Archive for the ‘sports’ Category

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 17, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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12/17

Week 15 is in the book in the National Football League and with just a couple of weeks left in the regular season Mr. Fantasy has taken the overall lead in our picks. Mr. Fantasy is 148-74-1, I am two games behind Mr. Fantasy at 146-76-1, Schaumburg Stu is 3rd at 145-72-1 while Dan the Man is at the bottom with a record of 140-82-1. In Week 15 Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy where both 13-3 while Dan the Man was 12-4 and I ended up at the bottom for the week with a record of 11-5. Week 16 starts tomorrow with the Tennessee Titans against the Jacksonville Jaquars and then there are two games on Saturday this week as well.

Let’s check in and see how the Greg vs. Mr. Fantasy challenge went for Week 15. At quarterback Greg went with Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions while Mr. Fantasy choose Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints. Stafford finished 17th among quarterbacks for the week with 9.51 points while Brees was the #1 scoring quarterback for Week 15 with 25.45 points. At the running back position Greg went with Jamal Charles of the Kansas City Chiefs while Mr. Fantasy’s pick was Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. Believe it or not Charles was actually the 3rd highest scoring running back on the Chiefs in our league for Week 15. Knile Davis with 23.68 points finished 5th for the week and De’Anthony Thomas scored 12.27 points finishing 12th for the week. Charles scored 9.05 points which was good for 42nd place among running backs. Foster scored 21.70 points which was good for 8th place among running backs in Week 15. At the wide receiver position Greg picked T.Y. Hilton of the Indianapolis Colts while Mr. Fantasy took Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants. Hilton scored 8 points finishing 47th among wide receivers while Beckham was the highest scoring wide receiver in Week 15 with 41.43 points. For tight ends in Week 15 Greg liked Delanie Walker of the Tennessee Titans while Mr. Fantasy liked Larry Donnell of the New York Giants. Walker finished in 8th place with 12.30 points while Donnell scored 2.60 which was good for 34th place among tight ends. At kicker Greg went with Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens while Mr. fantasy took Shaun Suisham of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tucker scored 8 points which was good for a tie for 10th among kickers. Suisham scored 9 points which put him one place ahead of Tucker which was a tie for 9th place for the week. Sleepers is the toughest category to deal with as I have to decide who I actual feel is a sleeper and who isn’t. Since there are only a couple of weeks left in the regular season and then the playoffs; yes they’ll be making picks for the playoffs, but I don’t think Greg or Mr. Fantasy know that yet. I will have sleeper pick guidelines for next season. Anyway for his sleeper pick Greg took New York Jets running back Chris Johnson while Mr. Fantasy went with Carolina Panthers quarterback Derek Anderson. Johnson scored 8 points and finished 21st among running backs while Anderson scored 12.69 points which was good for 8th place among quarterbacks. The scoring system is base off of the Next Year is Here league that we’ve played in for many years and is run through Yahoo.

Let’s stick with football. Johnny Manziel got the 1st start of his NFL career against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday and he was bad. They better way to say it is Manziel looked like a rookie quarterback making his 1st start in the NFL. Manziel was 10 for 18 for 80 yards throwing 2 interceptions. Manziel also ran 5 times for 13 yards and was sacked 3 times. Not the start Cleveland Browns fans where looking for out of their #1 draft pick. Brett Favre was 14 for 19 for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns in his 1st start, but remember John Elway was 1 for 8 for 18 yards and was pulled in his first NFL start. Will Manziel be as good as Favre or Elway; no probably not, but you had to expect him to struggle in his 1st start. The thing I’m having a hard time understanding is the fact that most of the experts where calling for the Browns to make a change from Brian Hoyer to Manziel at the quarterback positions. The Browns actually make the change; Manziel struggles and anyone who said Manziel should be the starter denied it and turned on Manziel as quickly as they could. Man; how would you like to be in a fox hole with one of these guys? If you’ve listened to the podcast you know that Dan the Man and I are Johnny Manziel supporters while Mr. Fantasy hates the guy and doesn’t think he belongs in the NFL. I’ll be the first to admit he was bad on Sunday and I even said on the Sunday Sports Time Radio podcast that if you owned him in fantasy you shouldn’t play him, but he didn’t deserve the attacks that he suffered at the hands of people who were supporting him a week before. There are always growing pains with rookie quarterbacks. Look at Blake Bortles, Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater; all rookie quarterbacks who’ve started for their teams this season and have had struggles. Why did the mainstream media decide that Manziel was the guy to parade out in front of everyone and try to embarrass?

There where some more moves made in the baseball off-season. Melky Cabrera signed a 3 years $42 million dollar deal with the Chicago White Sox. Jed Lowrie signed a 3 year $23 million dollar deal with the Houston Astros. Chase Headley is staying with the New York Yankees as he signed a 4 year $52 million dollar deal. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Brett Anderson for 1 year at $10 million dollars. The Kansas City Royals signed outfielder Alex Rios for 1 year and $11 million dollars. Michael Morse signed a 2 year deal with the Miami Marlins for $16 million dollars. Coming off of an arm fracture that cost him most of the 2014 season Gavin Floyd signed a 1 year $4 million dollar deal with the Cleveland Indians. There was also a trade made as The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have sent reliever Kevin Jepsen to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for outfielder Matt Joyce. Who’s the next guy to sign or be traded? Will or has your favorite team made the moves they need to contend next season?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 10, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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12/10/14

The baseball winter meetings are rolling along this week and there have been some big name players signed and traded. Late last night the Chicago Cubs where able to sign their #1 free agent target; Jon Lester. Lester gets a six year deal for $158 million dollars and a vesting option for a 7th year. The 7th year option is being reported to be worth $15 million dollars. This offer beat out the Boston Red Sox to who were the other team left in the Lester derby. The Red Sox final offer to Lester was six years and $135 million dollars. Lester joins Jason Hammel in the Cubs 2015 starting rotation. Hammel signed back with the Cubs earlier in the week for two at $10 million dollars. The Cubs dealt Hammel to the Oakland A’s last season. The Cubs also acquired catcher Miguel Montero from the Arizona Diamondbacks for young pitchers Zack Godley and Jefferson Mejia.

The baseball team on the south side of Chicago was busy as well as the White Sox agreed to a deal with the Oakland A’s that sends Jeff Samardzija back to Chicago, though this time with the South Siders. Righty Michael Ynoa is going with him in return for infielder Marcus Semien, righty Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Rangel Ravelo. The White Sox also added a closer having agreed to sign David Robertson to a four year deal worth more than $46 million dollars. Robertson has been zeroed in on landing a four-year deal this winter and he found a team happy to give him one with a solid average annual value.

Yesterday the Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to a deal with left-handed pitcher starting pitcher Francisco Liriano. The deal is for three years at a total of $39 million dollars. The deal seems quite a reasonable price for a pitcher with Liriano’s ability to dominate. The Pirates had express interest in bring Liriano back, but with the resigning Pittsburgh will give up the ability to add draft pick compensation, which it was in line to receive if Liriano had found a new home after declining a qualifying offer.

