Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Double Header

Posted: August 16, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, fantasy, Minor League Baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

 

Game 1.

The first game of a day night double header and Trevor Cahill gets his first start of the year against the Milwaukee Brewers.  Former Cub, Matt Garza gets the nod for the Brew Crew in his first start of the season against his former team.

Cahill goes five solid innings only allowing four base runners on two hits and two walks.  He strikes out three batters and gives up no runs.  Matt Garza would counters with five full innings also.  Garza strikes out two batters and walks three batters.  He gives up five hits and that starts in the first inning with a leadoff single to Dexter Fowler.  Kris Bryant reaches but forces Fowler out.  Anthony Rizzo sends him to third on his single.  Garza then loads the bases with his first walk of the game to Ben Zobrist.  Addison Russell drives in the first run of the game with a sac fly to left.

Garza scores his second walk in the bottom of the third to Fowler.  With one out, Rizzo grabs another single and each runner advances on Zo’s force out.  With Russell at the plate, Garza throws a wild pitch and Fowler scores the second run of the game.

In the bottom of the fourth, Chris Coghlan leads off with a double and advances to third on Miguel Montero’s single.  Coghlan is able to reach home and scores the third run of the game as Cahill helps himself out with a sac bunt.  Dexter walks again but Garza gets out of the inning.  Garza has a 1-2-3 ground out fifth and that would be all for him.  The Cubs score the fourth run of the game in the eighth after Damien Magnifico walks Zo then hits Russell and let’s both runners advance on a wild pitch and Zo scores on Coghlan’s sac fly.

To finish off  the Brew Crew, Mike Montgomery grabs his fourth hold of the year in two innings gives up a hit, a walk and strikes out three.  Hector Rondon takes one inning and only walks one and also gets a hold.  Joe Smith gets one out in the ninth and walks two but is pulled for Aroldis Chapman who strikes out one and ends the game for his 25th save of the year.

Game 2.

Jason Hammel gets the nod for game 2 as he takes on Chase Anderson.  Hammel must have been eating his Sea Salt Chips as he goes seven innings only giving up two hits, three walks and strikes out seven.  He has definitely broke his old ways of declining after the All Star break.

Chase Anderson for the Brew Crew leaves the game after two batters with an injury.  Jhan Marinez takes over him going 2 & 2/3 innings.  He walks three and and gives up four hits but the Cubs only score one run in the third on Kris Bryant’s single to left that brings in David Ross.

Rob Scahill enters the game in the sixth for the Brewers and gives up a leadoff double to Zo who scores on Wilson Contreras line to right.  Javier Baez steps in the box and launches his 13th home run of the year putting the Cubs up again by four.

Justin Grimm takes on the eighth and giving up only one hit and strikes out one.  Top of the ninth and the Cubs are up by four and Joel Maddon decides to go with Travis Wood.  He gets the first out on a bouncer to third.  Chapman is up in the pen just in case as Wood gets the second out of the inning.  The Cubs have a chance to pull off the first double header shut out sweep as Len and JD brought up but almost as quickly as they said it, Wood gives up a solo home run to left to Hernan Perez.  Chris Carter gets a bloop single to to center just out of range for Zo.

That would be it for Wood as Maddon decides to bring in Chapman for the final out but allows Carter to advance on a high fast ball off the back stop.  Jake Elmore takes eight pitches and walks.  Keon Broxton steps in the box and sends a slow bouncer just out of reach of Chapman halting Bryant from picking it up.  Bases Loaded for Maldonado and he gets called out on strikes as Chapman saves both games today not with out making it an exciting ending.  Jason Hammel gets his career high 13th win of the season.

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Cubs split with the Cards

Posted: August 14, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, fantasy, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

The Cubs wrap up their four game series Sunday night prime time on National TV.  John Lackey takes to the mound looking for his 10th win of the season.  John is 1-1 in three starts against the Cardinals and Mike Leake looking to get to .500 with his ninth win of the season.  His last start against the Cubs was April 18th against Lackey which was a loss.

Lackey makes it a quick top half of the first with a 1-2-3 inning.  Leake is not so lucky as he starts off by walking Dexter Fowler then gives up a single to Kris Bryant.  Anthony Rizzo sends a ground ball to right scoring Fowler for the first run of the game pushing Bryant to third.  Ben Zobrist sends a fly ball to left scoring Bryant for a sac fly.  In the first, the Cubs are up by two.

