Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

How was your week

Posted: March 7, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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With the start of Baseball’s regular season right around the corner it’s starting to look like the American League East might be a division decided by which team is the healthiest.

We’ve mentioned here before that the New York Yankees will be starting the season without Giancarlo Stanton in their everyday line up and pitcher James Paxton out of the rotation. As well Luis Severino will miss the entire season after it was decided that he’d undergo Tommy John surgery.

It looks like you can add one more injury to the list for the Yankees. This time it’s outfielder Aaron Judge. Judge had been dealing with some soreness that at first the Yankees medical staff couldn’t identify. Yesterday it was finally reported that Judge has been dealing with a cracked rib.

The Yankees are saying that Judge will rest for two weeks and then be reevaluated. You have to believe that even if Judge is healthy after his two weeks of rest he’s not going to be ready to go when the Yankees open the season March 26th in Baltimore.

With the exception of Severino the Yankees should get  their other injured players back with plenty of regular season games to play, but this is setting up very similar to last season for the Yankees and while they handle those injuries well enough to win the A.L. East the question will be if this season goes like last season can they do it again.

Now the Yankees aren’t the only team in the A.L. East that is dealing with injuries to key pieces of their team.

The Boston Red Sox are reporting that it spears Chris Sale will avoid Tommy John surgery as his injury has been diagnosed as a flexor tendon strain. Sale will be shut down for a week and then resume throwing and the Red Sox will go from there.

The Red Sox had already planned to have Sale start the season on the Injured List as he’s been recovering from pneumonia; so this shouldn’t hurt how Boston was going to set up their rotation to start the season.

Sale is coming off the worst season of his career and only made 25 starts in 2019 because of injuries. Sale went 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA last season. He also threw a career low 147 1/3rd innings since becoming a starter.

Even with the trading of Mookie Betts the Red Sox should still be a factor in the American League playoff race either as a contender for the A.L. East title or in the wild card race, but they’re not only going to need a healthy Sale to do that they’re also going to need Eduardo Rodriquez to pitch like he did last season and they’ll also need Nathan Eovaldi to stay healthy and give them quality starts.

The Red Sox did have another injury as they put 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia on the 60-day injury list a week or so ago.

Pedroia has been dealing with a knee injury that has allowed him to play in just 9 games the past two seasons. Pedroia played in just 3 games in 2018 and he appeared in 6 games last season before reaggravating that injury.

Pedroia is a former Rookie of the Year (2007) as well as a former MVP (2008) and you have to wonder at 36; he’ll turn 37 in August if it’s time for him to just walk away. He’s been a pivotal member of a World Series winner and you have to wonder if he’ll ever be healthy enough to contribute like he has in the past.

Pedroia does have this season and next season on his contract with a total of $25 million dollars in salary; so if he did decide to retire he’d have to come to some kind of agreement with the Red Sox on his contract. I doubt that money is the motivating factor that keeps Pedroia trying to return since he’s made approximately $115 million dollars over the course of his career.

Do you see Pedrioa being able to comeback? And if he comes back; what kind of player do you think he’d be?

With free agency approaching for NFL teams they’re going to have to make decisions on if or who they’ll use their franchise or transitional tags on.

There have already been a couple of teams that have placed their franchise tag on players. The Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs used their franchise tag on defensive tackle Chris Jones while the Jacksonville Jaquars put their franchise tag on defensive end Yannick Ngakoue.

Ngakoue has already come out and said that he doesn’t want to stay with the Jaquars; so will have to see if a trade happens or if he’ll possibly sit out next season. By being tagged it means that Ngakoue will be paid between $17.7 and $18.1 million dollar next season if he can’t agree to a contract with Jacksonville or a team that he would be traded to.

As a defensive tackle Jones is entitled to a little less under the franchise tag than a defensive end gets. If Kansas City is unable to sign Jones to a new contract they’ll pay him between $16 and 16.4 million dollars.

I understand that players want that big money and long term stability that a contract brings, but for one year at that kind of money you’d like to think they’d be set for life.

While it hasn’t been made official yet it’s being reported that the New Orleans Saints will use a 1st round tender tag on free agent Quarterback Taysom Hill.

This means that any team that would sign Hill would have to give the Saints a 1st round pick for that signing. This tag also allows the Saints the right to match any offer Hill might receive from another team.

The Saints have made it pretty clear that they want to resign Hill, but you can’t blame them for wanting to handle the situation this way. While I’m not sure that Hill has been a high priority for teams looking for quarterbacks this off season the tag shows Hill how much New Orleans wants him to return.

By placing this tag on Hill I think it’s almost certain that he’ll return to the Saints. I’d be shocked to see another team give up a 1st round pick for him.

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

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: March 4, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Not surprisingly there are still a out of Tom Brady rumors out there, but for some reason the one that seems to be picking up some momentum has him going to the San Francisco 49ers.

Now San Francisco is coming off of a season where they just went 13-3 and made it to the Super Bowl. They did end up losing in the Super Bowl 31-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs, but all in all it was a big improvement from the 2018 season when they went 4-12.

Going into the 2018 season Jimmy Garoppolo was going to be San Francisco’s staring quarterback and he was for three games until he was injured. It was the first time in his career that Garoppolo was named a teams starting quarterback. In 2019 Garoppolo came back healthy and started and played in all 16 regular season games plus the three 49ers playoff games. Garoppolo had a good season and there was some talk early in the year that he could win MVP. He ended up throwing for 3978 yards with 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while completing 69.1% of his passes.

It seems that most of the people who are talking about Brady replacing Garoppolo has to do with the playoff numbers Garoppolo put up. In three playoff games Garoppolo completed just 63.8% of his passes for 427 yards with 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. It will also be pointed out that not only did Garoppolo struggle in the Super Bowl against a low rated regular season defense, but in the NFC Championship game he only had 8 passing attempts. Garoppolo’s Super Bowl numbers where solid, but everyone is going to point to the 2 interceptions that he threw.

So you might be able to see that there’s a reason to see San Francisco making a change at quarterback, but are they really in that bad of a position at quarterback and the big question is; would Brady really be that big of an upgrade?