The story I kept hearing reported from the winter meetings was that the Houston Astros where looking to add to their bullpen. They where in on left-handed reliever Andrew Miller and actually offered Miller more money then what he got when he signed with the New York Yankees. Robertson was also a reported target of the Astros before he signed with the White Sox. Today the Astros added two relievers that should help improve their bullpen. The Astros have agreed to a three-year, $18.5 million dollar deal with reliever Luke Gregerson. Also the Astros have reached a deal with fellow right-handed reliever Pat Neshek. Neshek receives a $12.5 million dollars guarantee over two years, with an option for a third.

Also earlier in the week the Oakland Athletics have officially agreed to ship outfielder/first baseman/DH Brandon Moss to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for minor league second baseman Joe Wendle. This deal had been talked about between these 2 teams for a couple of weeks and they finally agreed to it Tuesday.

We’ll have to see if they are a couple pf more moves out there before the winter meetings end, but if we don’t it’s been a pretty exciting week for baseball fans.

Let’s look at how we did in Week 14 of our NFL picks. Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy tied for the best record at 12-4. I finished a game behind them with and 11-5 record while Dan the Man ended the week at 9-7. For the season Mr. Fantasy and I are ties for the lead at 135-71-1. Schaumburg Stu is three games behind us with a record of 132-78-1. Dan the Man is stuck at the bottom of the standings with a record of 128-78-1. Let’s see what Week 15 brings us.

How did Greg and Mr. Fantasy do against each other in Week 14? Well let’s take a look at who they picked and how they did. At quarterback Greg took a chance on Thursday night with Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears while Mr. Fantasy went with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Cutler scored 24.22 points and finished 8th in the quarterback standings for Week 14 while Brady scored 17.54 points and ended up 12th for the week. It was Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton who led all players at that position for Week 14 with 39.82 points. It seems like both Greg and Mr. Fantasy rate their running backs similarly as they managed to select the same player again. This time it was Eddie Lacy of the Green Bay Packers. Lacy finished 4th for the week with 29.60 points. He was behind Joique Bell (Detroit Lions), DeMarco Murray (Dallas Cowboys) and Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers who topped all other running backs with 52.50 points in Week 14. At wide receiver Greg went with a Oakland Raiders player as he likes to do and this week it was James Jones. Mr. Fantasy took Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions for his wide receiver. While the Raiders did get their 2nd win of the season in Week 14 Jones only scored 2.60 points for Greg and finished ranked 103rd among wide receivers. Johnson had a little better week scoring 28.05 points and finishing 6th among wide receivers for Week 14. At tight end Greg took Jordan Reed of the Washington Redskins while Mr. Fantasy went with Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers. Reed scored 4.75 points and finished 26th among tight ends for the week. Gates scored 7.15 points which was good for 17th among tight ends for Week 14. At kicker Greg picked Matt Prater of the Detroit Lions while Mr. Fantasy selected Mason Crosby of the Green bay Packers. Prater scored 11 points in Week 14 and tied for 6th place. Crosby out up 15.25 points which was good for 3rd place among kickers for Week 14. The sleeper picks for Week 14 where Sebastian Janikowski the Oakland Raiders kicker for Greg and Charles Johnson the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver for Mr. Fantasy. Janikowski scored 9 points for Greg while Johnson scored 19.55 points for Mr. Fantasy. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a kicker being a sleeper pick, but hey why not. Let’s see who Greg and Mr. Fantasy like for Week 15. You can hear Mr. Fantasy make his choices Sunday morning in between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. during the Sports Time Radio preview podcast for Week 15 of the NFL on www.blogtalkradio.com Sadly you have to wait until I write this blog on Wednesday’s to know who Greg selected and how they did against each other.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

I need to thank NHL.com for the stats and awards that Jean Beliveau won during his career. Without that site I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much about Beliveau.

How was Your Week

Posted: December 6, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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12/06/14

While the NBA season is only about 20 games old for most teams there are some questions out their this early in the season. If you’re a fan of the New York Knicks are you asking yourself if the triangle offense is the right fit for your favorite team. The Knicks are off to a 4-17 start to the season after a last second loss last night to the Charlotte Bobcats 103-102. Carmelo Anthony is averaging 23.2 points per game, but Amar’e Stoudemire is the only other Knicks player averaging in double figures per game at 12.8. Stroudemire also leads the team in rebounds per game with 7.8. At 3.9 assists per game Jose Calderon is leading the Knicks in that category. While those might be solid individual stats for players it’s the team stats that show where the Knicks are suffering. The Knicks average 93.5 points per game and this is good for 26th place out of 30 teams. They are 13th in opponents scoring giving up 98.9 points per game for a difference of -5.4 points a game. As a team the Knicks are shooting .448 % from the field which puts them in 19th out of 30 NBA teams. Knicks opponents are shooting just a little better per game at .450 % from the field which ranks at 13th out of 30 teams. New York is one of the better 3 point shooting teams in the NBA. The Knicks make .371 % of the 3’s they take which is tied for 7th in the league. In return though opponents shoot a better percentage from behind the 3-point line. Knicks opponents make .379 % of the 3’s they take which is 25 out of the 30 NBA teams. New York is middle of the pack with turnovers per game at 14 this ranks tied for 14th in the NBA. There opponents are committing 13.9 turnovers per game which ranks 15th out of 30 teams. Before the season started the experts said it would take the Knicks some time to adjust to playing the triangle offense. How long is too long? To use the old if the playoffs started right now line; yeah the Knicks wouldn’t be close. The Knicks are 5 1/2 game behind what would be the 8th seeded Brooklyn Nets. I heard someone say just yesterday that resigning Anthony in the off-season was a mistake, but without him who’s scoring for this team. The triangle offense can and has worked with one top scorer in it. It’s the pieces around that player that have to really fit the system. Anthony doesn’t quite fit the triangle like Michael Jordan did for the Chicago Bulls or Kobe Bryant did for the Los Angeles Lakers, but there’s no doubt he can score. You have to wonder how Knicks fans will react if this team misses the playoffs for the second straight season in a row in the Eastern conference.

It was brought to my attention that I forgot to add Greg and Mr. Fantasy’s sleeper picks for Week 13. So here are there picks; so we’ll be all caught up. Greg went with Carolina Panthers wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery. Cotchery was targeted 5 times; he caught 2 of those targets for 20 yards and 3.50 points for the week. Cotchery was 95th among scoring for wide receivers in Week 13. Mr. Fantasy picked Indianapolis Colts running back Dan “Boom Boom” Herron. Herron carried the football 8 times for 88 yards and a touchdown. He was also targeted twice in the passing game catching both passes for eight yards. Herron did lose a fumble, but totaled 18.35 points in Week 13 was 12th highest scoring running back for the week. Now we’re all caught up and we’ll see who Greg and Mr. Fantasy like in Week 14.