Lackey gives up a single and a walk in the 2cd but gives up no runs and strikes out two.  In the top of the third he gives up a one out single to Greg Garcia, then hits Stephen Piscotty.  Matt Carpenter sends a ground ball to short, Addison Russell throws to second getting the force out but Zo’s throw to first is wild and Garcia scores.

After the first, the Cubs bats wouldn’t be able to get to Leake until the bottom of the sixth inning with Bryant sending a one out fly ball to center for a his first triple of the year.  Rizzo then drives him in for the Cubs third round of the game.  After six the Cubbies are up 3 – 1 .

In the top of the 7th, Lackey gives up a leadoff single to Yadier Molina but gets the next two outs but that would be enough for Maddon as he brings in Justin Grimm to strike out Randal Grichuk to end the inning.  Leake starts off the bottom half by giving up a double to Chris Coghlan and makes it to third on Jason Heyward’s infield single.  Cardinals skipper, Mike Mathena decides to pull Leake for Matt Bowman who loads the bases by walking Wilson Contrearas but gets the next three batters out to end the inning.

Hector Rondon enters the game in the top of the eighth and gives up back to back singles to Kolten Wong and Garcia.  Both runners ate driven in by Stephen Piscotty when he takes Rondon deep to the center field bleachers.  He does get the next out but then gives up a solo homer to Brandon Moss.  Joel Maddon decides to bring in Travis Wood who gets the second out of the inning but walks Jhonny Peralta and gives up a single to Jedd Gyorko.  Grichuk comes in and doubles driving in Peralta putting the Cards up 6-3.  Kolten Wong back up again for the second time this inning flys out to end the inning.

Kevin Siegrist enters the game in the bottom of the eighth for the Cards to face Rizzo who takes the first pitch then drives the next fast ball off the right field score board.  Zo strikes out but Siegrist would have some unannounced injury and be replace by Seung Hwan Oh.  Oh comes in and strikes out Russell in three strikes.  Baez grabs himself a single.  Jason Heyward flys out to end the inning.

Top of the ninth.  Aroldis Chapman enters the game and strikes out the first two batters and gets Matt Carpenter to ground out.  Cardinals closer as of late, Oh stays in for the ninth.  He only sees Contrearas, Soler and Fowler and strikes out all three batters to end the game to help split the series between the Cubs and Cardinals.

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

How Was Your Week?

Posted: August 13, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

Alex Rodriquez (A-Rod) played in his 2784th career game last night as the New York Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 6-3. Now an August 12th game normally wouldn’t get this much attention, but it was A-Rod’s last one with the Yankees. After 12 seasons in Yankees pinstripes the team was parting ways with A-Rod. He was to be released right after last nights game and would then sign a one year deal with the team to be a Special Advisor. There was one year left on Rodriquez’s player contract and I guess the Yankees figured they might as well do something with him since they where paying him anyway. A-Rod went 1 for 4 in the game. He hit a double and he drove in a run. It ended up being a bit of an odd week leading up to A-Rod’s last game. At first Yankees manager Joe Girardi said A-Rod could play as much as he wanted. It was a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox and then last nights game, but when the games against the Red Sox came up there was no A-Rod in the line up. As the manager Girardi has complete control over the line up card and I have no issues with him not wanting to play A-Rod. The issue I ended up having was when he used the lame excuse of he was trying to put the best line up on the field for the team t win. Now A-Rod was having a bad year hitting right around .200, but your best line up to win with had Mark Teixera and Aaron Hicks in it. Both of these players are hitting under .200. What’s the real reason Girardi kept A-Rod out of the line up; who knows, but I’m not buying the best line up to win deal. I know I’m floating into Dan the Man territory here, but what if Yankees management wanted to keep A-Rod on the bench and out of the line up. I know that might seem weird, but the Yankees are going to pay A-Rod $21 million next season to pretty much do nothing. He was just 4 home runs away from the 700 home run mark and his contract has “Marketing Bonuses” in it for home run milestones. Is there a chance that Yankees upper management just didn’t want to give A-Rod anymore more because I’m sure there was a bonus waiting for him at 700 career home runs. Rodriquez had also asked Girardi to play 3rd base in his final game and was told no. Girardi did allow A-Rod t start the 9th inning at 3rd base before he was removed so he could get one final ovation from the home crowd.

