How was your Week? (12/28/13)

Posted: December 28, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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So how many NBA games did you watch on Christmas day? I watched all of the Chicago Bulls win over the Brooklyn Nets. I also watched all of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s win over the New York Knicks. I only made it about half way through the Miami Heat victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. I managed to catch a total of about half of the game where the Houston Rockets defeated the San Antonio Spurs. I was unable to see any of the last game a Golden State Warriors win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The teams also wore jerseys with sleeves. Most of the people I heard talk about the jerseys didn’t like them but I actually did. I’d have to guess that the NBA referees didn’t like the jerseys since there where no numbers on the back and they had to search for the players number to make foul calls. It will be interesting to see if the NBA will pull these jerseys out again this season or if we’ve seen the last of them for now?

It’s week 17 in the NFL and there are two win and you’re in the playoffs games. Aaron Rodgers returns for the Green Bay Packers as they take on the Chicago Bears Sunday at 3:25 p.m. The winner of this game wins the NFC North and gets a playoff spot. While the Packers have Rodgers back, Clay Matthews had surgery on his thumb and is ruled out for this game. The Bears are a slight favorite in this game and a lot of the experts are picking Chicago to win this game and claim a playoff spot. It’s the best rivalry in the NFL in the last week of the regular season with a playoff spot on the line. What more could you ask for? The other win and you’re in-game is for the NFC East division title. The Philadelphia Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys in the Sunday night game for what will be the only playoff spot left by the time this game kicks off. After some game playing by the Cowboys, quarterback Tony Romo had back surgery on Friday and is out of this game. The Cowboys tried to string everyone along during the week and tried to make it seemed like Romo might play in this game. I don’t think anyone believed that at all but I think they where just trying to give the Eagles something to think about. Kyle Orton takes over as quarterback for the Cowboys; they signed Jon Kitna to be his back up. It’s a lot of pressure for Orton to step into but he’s a veteran quarterback and as long as the Cowboys game plan correctly for his skill set he’ll be fine. Now I’m not saying Dallas will win this game just that Orton has a chance to play well. If you want to know who we think is going to win these games listen tomorrow (Sunday) morning (December 29th) at 11:00 a.m. on Sports Time Radio to hear who we’re going with in these two games and all the other NFL week 17 match ups.

Dion Phanuef is in talks with the Toronto Maple Leafs on a seven year deal. The money that I heard was $7 million but I would think for a player like Phanuef it would be much higher. Phanuef is the Maple Leafs leader in minutes played and plus/minus and he does this against the other teams top line most of the time. In 38 games this season Phanuef has 3 goals and 11 assists with a plus minus rating of +10 while racking up 48 penalty minutes.

In the Eastern conference the Boston Bruins in leading the way with 54 points. The Pittsburgh Penguins are on top in the Metropolitan division with 57 points. In the Western Conference the Chicago Blackhawks lead the Central division with 60 points. The Anaheim Ducks lead the Pacific division with 59 points. Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in points with 50 while Patrick Kane is 2nd with 50 points. Alex Ovechkin leads the NHL in goals with 30 while Alexander Steen is 2nd with 24. Joe Thornton leads the NHL in assists with 37 while Nicholas Backstrom and Sidney Crosby are tied for 2nd with 34. Hampus Lindholm is a +22 to lead the NHL in plus minus rating. Tuukka Rask has 4 shutouts to lead all goalies in that category.

Masahiro Tanaka was posted by his Japanese team the Rakuten Golden Eagles on Christmas day. The rumor is Tanaka wants $17 million dollars a season to pitch in the majors. Once a team signs Tanaka his Japanese team will receive $20 million dollar from the team that signs Tanaka. Tanaka was 24 – 0 with a 1.27 era, last season. Tanaka did lose a game in the Japanese World Series but did come back the very next day to close out the championship. There are a long, long list of major league baseball teams looking to sign Tanaka; so now they have 30 days to get his signature on a contract. Let the bidding war start.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime

12/21/13 How was your Week?

Posted: December 21, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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Yesterday (Friday) the Baltimore Orioles voided their two $15 million dollar contract offer to free agent closer Grant Balfour. The Orioles reported that there was a shoulder issue that came up during Balfour’s physical. Now there are reports coming out this morning (Saturday) that physician’s from the Cincinnati Reds and the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t agree with the Orioles diagnosis. Balfour has released a statement saying he feels disrespected by the Orioles but it looks like he’ll be back out on the free agent market.