Did your fantasy football playoffs start this Thursday when the Dallas Cowboys beat the Chicago Bears 41-28? The better question might be; did you make the fantasy football playoffs? For your leagues Week 14 is the last week of the regular season and I find myself on the outside looking in, but I am in position to sneak into the playoffs. In our Next Year is Here league I am in 9th place and 8 teams make the playoffs; so I need a win and then a loss by the team ahead of me. In the Sports Time Radio league which is our auction draft league I sit in 10th place, but record wise just 1 game out of 8th place. I did have a couple of players go in the Thursday night game, but my guys didn’t put up great numbers. Our Next Year is Here league is the one you always hear us joke about that we start two tight ends a week. I have Jason Witten of the Dallas Cowboy as one of my starting tight ends. Witten caught 2 passes for 26 yards and put up 4.10 points in our scoring system. Witten was projected to score 11.71 points in Week 14; so that team is in the whole to start. I the Sports Time Radio league I had two players going in Thursday’s game; both wide receivers. Brandon Marshall of the Chicago Bears and Terrence Williams of the Cowboys. Marshall looked like he was on his way to putting up good numbers for me, but a rib and lung injury ended his game and what appears to be his season. Marshall had 4 targets catching 3 of them for 61 yards. Marshall was projected to score 14.90 points in Week 14, but ended up scoring 8.35 points. Williams on the other hand had 0 targets which of course means 0 catches and 0 yards for a total of 0 points. While Williams wasn’t expected to put up huge numbers; he was projected to score 8.20 points in Week 14, but it’s tough to come back from a starter getting a big old 0 in points for your team. Here’s hoping your Week 14 started off better than mine did. That is unless you’re playing against my team.

The New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers have officially announced a three-team trade sending shortstop Didi Gregorius from the Diamondbacks to the Yankees, right-hander Shane Greene from the Yankees to the Tigers, and left-hander Robbie Ray and infield prospect Domingo Leyba to the Diamondbacks. Is Gregorius the long-term answer for the Yankees at shortstop or is he going to just be a gap filler until a bigger name comes along. In two seasons with Arizona Gregorius played in 183 games. He is a career .241 hitter with 25 doubles, 8 triples and 13 home runs. They Yankees also announced the signing of Andrew Miller to a four-year contract. Miller, a client of Frontline Athlete Management, will reportedly receive a $36 million dollars guarantee, but the contract does not include a no-trade clause. The 29-year-old Miller (30 next May) broke out in a huge way in 2014, pitching to a 2.02 ERA with an eye-popping 14.9 K/9 (an AL record) in 62 1/2 innings for the Red Sox and Orioles. He went on to throw another 7 1/3 shutout innings with an 8-to-1 K/BB ratio in the postseason as well. Miller will pair with Dellin Betances; an electric breakout story himself at the back of the Yankee bullpen, giving manager Joe Girardi a pair of dominant late-inning options. Does signing Miller mean that David Robertson is no longer in the Yankees plan. Will the Yankees still add a starting pitcher; which a lot of experts think they need. There’s still a lot of off-season left for teams to sign or trade for players; so we’ll see who ends up where before the 2015 season starts.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

Let’s call it Wednesday!

Posted: December 3, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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12/3/14

For Week 13 Mr. Fantasy was the winner in picking games at 11-5. Dan the Man and I ended the week tied at 10-6 while Schaumburg Stu was 9-7 for the week. Overall I have a one game lead on Mr. Fantasy. I am 124-66-1 so that makes Mr. Fantasy 123-67-1. Schaumburg Stu is holding onto 3rd place by a game with an overall record of 120-70-1. Dan the Man is still in the basement with a record of 117-71-1. Now it’s on to Week 14.

Since there where three games on Thanksgiving I allowed Greg and Mr. Fantasy to use those players in their head to head match up. So here’s how it broke down for Week 13. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions while Greg took Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Stafford finished 11th among quarterbacks for the week with 18.05 points. Romo finished with -1.87 points for the week and was behind quarterbacks Tom Savage of the Houston Texans and Jake Locker of the Tennessee Titans. Not the best week for Romo. Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Houston Texans and his six touchdown passes led all quarterbacks for Week 13 with 4.66 points. At running back Mr. Fantasy and Greg both went with Jamaal Charles of the Kansas City Chiefs. Charles scored 17.40 points and finished 14th among running backs for the week. Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers led all running backs for the week with 42.90 points. Mr. Fantasy’s choice at wide receiver for Week 13 was Charles Johnson of the Detroit Lions. Greg went with Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys. Johnson ended up as the 2nd highest scoring wide receiver of the week with 35.10 points. Bryant scored 10.30 points and finished 43rd among wide receivers for the week. DeAndre Hopkins of the Houston Texans was the only wide receiver to score more points than Johnson in week 13. Hopkins ended the week with 42.80 points. At tight end Mr. Fantasy picked Delanie Walker of the Tennessee Titans. Greg’s choice was Jason Witten of the Dallas Cowboys. Walker scored 1.35 points for the week and finished 47th among tight ends for Week 13. Witten wasn’t a whole lot better finishing 44th among tight ends with 1.55 points for the week. Coby Fleener of the Indianapolis Colts was the tight end to have in Week 13 as he topped all scores with 27.95 points in Week 13. Everybody needs a kicker so Mr. Fantasy choose “The Leg” Greg Zuerlein of the St. Louis Rams while Greg went with the Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker. While the Rams put up 52 points in their Week 13 game Zuerlein got just one field goal attempt in the game, but did kick seven extra points and totaled 10.00 fantasy points for the week. Zuerlein finished 7th for the week among kickers. Tucker put up 15.00 fantasy points for the week and tied for 3rd among kickers for Week 13. It looks like Greg’s strategy of going with the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving didn’t work out for him. It looks like Week 13 goes to Mr. Fantasy.

The Tampa Bay Lighting are leading the Atlantic division and the Eastern Conference with 37 points. The Montréal Canadiens trail the Lighting by just one point with 36 on the season. In the Metropolitan both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders have 36 points and are tied for the division lead. In the Western Conference the Vancouver Canucks and the Anaheim Ducks are tied for the lead in the Pacific division and the conference point lead with 35 points. The Nashville Predators and the St. Louis Blues are just one point behind with 34 points on the season and are tied for the lead on the Central division. The Islanders have the most wins in the National Hockey League at this point with 18. On the other end of the NHL standings the Columbus Blue jackets and the Edmonton Oilers have totaled 16 points on the season and are tied for the most losses in the NHL with 15. Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins leads the NHL in points with 33 and assists with 24 while Tyler Seguin of the Dallas Stars leads the league in goals with 18. Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators is the leagues plus/minus (+/-) leader with a +21. Michael Hutchinson of the Winnipeg Jets leads all goaltenders in Goals Against Average (G.A.A.) at 1.56 and Save Percentage with .947. Pekka Rinna of the Nashville Predators leads the league in wins with 16 while Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has 5 shutouts to lead all goaltenders. The NHL season is only about 30 games old, but I always enjoy looking at who’s leading what category. I just hope if you’re a fantasy hockey player you saw some players names that where on your team.