Rodriquez has the numbers that a Hall of Fame career should have. He’s a career .295 hitter and has 3115 career hits. I mentioned the 696 home runs, but you might not remember that back in 1998 A-Rod stole 46 bases and has 329 career steals. He is a three time MVP (2003, 2005 and 2007) and finished 2nd in the voting twice (1996 and 2002) and 3rd in the voting once (2000). He is a 14 time All-Star and two time Gold Glove winner and won the AL batting title in 1996. A-Rod exceeded his rookie limits on 1995, but if he hadn’t, with the year he had in 1996 he would’ve won Rookie of the Year easily. He led the league in hits once, doubles once, runs scored 5 times, RBI’s twice and home runs 5 times. It’s easily a Hall of Fame career and then as your looking at his player card  you notice that there are no stats for the 2014 season. As we all know A-Rod was suspended that season for his use of performance enhancing drugs. So as you look back at what is statistically a great career you have t wonder when the PED use started. His numbers where great right out of the gate. In 1966 he hit .358 with 54 doubles, 36 home runs and 123 RBI’s. Those are great numbers for a 20 year old in his first full major league season, but was he clean? There have been unsubstantiated rumors that A-Rod was using PED’s all the way back to high school. Unless the voters change the way they’ve handled the Hall of Fame voting since PED’s have become an issue it looks like A-Rod will be on the outside looking in.

The NFL pre-season kicked off this week and already fans are out of control. In the Chicago area where I live fans where already on the ledge because the Chicago Bears lost their pre-season opener 22-0 to the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. Did I mention that it was the first game of pre-season. These people need to take a deep breath and relax. There are still 3 more pre-season games on the Bears schedule before they open the season for real on Sunday September 11th on the road against the Houston Texans. I understand that a fan wants his team to look good, but if they don’t the game you just went nuts about doesn’t mean anything. In Week 1 of the pre-season sometimes the most important thing is to get through the game healthy. Also let’s be fair here; if you had the Bears going to and or winning the Super Bowl this season you have another set of issues that need to be looked at. I fully understand that football is king when it comes to the 4 major sports, but if you’re giving up on your favorite team after Week 1 of the pre-season because they lost you might want to look for a new sport. With the way the NFL is now and the rules about hitting in practice tackling is so bad that even in Week 1 and Week 2 of the regular season some teams are still acting, looking or even playing like it’s still the pre-season. Again simple take a step back, take a deep breath and relax.

The Big Jack Follow me on Twitter!

The Podcast Now on Tune In Radio!  Apple users can download us straight to the Podcast App!

Let’s Call it Wednesday

Posted: August 10, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

The Chicago Cubs have the best record in baseball at 70-41. Teams have worked there way up to the Cubs and at some points in time may have even passed them, but the Cubs have been the best team in baseball throughout the season. Any time a team gets on a run and looks like they’re a playoff team one of the things you’ll eventually hear someone ask about that team is “Can they challenge the Cubs”. It’s slowly starting to look like the year that the Cubs make there run at a World Series title. There are a couple of things that could derail this season for the Cubs. The most obvious one is injuries. The Cubs have had their share of injuries this season, but luckily they haven’t lost a key piece of their line up or their rotation to injury. It’s always the number one worry a contending team will have and there’s no way they can control it. The other problem is a distraction from a player inside the organization. The Cubs look to have their first distraction with the situation involving back up infielder Tommy LaStella. LaStella who has minor league options left was sent to Triple-A Iowa at the end of July when Utility man Chris Coghlan came off the disabled list.

LaStella made it very clear he was unhappy about being demoted and that’s understandable. LaStella had appeared in 51 games for the Cubs and was hitting.299. LaStella had played both second and third base this season. It appears as though the Cubs went with Coghlan over LaStella because Coghlan offers a little more versatility. Not only can Coghlan play second and third like LaStella, but he can also play both corner outfield spots.They are both left handed hitters, but Coghlan has struggled sine being re-acquired by the Cubs this season. Coghlan was traded to the Oakland A’s by the Cubs just before this season started. Since being brought back Coghlan is hitting .200 in 57 plate appearances. It may nave been the fact that Coghlan can play the outfield or the fact that he was out of minor league options and would have had to make it through waivers to be sent down, but the Cubs choose to keep Coghlan with the major league club. You figure the worst case scenario for LaStella was to go to Iowa play everyday and then come back up when the September call ups are brought up. All in all, he’d spend a little over a month in the minors. Now this is not what LaStella did as he never reported to Iowa. What he decided to do was just go home. The Cubs did their best to try and cover for him by saying there where “family problems”, but that isn’t true. Yesterday the Cubs placed LaStella on the Temporarily Inactive List. I don’t understand why the Cubs haven’t released him; it’s clear that he has no business in major league baseball. It was a pouting selfish move by someone who just wanted to play on the majors and that was it. Why would a player like LaStella think he’s entitled to that. Did I miss the ceremony where he won the MVP award and should be playing everyday.