I mentioned on the show last night (Friday) that I’ve always been a fan of Kobe Bryant. So as you can guess I was disappointed to see him go down with a fracture knee cap in his left knee. It just happens to be the same leg that he suffered the torn Achilles last season. Bryant is scheduled to be out for six weeks and told reporters that “Only an idiot would” doubt his resolve to return to the Lakers. Bryant is 35 and is starting to have these injury issues pop up. Last season with the Achilles and now this injury happened just six games into Bryant’s season. Bryant was playing a little over 29 minutes in those six games he got to play in. He was averaging 13.8 points a game, shooting 42.5% from the field. Bryant had recently been giving the duty of handling the basketball more; so his assists where up to an average of 6.3 a game but with the extra ball handling duties his turnovers where up as well. He was averaging 5.7 turnovers a game. Being a fan I have no doubt that Bryant will be back but what kind of impact can he have on this Lakers team this season?

There are two months left until the NBA trade deadline but the name that was out right away with a lot of noise was Houston Rockets Center Omer Asik. Some of the rumors had Asik going to the New Orleans Pelicans for Ryan Anderson. Another rumor had him going to Philadelphia for Thaddeus Young and Spencer Hawes. One more rumor being reported had Asik headed to Boston for Brandon Bass, Courtney Lee and a low-end first rounder from Boston. The Rockets have said that they’re going to hang on to Asik for nowbut will see how this plays out and where he ends up.

Let’s stick with the NBA here and talk a little about what has to be considered the biggest surprise team early this season, the Portland Trailblazers. 27 games into the season the Trailblazers are 22 – 5 going 10 – 2 at home during these games. The Trailblazers have four players averaging double-digit scoring for them this season. LaMarcus Aldridge leads the way with 23.3 points a game but Damian Lillard is right behind him at 21.3. Wesley Matthews at 16.2 points per game and Nicolas Batum at 14.1 points per game are the other two Trailblazers averaging double figures. Aldridge is also leading the team in rebounds per game at 11.1. Robin Lopez is 2nd on the team averaging 8.4 rebounds per game. Lopez also has the best shooting percentage on the team at just under 54%. Lillard leads the team in assists per game with 5.9. Batum is second on the team at 5.2 assists per game and Mo Williams is handing out 4.5 assists per game. I actually heard a sports writer explain that Portland doesn’t get a lot of coverage because sports writers and televised games don’t want to go to Portland because it’s not as exciting as an New York or Los Angeles. More or less saying that there’s nothing they like or want to do in Portland after a game. Sadly I didn’t know that part of being a good team meant having to have places for people to go after your games. Who knows how the Trailblazers will end up this season, but it’s a nice early season story and you never know they might be able to roll this good start into some type of playoff run. I guess then everyone would have to go to Portland.

@Burketime

How was your Week 12/14/13

Posted: December 14, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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The NFL Thursday night games aren’t always the best game of the week, but this week the match up had the San Diego Chargers vs. the Denver Broncos. The Broncos have pretty much wrapped up the AFC West while the Chargers are fighting to get into the playoffs. San Diego upset Denver 27 – 20 on Thursday night. The key to this game and what I’ve heard a lot of experts talking about is; did the Chargers show the rest of the NFL how to beat Peyton Manning and the Broncos? Manning was sacked once and threw a late interception to seal the victory for San Diego. The Chargers running game helped them control the game and keep the high-powered Denver offense on the sidelines watching the game. The Chargers ran 44 times for 177 yards and 1 touchdown. Ryan Matthews led the way for San Diego with 29 carries and 129 yards. Do you think the Chargers showed the rest of the NFL something?

We don’t talk a lot of UFC on the show but yesterday there was a big story concerning the UFC. Welterweight champion George St. – Pierre announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the UFC and was vacating his welterweight championship. St. Pierre has long been talked about as the best pound for pound fighter in the world but a lot of people think he lost his last fight. St. Pierre was awarded a split decision victory over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on November 16th. After that fight St. Pierre talked about hanging up his gloves and retiring from UFC. UFC President Dana White talked that there would be a rematch and even said he thought St. Pierre lost the fight. White hasn’t made a statement on this situation yet and I’m interested to see what he has to say. It was announced that Hendricks will fight Robbie Lawler to fill the vacant welterweight title on March 15th 2014 in Dallas, Texas.