While Garoppolo is never going to be mistaken for a running quarterback his mobility is much better than what a 43 year old Brady has. Garoppolo was only sacked 1 time in the Super Bowl.

It seems that most people think that Brady had issues last season because he didn’t have any weapons to throw to on offense. Would the situation be any better with San Francisco?

San Francisco does have one of the best tight ends in the NFL on their roster in George Kittle, but who’s their best wide receiver?

San Francisco traded for Emmanuel Sanders to try and upgrade the wide receiver core last season. Sanders caught 36 passes with 3 touchdown receptions in the 10 games he played for San Francisco, but he’s a free agent; so they’ll have to make a decision on if they’ll try to re-sign him. Deebo Samuel was San Francisco’s leader in receptions for wide receivers with 57 and yards with 802. Kendrick Bourne led all San Francisco wide receivers in touchdowns receptions with 5. Samuel will be 24 years old and Bourne will be 25 years old heading into next season; so it looks like the 49ers have a couple of young wide receivers to try and develop, but I don’t think you can consider them weapons just yet.

San Francisco’s running game is very similar to the New England Patriots running game. Neither team relies on just one running back as the main ball carrier, but they use multiple players in certain situations. Would having Brady at quarterback open up the running game?

It would be interesting to see what San Francisco would try to do with Garoppolo if they did sign Brady. Garoppolo has three years left in his contract. He has a base salary of $23.8 million dollars this coming season. In 2021 his base salary jumps to $24.1 million dollars and then in 2022 his salary increases just slightly to $24.2 million dollars.

Now there are a lot of teams out their looking for a quarterback, but would Garoppolo be of any interest to them and what would San Francisco want in return for him. It seems obvious, but you’d have to think that San Francisco would have to trade Garoppolo before signing Brady otherwise it would kill any trade value Garoppolo might have.

The people who are backing the Brady to San Francisco rumors seem to think that New England would step right up and be ready to take Garoppolo back. When it comes to New England you can never be sure of anything. The Patriots always seem to be above or maybe ahead would be a better word than the other NFL teams and if Brady signs somewhere else New England may already have a plan in place.

So what do you think. Do you see Brady signing with San Francisco? If you do have brady joining the 49ers; where do you see Garoppolo playing next season? Also let me know if you don’t think any of this will happen.

With the draft coming up teams are going to start looking at their rosters and try to make decisions on what they want to do with the current players they have. Will see which teams use the franchise tag on which players, but will also see some trades. Which we did yesterday.

The Jacksonville Jaquars sent cornerback A.J. Bouye to the Denver Broncos. In return for Bouye the Jaquars will receive a 4th round pick in the upcoming 2020 draft. Now this trade can’t become official until the new league year starts on March 18th.

Bouye has two years remaining on his contract with a base salary of $13 million dollars in both seasons.

The Broncos weren’t the only team that showed interest in trading for Bouye, but Denver was a preferred landing spot for Bouye; so it seems as though Jacksonville obliged with that request.

The trade for Bouye appears to mean that the Broncos will move on from cornerback Chris Harris who is a free agent. Harris has been with the Broncos since they signed him as undrafted free agent in 2011.

Harris will join a group of notable cornerbacks that are headed into free agency. Josh Norman, James Bradberry, Logan Ryan and Byron Jones are some of the cornerbacks that Harris will be on the free agent market with.

Remember that the Sports Time Radio podcast airs live on BligTalkRadio.com, but if you do miss the live broadcast of the podcast just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen at your leisure.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: February 29, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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In February the Houston Rockets made a four team deal with the key piece of that deal being Clint Capela. At 6-10 Capela was the Rockets only real legitimate big man and was getting 13.8 rebounds per game for Houston. Now the Rockets do have a couple of seven footers on their roster in Tyson Chandler and Isaiah Hartenstein, but they don’t exactly play a ton of minutes for the Rockets. That means when the Rockets take the floor their biggest player is normally 6-5 P.J. Tucker. Now they did just sign 6-8 forward Jeff Green for the rest of the season; so they did get a little bigger. This was a big change for the NBA, but it seems to be working for the Rockets.

Since Capela was traded the Rockets have went 6-2 and while they got out of the gate slow with their new style losing 2 of their first 3 they’ve now won 5 straight games. The Rockets are currently 38-20 and in 4th place in the Western Conference. Houston finds itself just 2 wins behind the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers; so they have a chance to move up in the standings.

Now the biggest thing with the Rockets version of small ball is; will it work in the playoffs?

Now we know that the Rockets are going to score with James Harden and Russell Westbrook on the court, but will they be able to stop the bigger stronger players when the game slows down in the playoffs.

There’s really no reason the Rockets shouldn’t try something different if they didn’t believe they where going to contend for the NBA title starting what would be a true NBA style center. Houston has made the playoffs the last seven seasons and while they haven’t made it to the NBA Finals they have lost twice in the Western Conference Finals. Last season the Rockets got knocked out of the playoffs in the conference semi-finals by the Golden State Warriors. Golden State has actually knocked Houston out of the playoffs in four of the last seven seasons they’ve made it. Now the Rockets shouldn’t have to worry about the Warriors in the playoffs this season.

The Rockets are the second highest scoring team in the NBA per game at 118.9 points, but they also give up 114.1 points per game which ranks 21st in the league. With the playoff struggles the Rockets have had you have to wonder if Houston will be able to out score teams with the playoff style that’s played.

The Rockets have 24 regular season game to try and work out any glitches that might be in their new system. Can the Rockets use this new system to win an NBA title? I guess will find out soon.

Since the Philadelphia 76ers went through there “process” we’ve been waiting for them to contend or win an NBA title. To be fair they where close last season as they where knocked out of the playoffs by a last second Kawhi Leonard corner jumper. If Leonard would’ve missed it’s possible the 76ers would’ve won that game in overtime and moved on to the NBA Finals. Of course it did go that way for Philadelphia and that means there are still questions.

