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It was reported yesterday that Shohei Ohtani had surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That means that Ohtani will be unable to pitch in the 2024 season, but the report also said that he plans on being ready for spring training as a hitter.

If Ohtani does return it will be similar to what Bryce Harper did with the Philadelphia Phillies. Harper was used exclusively as a designated hitter as soon as he was able to swing the bat. Since Ohtani no longer plays in the outfield this will be the same path that he’ll follow as he recovers.

I guess the only question left with Ohtani is, does this injury affect his free agency? I’m sure every team will be interested in his services but will the fact that he won’t be pitching next season affect the kind of offers he’s going to receive.

Don’t forget that there were reports earlier this season that the nig market, big money teams were going to give Ohtani a 10-year contract worth $500 million dollars. That sounded a little over the top to me even for the bigger market teams, but that’s what the reports said.

The Ohtani free agency talk will overshadow everything else this off season, so will have a lot of time to look at it and see who offers what and what he ends up signing for.

As the playoff near in Major League Baseball the National League wild card race seems to be were all of the excitement will come from. There are six teams in contention for the three NL wild card spots.

Right now, the Philadelphia Phillies are in the best position as they hold the #1 wild card spot and are three games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks who currently have the second NL wild card spot. The Chicago Cubs are holding onto the third and final NL wild card spot and are only a half of a game behind the Diamondbacks, but they’re also just a half of a game ahead of the Miami Marlins. Not only are the Marlins right on the Cubs tail, but the Cincinnati Reds are just one game out of that final wild card spot. You also can’t count out the San Francisco Giants as they are just three games out of that third and final wild card spot, but the Giants will have to get hot and need some help to get it.

Most of the teams in the wild card race have or games left in the regular season, so there’s still some time for these standings to change. Right now, the Diamondbacks are the hottest wild card team mas they’ve won four games in a row. On the other end of that the Cubs may be the coldest even though they did manage a win last night Chicago is just 3-7 in their last 10 games.

Over in the American League there aren’t that many teams involved in the wild card race. Either the Baltimore Orioles or the Tampa Bay Rays will be the top wild card in the American League, the other will win the AL East division. After that there are three teams that are battling for those final two wild card spots. Right now, the Toronto Blue Jays have the second wild card spot, but they are only one game ahead of the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners. As of right now the Rangers and the Mariners have identical 83-68 records, but Texas holds the tiebreaker and would get the third American League wild card spot if the end the regular season with the same record.

Of course, it’s possible that either the Rangers or the Mariners end up winning the AL West as they’re just a half of a game behind the division leading Houston Astros. That means that the Astros could end up as a wild card team or with as close as the race is for that final spot could miss the playoffs entirely.

I’m sure you’re going to hear the term control your own destiny during these playoffs’ races and in the American League the Mariners might have the best chance of doing that. Seattle has three games left against the Astros, but they have seven games left against the Rangers. Winning those series could push the Mariners past the Astros and Rangers and right into the AL West division title. Of course, losing those two series could also send the Mariners home and out of the playoffs.

Well hopefully you’ve got a team in the playoff race, and you can enjoy the final week and a half of the regular season and with some help or luck maybe your favorite team finds its way into the playoffs. Maybe your favorite team only gets into the playoffs as a wild card team, but don’t forget that wild card teams have won the World Series before.

Remember to look for me on X, I’m @Burketime.

It took about one week of games being played in the Major League Baseball season for the media to give the American League MVP award to Shohei Ohtani. This isn’t a surprise as they’ve done this ever since Ohtani started his career with the Los Angeles Angels, but this year Ohtani was the front runner for the award.

Now you have to ask if Ohtani is still the American League MVP. First his season as a pitcher got cut short due to an elbow injury and now the Angels announced that Ohtani’s season as their DH is also over due to an oblique injury.

Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a game since August 23rd and his last appearance as the Angels DH was September 3rd.

Ohtani ends the season with 44 home runs. As a pitcher he made 23 starts and finished with a record of 10-5 with an ERA of 3.14.

Ohtani’s numbers are still very good even with missing these games with his injuries, so there’s a very good possibility that he’s still voted the AL MVP.

For some reason playing on a non-playoff team is never held against Ohtani in the MVP voting, so the fact that it’s another season were the Angels didn’t come close to making the playoffs doesn’t matter in the MVP voting. Oddly the Angels were actually buyers at the trade deadline this season and the media agreed that they did the right thing in acquiring the players that they did to make a run at the playoffs.

For whatever reason their trade acquisitions didn’t work out and the Angels plummeted in the standings. Los Angeles is currently in 4th place in the AL West 15 games behind the division leading Houston Astros and 14 games out of a wild card spot.

The toughest question would be if Ohtani isn’t the AL MVP than who is?