In sad NHL news, former Montreal Canadiens great Jean Beliveau passed away at 83. Beliveau spent 18 full seasons with the Canadiens from 1953-71. In 1,125 games, he scored 507 goals, set up 712 others and finished with 1,219 points. He played in 14 NHL All-Star Games, won the Hart Trophy as League MVP twice (1956 and 1964), the Art Ross Trophy as top scorer in 1956, and the inaugural Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 1965. Dwarfing those accomplishments, however, is that Beliveau was a member of 10 Stanley Cup-winning teams as a player and seven more as an executive with Montreal. His name has been engraved on the Stanley Cup 17 times, more than any individual. Beliveau is second all-time in Canadiens history in points and assists, third in goals, and fourth in games played. He became the fourth player in NHL history to reach 500 goals when he scored on Feb. 11, 1971, and was the second player in League history to score 1,000 points, joining Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings in that exclusive club on March 3, 1968, in his 911th game.

While I don’t agree with this move, but it will make Mr. Fantasy happy the Cleveland Browns are sticking with Bryan Hoyer as their starting quarterback against the Indianapolis Colts this week. Hoyer was 18 for 30 against the Buffalo Bills in Week 13 for 192 yards and two interceptions. Hoyer has thrown six interceptions in his last three games. Johnny Manziel relived Hoyer against the Bills and led Cleveland on their only touchdown drive of the game. Cleveland is 7-5 and trying to hang around in the AFC playoff race; so maybe they think staying with the veteran Hoyer is the better choice. While Hoyer is a solid if not spectacular quarterback he’s throwing to many interceptions and Manziel might be able to provide a spark to the Browns. If the Browns drop this weeks game to the Colts will it finally be “Johnny Football” time in Cleveland?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

I need to thank NHL.com for the stats and awards that Jean Beliveau won during his career. Without that site I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much about Beliveau.

Let’s call it Wednesday; before Thanksgiving.

Posted: November 26, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports
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Week 12 was a bounce back week for all of us making our picks. Mr. Fantasy won the week at 13-2. I finished one game behind him at 12-3. Schaumburg Stu took the 3rd spot with a record of 11-4 while Dan the Man finished one game behind him at 10-5. For the season I’m still holding onto the lead at 114-60-1. Mr. Fantasy has taken over 2nd place with a record of 112-62-1. Schaumburg Stu fell to 3rd just a game behind Mr. Fantasy with a record of 111-63-1. Dan the Man is at the bottom of the standings through 12 weeks with a record of 109-65-1. With 3 games tomorrow we’ll see if someone can het off to a fast start for Week 13.

Let’s take a look at our head to head fantasy challenge between Mr. Fantasy and Greg. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears while Greg selected Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Cutler scored 5.10 points and finished 22nd among quarterbacks for the week. Brady scored 16.98 points and finished 9th among quarterbacks for the week. I’m still trying to figure out if Brady was an allowable choice. It was decided that they would no longer be able to pick player who were among the Top 5 scorers for the season. I believe Brady was on that list, but I need to double-check. At running back Mr. Fantasy went with Denard Robinson of the Jacksonville Jaquars while Greg’s choice was C.J. Anderson of the Denver Broncos. Robinson scored 11.70 points and tied for 28th among running backs for the week. Anderson had a very good week scoring 35.25 points and finishing 2nd out of all the running backs for Week 12. On a side note Justin Forsett was the leading scorer for running backs with 38 points. At the wide receiver position Mr. Fantasy picked T.Y. Hilton of the Indianapolis Colts while Greg went with Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers. Hilton was 6th among wide receivers with 23.20 points while Cobb scored 8.86 points and finished 49th among wide receivers for the week. At tight end both Mr. Fantasy and Greg decided that Colby Fleener of the Indianapolis Colts was the choice this week. Fleener finished 30th among tight ends scoring 4.30 points in Week 12. For kickers this week Mr. Fantasy went with Matt Bryant of the Atlanta Falcons while Greg decided that Phil Dawson of the San Francisco 49ers would be the best kicker for the week. Bryant scored 9 points and tied for 8th place for the week. Dawson scored 6 points and tied for 12th place for the week. Believe it or not Mr. Fantasy tried to use Josh Gordon the returning wide receiver of the Cleveland Browns as his sleeper pick, but I shot that pick down. Instead Mr. Fantasy went with Ben Tate now of the Minnesota Vikings while Greg’s picked was Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray. Tate didn’t get a carry and I’m not even sure if he saw the field on Sunday; so he scored 0 points. Murray on the other hand put up 25.93 points for the week on only 4 carries and finished 6th among running backs for the week. Even with the possible Brady error it looks like this week went Greg’s way. Let’s see if Mr. Fantasy can bounce back in Week 13.

If you where listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast yesterday you heard that we’re going to try to make Tuesday’s, Fantasy Tuesday. We’re going to see if we cam focus on hockey and basketball during their seasons. I thought we got through basketball alright, but we struggled with hockey. I think it was mostly on me as I tried to force too much information into what we where talking about and I don’t think it came across on air. Our hockey fantasy league is a category league. We use goals, assists, plus/minus (+/-), penalty minutes, power play points, short-handed points, game winning goals, faceoffs won, hits and blocked shots. For the goaltenders their categories are wins, losses, goals against average, save percentage and shutouts. Winning a category is the equivalent of winning a game. For the last week Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers was ranked as the top offensive player. One of the stats that pushed Giroux to the top spot was he won 74 faceoffs for the week. Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche was ranked 2nd on offense. MacKinnon had 6 assists and was +5 for the week. Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars was ranked as the 3rd best offensive player for the week. Benn had a well-rounded week scoring 2 goals adding 3 assists he was a +2 had a power play point and just for the heck of it had 9 hits. The top goaltender of the week was Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. Price had 2 wins a 0.50 goals against average a .985 save percentage and 1 shutout. Price barely beat out Jaroslav Halak of the New York Islanders. Halak had 2 wins a 0.48 goals against average a .980 save percentage and 1 shutout. Calvin Pickard of the Colorado Avalanche picked up 2 wins during the week as he didn’t allow a goal on 42 shots in relief this week. Hopefully next Tuesday I’ll do a better job of breaking down the hockey stats for the listeners.