Philadelphia hasn’t been at the top of there game this season. The 76ers are 37-23 which is good for 5th in the Eastern Conference right now. They are just 1/2 game out of the 4th spot currently held by the Miami Heat. I’m sure the 76ers would like to have home court advantage at least in the 1st round of the playoffs, but right now they need to focus on getting there top players healthy.

Ben Simmons hasn’t played since February 22nd and even when he played them he was only in the game for 4 minutes and 44 seconds. Simmons is dealing with a back injury that is being described as a nerve impingement and he won’t be re-evaluated for two weeks.

Oddly the 76ers are 3-1 with Simmons out, but that may just be an anomaly as they’ve beaten the Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks without Simmons. That one loss though was to another under .500 team the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I don’t think that anyone believes that Philadelphia will have any type of playoff success without a healthy Simmons, but it’s unclear right now if he’ll be back by then.

It looked like the 76ers took another big hit as in that loss to the Cavaliers on Wedsneday night center Joel Embiid left after playing just 7 minutes and 36 seconds. Embiid suffered a shoulder injury, but luckily it doesn’t appear to be a serious injury.

Embiid suffered the injury when he collided with Cleveland’s Ante Zizic late in the 1st quarter. Embiid stayed in the game to shoot two free throws, but was removed from te game at the next stoppage and didn’t return. Tests on Embiid’s shoulder showed no structural damage and he’s been diagnosed with a sprain. Embiid’s progress will be handled basically on how he feels which was described as symptom base and will be re-evaluated in a week.

Even without Embiid and Simmons the 76ers still beat the Knicks 115-106. Tobias Harris led Philadelphia in scoring that night with 34 points. The 76ers had four other players score in double digits against the Knicks. Kyle O’Quinn pulled down 10 rebounds while Al Horford handed out 9 assists.

The 76ers are about to embark on a four game West coast road trip without Embiid and Simmons that starts with games against the Los Angeles Clippers tomorrow and then the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. Philadelphia will face the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors to wrap up that road trip.

Do you think the 76ers can play .500 basketball on this road trip without Embiid and Simmons? Or do you see them doing better or worse on this road trip?

It’s not like Philadelphia will fall out of the playoffs while Embiid and Simmons get healthy, but they would at least like to tread water while their two best players recover from their injuries.

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

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 26, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The New York Yankees won 103 games last season which was enough to win the American League East title. They advanced through the American League Division Series with a sweep of the Minnesota Twins before their season came to end in when they lost to the Houston Astros 4 games to 2 in the American League Championship Series.

While the Yankees goal of getting to and winning the World Series just the fact that they played as well as they did dealing with the injuries they had was a surprise. I’m not sure if there was a team in baseball that suffered as many injuries as the Yankees did.

Now coming into the 2020 season the Yankees already knew they’d be playing this season without centerfielder Aaron Hicks who under went Tommy John surgery an will miss the entire season. Knowing that Hicks would be down for the entire season as earlier as the Yankees did will give them the opportunity to cover his at bats.

You’d think after dealing with the injurie the Yankees did last season missing one of your regulars would be something this team could handle. Well unfortunately yesterday the Yankees announced that starting pitcher Luis Severino would miss the entire 2020 season and some of the 2021 season as he will undergo Tommy John surgery.

During a spring training throwing session Severino felt pain in his forearm which was a similar pain to what he felt in his post season start again the Astros last October. After further examination by the Yankees medical staff and an MRI it was concluded that he would need surgery.

Severino made just 5 starts last season; 3 in the regular season and 2 in the post season as he dealt with shoulder and lat injuries. Severino totaled just 20 1/3rd inning overall last season and was looking to bounce back with a full season in 2020.

Don’t forget that Severino isn’t the only Yankees pitcher that is currently injured. James Paxton is still recovering from back surgery and isn’t expected to return until May. You also add in the fact that Domingo German still has 63 games left on a suspension to serve. This leaves the Yankees with two big rotation spots to fill at the start of the season.

As of now the Yankees have Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ set for their starting rotation, but how do they fill those final two spots? They have what appears to be 7 pitchers in camp that could fill those spots. Jordan Montgomery, Jonathan Loaisiga, Mike King and Deivi Garcia are joined by two non-roster invitees Chad Bettis and Nick Tropeano as contenders to fill those two spots. Are there a couple of names that stick out to you that you’d like to see in the Yankees rotation to start this season?

It’s also possible if the Yankees don;t like what they’ve seen or will seeout of these pitchers there are a few free agents left on the market. Andrew Cashner has just let it be known that he’d be willing to itch out of the bullpen, but he’s been a starter for the majority of his career.

There are also a couple of interesting younger pitchers still out there. Danny Salazar is just 30 years old and at one time was looked at as a top of the rotation starter by the Cleveland Indians. Injuries have derailed Salazar the last two seasons as he’s pitched in just one major league game last season. Before those injuries Salazar was an All-Star in 2016 and won 14 games in 2015. Aaron Sanchez is also available. Sanchez is just 27 years old, but has battled injuries for about the past four seasons. In his last full healthy season Sanchez went 15-2 with an ERA of 3.00 and finished 7th in the American League Cy Young voting that season. Could either of these injury prone starters stay healthy long enough to help out an injured Yankees staff?

There are some other veteran names out their if the Yankees where interested. There’s 35 year old Clay Buchholz, 36 year old Marco Estrada and 37 year old Jason Vargas. The could also bring back Matt Harvey back to New York albeit on for the other New York team as he’s a free agent.

I’m not exactly sure what the Yankees will end up doing, but those are some of the pitchers they could use to fill out their rotation. There is one other in-house option that I haven’t heard anyone mention yet.

How about C.C Sabathia. Now Sabathia announced his retirement last season, but that means he hasn’t been out of baseball for that long and after spending 11 seasons with the Yankees he’d obviously be able to fit right back into the clubhouse. Sabathia started 22 games and pitched in 23 games overall last season covering 107 1/3rd innings. He went 5-8 with an ERA of 4.95. Now it’s not like Sabathia would be any type of long term solution for the Yankees rotation, but with the veteran starters that are available bringing back a pitcher that is familiar with the team and the players around him might be much easier than bringing in someone who would be totally new to the organization.