LaStella’s been a career back up; never playing more than 93 games in a season. I don’t understand why a team like the Cubs in the position that they’re in even give a crybaby like this another chance. There have been some reports that LaStella will only play for the Cubs and that if he’s traded he would retire. This ties the Cubs hands even more and it’s just one more reason that LaStella should be shown the door as quickly as possible. Even for some unknown reason the Cubs where stupid enough to bring LaStella back to the major leagues; who’s going to be the guy losing at bats to him. Are you taking at bats away from your main back up in the infield Javier Baez? How about Kris Bryant? Addison Russell or even Ben Zobrist? Should these guys lose at bats to LaStella. I get it if it’s a day off here or there, but with the way Baez has played there’s really no need at all for the skill set LaStella has. It was a garbage move that LaStella pulled and I still don;t understand even though he is Temporarily Inactive that he’s even considered a member of the Chicago Cubs. Playing major league baseball is a privilege and after this stunt that Tommy LaStella pulled he doesn’t deserve that privilege. Again it’s time for the Cubs to say goodbye to LaStella and fast.  Here’s Maddon on La Stella Video

In what looks like some sad baseball news it appears that Prince Fielder’s career is over after a second neck surgery. Fielder spent 12 seasons in the majors.He spent 7 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers before signing with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent. Fielder played just 2 seasons with the Tigers before he was traded to the Texas Rangers for second baseman Ian Kinsler. Fielder was in his 3rd season with the Rangers before this neck injury sidelined him. Fielder was limited to 42 games in his first season with the Rangers due to his first neck injury. It looked like he was over it in 2015 and bounced back with a great season. Fielder hit .305 with 23 home tuns and 98 RBI’s. Fielder played in 158 games mostly as a DH (139 games), but did play 18 games at 1st base. Fielder was struggling this season hitting .212 with 8 home runs and 44 RBI’s in 89 games. Fielder is a 6-time All-Star; he also won the MVP of the 2011 All-Star game. He was voted Comeback Player of the Year for the 2015 season. Fielder finished in the Top 10 of the MVP voting on 4 occasions. In 2007 Fielder hit 50 home runs to lead baseball. 50 home runs in a season is still the Brewers all-time record. Fielder played in 1611 career games and played in all 162 games 4 times in his career. He’s a .283 career hitter and has 319 career home runs. Oddly 319 is the same number of career home runs that Prince’s father Cecil Fielder had. Fielder is still owed about $96 million on his contract and since he is retiring because of a medical issue he’ll receive the majority of that salary. It’s never the way you want to see a good player or for that matter any player go out, but Fielder did have 12 seasons in the majors to look back on.

The Big Jack Follow me on Twitter!

The Podcast Now on Tune In Radio!  Apple users can download us straight to the Podcast App!

Angels in Wrigley

Posted: August 9, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, fantasy, Minor League Baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

As the Angels of Anaheim travel to play the Chicago Cubs of Wrigleyville Jared Weaver takes to the mound looking to go above .500 for his ninth win of the year.  The Cubs and John Lackey look to stop that as John is also looking for his ninth win of the season.  

John does start off quickly with an out and then gives a solo home run to Kole Calhoun.  He gets the next two outs and continues that streak into the second retiring five straight with the last two outs of the second being strikeouts.   Lackey continues to strike out the first two batters in the top of the third and retires his eighth straight batter. 

Weaver would give up a full count walk to Anthony Rizzo but he would end the inning trying to steal second base.  Jason Heyward grabs a two out single in the bottom of the second but doesn’t cross the plate.  Weaver makes it a quick bottom of the third but not before giving up a leadoff solo home run to Wilson Contreras.  