The Boston Red Sox made a big splash in free agency this week as they signed both Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez and have been reported to have offered Jon Lester a deal and are also interested in acquiring Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies. Sandoval will earn a guaranteed $95 million over five years, with a club option for a sixth season. Sandoval will receive a $3 million dollar bonus, then earn $17 million annually over 2015-17 before taking home an $18 million salary in both 2018 and 2019. The club option is for $17 million and comes with a $5 million dollar buyout. Ramirez will reportedly earn $88 million over those four years, and his contract contains a $22 million vesting option for a fifth year. The contract calls for a $3 million dollar signing bonus, a $19 million salary in 2015 and a $22 million salary from 2016-18. Lester has met with the Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves and is scheduled to meet with the St. Louis Cardinals next week. It’s also being reported that the Chicago Cubs have offered Lester a 6 year deal worth a reported $135 million dollars. Other reports have said that Lester would like to make a decision by the end of next week. The Chicago White Sox added 1st baseman Adam LaRoche signing him to a 2 year deal worth $25 million dollars. While the Seattle Mariners locked up their 3rd baseman Kyle Seager for 7 years with a $100 million dollar deal. It should be fun to see what moves teams make and where these free agents end up playing next season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week?

Posted: November 22, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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11/22/14

Last week we took a look at some fantasy player who have been disappointing so far this football season. So after 11 weeks let’s take a look at players who have been surprises or have out performed were they were ranked to start the season. I’m using the pre-seasons rankings from our Yahoo! fantasy football league entitled Next Year is Here 13. At quarterback Philip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers was ranked at 100 to start the season. Going into Week 12 Rivers is ranked in the 19th position among all NFL players. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was ranked at 94th to start the season and right now Roethlisberger is the 6th rated player in the NFL. As hard as it is to believe Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts was rated as the 59th player coming into the season. Right now Luck is the #1 overall player in our league. Looking at running backs Justin Forsett of the Baltimore Raves was ranked as the 190th player coming into the season. If you took a chance on Forsett it’s paid off for you as he is right now the 32nd ranked player. Chris Ivory was ranked at 134th coming into the season, but has moved into 61st place right now. Denard Robinson wasn’t even the starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars to start the season. Since Robinson was just going to be the 3rd down change of pace back he was ranked at 212nd to start the season. If you drafted him or found him on your waiver wire Robinson has helped your team as going into Week 12 he’s ranked as the 93rd best player. Looking at the wide receivers. Jeremy Maclin was coming off of an injury and you had to wonder if he’d be the guy in the Philadelphia Eagles offense. With some questions coming into the 2014 season Macklin was rated at 68th overall. Macklin has stayed healthy and is rated in the 18th spot right now. Mohamed Sanu of the Cincinnati Bengals wouldn’t be considered the top wide receiver on his team; that would be A.J. Green, but Sanu is still a quality fantasy player. Sanu started the season ranked at 178th, but has moved himself into the 53rd overall spot. A lot of fantasy players stayed away from Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. thinking he might not have much left. Smith started the season ranked at 149th and even though he has cooled off a little bit the last couple weeks he’s still ranked at 62nd though Week 11. There are few elite tight ends in fantasy football and if you’ve listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know that the league I’m using for rankings is also the league where we have to start 2 tight ends a week. While Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots is the highest ranked tight end at 20th you could’ve found some guys to help out your fantasy team. Larry Donnell of the New York Giants started the season being ranked in the 203rd position. Going into Week 12, Donnell has moved into the 75th spot for the season. Coby Fleener of the Indianapolis Colts started the season 2 spots behind Donnell in the 205th spot and Fleener is also in a 2 tight end system with Dwayne Allen. Fleener is now ranked 84th and with Allen out injured and possible missing some games Fleener’s ranking could continue to go up. It can be tough to invest in any Oakland Raiders when it comes to fantasy football but tight end Mychal Rivera has been solid. Rivera started the season with a ranking of 246th but he’s been coming on in the last few weeks and is now ranked at 144th. I don’t know if you can be surprised by a kicker n fantasy football but there are some guys who have moved up in the rankings from where they started. Stephen Gostkowski of the New England Patriots started the season ranked 196th, but has moved up to 79th in the rankings. Adam Vinatieri of the Indianapolis Colts started the season ranked 202nd and is now ranked 91st. Shaun Suisham of the Pittsburgh Steelers started the season ranked 235th and is now ranked at 145th. When it comes to Defense?Special Teams there are a few that have moved up the rankings from where they started out. The Philadelphia Eagles started the season ranked at 191st overall, but have moved up to 54th overall with the season they’ve had. The Miami Dolphins where in the 194th position overall to start the season and right now the Dolphins are 81st overall. The Arizona Cardinals were ranked in the 200th spot to start off the season. Going into Week 12 Arizona is ranked at 109th. Hopefully you where able to draft these guys or trade for them or even find them on your waiver wire, but they’re some of the biggest movers up from where they started the season. We’ll see where they all end up by the end of the season.

Are you buying the Toronto Raptors? The Raptors are off to a 10-2 start to this NBA season after making the playoffs last season. DeMar DeRozan is averaging 20 points a game to lead the Raptors in scoring while Kyle Lowry is handing out 5.8 assists per game and adding 18.4 points per game. Jonas Valanciunas is the Raptors leading rebounder averaging 8.1 boards a game and is adding 11.4 points per game. Guard Lou Williams is also scoring 11.5 points per game for Toronto. The Raptors defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 124-83 on Friday night in the first game of back to back games for them, Tonight; Saturday they have a match up with the Cleveland Cavaliers (5-6); in Cleveland. Obviously 12 games into a season is too early to tell where a team will end up, but there are times where a hot start can carry a team through a season even an 82 game season like the NBA. With the NBA’s Eastern conference like it is would it be a big surprise if Toronto re[resents the Eastern conference in the NBA finals.

Is tonight the night for the Philadelphia 76ers to get their first win of the NBA season? The 76ers are 0-12 after losing 122-96 to the Phoenix Suns last night (Friday) at home. Tonight the 76ers go to New York to play the 3-10 and struggling Knicks. On Thursday’s podcast you might have heard Jerry Hoover mention how upset he’d be if the Knicks lose this game. Dan the Man also has a rooting interest in the Knicks but this could be the 76ers shot to get that 1st win. If the 76ers don’t get that win tonight then when. After tonight’s game against the Knicks the 76ers have the Portland Trails Blazers (9-3) on November 24th. The Brooklyn Nets (5-7) on November 26th. The Dallas Mavericks (10-3) on November 26th. The San Antonio Spurs (8-4) on December 1st and the Minnesota Timberwolves (3-8) on December 3rd. Even on the road the 76ers have a chance tonight against the Knicks and if you’re a 76ers fan you have to ask yourself; if not tonight then when?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

Let’s call it Wednesday.

Posted: November 19, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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11/19/14

Week 11’s picks had Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and I all going 8-6 for the week. For the season I’m in the lead with an overall record of 102-57-1. Schaumburg Stu is 2 games back at 100-59-1 while Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy are tied while an overall record of 99-60-1. Who knows what Week 12 will have in store for us.