You’ve seen the choices that the Yankees might be able to use in their starting rotation. Who do you think that they might go with to fill those two starting rotation spots to start the season?

While I was writing about Yankees injuries I noticed that there was another one that they just announced. The Yankees are saying that Giancarlo Stanton is now questionable for opening day with a calf injury. Stanton injured his calf yesterday while working in the outfield. After an MRI Stanton was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his right calf. Aaron Boone used the phrase “down for a bit” when asked how long Stanton would be out, but did mention this injury could carry over into the regular season.

If the Yankees where hoping for a clean slate injury wise to start the 2020 season it sure doesn’t look like they’re going to get that.

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

 

How was your week

Posted: February 22, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, football, NASCAR, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I know that I’ve mentioned a time or two here that the three of us who host Sports Time Radio Dan the Man, Schaumburg Stu and myself all live in the Chicago suburbs. I understand that from time to time we’ll get caught up with a sports story that might not seem mainstream, but has a Chicago angle. This story however while maybe not the biggest sports story is significant enough to be considered a large story. You’ll have to let me know what you think.

There’s been a rumor that the Chicago Bears have been quietly looking for a quarterback and it appears that they are interested in David Carr of the now Las Vegas Raiders.

Now for this to happen the Bears and their general manager Ryan Pace are going to have to admit that Mitchell Trubisky is a bust. Pace not only spent the 2nd pick in the 2017 draft on Trubisky they actually traded up a pick to get him. Some how the San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch convinced Pace that there where teams willing to trade up ahead of the Bears and select Trubisky. The Bears gave up a 1st round, a 3rd round and a 4th round pick in the 2017 draft along with a 2018 3rd round pick just to move up that one spot and select Trubisky. That’s a lot to give up to move up just one spot in the draft, but if you where getting a franchise quarterback it could possibly be worth it.

Pace had already announced that Trubisky would be the Bears starting quarterback next season. In three seasons with the Bears Trubisky has started 41games and has a winning record at 23-18. After what looked like a breakout season in 2018 Trubisky regressed last season and that’s when the questions started.

Now looking at the situation this might not only be a question about Trubisky, but a question about Pace himself. In the four years Pace has handled the draft for the Bears he’s selected Kevin White at #7 in 2015, Leonard Floyd at #9 in 2016, Trubisky at #2 2017, Rouan Smith at #8 in 2018 and in 2019 the Bears didn’t have a 1st round pick as it was traded to the Raiders as part of the Khalil Mack deal. The Bears 2020 1st round pick is also owned by the Raiders; so the Bears won’t have a 1st round pick unless they make a trade for one.

White played three season with the Bears and caught 25 passes. The Bears released White after the 2018 season. He went to training camp with the Arizona Cardinals, but didn;t make the team and was out of the NFL last season.

Floyd was looked at as a pass rush specialist and the Bears where hoping he’d post large sack numbers for them. It looked like they might be right as Floyd had 7 sacks as a rookie, but since then Floyd’s sack totals have continued to go down. Last season Floyd had just 3 sacks.

Smith looks like he might be the best of all the 1st round picks Pace has made. Smith played in 12 games last season and was still the team leader with 101 combined tackles and assists. He also had an interception and 2 sacks.

You have to wonder if Trubisky was never going to be a franchise quarterback and it was Pace who made a poor call on taking him as early as they did. Is I the quarterback that needs to be replaced? Or is it the general manager that needs to go?

If the Bears do decide to make a change at quarterback is Carr the answer? In 6 seasons with the Raiders Carr has started all but two games for them. Carr’s record hasn’t been very good though as the team is 39-55 in those starts.

Even though the Raiders went 7-9 Carr had a solid season. He posted the highest career completion percentage of his career at 70.4%. He threw 21 touchdowns and 8 interception while throwing for the second most passing yards in his career 4054.

After looking at Carr’s stats from last season you have to wonder why the Raiders would be as interested as they seem t be in moving on from Carr. I know there are rumors that the Raiders are interested in Tom Brady, but is it really the best idea to move on from a soon to be 29 year old quarterback for a 42 year old quarterback.

If you’re the Bears would you rather have Carr or Trubisky as your quarterback? Then as far as the Raiders go would you prefer to have Carr or Brady as your quarterback?

The NASCAR season move into week two of their season and the best news they received this week was Ryan Newman walking out of the hospital after the crash he had at the end of the Daytona 500 last week. As of now there is no timetable for Newman to return to the #6 car; so for this week in Las Vegas Ross Chastain will be behind the wheel of the Rousch Fenway Racing Ford.

Chastain has 72 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series with one top-10 finish. He has five total wins at the NASCAR national series level and was part of the Championship 4 field in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in 2019. His first career national series win came in 2018 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Chastain is the full-time driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet in the Xfinity Series for the 2020 season.

Qualifying for the race is this afternoon in Las Vegas, but in final practice last night Jimmie Johnson had the fastest posted speed at 179.432 m.p.h. Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick all posted speeds over 179 m.ph. in final practice.

Martin Truex Jr. looks to be the top pick among fantasy players this week. Harvick along with Brad Keslowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch are also favorites among fantasy players this week.

The Sports Time Radio podcast airs live Monday through Friday on BlogTalkRadio.com. If you miss out on hearing the podcast live just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast whenever you’d like.

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

 

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 19, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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John Beilein started his coaching career in Junior college with SUNY Erie. In four years there Beilein went 75-43 and never had a losing season. Beilein then moved up to NCAA Division III with the Nazareth Golden Flyers. In his one season there Beilein went 20-6. Beilein’s next stop was Le Moyne an NCAA Division II school. In nine years at Le Moyne Beilein went 163-94 and had just one losing season. Beilein got his first of what turned out to be the first of his four NCCA Division I jobs at Canisius. Beilein took Canisius to two NIT appearances and one trip to the NCAA tournament. After five years at Canisius Beilein compiled a record of 89-62 before moving on to the University of Richmond. In his first year at Richmond Beilein took the Spiders to the NCAA tournament; Richmond also made two NIT appearances with Beilein as head coach. Beilein compiled a 100-53 record in his five years at Richmond before heading to the West Virginia University. Beilein took the Mountaineers to two NCAA tournament appearances and two trips to the NIT. West Virginia won the NIT tournament in the 2006-07 season. Beilein spent five seasons at West Virginia with a record of 104-60. Beilein’s final stop as a college coach was at the University of Michigan. Beilein spent 12 years at Michigan and took the Wolverines 9 NCAA tournament appearances and finished as tournament runner up twice. Beilein out together a record of 278-150 while at Michigan.