Lackey starts the top of the fourth and makes it a quick and positive one, striking out Mike Trout.  Rizzo leads off the fourth with a double.  Rizzo scores on Ben Zobrist’s double.  Jorge Soler pushes him to third but Heyward pops out.  Addison Russell sends a fly ball to Trout for a sac fly scoring Zo.  Cubs are now up 3 – 1.

The top of the fifth starts and Lester gets the first two outs.  But Ji-Man Choi’s ground ball out is challenged by Mike Sciocia and is overturned for the first hit for the Halos since the home run in the first.  Lackey gets the next two outs to end the inning.  Lackey leads off the bottom half of the inning with a ground out and Dexter Fowler pops up the first pitch he sees, but he’s out on fan interference.  Kris Bryant takes the first pick yard for his 28th home run of the year.  Rizzo then takes a 2-1 pitch for his 34th double of the year.  Zo grabs a base on balls for Jorge Soler who sends a soft grounder to Pujols who tosses it Weaver who drops it for an error allowing Rizzo to score.  Heyward goes down swinging to end the inning.  

Cliff Pennington leads off the sixth with a walk and with one out gets caught trying to steal second which would have worked out better if he had waited on Kole Calhoun’s single to right.  Jarod Weaver does not make it to the bottom of the sixth being replaced by Mike Morin and catches Russell watching strike three for the first out.  Lackey gets called out on strikes to end the inning.  

John gets right back into the groove by getting two batters to ground out and the last to line out.  Fernando Salas joins the Halos in trying to hold off the Cubs in the bottom of the seventh getting Fowler to ground out to start it off.  He then strikes out Bryant and Rizzo to end the inning.  

Lester remains in the game for the top of the eighth making it a quick 1-2-3 inning.  Another Angels pitcher A.J. Achter retires the only three batters he sees.  Pedro Strop replaces Lackey in the top of the ninth getting the first out quickly.  Almost as quickly comes the second out and with Chapman warming up, just in case the crowd gets out the seats and gets loud as Trout steps in the box and gets called out on strikes.  

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Sweep The A’s

Posted: August 7, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, Minor League Baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Wrapping up their trip to Oak Town, Kyle Hemdricks gets the nod trying to grab his 11th win of the season.  He’s taking on A’s 24 year old Valparaiso, IN native, Sean Manaea who’s looking for his fourth win of the season.

Manaea would give up a singe I’m the first to Kris Bryant but ends up picking him to end the first inning.  The second inning would see Ben Zobrist doubling and Jorge Soler singling but no runs score.  The third inning would see Matt Szczur doubling and Dexter Fowler and Bryant walking to load the bases.  Zo would ground into a double play to end the inning.  Manaea would retire six straight to make it through five unscathed.

Through five innings Hendricks gives up a single in the first and second but then retires the next nine batters straight.  Bryant leads off the top of the sixth with his 27th home run of the season for the first run of the game.  Kyle retires his 12th straight batter in the bottom of the sixth.

Jorge Soler leads off the seventh with his seventh home run of the season.  This prompts A’s skipper to make a call to the pen and bring in Ryan Dull.  He gets the first out but gives up a single to Javier Baez who does get caught stealing.  Szczur singles on a close play but is challenges and over turned to end the top of the seventh.  Kyle adds three more to the list after not allowing a hit since the second inning.  

The A’s decide to bring in Andrew Triggs for the eighth to see Dexter Fowler who leads off with a single.  Kris Bryant reaches first on a walk promoting another pitching change.  Marc Rzepczynski enters the game to try prevent the Cubs from adding to the board but he gives up an RBI double to Anthony Rizzo.  Ben Zobrist grabs an intentional walk to load the bases and Liam Hendriks is brought in to strike out Addison Russell, then  Jorge Soler.  Wilson Contreras grounds out to end the inning.  

Marcus Siemen takes Kyle out of the game after 100 pitches as he hits a one out solo home run.  Kyle gets a standing Ovation from all the Cubs fans in attendance as Pedro Strop enters the game to end the eighth.  

Chris Smith, first star since 2010 enters the game to hold the Cubs from adding to the board.  He gets the first out but Szczur lays down a bunt for a hit.  Fowler gets called on strikes.  Kris Bryant gets into a full count, takes the next three pitches foul but flys out to end the inning.  Aroldis Chapman to enter the game for the save opportunity.  He gets the first two batters to ground out. Stephen Vogt steps into the box and takes would be strike three to left for a single.  Khris Davis gets called out a 104 mph fast ball for the save.  