In what I guess we’ll call the Fantasy Football Challenge pitting Mr. Fantasy vs. Greg, played out this way. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Tom Brady of the New England Patriots while Greg picked Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins. Brady scored 13.44 points and finished 13th among quarterbacks while Griffin scored 8.74 points and finished 21st among quarterbacks for Week 11. At running back they both agreed that Mark Ingram of the New Orleans Saints was the right choice. Ingram finished 9th among running backs with 20.70 points. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy went with DeSean Jackson of the Washington Redskins while Greg’s choice was Randall Cobb of the Green Bay Packers. Jackson finished 48th among wide receivers for Week 11 with 6.95 points while Cobb finished with 20.65 points which was good for 10th place among wide receivers. At tight end Mr. Fantasy picked Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers while Greg went with Julius Thomas of the Denver Broncos. Gates scored 5.45 points and finished 21st among tight ends while Thomas got hurt in Sunday’s game and scored 1.80 points which put him in 42nd place among tight ends. At kicker Mr. Fantasy picked Stephen Gostkowski of the New England Patriots while Greg’s choice was Nick Novak of the San Diego Chargers. Gostkowski scored 6 points and finished tied for 11th place while Novak scored 10 points and finished tied for 6th place. Sleeper picks for Week 11. Mr. Fantasy went with Cleveland Browns wide receiver Taylor Gabriel while Greg’s choice was Indianapolis Colts running back Trent Richardson. While Richardson might not be a sleeper in name value in production value he would be a sleeper if he had a good week. Gabriel coed 13.37 points and finished 23rd for Week 11. Richardson scored 4.60 points and finished 47th among running backs for Week 11. If you heard the show Sunday morning you have to hear Mr. Fantasy complain about picking the same players over and over. He suggested that they not be allowed to pick the Top 5 scores at each position. I ran the idea by Greg and he was good with it; so starting with Week 12 they will not be allowed to select any of the Top 5 scoring players at each position for the season. As always I use the scoring system from your Yahoo league titled Next Year is Here 13.

If you’ve listened to Sports Time Radio you know that we all live in the Chicago area. If you listen to sports talk radio in Chicago when they’re not firing Marc Trestman or trying to get Jay Cutler traded or released they’ll talk about who the Chicago Cubs will sign from the free agent market this off-season. The team itself had come out and said that Jon Lester was the first free agent that they where interested in, but they’d also like to sign Russell Martin. Now Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu are the resident Cubs fans on the show while Mr. Fantasy roots for the Chicago White Sox. Now we’ve heard this song and dance from the Cubs organization for the past couple of seasons. How they just missed out on this free agent or that free agent and it has started already this off-season. Russell Martin signed a 5 year $82 million dollar deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Cubs of course having to explain losing Martin to Toronto, went with it was too much money. I actually agree it was too much money for Martin, but he was the only top catcher on the free agent market and that’s what someone was going to have to pay to bring him in. There’s strike one on the Cubs. This morning the Cubs have been quoted as saying that they believe that Lester will sign with the Boston Red Sox. So the Cubs put two names up for their fans to look for and now it looks more and more that neither one of these players will be in a Cubs uniform come opening day. While Martin was far and away the best catcher on the free agent market there are still some top of the rotation starting pitchers still out there. Will the Cubs go after a James Shields or a Max Scherzer now that they’re saying Lester is headed to Boston. I doubt they will, but they’ll need to find some new names to put up for their fans to wish for.

If you’re playing fantasy hockey this season like Dan the Man and I are, I hope you had all of your Nashville Predators in your line up last night. The Predators went out and scored 9 goals last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Taylor Back scored 2 goals while Derek Roy, Eric Nystrom, Mike Ribeiro, Filip Forsberg, Calle Jarnkrok, Roman Josi and Colin Wilson each added a goal. Shea Weber tallied 3 assists while Ryan Ellis, and Paul Gaustad each had 2 assists in the game. Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer gave up 6 of the Predators goals while Jonathan Bernier gave up the other 3 goals and was tagged with the loss. The Montréal Canadiens led the NHL right now with 29 points and an 20-14-5 record. The Tampa Bay Lightning are just 1 point behind at 28 points and an 20-13-5 record. After that it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Anaheim Ducks tied at 27 points.

Kevin Harvick won his 1st Sprint Cup championship and a championship for Stewart-Haas Racing by winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 in Homestead Miami Florida on Sunday. Harvick went from 12th to first over the final 15 laps gave Harvick the championship over Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano. It was Harvick’s first Sprint Cup title in his 14th season of competition.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 12, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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11-12-14

Schaumburg Stu and Dan the Man tied for the best record in Week 10 of our picks at 10-3. Mr. Fantasy was a game behind at 9-4 while I finished last for the week at 8-5. For the season I have the lead at 94-51-1, Schaumburg Stu is two games back at 92-53-1, Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy are four games off the lead at 90-55-1. We’ll see what Week 11 brings.

For Week 10 Mr. Fantasy and Greg both went with the same quarterback; Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and it worked out for them as Rodgers was the highest scoring quarterback of the week. At running back Mr. Fantasy went with Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears while Greg chose Andre Ellington of the Arizona Cardinals. Forte finished 17th among running backs with 15.85 points while Ellington scored 18.45 points and finished 13th among running backs for the week. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy picked Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brown scored 10.79 points and was 33rd among wide receivers for the week. Greg;s wide receiver pick was Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos. Thomas scored 19.30 points and finished 14th among receivers for the week. At tight end Mr. Fantasy took Julius Thomas pf the Denver Broncos while Greg went with Jimmy Graham of the New Orleans Saints. Thomas finished 2nd at 24.05 points while Graham finished 1st with 27.10 points for the week; so they nailed the top two tight ends for Week 10. For kickers this week Mr. Fantasy picked Cody Parkey of the Philadelphia eagles while Greg went with Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens. Parkey scored 9.75 points and finished 9th among kickers while Tucker scored 3 points and finished tied for 21st for the week. I what I thought was a bit f a surprise both Mr. Fantasy and Greg picked tight ends for their sleeper picks. Mr. Fantasy went with Chicago Bears tight end Dante Rosario who had 1 catch for 3 yards and scored 1.05 points in Week 10. Greg picked Seattle Seahawks tight end Luke Wilson. Wilson injured his ankle in the 2nd quarter of the Seahawks game Sunday. Wilson didn’t have any catches before he was hurt and scored 0 points for the week. It looks like it was another close week between these two, but I think Week 10 goes to Greg. I use the scoring system from our Yahoo league titled Next Year is Here 13.

On the Sports Time Radio podcast you might have heard us talk about our different fantasy football teams and leagues. We have the league above that I mentioned and then we have a Sports Time Radio named league that was done with an auction draft format. Mr. Fantasy and I have what we describe as a money league team with some of his friends. In this league the player who owns Adrian Peterson was looking to trade him. The deal that was kicked around was T.Y. Hilton the wide receiver from the Indianapolis Colts for Peterson straight up. The Peterson owner actually told us he could get a lot better player than Hilton for Peterson. As I look at the league scoring totals for the season Hilton sits 6th among wide receivers. Here are the players in front of him 1 through 5. Demaryius Thomas, Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Calvin Johnson and Jordy Nelson. So he’s going to get a better wide receiver than Hilton; interesting. Would you give up any of these wide receivers for Peterson?