Corey Seager of the Texas Rangers is having a good season, but he missed some games with an injury. Yandy Diaz of the Tampa Bay Rays is also putting up some good numbers. Both of these players are big contributors to their teams winning this season, but is that enough to be considered for the MVP award?

The voters always seem to like the power hitters, but Ohtani was 9 home runs ahead of anybody else in the American League. Also, the only AL home run leader who’s on a playoff contender is Adolis Garcia of the Rangers, but he’s hitting .244 and is currently out injured.

There really isn’t an American League pitcher that’s having a dominant season who should be considered for the MVP award.

Zach Eflin leads the AL in wins with 15. Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees is leading in ERA a with a 2.81 while Kevin Gausman is leading the AL in strikeouts with 222. There could’ve been an outside chance that Felix Bautista of the Baltimore Orioles could’ve garnered some consideration for MVP and Cy Young as he was having a dominant year as Baltimore’s closer, but he hasn’t pitched since August 25th due to a UCL injury in his pitching elbow.

So even though he’s not going to play the final month of the season and he hasn’t pitched in an even longer time Ohtani should and probably will win the AL MVP award. Unless you have an option that I missed.

The other odd thing I find about this Ohtani missing the rest of the season story was the way that the media made a big deal out of his locker being cleaned out. Now there is a very good possibility that Ohtani will be leaving the Angels as a free agent this off season, but that has nothing to do with why his locker was cleaned out.

Do you think that any player that is or has missed the season with an injury still has a locker in the clubhouse? Plus, it’s September, so there are going to be minor league call ups that will need room in the locker room. It just seemed incredibly stupid that such a big deal was made out of this, but I guess that’s what the media does.

Don’t forget to look for me on X @ I’m @Burketime.

The majority of the National Football League off season war spent on where Aaron Rodgers was going to end up playing this season. As we know Rodgers ended up being traded to the New York Jets for multiple draft picks. Well Monday night was Rodgers big debut for the Jets against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football.

Since it was the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks the Jets, starters came out carrying American flags and Rodgers was one of the Jets players that did that. Obviously, there was a huge reaction from the Jets fans while the players were doing this, but Rodgers got the biggest reception out of all the Jets players.

Jets fans would have to wait to see Rodgers take a snap for their team as the Bills got the football first, but Buffalo only ran five plays before having to punt the football to New York.

Rodgers first snap as the Jets quarterback was a running play that gained 26 yards. The next two plays Rodgers threw incompletions on the second incompletion there was a defensive holding penalty, so the Jets got a 1st down. Then on 1st and 10 from the at the Jets own 43-yard line Rodgers took what ended up being his fourth and final snap for the Jets this season.

As Rodgers was attempting to pass on that fourth play from scrimmage he was sacked by Leonard Floyd of the Bills. On the replay you could see Rodgers leg twist and he stayed down for a short time but managed to get up. After trying to walk Rodgers thought better of it and sat down on the field. He was helped off the field and taken into the examination tent on the sidelines before being carted back to the Jets locker room.

At that time, it was unclear what Rodgers injury was, but it didn’t look good. As it turned out Rodgers torn his Achilles tendon. He’ll have surgery to repair the tear, but his first season as the Jets starting quarterback is over.

Now the question is, what will the Jets do at the quarterback position?

Former 1st round draft pick took over for Rodgers after he was injured and was solid. Wilson completed 14 of the 21 passes he attempted for 140 yards. Wilson threw one touchdown pass and was also intercepted one time. Of course, the most important thing was that Wilson was able to lead the Jets to a 22-16 victory over the Bills.

As for now the Jets only have two quarterbacks on their roster Wilson and Tim Boyle, so if that remains the case, you’d have to think that Wilson will be the starter against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

There have been some reports that the Jets may look to make a trade, but at this point what quarterback is out there that can pick up the Jets offensive system fast enough to play and be a better fit than Wilson.

The Jets have a pretty tough stretch of games coming up, so Wilson is going to be tested and if the Jets lose there will be a lot of whining and complaining about a new starting quarterback, but honestly who are the Jets going to find out there walking the street? I can already hear the media warming up the Tom Brady coming out of retirement to take over as the Jets quarterback, but I doubt that will happen.

This Sunday the Jets are in the Road in Dallas before having back-to-back home games. The Jets host the New England Patriots Week 3 and then the Kansas City Chiefs come to town Week 4. In Week 5 the Jets head to Denver to play the Broncos.

It appears as though the best-case scenario for the Jets is for them to split these next four game, but it’s very possible that New York goes 1-3 through these four games.

So, what do you think. Do you see the Jets going out and trying to find a quarterback or is the job Wilson’s for now? Also how do you think the Jets will fare in these next four games?

Don’t forget to look for me on X, I’m @Burketime.

Everyone is gearing up for the first week of professional football. Of course, the season did open on Thursday night like the NFL does and the game ended up being a upset as the Detroit Lions beat the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 21-20.