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Two an’ Oakland!

Posted: August 6, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, Minor League Baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

Both teams donned throwback jersey honoring Oakland’s 1981 days.  Jake Arrieta looks to get back into form and start August off with a winning record as he seeks win number 13.  Sonny Gray steps to the mound  trying to get a little closer to .500.  

Both pitchers have a quick first inning.  The second is followed by a couple base runners but no runs.  It’s the top of third that starts with back to back single to Wilson Contreras and Dexter Fowler but Gray gets the next two outs.  Ben Zobrist at the plate and he sends a line drive to center driving in both Contreras and Fowler.  The Cubs grab two runs to help put Jake a little closer to that first win in over a month.  The bottom half goes by quick.  

Gray bounces back in the fourth not allowing a base runner where Jake allows a walk.  The same for the fifth as Gray again doesn’t allow a runner but Jake gives up a single.  Manager Bob Melvin decides to bring in Liam Hendriks who starts the inning off by giving up a double to Anthony Rizzo.  He then scores on Addison Russell ground ball to third.  Russell scores on Jorge Soler’s double.  The Cubs grab runs three and four to put Arrieta that much closer to a W.  

Jake for the first time since May 14 goes eight innings only allowing four base runners on three singles and a walk with four strike outs 

The Cubs would see Patrick Schuster and John Axford.  In those three innings the Cubs reach on three walks but don’t add anymore runs to the board.  Cubs take two in Oakland and have one more before heading back home.  

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Lester beats the A’s

Posted: August 6, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
0

The Cubs head West for a short three game series in Oakland.  Jon Lester searching for  his 12th win of the season and he hopes to get that against the A’s as Dillon Overton looks for his second win of his young career.

It doesn’t start off to well for Dillon as he gives up a leadoff home run to Dexter Fowler for the first run.  He gives up a one out single to Anthony Rizzo and them a two out single to Addison Russell.  Fresh off the DL, Jorge Soler cranks his sixth home run of the season putting the Cubs up by 4.  He gives up two singles in the second but no more runs.  In the top of the third, Bem Zobrist would leadoff with a double, then hits Russell.  Soler reaches but on a force out of Russell at second.  Jason Heyward drives in Zo to add to the board.  Javier Baez drives both of them in putting the Cubs up by 7.

Through three innings, Lester would only give up one hit to Khris Davis but gets caught stealing second base.

Andrew Triggs joins the A’s in the top of the fourth getting all three batters out.  As Lester continues to go through the A’s line up.  Triggs gives up a single in the top of the fifth but gets a double play and a strikeout to end the inning.  Lester continues with his one hitter going through the fifth.

Daniel Coulombe enters the game for the top of the sixth against the Cubs starting with Baez but gets he, David Ross and Folwer out on a strikeout and two ground outs.  Brett Eibner leads off the bottom of the sixth with a home run.  Lester strikes out Tyler Ladendorf for the first month but gives up a double to Bruce Maxwell.  Maxwell scores the second run for the A’s on Marcus Semiens ground ball single to center.  Jake Smolinski grabs a single, prompting a visit to the mound.  It seemed to help because Lester strikes out the next batter but an argument ensues and Danny Valencia is tossed from the game.  Lester gets out of the sixth and that would be the remainder of the scoring for the night.  

Lester goes seven full innings giving up the two runs on six hits but strikes out eight.  Carl Edwards Jr and Joe Smith both provide an ininning of work with Smith allowing one batter with a walk.  

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

How was your week?

Posted: August 5, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,
0

I, what most NBA experts saw as a surprise, saw Russell Westbrook sign a 3-year contract extension to stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most if not all of the experts that cover the NBA expected Westbrrok to follow Kevin Durant out of Oklahoma City when his contract expired after the 2016-17 season. Even though Westbrook has a new deal there’s no guarantee that he’ll be with Oklahoma City long term. Westbrook’s new contract replaces the final year of the deal he was under. He’s also signed for the 2017-18 season and has a player option for the 2018-19 season. We see a lot of these player options in contracts now because of the escalating salary cap number. With the new contract Westbrrok gets a raise for the 2016-17 season. He was originally due to make $17,769.374 for this coming season, but under his new contract that salary jumps to $26.5 million. That will also be Westbrook’s salary for the 2017-18 season and it would also be that for the 2018-19 season if he doesn’t opt out of the contract.