Sunday in Homestead Florida after the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway NASCAR will crown a 1st time champion. Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman will have a 400 mile shoot out for the Sprint Cup championship. Which ever driver has the best finish wins the title. I don’t know if there’s a favorite among these drivers. Newman hasn’t won a race all season, but with solid finishes and let’s call it moving Kyle Larson out of his way last weekend he finds himself with a chance to win it all. Harvick maybe the driver on the best roll going into this race, but Logano has been strong all season. Hamlin may be a bit of a wild card in the race. It will be interesting to see how aggressive these drivers will be early in the race and it would be great if they where all in the Top 10 with about 5 laps to go. Did you like the new format for The Chase this season?

It looks like Major League Baseball is going to investigate the Chicago Cubs hiring of Joe Maddon. There had been rumors and reports that the Tampa Bay Rays thought that the Cubs had spoken with Maddon and that’s why he opted out of his contract with the Rays. The Cubs insist everything was by the book — that they even checked with the Commissioner’s Office before contacting Maddon — but the Rays weren’t so sure, and MLB at the very least is giving the complaint due diligence. It’s hard to blame the Cubs for jumping at the chance to land Maddon — he’s the type of manager who could not only bring a new personality to a team, but energize a fan base too. The question is whether the Cubs were a little too eager to secure Maddon. We know, for example, they had no problem doing Rick Renteria dirty. If it is proven that the Cubs tampered with Maddon Tampa Bay could receive compensation. That compensation could come in the form of players, draft picks or money. Also if Cubs officials lied to MLB investigators there could be some type of suspensions involved. This will be a very difficult charge to prove; so don’t be surprised at all if nothing comes from this, but MLB has to look into it.

Did you have the New York Mets signing the first free agent? They agreed to a two-year contract with outfielder Michael Cuddyer. The 35-year-old is a two-time All-Star and was the NL batting champion in 2013 with the Colorado Rockies. Cuddyer hit .332 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs (Runs Batted In) this year in a season interrupted by injuries. He was limited to 49 games and was on the disabled list three times because of a strained left shoulder and a strained left hamstring. Cuddyer signs a two-year, $21 million deal and with this signing the Mets lose their 1st round draft pick this June which was #15 overall.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

How was your Week?

Posted: November 8, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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11/2/14

A couple of week into the NBA season there are three teams still unbeaten and two teams looking for their first win. The Houston Rockets at 6-0, the Memphis Grizzlies at 6-0 and the Golden State Warriors 4-0, while the Philadelphia 76ers 0-6 and the Los Angeles Lakers 0-5 are still trying to get that first win. One of the unbeaten teams will lose tonight (Saturday) as Golden State travels to Houston to play the Rockets. Memphis will also put its undefeated season on the line tonight against the 2-4 Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. Of course the big story these first few weeks of the NBA season is the 2-3 start by the Cleveland Cavaliers. With LeBron James returning to Cleveland and the trade for Kevin Love you had to think it might take a little time for this team to gel, but I don’t believe people thought it would start like this season has. Cleveland did get a 110-101 victory over the Denver Nuggets Friday night with James leading the team in scoring with 22 points as well as leading the team in assists with 11. Love had 19 points and a team high 8 rebounds. Kyrie Irving (12 points) and Dion Waiters (17 points) took a combined 25 shots after possible taking a few too many shots in the Cleveland losses. Early in the season James seems content to let the younger players try to take over games and use these moments to teach. Love is still looking for the place where he fits with this team and Irving and Waiters have to learn when to give way to their superstar. It’s very early in the NBA season and there’s a lot of time for this Cleveland team to come together. If you thought they where going to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders you where fooling yourself. If they’re still having these issues or other after the All-Star break then you can worry about the Cavaliers.

It was the battle of Ohio on Thursday Night Football this week as the Cleveland Browns went into Cincinnati and beat the Bengals pretty easily 24-3. Andy Dalton 10 of 33 for 86 yards while throwing 3 interceptions and ending up with a quarterback rating (RTG) of 2.0 had a lot of issues with the wind. Brian Hoyer 15 of 23 for 198 yards and a RTG of 92.3, was able to beat the weather and lead the Browns to the win. The Cleveland running backs took turns putting the football in the end zone. Ben Tate started the Browns scoring with a 4 yard touchdown run in the 1st quarter giving Cleveland a 7-0 lead. Cincinnati answered with a 43 yard Mike Nugent field goal to make the score 7-3, but who knew those would be the only points for the Bengals. Isaiah Crowell got the Browns next rushing touchdown; a 2 yard run in the 2nd quarter making the score 14-3 Cleveland. A Billy Cundiff field goal put Cleveland up 17-3 going into halftime. Terrance West got the final touchdown of the night for Cleveland. A 1 yard run in the 3rd quarter to make it 24-3 in favor of Cleveland. West got 26 carries and 94 yards along with his touchdown to lead the Browns rushing attack, Crowell had 12 carries for 41 yards and his touchdown while Tate had 10 carries for 34 yards and his touchdown. Jeremy Hill was averaging 4.6 yards per carry for Cincinnati, but with his team down only got 12 carries for 55 yards. Miles Austin had 5 catches for 48 yards for Cleveland to lead all receivers while it was Jermaine Gresham with 3 catches for 29 yards that led the Bengals. Fantasy wise if you started a Cleveland running back you at least got a touchdown out of him, but receiving wise there wasn’t a lot of help for you. A.J. Green had 3 catches for 23 yards while Mohamed Sanu caught 2 passes for 20 yards; ouch. With Browns tight end Jordan Cameron out dealing with a concussion Gary Barnidge filled in at tight end picked up a few fantasy points for you catching 2 passes for 46 yards. If you have a league where defensive players count the Bengals had three players get some good tackle numbers. Linebacker Emmanuel Lamur led Cincinnati with 11 tackles while two other linebackers Nico Johnson and Vincent Rey getting 10 tackles each. Buster Skrine picked off 2 Dalton passes and Craig Robertson got the other Cleveland interception.

It looks like it’s Jon Lester, James Shields and Max Scherzer who are at the top of everyone’s fee agent lists this off-season. You can never have enough starting pitching and there’s been a lot of predictions on where these three pitchers will end up. Most people see Lester ending up with the Chicago Cubs, but I have a feeling he’ll end up back with the Boston Red Sox. Shields has been predicted to stay with the Kansas City Royals and there’s a very good chance that will happen unless a team throws a lot of money at him. Scherzer is a tough call. He’s a Scott Boras client; so that means he’ll be one of the last players to sign with a team. Scherzer turned down a 7 year $144 million dollar deal before the 2013 season from the Detroit Tigers. This sounds like a signing for the New York Yankees, but would a team like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim jump in and sign Scherzer. If your team doesn’t land one of the top three pitchers the next level of pitchers features Ervin Santana, Brandon McCarthy, Francisco Liriano and Kenta Maeda the 27-year-old Japanese pitcher who the Hiroshima Carp are expected to post. How would you feel if your team signed a Justin Masterson, Jason Hammel or Jake Peavy. This seasons playoffs and World Series proved that you need good arms in your bullpen and in this years free agent crop it looks like closer David Robertson is the best reliever on the free agent market. Andrew Miller the left-handed set up specialist is also available along with another set up guy Luke Gregerson. The closers who are free agents after Robertson look like Rafael Soriano, Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) and Sergio Rome. Is your favorite team looking for pitching? Are these some of the names you’re looking for your team to sign?