Then on May 13th 2009 Beilein signed a five year deal to become the head coach of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

Beilein headed to Cleveland with an outstanding college coaching resume, but after just 54 games and a 14-40 record Beilein and the Cavaliers have agreed to part ways. The Cavaliers currently have the worst record in the Eastern Conference and the second worst record in the NBA.

Beilein has always been looked at as a coach that likes to run a constant motion offense with precision shooting. Is this a style that will work in the NBA? Apparently not in Cleveland. Now obviously it’s not just the fault of the offense the team was running. Remember that the Cavaliers where stuck with a couple of big contracts; Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson and the team is also still paying J.R. Smith. That’s why it was a bit of a surprise when the Cavaliers traded for Andre Drummond who’s on a max deal for this season and next season. Now Thompson and Matthew Dellavedova are in the last season of their contracts; so that will help the Cavaliers get some salary cap relief. Even with some salary cap room you have to wonder if there’s a free agent out their that would be interested in signing with Cleveland.

J.B. Bickerstaff will be taking over as the head coach of the Cavaliers. Bickerstaff has had two other head coaching stints. He coached the Houston Rockets for 71 games going 37-34 in 2015-16. Houston was eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs that season. Bickerstaff took over the Memphis Grizzlies for the final 63 games in 2017-18 going 15-48. The Grizzlies decided to keep Bickerstaff as the head coach for the 2018-19 season, but was fired by the team after they went 33-49 and missed the playoffs.

Bickerstaff will make his debut as Cavaliers head coach on February 21st against the Washington Wizards. Bickerstaff’s career starts off with two back to back road games as the Cavaliers will play the Miami Heat on February 22nd.

Bickerstaff isn’t inheriting the best of coaching situations and it’s unclear right now if Cleveland is interested in keeping him around after these final 28 games of the season. Bickerstaff was the Cavaliers associate and assistant head coach; so he’ll just move a spot up on the bench.

Now with the changes the NBA made to the draft lottery there’s no guarantee that the Cavaliers will get the kind of player that can help them as a rookie. Can Cleveland land a game changing player in the draft? And if they do land that player; how much of a difference will that player make?

Greg Olsen is changing teams. On February 3rd the Carolina Panthers decided to release Olsen after nine seasons. After 13 seasons in the NFL there was some talk that Olsen might retire and move into a commentators role. Olsen has been a booth analyst for Fox Sports during this XFL season.

Well it looks like Olsen will be playing next season as he signed a one year $7 million dollar deal to join the Seattle Seahawks.

The Seahawks do have two veteran tight ends on their roster; Ed Dickson and Will Dissly, but neither has the pass catching resume that Olsen does. Jacob Hollister was the Seahawks top tight end last season with 41 receptions and 3 touchdowns. You’d like to think that a healthy Olsen will be able to surpass those numbers easily.

Olsen has always been a viable offensive target when healthy. He has had to seasons of 80 plus receptions as well as three seasons where he put up 1000 yards receiving. Olsen posted a career high 7 touchdowns in 2015 with Carolina.

Olsen has dealt with his share of injuries the last three seasons, but last season was the healthiest one he’s had. In 14 games Olsen caught 52 passes for 597 yards and 2 touchdowns with a long receptions of 41 yards. The concern for the Seahawks is if Olsen has a repeat of 2017 where he played 7 games or 2018 where he played in 9 games. If Olsen can just repeat the numbers he put up last season or improve them just slightly it would be an upgrade for the Seahawks.

With Olsen off the free agent tight end board it looks like Eric Ebron and Hunter Henry will be the top free agents on the market. There are a lot of veteran tight ends available in free agency with Jason Witten heading up that group. Witten has said that he’d like to play next season even if it’s not for the Dallas Cowboys. Will see if the Olsen signing possibly gets the market started and will see some signings soon.

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

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

 

How was your week

Posted: February 15, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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The NASCAR season kicks off with what has been called their Superbowl of stock car racing the Daytona 500. The race is considered the most prestigious and important race on the NASCAR calendar. The race also carries the largest purse of the season. The race is also an anomaly as in most if not all other sports their championship is played at the end of the season.

Since 1997 the winner of the Daytona 500 receives the Haley J. Earl trophy in victory lane. The winning car is displayed in race winning condition for one year at the Daytona 500 Experience a museum and gallery adjacent to the Daytona International Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racings Denny Hamlin is the defending champion. Hamlin starts this year race 21st as he looks to win his 3rd Daytona 500 and become the first driver to win this race back to back since Sterling Marlin in 1994-95.

Rickey Stenhouse Jr. of JTG Daughtery Racing had the fastest qualifying time and will start on the pole in the #47 car. Alex Bowman starts 2nd in the #88 car.

“The King” Richard Petty has won the Daytona 500 more time than anyone else 7. Cale Yarborough has won the race 4 times while Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon have each won this race 3 times. There are also 7 drivers who have won the race two times each.

Joey Logano and Hamlin are the favorites to win this years race at 10 to 1 while Chase Elliot, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are close behind at 13 to 1.

Who do you think will win this years Daytona 500?

It looks like the Cleveland Indians have suffered the first major injury of spring training as their top starting pitcher Mike Clevinger suffered a partial tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee.

Clevinger is slated to undergo surgery and is expected to miss about 6 to 8 weeks according to what the team has been telling reporters. It also seems highly unlikely that Clevinger would be ready to open the season in the Cleveland rotation. The extent of his rehab will be determined following the operation, but even a return on the short end of typical meniscus timelines would leave Clevinger with little if any time to prepare for the season opener.

