. The Steelers travel to Arizona to face the Cardinals in Week 14.

Hodges was solid in his start against the Browns going 14 of 21 for 212 yards with one touchdown and one interception. This will be Hodges third start this season; the Steelers are 2-0 in his first two starts.

Hodges has completed 67.2% of his passes this season going 41 of 61. He’s thrown for 530 yards with 3 touchdowns and two interceptions.

The Steelers are 7-5 on the season and are currently tied with the Tennessee Titans for the final AFC wild card spot. Pittsburgh currently holds the tiebreaker over Tennessee as they have the better winning percentage in conference games.

Including this weeks games against Arizona the Steelers played three of their final four game on the road. The Steelers only home game left this season is Week 15 when they host the Buffalo Bills. Week 16 Pittsburgh is on the road against the New York Jets before they wrap up the season against their division rival and AFC North leading Baltimore Ravens in Week 17.

The New York Jets finally decided to place linebacker C.J. Mosley on injured reserve and officially end his season.

Mosley signed a 5-year $85 million dollar deal this past off season with the Jets, but played in just two games this season due to his injury.

There has been some talk for a while now that Mosley would under go surgery for his injury which is listed as groin/abdomen. It now appears as though Mosley is going to have the surgery even though he’s done everything he can to try and avoid it.

In his two games his season Mosley made 4 tackles and assisted on 5 others. He also had one interception which he return for a touchdown; he also had one fumble recovery.

To take Mosley’s place on the roster the Jets signed another former Raven defensive back Bennett Jackson.

Jackson was drafted in 2014, but just made his NFL debut this season with Baltimore. The Ravens just waived Jackson this week.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you want.

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How was your week

Posted: November 30, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

It’s not a huge surprise that the Golden State Warriors are off to a terrible start this season, but after going to five consecutive NBA Finals and winning three title a 4-16 start to this season might be worse than people thought.

Now the Warriors issues started more or less last season when all the talk was what Kevin Durant would do as a free agent. Of course none of that mattered after Durant went down in the NBA finals with an injury that is going to keep him out the entire 2019-20 season. Klay Thompson also picked up an injury in the NBA finals and while it was first announced that he’d be returning after the All-Star break Golden State’s head coach Steve Kerr has said earlier this season that Thompson wouldn’t be returning this season. Then you add in the fact that Stephen Curry has only played four games this season. Curry broke his hand and is currently rehabbing and should be returning soon. Plus free agent signing D’Angelo Russell is also out with a thumb injury. Then Draymond Green injured his right heel and just returned to action after missing eight days and three games.

Now the Warriors have been watching Green’s minutes all season, but now it looks like there going to be watching his minutes even more carefully. In his return game Green played 24 minutes as the Bulls beat the Chicago Bulls 104-90. Last night Green was limited to just 19 minutes as the Warriors where beat easily by the Miami Heat 122-105.

Don’t forget that while it was the heel injury that caused Green to miss three games he has been dealing with injuries to his finger, back and elbow though the first month of the season.

Green signed a four year $100 million dollar contract extension this summer that will take him through the age of 33. With all of the injuries that Golden State has suffered this season; so it’s more important now then ever for the Warriors to consider Green’s long term health.

It’s really looking like Golden State will end up in the draft lottery even if Curry, Thompson and Russell return fully healthy this season. I don’t think that there will be enough games left for them to make any type of playoff run. It would be very interesting if the Warriors somehow found a way to move up in the draft lottery and added a high draft pick to a healthy roster that included Curry, Thompson, Green and Russell.

While it’s difficult to take anything positive away from a 4-16 start Eric Paschall has been given the opportunity to show his skill set. Paschall is playing 31.3 minutes per game and is averaging 17 points per game which is leading the team in scoring for the currently healthy players.

The Los Angeles Lakers won their 10th consecutive game last night with a 125-103 win over the Washington Wizards.

Anthony Davis led the Lakers in scoring with 26 points while LeBron James added 23 points in the win. Davis also grabbed a team high 13 rebounds while James handed out a team high 11 assists.