Westbrook played in and started 80 games for the Thunder last season. He averages 34.4 minutes per game. He averaged 23.5 points per game, 10.4 assists per game and 7.8 rebounds per game. On average he took 18.1 shots per game, but with Durant now wearing a Golden State Warriors uniform look for that number to go up. Westbrook is a 5-time All-Star and has finished in the Top 12 of the league’s MVP voting in four of the last five seasons. With Durant gone  Oklahoma City is clearly Westbrook’s team and I expect him to take full advantage of that.  Westbrook is a triple-double waiting to happen and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him win the league MVP award in one of both of these next two seasons he’ll be under contract to the Thunder. RW’s Career Page

Oklahoma City is going to have a different look this season than in the past. Not only is Durant gone, but the Thunder traded Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and Domantas Sabonis on draft night. Besides getting the #11 pick Sabonis in a trade with the Magic the Thunder also made a deal with the Denver Nuggets to acquire Daniel Hamilton the 56th pick in the draft. Oklahoma City was 55-27 and the 3rd seed in the Western Conference playoffs under 1st year coach Billy Donovan. The Thunder made it all the way to the Western Conference finals where they lost to Golden State in 7 games. Even in the tough Western Conference; the lost of Durant and the trading of Ibaka the Thunder should still be a playoff team. Can they get to the conference finals again? and if they did could they find a way to get past Golden State and into the NBA Finals?

New York Yankees 1st baseman Mark Teixeira announced this week that he’ll be retiring after the 2016 season. Teixeira is 36 years old and is in his 14th major league season. He currently has 404 career home runs and is one of just five switch hitters with 400 or more career home runs. Teixeira is a 3-time All-Star and a 5-time Gold Glove winner. His best season may have been his first one with the Yankees. He hit .292 while leading the league in home runs with 39 and RBI’s with 122. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season to Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins. Teixeira was the 5th overall pick of the 2001 draft by the Texas Rangers. He made his major league debut April 1st of the 2003 season. Injuries have really taken it’s toll on Teixeira the last 5 seasons. He hasn’t played in more than 123 games in any of those seasons and only played 15 games in 2013 due to injury. Besides the 404 career home runs Teixeira is a career .269 hitter and has driven in 1281 runs over his 14 seasons. Tex career stats While I don’t think Teixeira has the career numbers to get into the Hall of Fame he has been with the Yankees for 8 seasons and that can help a player in the voting.

Has anyone broken out as the National League MVP to you? Before Clayton Kershaw got injured it seemed as tough he was the front runner for the award even though he’s a pitcher and it’s a cop out to vote that way. There are some contenders, but I don’t think anyone has separated themselves from the field as of yet. Daniel Murphy is having a great season for the 1st place Washington Nationals. Murphy is leading the NL with a .356 average along with 21 home runs and 81 RBI’s. With Bryce Harper having what is considered a down year Murphy has been a huge piece for the Nationals. What about Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies? Gonzalez has good numbers this season with 23 home runs, 75 RBI’s and is hitting 320. Will there be questions about his numbers because he plays in Colorado. What may hurt Gonzalez more than anything is that it doesn’t look like the Rockies will be a playoff team. Colorado is 8 games out of the NL West lead and trail by 4 games in the wild card race. It may seem odd to talk about the standings when your looking at the MVP race, but they actual matter to the people who vote for the award. Could Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers be a surprise candidate. Seager is the front runner for NL Rookie of the Year, but with his .303 batting average, 19 home runs and 51 RBI’s could MVP also be included. Seager also plays shortstop and he plays shortstop for the Dodgers. With the injury to Kershaw and some of the other issues the Dodgers have dealt with Seager may get some consideration for MVP. Don’t forget Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs. Someone on the Cubs is going to get MVP votes with the year the team is having and Bryant may be the guy. He’s currently 2nd in the NL with 26 home runs; just one behind the league lead. He has also driven in 68 runs and is hitting .284 this season. It should also be taken into consideration that Bryant has played multiple position for the best team in the NL. Bryant has played most of his games at 3rd (68 games), but has played the outfield in 57 games. He has also played 5 games at 1st base; he DH’d in 1 game and even played an inning at shortstop this season. With Kershaw out of the running for this award could the cowards that can’t make a decision on an everyday player run and hide behind another pitcher. Is there a chance they turn to another Nationls player and get behind Steven Strasburg. Strasburg is 15-1 with an ERA of 2.63 in 20 starts this season. He’s struck out 161 batters this season while walking 38 guys. He has given up 13 home runs and teams are hitting .194 against him this season. Are one of these five players the NL MVP? or is these someone else out there? If you had a ballot; who do you have a top of it?