Clevinger was looked upon to be one of the tp starters for the Indians this season. He made just 21 starts last season due to another injury, but when he made his starts he was very good. Clevinger went 13-4 with an ERA of 2.71 in those 21 starts.

Clevinger has made 84 starts in his major league career and has appeared in 97 career games. He is 41-21 with an ERA of 3.20. You can see that when Clevinger is healthy he’s been a very good pitcher for the Indians. Now the question is; can he stay healthy?

Shane Bieber and Carlos Carrasco have two of the spots in the Indians starting rotation locked down, but with Clevinger out the Indians will have to fill in the other three. Zach Plesac and Adam Plutko each made 20 or more starts for the Indians last season; so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they filled in two of the other rotation spots for the Indians. If that is the case Cleveland will just need to find someone to fill the 5th spot in the rotation until Clevinger returns.

It looks like that final spot might come down to one of four pitchers. Aaron Civale might have the inside track as he made 10 starts last season and went 3-4 with an ERA of 2.34. Jefry Rodriguez made 8 starts for the Indians last season going 1-5 with an ERA of 4.63. Logan Allen and Scott Moss will also have the opportunity to compete for the 5th starter spot, but neither have made a start in the majors and would need a good spring training to win the 5th starter spot.

Luckily for the Indians Clevinger’s injury wasn’t more serious and t appears as though Cleveland might only need a fill-in starter for a short period of time.

The Arizona Diamondbacks also had an injury happen to one of the pitchers in their starting rotation.

Mike Leake suffered a fracture in his left wrist, but luckily that’s his non-throwing hand. Apparently this is an aggravation of an injury Leake had as a child. Leake hurt his wrist slipping and falling while chasing his dog.

The Diamondbacks plan for Leake is to rest his wrist for two weeks. He can still throw, but he will be unable to catch any return throws or swing a bat.

The Diamondbacks acquired Leake from the Seattle Mariners at the trade deadline last season. Leake made 10 starts for Arizona after the trade going 3-3 with a 4.35 ERA over 60 innings.

Leake’s injury shouldn’t affect how the Diamondbacks rotation sets up for the season. Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver return to the Arizona starting rotation and they’ll be joined by free agent signing Madison Bumgarner. It looks as though Zac Gallen will have the first shot at locking down the 5th starter spot for the Diamondbacks.

Gallen made 8 starts for Arizona last season. He went 2-3 with an ERA of 2.89 over 43 2/3rd innings. Gallen made 14 starts at Triple-A before being called up by the Diamondbacks after they acquired him in a trade with the Miami Marlins and he was excellent. Galen went 9-1 with an ERA of 1.77 over 91 1/3rd innings.

The Diamondbacks did acquire Corbin Martin as part of the Zack Greinke deal with the Houston Astros. Martin made 5 relief appearances with the Astros last season, but suffered an injury and had to undergo Tommy John surgery. Martin had surgery last July and it appears as though his 2020 season is in doubt.

While it looks like Gallen will get that 5th starter role the Diamondbacks still have Merrill Kelly who made 32 starts for Arizona last season, but it seems as though he’ll start the year in the bullpen. Kelly did make 32 starts for the Diamondbacks last season covering 183 1/3rd innings which was the most on the team. It was Kelly’s first year back in Major League Baseball after spending four years in the Korean Baseball Organization.

Do you see the Diamondbacks going with Gallen or Kelly as their 5th starter?

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

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

 

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 12, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Now being that I’m old I don’t know a ton about social media. Now I do have a Facebook page and I am on Twitter @Burketime, but that’s the extent of my social media presence. I guess at my age social media just isn’t that big of deal for me like it is the younger generation, but I have to tell you I am enjoying the way Tom Brady has handle himself on social media lately.

It started just before the Super Bowl when Brady posted a photo to what I believe was his Instagram account. The photo showed Brady walking either in or possibly out of a darken stadium and everyone started thinking that he was going to be announcing his retirement. Well as this turned out that photo was the start of a Super Bowl commercial for Hulu.

Then yesterday there was an announcement on one of the social media platforms by the NFL. They let everyone know that the Los Angeles Chargers and Philip Rivers where planning to part ways after 16 seasons. Brady liked this tweet or the post or whatever it ended up being; so of course everyone thought that this means Brady will be signing with the Chargers.

I don’t believe that Brady will be singing with the Chargers as I fully believe he’ll end up back with the New England Patriots, but it’s been a whole lot of fun for me to watch people jump on everything Brady posts on any social media platform.

I’m very much hoping that Brady likes or tweets about something involving any team that might be looking for a quarterback just to see how people would react to each and every post he makes. Are you following Brady on social media?

Going back to Rivers and the Chargers. Rivers has started every game at quarterback for the Chargers since 2006. He made 224 consecutive starts at quarterback for the Chargers. Believe it or not the last quarterback to start a game for the Chargers was Drew Brees.

Rivers went 123-101 as the starter for San Diego and then Los Angeles. Rivers played in 11 post season games with the Chargers and went 5-6.

Now there are some starting quarterback jobs out their that Rivers could be a good fit for. Rivers did just move his entire family to the Tampa Bay area and the Buccaneers just happen to have an opening at quarterback. Jameis Winston is a free agent and Tampa Bay hasn’t really made it clear if they intend on trying to resign Winston.

If Tampa Bay did bring in Rivers he’d be able to work with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin at wide receiver as well as O.J. Howard at tight end. Tampa Bay has been waiting for Howard to become the break out tight end they thought they’d be getting when they spent a 1st round pick on him in the 2017 draft. Rivers has a pretty good history of working with tights ends; I’m sure you remember how well Rivers and Antonio Gates worked with each other. Howard has never caught more than 34 passes in a season, but if he could stay healthy and with Rivers as his quarterback would you be surprised to see him double that number of receptions. Of course that is if the Buccaneers decide to sign Rivers.

Now what might the Chargers do at quarterback? Well they do have the 6th pick in the upcoming draft and there will be quarterbacks available if that’s what they’d like to do. I have seen multiple mock drafts that have the Chargers selecting Justin Herbert out of the University of Oregon. Herbert is coming off of a down season in 2019 and you have to wonder if he can step in and start Week 1.