While baseballs winter meetings ended this week the Kansas City Royals jumped out and signed 2nd baseman Omar Infante to a four-year deal worth $40 million. It would be difficult to go over ever signing that has happened in the last week; so I’ll just have randomly come up with some of them. A move I found really interesting was the Tigers signing Joba Chamberlain to a one year deal for $2.5 million. This could turn out to be one of the better free agent moves. Chamberlain always had a lot of potential but injuries have really derailed his career and you wonder if a change of scenery will allow him to get back on track. If it does he’ll be a great addition to the Tigers bullpen. Shin – Soo Choo and Nelson Cruz are the two most mentioned names still out on the free agent market. I think I’ve heard Choo’s name linked with just about every team in major league baseball. Cruz hasn’t been has talked about, but once Choo signs Cruz will become more popular on the free agent market. Did your team make a move?

So I have to ask you. How was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime

12/7/13 How was your Week?

Posted: December 7, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball
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When was the last time that baseball was front and center in December? College football has it’s conference championships going on and is headed into bowl season. The NFL is in week 14 with playoff berths on the line and it seems like baseball made all the big news this week.

The Yankees actually started the free agent signings off a little while ago when they signed catcher Brian McCann to a five (5 year $85 million dollar deal. The Yankees also got last weeks signings started by getting Jacoby Ellsbury to leave the world champion Boston Red Sox. It took a seven years $185 million dollar contract to get Ellsbury to make the switch. Then in what most experts would consider a minor signing the Yankees signed Kelly Johnson to a one year $3 million dollar contract. While Johnson spent most of his playing time last season in the outfield he has been a full-time 2nd baseman at the major league level. With these signings by the Yankees you start to wonder if they have the money to get the biggest free agent on the market; Robinson Cano. That answer was no; as the Seattle Mariners stepped up and signed Cano to an eight year $240 million dollar deal. This seemed like a quick negotiation between Cano and the Mariners and at one point in time they where reporting the deal was dead. Cano and his team including Jay – Z went to Seattle yesterday and where able to agree to this deal. Cano was far and away the best free agent on the market and while he didn’t get that ten year $300 million dollar deal that was originally thrown out their by his agents he did still get that $30 million dollar a year figure he was looking for. Seattle signing Cano came as a little bit of a surprise but in the past few seasons they have tried to sign Prince Fielder and Josh Hamilton when they where free agents. What always gets to me with these type of signings is the experts sell the player until he signs a deal, but when he doesn’t sign with a major market team they start to take shots at the player. This has already started with Cano and the Mariners. They gave him too many years and he won’t be any good-by the time the contract is at it’s end. They gave him too much money and no one else was close to paying him what Seattle did. These are just a couple of the things I heard after Cano signed his contract. It of course is a huge joke that these guys turned on Cano this fast. Of course if he would’ve resigned with the Yankees or happened to go to another big market team it would’ve been the greatest signing in the history of baseball. It gets very, very tiring listen to a guy who has praised a player turn on him so quickly after he either gets more money than they think he deserved or signs with a team they didn’t want him to sign with. I guess when a team comes to you with a big contract and a lot of money you’re suppose to turn them down and go where the experts say you should be playing. The Yankees didn’t wait long at all to bring in another big time free agent signing Carlos Beltran to a three year $45 million dollar deal. Beltran was the 2nd best free agent on the open market and wanted three years from whatever team he signed with. I’m interested to see where the Yankees go from here. Right now they have five outfielders for three position. Of course one of those outfielders can always be used as a designated hitter but that still leaves one man out. You’d guess since they went out and signed Ellsbury and Beltran that they’ll be playing full-time in the outfield. That leave Brett Gardner, Alfonso Soriano and Ichiro Suzuki for those other couple of spots. If you wanted to you could even add Vernon Wells to this mix of outfielders. With the baseball winter meetings coming up will the Yankees by looking to trade one of these extra outfielders and will they be able to get anything for one of them since most teams would think they’d be looking to trade one. While the Yankees went out and signed multiple free agents and the mariners put up the money for the top free agent there where other teams out there signing players. The Boston Red Sox where able to resign Mike Napoli for two years and $32 million dollars. The Red Sox filled there closer role by signing Edward Mujica for two years and $9.55 million dollars. The Red Sox also signed catcher A.J. Pierzynski for one year at $8.25 million dollars. The Red Sox signed Pierzynski to fill the spot of Jarrod Saltalamacchia who got a three year $21 million dollars from the Miami Marlins. The Marlins also went out and signed injury plagued shortstop Rafael Furcal to a one year deal. The Marlins also signed former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder/1st baseman Garrett Jones to a two year deal. The Minnesota twins went out and added the starting pitching they talked about at the end of last season. The Twins added free agents Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes to their starting rotation. One outfielder the Yankees did lose was Curtis Granderson who signed a four year $60 million dollar deal to stay in New York, but with the Mets. I know there where a lot more free agent signings and I could spend days writing about all of them. There where just a few of them and there will be many, many more signings to come. Any major league team looking for a starting pitcher is waiting to see if Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka will be posted by his team. Major league baseball and the Japanese league have been trying to work out a new posting system to make it fair to all the teams. No one is really sure if the new system will be in place in time for Tanaka to be posted or if his Japanese league team the Rakuten Golden Eagles will post him under the new rules. Did your favorite team get in on these free agent signings? Did they sign the player you wanted them to?