As the baseball off-season gets started will try to look at the free agents out there and see where they might end up or if they’re a good fit for your favorite team.

We featured some good interviews this week on Sports Time Radio this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday Mark O’Neil from Around the Foghorn joined us to talk San Francisco Giants baseball. On Thursday we had Al Yellen from Bleed Cubbie Blue with us to talk Joe Maddon and possible Cubs free agent targets as well as which young prospects should be on the team in 2015. You can go into the archives at Sports Time Radio and listen to these podcasts.

So how was your week?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 5, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports
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11/5/14

Are you watching the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup? They started with 16 drivers in the Challenger round. After 3 races they cut 4 drivers and entered the Contender round. 3 more races and 4 more drivers eliminated to get to the Eliminator round which comes to an end this Sunday in at Phoenix International Raceway. Then 4 drivers will advance to the final race and the Championship round of the Chase on November 16th at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin are tied at the top of the Chase standings going into Phoenix while Ryan Newman sits in 3rd. Right now Jeff Gordon has the 4th spot in the Chase, but he holds just a 1 point lead over Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards a 5 point lead over Brad Keslowski and a 6 point lead over Kevin Harvick. None of these 8 drivers have gotten a win in the Eliminator round that would automatically advance them to the Championship. This new Chase set up seems to have made winning more important, but it also seems to have brought out a lot of anger in these drivers. Keslowski seems to be the guy that has taken that bad boy role as he’s had issues with Kenseth earlier in the Chase and then just last week after the race Keslowski and his crew had a large brawl with Gordon and his crew. Late in the race after a caution Gordon was starting on the front row with teammate Jimmy Johnson to his inside while Keslowski was lined up right behind Johnson. In the 1st turn after the restart Gordon’s car went up the track a little and Keslowski was able to move into that opening. As Gordon went back down to block Keslowski and get his car back in line, Keslowski had his car to far in the opening and the touched. The incident caused Gordon to have a tire go down and end up finishing 29th and dropping 3 spots in the Chase standings. This is what got the altercation started on pit road after the race. While the drivers avoided penalties from NASCAR their crew chiefs and crew members weren’t. Here’s the penalties from NASCAR. Three Hendrick crew members for six races for being “involved in a post-race physical altercation” and fined them each $25,000. A fourth Hendrick crew member was fined $10,000 and suspended for three races for the same offense. Gordon’s crew chief Alan Gustafson and Kasey Kahne crew chief Kenny Francis were each fined $50,000 and placed on probation for six races because “the crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his team members.” according to NASCAR. Also suspended for six races and fined $25,000 were: Jeremy Fuller, the Kahne crew member who came from behind the scrum and threw several punches toward Keselowski, as well as Gordon crew members Dwayne Doucette and Jason Ingle; Dean Mozingo, another Gordon crew member, was fined $10,000 and suspended three races. Hendrick Motorsports said it would not appeal, and the punished team members would not face further sanctions from the organization. There’s still a couple of races left in the NASCAR season; so maybe you should start watching.

In our picks for Week 9 in the NFL I was able to come out on top with a 10-3 record. Mr. Fantasy finished 2nd with a record of 8-5 while Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu both ended the week at 7-6. For the season I am hanging onto the lead with a record of 86-46-1. Schaumburg Stu is 4 games behind with a record of 82-50-1. Mr. Fantasy is in 3rd with a record of 81-51-1 while Dan the Man is a game behind him with an overall record of 80-52-1. You can hear our picks on the Sunday morning podcast of Sports Time Radio from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. .

We’re in the 3rd week of our players challenge with Mr. Fantasy and Greg. The first two weeks where pretty even; so let’s see how the 3rd week went. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy went with Seattle Seahawk Russell Wilson while Greg went with Denver Bronco Peyton Manning. Wilson was 22nd among quarterbacks with 8.18 points while Manning was 7th with 18.06 points. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was the high point scorer for Week 9 with 39.90 points. At running back both guys went with Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. Foster finished with 23.15 points and 8th place among running backs. Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks was the highest scoring running back for Week 9 with 35.30 points. At wide receiver Mr. Fantasy took Jeremy Maclin of the Philadelphia Eagles while Greg selected Emmanuel Sanders of the Denver Broncos. Maclin finished as the #1 scoring wide receiver of Week 9 with 32.55. Sanders scored 24.36 points and was in 7th place among wide receiver’s. At tight end Mr. Fantasy went with Rob Gronkowski (again) of the New England Patriots while Greg choose Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers. Gronkowski was the #1 scoring tight end for Week 9 with 23.50 points. Gates scored 5.05 points and finished in 20th place among tight ends for Week 9. At kicker Mr. Fantasy picked Chandler Catanzaro of the Arizona Cardinals while Greg went with Phil Dawson of the San Francisco 49ers. Both kickers scored 4 points and finished tied for 11th place for Week 9 among kickers. For their Week 9 sleeper picks Mr. Fantasy went with running back Charles Sims of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while Greg selected Oakland raiders wide receiver Brice Butler. Sims scored 0 points in Week 9 and for the season as well while Butler scored 9.50 points for the Raiders in Week 9. This match up may be to close to call. Who do you think got the players challenge win this week?

Major League Baseball handed out it’s Gold Gloves for the 2014 baseball season. Here are the winners. Catcher: AL, Salvador Perez, Royals; NL, Yadier Molina, Cardinals. First base: AL, Eric Hosmer, Royals; NL, Adrian Gonzalez, Dodgers. Second base: AL, Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox; NL, DJ LeMahieu, Rockies. Third base: AL, Kyle Seager, Mariners; NL, Nolan Arenado, Rockies. Shortstop: AL, J.J. Hardy, Orioles; NL, Andrelton Simmons, Braves. Left field: AL, Alex Gordon, Royals; NL, Christian Yelich, Marlins. Center field: AL, Adam Jones, Orioles; NL, Juan Lagares, Mets. Right field: AL, Nick Markakis, Orioles; NL, Jason Heyward, Braves. Pitcher: AL, Dallas Keuchel, Astros; NL, Zack Greinke, Dodgers. 3 Royals, 3 Orioles, 2 Dodgers and 2 Rockies claimed awards. Did they get it right? How did your favorite team do?

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

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