Last nights win improved the Lakers season record to 17-2. This is the best start for the Lakers since 2008-09. The Lakers also started 17-2 in 1985-86. That 1985-86 team went on to post the best two loss start of any Lakers team in history as they went 19-2.

This is the first time since 2009-10 that a Lakers team has put together a double digit winning streak. That 2009-10 Lakers team won 11 straight games. This Lakers team will have a chance to get that 11th victory Sunday as they host the Dallas Mavericks.

That 2009-10 Lakers team went on to win the NBA title; something that Los Angeles hasn’t done since that season.

The Lakers are dealing with a couple of injuries. Kyle Kuzma suffered a ankle sprain in the second half of Friday nights game. Kuzma is listed as day to day, but x-rays take last night came up negative according to Lakers head coach Frank Vogel.

Guard Avery Bradley will be reevaluated this weekend to determine his availability. Bradley is recovering from a hairline fracture in his right leg. So far Bradley has missed eight games with this injury.

The Lakers schedule will get a little tougher starting Sunday with their game against the Mavericks. After Sunday the Lakers play three games on the road starting with a back to back set against the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz. The short road trip wraps up with a game Friday against the Portland Trailblazers.

The Philadelphia eagles announced yesterday that they signed left tackle Lane Johnson to a four year contract extension worth $72 million dollars. Johnson’s new contract runs though 2025 and includes $54 million dollars in guaranteed money.

Johnson’s contract now makes him the highest paid tackle in the NFL. Johnson new contract surpasses the deal Taylor Lewan of the Tennessee Titans who has a contract that guarantees him $50 million dollars.

Johnson was Philadelphia’s 1st round pick in 2013; the 4th overall selection in the draft. Johnson has played in 90 games and started all of them for Philadelphia. Johnson has made the Pro Bowl each of the past two season and was voted first team All-Pro in 2017.

Earlier this month the Eagles signed right guard Brandon Brooks to a four year $56 million dollar extension. The Eagles have also inked kicker Jake Elliott and long snapper Rick Lovato to new deals.

Philadelphia has now turned it’s attention get a new deal done with tight end Zac Ertz. The Eagles and Ertz where having preliminary contract talks, but those have seemed to have stalled according to reports.

What do you think of this signing spree the Eagles have been on? Do you like the players they’re locking into new deals? Or would you of like to have seen them spend their money elsewhere?

The Eagles are currently 5-6 heading into Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins. A win on Sunday will put the Eagles in a tie for 1st place in the NFC East with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Eagles and Cowboys meet in Week 17, but besides that the Eagles have four very winnable games on their remaining schedule. The Eagles should beat Miami 2-9 Miami this Sunday. Then Philadelphia has two games remaining against the 2-9 New York Giants and a game against the 2-9 Washington Redskins.

It looks like Philadelphia will have to win the NFC East to get into the playoffs. If they go 4-1 over these final five games; will that be good enough to win their division?

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live just had over to TuneIn.com and you can listen whenever you please.

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 27, 2019 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized

The Detroit Lions will be hosting a Thanksgiving day game tomorrow like they have for many, many years and at 3-7-1 it’s a not make or break type of game. There has however been some interest in the Lions quarterback situation for tomorrow’s game against the 5-6 Chicago Bears.

If healthy Matthew Stafford would no doubt be the Lions starting quarterback, but he’s been out the last 3 weeks with what’s being reported as broken bones in his back. The Lions haven’t placed Stafford on injured reserve and seem to be taking his injury week by week.

Jeff Driskell has started the last 3 games for the Lions at quarterback. Detroit is 0-3 with Driskell as their starting quarterback and he’s coming off of a 3 interception game last Sunday. It’s being reported that Driskell is suffering from a hamstring injury and his availability for tomorrow’s game is unclear.

Now if Driskell has to miss tomorrow’s game the Lions will turn to 3rd string quarterback David Blough. Blough is an undrafted rookie out of Purdue University who has yet to take a snap in an NFL regular season game.