Let me know, as I ask you. How was your Week?

You can follow me on @Burketime

How was your 11/30/13

Posted: November 30, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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I’ll start out this week by wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you and your family had a good time.

It’s Heisman trophy time in college football and a lot of contenders have fallen by the way side. Marcus Mariota of Oregon has struggled later in the season. Johnny Manziel (Texas A & M) has also had some late season struggles. Jameis Winston (Florida State) has still played well on the field but his off the field issue may prevent people for voting for him. The reports coming out say that the investigation against Winston may not be wrapped up by the time the Heisman voting is due. If there hasn’t been a decision made on if Winston will be charged it might be tough for someone to cast a vote for him. I think that leaves you with a couple of choices. Jordan Lynch quarterback (Northern Illinois) and Andre Williams running back (Boston College) as the top two college football players. I’m guessing that neither of these two will get the award but I think one of them should. Lynch just broke his own record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a game. He had 321 yards against Western Michigan on 11/26. For the season Lynch has 1755 yards with 20 rushing touchdowns and is averaging 7.1 yards per carry. He’s also completed 65% of his passes this season for 2457 yards and 22 touchdowns while throwing just 5 interceptions. Lynch has also led Northern Illinois to a 12 – 0 record this season. I know the knock Lynch gets is that he hasn’t played a big time college football team this season. Northern Illinois best win this season may have been week 1 against Iowa a 30 – 27 win. If Lynch doesn’t win the Heisman he should at least get an invite to New York for the awards ceremony. Breaking into the Heisman race late this season is Andre Williams of Boston College. In his last three games Williams rushed for 295 yards against New Mexico State, 339 yards against North Carolina State and 263 yards against Maryland. For the season Williams has 2073 yards rushing and has 16 touchdowns. Boston College is 7 – 4 this season and is on a four game winning streak as I write this. I did find it odd, looking over Williams stats, that he hasn’t caught a pass this season. This shouldn’t affect the way the voters look at him. Williams breaking into the Heisman talk so late in the season may actually be a plus for him but I don’t know if it will be enough to get him the award. As always the award is supposed to go to the best player in college football but we all know better than that. Lets hope this season some voters see the light and actually try to figure out who that best player is and not cast their vote for the most popular or talked about player.

If you’ve listened to the Sunday shows you know that picking winners in the NFL games hasn’t been our speciality. We did make our picks for the Thanksgiving games and did better than we normally do. Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man went 2 – 1 with Pittsburgh being the only loss for that day. I managed to jump out in front for the day going 3 – 0. Will make the rest of our picks for the week on Sunday mornings show, so will see how we do. For the season Dan the Man is in the lead at 98 – 65 – 1. I’m a couple of games behind Dan the Man at 96 – 67 – 1 while Mr. Fantasy is bringing up the rear at 90 – 73 – 1. Will see how the rest of the season goes for our picks.