The Chargers do have Tyrod Taylor on their roster. Taylor was the Buffalo Bills starter from 2015-2017 starting 43 games going 22-20. Taylor did appear in 8 games for the Chargers last season. He threw 6 passes completing 4 of them for 33 yards and 1 touchdown. Taylor also an the football 10 times, but only gained 7 yards. Is it possible that Taylor could start the season as the Chargers quarterback until Herbert or whoever the Chargers might possibly draft could take over as the starter.

On the first day that veterans could be release the Carolina Panthers let tight end Greg Olsen go. Olsen did play in 14 games last season, but he had battled some injuries the two seasons before that. Olsen had posted three 1000 yard seasons in his career and has also had two 80 reception seasons. Olsen has a career 718 receptions and 59 touchdowns.

By releasing Olsen the Panthers freed up $8.1 million dollars in salary cap space, but Olsen is owed a $3.7 million dollar bonus.

Olsen hasn’t made a decision of if he’ll play one more season or if he’ll start his broadcasting career. Olsen did do play by play this weekend for Fox on their XFL broadcast.

Olsen joins the likes of Hunter Henry, Jason Witten, Eric Ebron and Austin Hooper as free agent tight ends. Henry and Hooper could both possibly receive a tag from their teams and if that happens it would really shorten the available free agent tight ends.

As for the Panthers; Olsen’s departure represents another major change for the organization. Luke Kuechly surprisingly decided to retire at the age of 28. Then there’s also the unknown status of quarterback Cam Newton. Carolina fired Ron Rivera after eight seasons as head coach and hired Matt Ruehle and Ruehle brought in his own coordinators Joe Brady and Phil Snow from the college ranks.

The Panthers seem to be in transition and it’s going to be interesting to see if they attempt to rebuild the organization on the fly or if they do a complete tear down and rebuild the team that way. There’s a chance we might know what direction Carolina is going to go when they make the 7th selection in the upcoming draft.

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

Like I mentioned early you can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week

Posted: February 8, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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Earlier this week we had a three team blockbuster trade in Major League Baseball. Mookie Betts and David Price went to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kenta Maeda is headed to the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox received Alex Verdugo and Brusdar Graterol. Now there apparently seems to be an issue with this deal from the Red Sox end.

Reports are that the Red Sox had some concerns about an injury Graterol even though he pitched in 28 games last season. 10 of those games where with the Twins in September. Graterol is represented by Scott Boras who was quoted as saying “No doctor has told me that there is anything about his future going forward other than that it is very bright and he has no limitations”. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying the injury angle here at all.

What I honestly think happened is the Red Sox looked at the deal and decided that they weren’t receiving enough in a deal that contained a former MVP and a former Cy Young award winner.

As of right now these five players are in limbo as these three teams need to figure out how this deal will actually play out. Now not only does this non-deal affect these five players, but the Dodgers made another deal on the basis of this one with the Los Angeles Angels. In that deal the Dodgers sent Joc Pedersen, Ross Stripling and minor leaguer Andy Pages to the Angels for infielder Luis Rengifo.

With pitchers and catchers on the verge of reporting this is has to be quite an issue for these teams to be dealing with. Just to kind of add salt to Pedersen’s wound not only does he not know what team he’s going to be on, but he lost his arbitration case that ended up having to be against the Dodgers since this trade is being held up.

Are you buying the Red Sox injury concerns for Graterol or do you think there was another reason that they had concerns with this trade.

Not that it will be looked at as a big free agent signing it is a player that we root for on the Sports Time Radio podcast. Hunter Pence signed a one year deal to return to the San Francisco Giants.

Pence spent seven seasons with the Giants from 2012-2018 before joining the Texas Rangers last season. An injury cut Pence’s season short. He didn’t play in a game after August 22nd, but he played so well in the first half of the season that he was named to the American League All-Star team.

Pence played in 83 games last season spending most of his time at Designated Hitter, but he did play 16 games in rightfield and 8 games in leftfield. This obviously becomes something you have to look at since the National League doesn’t have the Designated Hitter just yet. Pence did hit .297 last season with 18 home runs.

Pence got a one year deal from the Giants. He’ll earn $3 million dollars with a chance to earn $2.5 million dollars in incentives. Pence can earn a $1 million dollar roster bonus as well as $1.5 million dollar bonus based on plate appearances starting with his 450th plate appearance.

San Francisco has also added another veteran outfielder as they signed Billy Hamilton to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

It appears as though Hamilton would be a 26th man option for the Giants on their roster. You’d have to think that he’d be used as a late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner, but Hamilton could challenge Steven Duggar as a left handed centerfield option.

Hamilton’s offense never really caught up to the threat that he is on the bases. Hamilton was hitting just .211 when the Kansas City Royals released him, but he did hit better after the Atlanta Braves picked him up.

Are you interested in the XFL? If you are they kickoff today. The opening game has the Seattle Dragons at the DC Defenders today at 1:00 p.m. The second game today has the LA Wildcats at the Houston Drillers at 4:00 p.m. There are also two games tomorrow starting with the Tampa Bay Vipers at the NY Guardians at 1:00 p.m. The second game on Sunday has the St. Louis Battlehawks at the Dallas Renegades at 4:00 p.m.

Do you have any interest in the XFL? If you do there are fantasy leagues as well as betting. I saw that the Dallas Renegades are the favorite right now to win the league championship. Since we’ve haven’t seen much of these teams I’m not sure how they’re coming up with these betting lines, but I’m sure there are people out there who will be betting on these games.

Bob Stoops is the head coach of Dallas and their quarterback is Landry Jones. Jones played his college football at the University of Oklahoma where Stoops was his coach. Jones is Oklahoma’s all-time leader in touchdowns with 123 and passing yards with 16,646. Jones has made 5 starts in the NFL and has played in 18 career NFL games. After Ben Rothlisberger was injured last season the Pittsburgh Steelers reached out to Jones, but he had already signed with the XFL an was unable to get out of his contract.