Now as soon as this news broke and I’m sure you can guess this there where quite a few media members who wanted to know why the Lions didn’t go out and sign Colin Kaepernick.

Detroit was actually one of the six teams that stayed with the Kaepernick tryout and drove to that high school to watch him; so they at least wanted to see what he looked like in his workout.

Of course this opens the door to a ton of reasons why the Lions didn’t try to sign Kaepernick. It’s possible they didn’t like what they saw at his tryout even though reports are he looked good. Maybe there was something they saw that they didn’t think fit with what they do. Also remember that Blough has been with the Lions all season and even though he hasn’t played he’s been at the meetings and practices; so he should have a grasp of their offense. Kaepernick would be coming into a brand new system that he would know nothing about and have two or three days at most to be ready to play his first game in almost three full seasons.

It seems like every time a team passes on signing Kaepernick they’re indicted for passing up on him, but if you look at what could be the reasons the Lions didn’t bring him in it makes some sense. I’m also under the impression that Driskell is going to end up starting at quarterback tomorrow; so there would be no need to sign anyone.

The only real question about that might be out there about why the Lions didn’t take a look at Kaepernick is the fact that they wanted to sign Josh Johnson. Now Johnson did play in four games for the Washington Redskins last season and he started three of those games; so he’s not coming off of long term inactivity like Kaepernick is. It would be interesting to know why the Lions would look at Johnson first instead of Kaepernick, but of course there’s no way to find that out.

Now even though the Lions where very interested in signing Johnson he had already signed a deal with the XFL and they where unwilling to release him so he could sign with Detroit.

I am a little surprised that the XFL wouldn’t release Johnson from his contract. The XFL and the NFL aren’t going head to head and it seems as though they could’ve released Johnson and then just resigned him after the NFL season ended.

The XFL season starts in February; so if a player signed with a team that made a deep playoff run it could hurt his preparation for the upcoming XFL season, but the Lions aren’t even going to make the playoffs; so Johnson would be free to return to the XFL at the end of the NFL’s regular season.

I haven’t seen any quotes from Johnson on the situation, but by not being allowed to sign with Detroit he’s missing out on a chance to make more money than he will in the XFL. You have to wonder if this might affect players signing with the XFL in the future.

It appears as though the Atlanta Braves had a plan going into this off season and they’re making the moves they want happen early.

Yesterday they added another free agent when they signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a two year $16 million dollar deal.

d’Arnaud was a big time prospect when the New York Mets brought him up in 2013, but things never really clicked for him. He suffered a multitude of injuries when he was with the Mets and after playing in just 10 games for them last season he was released. He signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but played just 1 game in the majors for them before he was purchased by the Tampa Bay Rays.

I’m not sure what goes on in Tampa Bay, but d’Arnaud like so many players seem to have found himself in a Rays uniform and had his best season. He played in 92 games and tied his career high in home runs with 16. He also posted his second best season in RBI’s with 67 and batting average at .263. Of course the big question will be; can he put up similar numbers with the Braves?

d’Arnaud will share catching duties in Atlanta with Tyler Flowers, but I’m under the impression that d’Arnaud was signed to be the #1 catcher and Flowers will just spell him when needed. d’Arnaud has never caught more than 103 games in a season; so it makes a lot of sense for the Braves to have Flowers on the roster just in case.

There where three other catcher signed yesterday as well. The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Stephen Vogt while the Houston Astros signed Dustin Garneau. Mike Zunino also signed a one year deal to stay with Tampa Bay. Counting Flowers who’s contract was re-worked by the Braves there have been six catchers signed already this off season.

With d’Arnaud signing yesterday and Yasmani Grandal singing last week with the Chicago White Sox there aren’t really any top tier catchers left on the free agent market. There are quite a few veteran catchers available on the free agent market, but none of them are truly #1 type of catchers.

If your favorite team was looking for a catcher this off season they’re going to have to explore the trade market to get something done.

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