The NBA season is about 15 games into it’s run and the Indiana Pacers have the best record at 14 – 1 but there are some teams very close to them record wise. The San Antonio Spurs are 14 – 2. The Portland Trailblazers and the Miami Heat are both 13 – 3, while the Los Angeles Clippers and the Houston Rockets are 12 – 5. Teams on the other end of the standings are the Utah Jazz at 2 – 15 and the Milwaukee Bucks at 2 – 13. Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) is leading the league in scoring averaging 28 points per game with Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks) right behind him at 26.5 points per game. Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers) leads the league in assists handing out 12.2 per game. John Wall (Washington Wizards) is next at 8.8 assists per game. Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) leads the league in rebounding averaging 13.9 rebounds per game with 3.9 of the rebounds being on the offensive side. DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers) is second in rebounding with 12.9 rebounds per game with 4.4 of those rebounds being on the offensive rebounds.

The NHL is about a quarter of the way through the season and it looks like the Western conference has the better run of it right now but there’s still a long way to go. The defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks are the top point scoring team with 42. The St. Louis Blues, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks are all right behind the Blackhawks with 39 points. The top team in the Eastern conference is the Boston Bruins with 36 points but the Pittsburgh Penguins only trail them by one point at 35. Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) is leading the league in points with 36. Alexander Steen (St. Louis Blues) and Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) are leading the league in goals scored with 20. Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) leads the NHL in assists with 25. Dustin Penner of the Anaheim Ducks in the leagues plus minus leader at plus 18.

So, how was your week?

You can follow me on @Burketime

How was your Week 11/23/13

Posted: November 23, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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A quick apology for not having a show Wednesday this week. There was a scheduling mix up and when I went to get the show set up for Dan the Man and I it was too late. I’m sorry about that.

Alex Rodriguez walked out of his arbitration hearing this week after it was ruled that Bud Selig wouldn’t be called to testify. This was all planned by Rodriguez’s legal team to try to get the public on his side. I could only imagine Rodriguez pounding on the table and getting up and leaving and I had a good laugh about it. Rodriguez is never going to admit that he used P.E.D’s and then lied to everyone about it but I think any real fan knows he did. I found it very interesting that his legal team had a press release ready to go right after the walk out happen. Even more proof that this was a planned event. Rodriguez ended up on the radio at WFAN in New York, but that interview was a huge joke as well. It was Rodriguez blaming Selig for everything and then denying any and all of the accusations that have been made against him. I also found it interesting that Rodriguez and his team wanted Selig to testify at the hearing but Rodriguez wasn’t going to testify at the hearing. Why Selig, but not Rodriguez?

A couple of big trades in major league baseball this week. On Wednesday the Detroit Tigers sent 1st baseman Prince Fielder and $30 million dollars to the Texas Rangers for 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler. This may actually be a trade that ends up helping both teams in the long run. With the trade of Fielder; Miguel Cabrera will move back over to 1st base and prospect Nick Castellanos will get a chance to play 3rd base. Also Kinsler can move into the lead off spot in the Tigers batting order and take some of the pressure off of Austin Jackson. With Fielder’s money off the Tigers book they’ll be able to look into resigning Max Scherzer. Cabrera is also getting close to the end of his contract and you have to figure it’s going to cost between $25 – $30 million a season to keep him in Detroit. On the Texas side of the trade Fielder will add power to the line up. I’d guess he’ll split time at 1st base with Mitch Moreland and also be a designated hitter. Fielder plays as close to everyday as any player in the majors; so the Rangers should get a lot of quality at bats out of him. The other trade happened yesterday when the St. Louis Cardinals sent 3rd baseman David Freese and pitcher Fernando Salas to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for outfielder Peter Bourjos and minor league prospect Randal Grichuk. There where a lot of rumors that the Cardinals where looking to make a trade, but that they where trying to acquire a shortstop. By trading for Bourjos I have to wonder if the Cardinals are out of the Carlos Beltran free agent derby. Looking at the trade you have to wonder if it’s the first move for each teams and that they have another trade in the works.