While Jones might be the most notable name out of the XFL quarterbacks, but there are some other names you’ll know taking snaps in this league. Cardale Jones is the starter for DC. Luis Perez is the starter in LA. Matt McGloin is the starter in NY. Jordan Ta’amu is the St. Louis starter. Aaron Murray is the starter in Tampa Bay. Brandon Silvers gets the start in Seattle while Philip Walker is the starter in Houston.

Walker actually gets the start for Houston over Connor Cook; so he may be the first starting quarterback to lose his job in the XFL.

I’ve decided that I’ll be watching these opening week games. I’m hoping for some decent football and while I’m not expecting NFL caliber play I’m hoping for something better than the Alliance of American Football delivered.

Will you be watching the XFL?

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

You can also follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 5, 2020 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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We’ve been hearing about it pretty much all off season, but it looks like it finally happened. The Boston Red Sox finally trade outfielder Mookie Betts and got themselves under Major League Baseball luxury tax line. It took three teams to get a deal done, but here who went where.

Betts along with left handed pitcher David Price will be headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Red Sox will receive outfielder Alex Verdugo from the Dodgers and right handed pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol from the Minnesota Twins. Minnesota will receive starting pitcher Kenta Maeda. On the surface it looks like the Dodgers really got the better end of this deal, but let’s try to take a closer look.

Betts is just one year away from free agency and there are reports that he’ll receive a contract worth $400 million dollars. Will that be from the Dodgers? Or will he just be their for one year. Betts has received MVP votes in each of he last 5 seasons; winning the award in 2018. Betts is a career .301 hitter and has hit 30 or more home runs twice in his career while also stealing 16 or more bases every season he’s been a full time player. He is definitely one of the superstars in the game of baseball, but the key here is will the Dodgers be able to keep him for more than one season. The Dodgers also get Price and his large contract. Price was a Cy Young award winner, but believe it or not that was back in 2012. Price has been injured in two of the last three seasons and has made just 63 starts over that period of time. Last season Price had an ERA of 4.29 and pitched 107 1/3rd innings over 22 starts. Last season was the first time Price had an ERA over 4.00 since 2009 which was his first full season at the major league level. Price has three years and $96 million dollars left on his contract.

The Red Sox gets Verdugo who was a former prospect coming up through the Dodgers organization, but never had a chance to play full time. Last season was the first time Verdugo played in over 100 games. He hit .294 in 106 games with 12 home runs and 44 RBI’s. Verdugo played all three outfield positions for the Dodgers last season, but it appears as he’ll be a corner outfield for the Red Sox. The Ed Sox also pick up the hard throwing 21 year old right hander Graterol. He appeared in 10 games for the Twins last season all in relief covering 9 2/3rd innings. Graterol has only pitched in 51 minor league games over 4 seasons making 41 starts. He’s thrown 214 total minor league innings, but has moved quickly through the Twins minor leagues. Graterol pitched at three minor league levels for Minnesota last season going 7-0 with an ERA of 1.92 in 18 games 11 of which where starts. Will Graterol be in the Red Sox starting rotation come opening day?

It appears that the Twins where added to this deal late since all the early reports had this deal happening between just the Red Sox and Dodgers. Minnesota was the team that gave up a top rated prospect as Graterol was the 83rd ranked prospect coming into this season. In return for giving up a prospect the Twins get veteran and versatile in Maeda. He pitched in 37 games last season for the Dodgers with 26 of those being starts. Maeda also picked up 3 saves last season. Maeda has really shown his versatility in the playoffs. Maeda has pitched in 24 post season games over the last three season, but only three of those games have been as a starter. In the post season Maeda is 2-1 with a 3.31 ERA over 32 2/3rd innings. Even though he’s shown that he can be either a starter or reliver it appears as though Maeda will be in the Twins starting rotation as the 2nd or 3rd starter.

It’s clear that the Dodgers where the winners of this deal and if  they can sign Betts to a long term deal that would really put this deal over the top for them. The Twins get a solid veteran pitcher for their prospect, but the biggest question in this deal is; how did the Red Sox do? There will be a lot of if’s attached to this deal for the Red Sox. Now they did get the luxury tax relief they where looking for, but it also looks like they gave up a chance to contend for the AL East. Now if Verdugo produces as a full time player and if Graterol can become a fixture in the starting rotation this deal might not look to bad for Boston, but right now was it more than just a salary dump?

This was the first time in baseball history that a former MVP and a former Cy Young award winner where traded by a team in the same deal.

Now I’m sure there’s people out there thinking that by adding an outfielder the Dodgers really have an over crowded outfield. Well Los Angeles was able to take care of that before the trade for Betts and price was even announced. The Dodgers sent outfielder Joc Pedersen and minor league outfielder Andy Pages to the Los Angeles Angels in return for Luis Rengifo.

Pedersen’s name had come up in trade talks quite a bit over the last couple of off seasons and he was finally dealt.

Pedersen can not only play all three outfield positions, but has also played some 1st base. He’s coming off a season where he hit a career highs in home runs at 36 and RBI’s with 74. Pedersen should step right in and be the everyday rightfielder for the Angels and it looks as though he might also be their lead off hitter. Pages has been in the minors for just two years, but was the Dodgers 29th ranked prospect. It will be quite a few years before Pages will be ready to step into the major leagues; so it’s kind of a wait and see situation with him.

At 22 years old Rengifo got his first taste of playing in the majors last season. He appeared in 108 games for the Angels last season. He hit .238 and played 104 games at 2nd base and 12 games at shortstop. If Rengifo makes the Dodgers opening day roster he’ll be their third player along with Chris Taylor and Enrique “Kiki” Hernandez who can play multiple positions. That would give Dodgers manager Dave Roberts a lot of flexibility on his bench.

With these two deals; do you now consider the Dodgers the favorite to win the World Series? I’d also be interested to know how you think these deals affect the Red Sox, Twins and Angels.

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you d miss the podcast live just head on over to TuneIN.com and you can listen at your leisure.

Also take the time to follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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