The Big Jack Follow me on Twitter!

The Podcast Now on Tune In Radio!  Apple users can download us straight to the Podcast App!

When the official MLB Scorer got it wrong!

Posted: August 4, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,
0

When it comes to scoring in the MLB it can be very confusing especially to someone new to the sport.  If there is anything, I am so confident in knowing, is how to score a baseball game.  This isn’t something that I googled to understand, I learned how the art of scoring back when I was 9 years old which I hate to admit was almost 30 years ago.  As a kid, my dad worked nights and my mom worked days and with day baseball being a Cubs thing, and my favorite cartoons being on WGN, they were preempted for the Cubs.  We also did not have cable.  During the summer I watched just about every Cubs game.  I was also fortunate enough to receive the superstation TBS, which carried Braves games and a station out of New York that carried the Mets.  Oddly I couldn’t tell you which channel the White Sox were on as I never watched them.

Watching game after game after game and reading the newspaper and the one score card from my first Cubs game, I learned to keep score for baseball.  I made my dad make hundreds of copies of my one score card and from there on I kept score of every game I watched.  To be honest, I wish I still had these packed away in a box in my parents basement.  I literally kept score of every game including the entire World Series starting with the Battle in the Bay, the Oakland Athletics vs the San Francisco Giamts combining with the Braves domination in the 90’s.  It was so important and fun to me I even recorded the games on VHS, when I knew I would miss a game because I had a baseball game.

This to me is an art as not everyone understands the rules of scoring and I would say my level is close to expert, as I would be an expert if I worked for Major League Baseball.  So needless to say it really irritates me when the “Pros” get the call wrong, like in  the Cubs/Mariners game on Sunday, July 31st.  Jon Lester place a perfect bunt that went back to the pitcher but was just out of reach causing the pitcher to scoop it up with his glove and for the toss home with Jason Heyward scoring in walk-off fashion.  With today’s replay reviews, Lester had to run it out and reach first base which he did.

Another instance takes us back to June 6, 2016 with the Cubs in Philadelphia.  In the fifth inning Matt Szczur would pinch hit for Jorge Soler, laying down a bunt in almost the same exact fashion as Lester on July 31st that scores Kris Bryant.  There is no play on Szczur and he reaches first base without a challenge.  When I heard the Cubs broadcast team give the official scoring of the play, I fell out of my seat and immediately tweeted them.

But of course, I did not receive a tweet back, either telling me I’m right or even wrong.  I think what really gets me, these are the pros.  I can’t be mad at them because well if you click the links above to both games where the non sacrifice happened, the official scorer got it wrong and did not correct it.  Now of course you’re saying, is your head that big that you can’t be wrong?  Well I’m prepared to answer that with the actual MLB rule.  

Rule 9.08 Sacrifices 


I know not everyone truly understands legal talk so here goes.  The official scorer has freedom to interpret the rule as they would call for.  However, when it comes to sacrifice bunts it clearly states that before two outs, if a bunt is put into play and the runners, already on base, advance to the next base and no effort was put into throwing the batter out at first base, then the batter shall be credited with a one-base hit.  

In both cases that I brought forward, that is the situation.  Both batters Matt Szczur and Jon Lester laid down bunts that went back to the pitcher.  In both situations not only did the runners advance to the next base, the batter reached first base without so much as an attempt to throw the batter out at first.  Both times, the play was scored as a sacrifice bunt, when it clearly was a single as sacrifice bunt.  The whole idea behind a sacrifice is giving something up.  In baseball, an out is what’s given up, hence the need for MLB Rule 9.08 Sacrifices.  

Am I looking to deep into it?  Am I too big of a baseball nerd? Whatever you think is up to you but I can say I love this game.  Like I said earlier, I may not be an “expert” but when it comes to baseball I do consider myself an expert.  

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Older Entries
Newer Entries