Last night the Chicago Bulls lost 98 – 95 last night to the Portland Trailblazers. Derrick Rose left this game with is what’s being called a non contact knee injury. Bulls fans went through this last season, but this time it was his right knee. He left the stadium on crutches and there hasn’t been any time-table as to this injury. Rose is schedule to have an M.R.I. in Los Angeles on Saturday. Rose was injured in the 3rd quarter and the Bulls went on to blow a 21 point lead in this loss. Rose had 20 points in about 28 minutes last night before getting injured. There was always talk about the Bulls giving the Miami Heat a run at the Eastern Conference and a spot in the NBA Finals. Without Rose it will start to look more and more like last season when Rose was gone for all of it. I guess Bulls fans will hold their breath until the M.R.I. results are known.

Now you know from listening to the show that Dan the Man and I rail on ESPN quite a bit. In week 1 or 2 of the college football season the network decided that the Heisman trophy would go to Florida State red-shirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston. Now Winston has been accused in a sexual assault case where his DNA has been found. Let me state that there have been no charges filed against Winston as I write this and I’m not hear to decide what the verdict here should be. The reason I bring this up at all is I’m interested to see where and or how ESPN gets themselves out of this. It doesn’t matter how this case plays out it looks this situation will cost Winston any chance at the Heisman trophy. I haven’t watched a lot ESPN as of late, so I don’t know if there running away from their early award. I’m guessing they are. The voting is still a few weeks away and I’ll be interested to see who comes out as the front-runner.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

11/16/13 How was your Week?

Posted: November 16, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in Uncategorized
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So major league baseball handed out their awards for the regular season. They gave out The Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young award and the MVP award. For the most part I think the voting went as it should’ve. Will Myers and Jose Fernandez won the Rookie of the Year awards for their leagues. Fernandez beat out Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Myers main competition was from his teammate Chris Archer and the Detroit Tigers José Iglesias. These where the two players I thought should’ve won the awards. I think the only award that they handed out that I wasn’t in total agreement with was A. L. Manager of the Year. I thought John Farrell of the Boston Red Sox would get this award, but he finished 2nd to Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona. While the Indians had a good season Farrell and the Red Sox went from worst to first and I think he should’ve won this award. There where a lot of good choices in the national League for manager of the Year, but it was Clint Hurdle of the Pittsburgh Pirates who won the award. You could debate about Mike Matheny, Don Mattingly or Fredi González win this award, but I had no issue at all with the choice of Hurdle. Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw won the Cy Young awards for their leagues. Scherzer won 21 games and was the best choice in the American League. I know a lot of the new experts don’t value wins anymore, but 21 is an impressive total. The only other pitchers getting 1st place votes where Chris Sale and Scherzer’s teammate Anibal Sanchez while Yu Darvish finished 2nd in the voting. Kershaw received 29 out of 30 1st place votes on his way to his 2nd Cy young award in three years. The other 1st place vote went to the St. Louis Cardinals Adam Wainwright. Rookie of the Year Jose Fernandez finished 3rd in the voting. Alright the category that drives me crazy M. V. P. Andrew McCutchen won the National League award getting all but two 1st place votes. While I believe McCutchen deserved this award I thought the voting would be much, much closer than it was. Paul Goldschimdt of the Arizona Diamondbacks finished 2nd in the voting and St. Louis cardinals catcher Yader Molina finished 3rd and got the other two 1st place votes. There was a little complaining about Molina’s 1st place votes since they came from two local St. Louis writers. I didn’t think it was all that big of a deal because I believe both writers had McCutchen 2nd on their ballots. Dan the Man mentioned on Friday’s show that Nike already has ads with McCutchen in them running; so I guess they thought he’d win as well. Now in the American League all I can say is here we go again. Miguel Cabrera won the MVP for the second year in a row and he should have. Mike Trout finished 2nd in the voting and I don’t think he should’ve been that high. While I like a lot of experts feel that Trout is the best player in baseball; there’s a difference between best and valuable. Again while Trout is the best; Cabrera is the most valuable. Cabrera got 23 1st place votes while Trout got 5 1st place votes; Chris Davis finished in 3rd place and got one first place vote. While I think Trout will win an M. V. P. award or two he hasn’t deserved to win these last two seasons. I’m glad the voters have been able to see this award the right way the last couple of seasons.

I guess we’re going to see if the Kansas City Chiefs are for real. The Chiefs take their 9 – 0 record to Mile High to take on the 8 – 1 Denver Broncos. More and more it’s looking like one of these teams win the A F C West and the other will claim one of the wild card spots. Denver plays very well at home and the Chiefs will need to use Jamaal Charles running ability to control the ball and keep Peyton Manning and the Denver offense off the field. I do have to wonder if the Dwayne Bowe arrest during the week will be any type of distraction for the Chiefs. There where a couple of drug arrests this week in the NFL as not only Bowe, but Jason Snelling of the Atlanta Falcons was arrested for possession of marijuana. Both players are scheduled to play in their teams games this weekend and you have to wonder if the NFL will step in and administer any type of punishment to either player.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? 11/09/13

Posted: November 10, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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With the World Series over, the baseball off-season starts to heat up. Yesterday on the show, Start of the weekend; Friday Dan the Man and I discussed free agent demands that Ervin Santana and Rickey Nolasco have made. Santana wants a contract worth $100 million and Nolasco is looking for a contract worth $80 million. Now I know this is a down year for free agent pitching but why would a team consider giving either if these pitchers contracts worth anywhere near that amount. Santana made 32 starts last season and had a 9 – 10 record. He pitched 211 innings and had a good ERA 3.24, but does that make him worth a $100 million dollar contract. Nolasco went 13 – 11 overall, but was 8 – 3 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nolasco made 33 starts and pitched 199 innings total. His ERA with the Dodgers was 3.52, but would that make you want to pay him $80 million dollars over the life of a contract. It will be interesting to see which teams will jump in and negotiation with these two pitchers but I think I’d be very surprised to see either of them get the kind of long-term deals and the kind of money they’re asking for right now. If these two pitchers are worth this kind of money what would a free agent pitcher like Matt Garza would command. Garza is a free agent as well and has always been looked at as a guy with #1 starter type of stuff. I’m not sure the same could be said about either Nolasco or Santana.

The NBA season is getting going and the Indiana Pacers are the only undefeated team at 6 – 0; while the Utah Jazz are the only team that hasn’t picked up a win yet. The Jazz are currently at 0 – 6 as I’m writing this. You’d have to say the biggest surprise to start the NBA season are the 4 – 2 Philadelphia 76ers. While the 76ers may still end up in the draft lottery you can’t say they haven’t gotten off to a surprising start; even getting a win over the Miami Heat. Evan Turner is leading the team in scoring at 22 points a game. While rookie Michael Carter – Williams is averaging 18 points and 7 assists a game. While I’m sure no one is ready to put the 76ers in the NBA finals they are a good story to start the year off.

With the NHL season about a third of the way over the Anaheim Ducks have the most points in the league right now with 29 and lead the Pacific division. The Colorado Avalanche aren’t that far behind with 26 points and are leading the Central division. There is still a long way to go in this NHL season and right now there are 13 teams with 20 points or more and 9 of them are in the Western Conference. The Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby is leading the league in points with 23 while the St. Louis Blues Alexander Steen leads the league with 14 goals; Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks is the league leader in assists with 17.

Tuesday on the show we talked quite a bit about the Jonathan Martin, Richie Incognito situation with the Miami Dolphins. I don’t want to go into all the details about what has went on with these two Dolphin players and at this points it’s a no win situation for both guys. At this point in time I’m wondering if either Jonathan Martin or Richie Incognito will ever play in the NFL again.

So, how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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Sports Time Radio Pregame Show

11/02/13 How was your Week?

Posted: November 2, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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The Boston Red Sox are World Series champions. I have to tell the truth I thought the St. Louis Cardinals would end up winning that series. In game 6 Michael Wacha showed that he was a rookie with very limited playoff experience. I thought that the Cardinals would break out and start hitting, but the Red Sox pitching shut them down. John Lackey had a big comeback season and series. Lackey has clinched 2 World series for 2 different teams. As a rookie Lackey got the win in the World Series clinching game for the Angels. I don’t know if they where being called The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim yet or if they where still the California Angeles. Sorry I got a little side tracked there. David Ortiz was the M.V.P. of the World Series; while some experts where pushing for Clay Bucholtz to win the award. I believe they made the right choice as Ortiz put up numbers that only 2 people have done better than in a World Series. After the way Ortiz played in the World Series and with winning the M.V.P., talk started on if he will make the baseball Hall of Fame when his career is over. I don’t really know where I stand on this but I’ve heard everything from he’ll be a first ballot hall of famer to he won’t get in because he didn’t play defense. The Red Sox went from worst to first and now the talk starts on if they’ll repeat in 2014.

So which one of you had the Miami Heat starting the season 1 – 2. I know it’s very early in the season but I’m a little surprised the Heat have dropped 2 consecutive games. I really thought the Heat might struggle opening night against the Chicago Bulls but they handled the Bulls easily 107 – 95. They turned around the next night and lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 114 – 110 and then last night lost to the Brooklyn Nets 101 – 100. Now I don’t think anyone would be surprised if at the end of the playoffs in 2014 the Heat are raising the trophy again. It just shows how odd and long the NBA season can be.

Every Sunday morning Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I make are picks for that weeks NFL games and have we had a rough year. We finally had a better week in Week 8. Dan the Man and I where 9 – 3 while Mr. Fantasy went 8 – 4. For the season Dan the Man and I are 70 – 42 while Mr. Fantasy is trailing at 65 – 48. It just seems like it’s been a tough year for us to pick games. We’ll be on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. to make our picks again and talk about the week in fantasy football. I guess will see how this week goes for us.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on @Burketime

How was your Week 10/26/13

Posted: October 26, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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On Friday’s show Dan the Man and I discussed some fantasy football issues and I thought you’d get a kick out of a situation I found one of my teams in this week. Myself, Mr. Fantasy and Dan the Man are in 2, 20team leagues together. One of the things I like to do is join another random league that has their draft before yours. I found a 14 team league that was having their draft before ours, so I joined. I was on a good run in this league as my team was undefeated through Week 6 but Week 7 turned out to be my first loss and the remainder of the season may be rough for me. Jay Cutler was my #1 quarterback and he hurt his groin and is expected to miss about a month. My other quarterback was Sam Bradford who torn his ACL and is out for the season. Doug Martin was one of my starting running backs, he has a torn labrum and is out anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. Reggie Wayne was my top wide receiver, he torn his ACL and is out for the season. Jermichael Finley was the starting tight end on this team. He took a hit and suffered a bruised spinal column. There’s no time-table for Finley’s return and his injury may be career threatening. Just to add insult to my injuries we have defensive players in this league and my 2 linebackers are Lance Briggs; who is out 4 to 6 weeks with a shoulder injury . My other linebacker was Brian Cushing, who broke a leg and tore his LCL ligament. I’ve played fantasy football for many seasons now and I’ve never seen so many of my players get injured in the same week. I guess it’s just a string of bad luck.

Tonight is the Sports Time Radio fantasy basketball draft. This is the first time we’ve done a fantasy basketball league. It is set up to be an auction draft, so that always add to the draft. The question is how much is someone willing to pay for the top players in the NBA. I’d have to guess that LeBron James and Kevin Durant will garner the highest bids. Of course since we are based in the Chicago area the Chicago Bulls players always go for more money than what the average price is. Dan the Man and Mr. fantasy prefer the auction style draft where I am a fan of the snake style draft we’ve also used. Either way it should be a good time, but the auction drafts do take some time to do.

The Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals are tied at 1 game apiece with the World Series headed to St. Louis for the next 3 games. While I am a big baseball fan and I enjoy watching the World Series what has interested me is the Cardinals pitching staff. Michael Wacha is 22, Trevor Rosenthal is 21, Carlos Martinez is 21 and Shelby Miller who I don’t believe has pitched in the playoffs for St. Louis is 22. This has to put the rest of the National League Central on notice with young pitching like this. Not to mention staff ace Adam Wainwright is 33 years old. With a pitching staff like that St. Louis could dominate their division and make playoff appearance after playoff appearance.

John Scott of the Buffalo Sabres was suspended indefinitely by the NHL for his hit on the Boston Bruins Loui Eriksson. Scott is what NHL teams might call and enforcer but fans would call a goon. Scott went after Phil Kessel in the exhibition season as well. This resulted in David Clarkson coming in to protect Kessel and getting a 10 game suspension. Scott has one career goal, so you know what he’s on the ice for. With concussion issues at the forefront of every major sport is there a place in the NHL for a player with Scott’s skill set? While Eriksson’s injury happened because of a late check it also brings up the issue, is it time for the NHL to ban fighting?

So, how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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