There are a lot of people who think that the Lions will win the NFC North me included, but there were very few people picking them to go into Arrowhead stadium and beat the Chiefs.

There nothing that’s going to take away from the Lions winning this game, but you’re going to hear a lot of people mention that the Chiefs played without tight end Travis Kelce who was out injured and defensive tackle Chris Jones who is holding out for a new contract. You can’t honestly say what impact either player would’ve had on this game, so by people mentioning this it’s just an excuse that their pick lost the game.

Let’s take a look at the fantasy football impact this game might have heading into the remainder of Week 1.

Patrick Mahomes didn’t have a great day, but he did throw two touchdown passes to record some fantasy points. Mahomes also threw for 226 yards and did end up running for 46 yards. His only negative was that he threw an interception. It was a solid not spectacular day for Mahomes.

Jared Goff also didn’t score huge fantasy points Thursday night. Goff threw for 253 yards and 1 touchdown. Goff was sacked 1 time and ended up with -1 yard rushing due to the game ending kneel downs.

As you go through the stats from Thursday night’s game there really isn’t anything that jumps off the page at you. It does appear as though the two biggest non-quarterback fantasy players were on the Lions.

David Montgomery carried the football 21 times for a game high 74 yards, but more importantly he scored 1 touchdown. Amon-Ra St. Brown led the Lions in receptions with 6 and while he didn’t rack up a ton of yards 71, he did catch a touchdown pass.

Josh Reynolds and Jahmyr Gibbs put up solid fantasy days. Reynolds had 4 catches and led the Lions in receiving yards with 80 while Gibbs carried the football 7 times for 42 yards and caught 2 passes for 18 yards.

As for the Chiefs there really isn’t a fantasy stand out for them in this game. Rashee Rice and Blake Bell caught the touchdown passes from Mahomes, but unless you’re in a very deep league it’s doubtful that either of these players were starting.

Mahomes was the Chiefs leading rusher, but Isiah Pacheco did rush for 23 yards on 8 carries and also caught 4 passes for 31 yards, so he at least scored some fantasy points for his owners.

Kansas City really spread out the offensive workload. Six different players had rushing attempts and no one player had more than eight while 11 different players caught at least one pass from Mahomes, but no player caught more than four.

It’s just the first week of the season, so there’s no reason to panic if your fantasy team is invested in the Chiefs. Of course, there will be fantasy owners that go a little nuts because their season started off on a low note. You just have to be careful not to overreact and cut or bench a player because of his performance in just one game.

So, there are 28 teams playing tomorrow. Is there one game in particular that you’re more interested in than the rest?

Since I live in the Chicago area the Bears game has been the most talked about, so I’m interested to see how they do. Other than that, there are a couple of games that I have my eye on.

Of the early games I want to see how the Cincinnati Bengals do in Cleveland against the Browns. I believe that the Browns have won the last five matchups in Cleveland, so will Cincinnati be able to break that losing streak?

The later games I’m interested to see how the Las Vegas raiders at the Denver Broncos plays out. Sean Payton has shot his mouth off this off season and finally his team has to take the field and try to back him up. Will also get to see if Russell Wilson is anywhere near the quarterback he used to be in Seattle.

The Sunday night game on NBC has some interest for me as well. The New York Giants are hosting the Dallas Cowboys. New York was a bit of a surprise last season, and it will be of interest to see if that was a fluke or if they’ll be in the mix for a playoff spot against this season. The Cowboys always draw interest from the media no matter if they’re good or bad, so one way or another they’ll be talked about.

Let me know what you’re looking forward to in the NFL tomorrow. I’m also interested to know how your fantasy football season starts off.

Don’t forget to look for me on X, I’m @Burketime.

We’re just one day away from the start of the National Football League season. The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will host the Detroit Lions tomorrow night to get the season started.

Since there’s still a day to go, I figure we could make some predictions for the still upcoming season. Feel free to play along and remember I generally do terrible with my predictions.

In the AFC East I’ll take the Buffalo Bills to win the division. I think the Miami Dolphins will finish 2nd with the New York Jets 3rd. That leaves the New England Patriots at the bottom of the division.

In the AFC North I think the Cincinnati Bengals will win the division. I’m going with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2nd place and the Baltimore Ravens in 3rd. That means that I have the Cleveland Browns in last place in the division.

In the AFC West I have the Kansas City Chiefs winning the division with the Los Angeles Chargers finishing in 2nd place. I’ll go with the Las Vegas Raiders in 3rd place and the Denver Broncos in last place.

In the AFC South I think that the Jacksonville Jaquars will win the division with the Tennessee Titans finishing in 2nd place. I’ll go with the Houston Texans in 3rd place and the Indianapolis Colts as the last place team.

In the NFC East I have the Philadelphia Eagles winning the division with the New York Giants finishing in 2nd place. I think that the Dallas Cowboys will end up in 3rd place while the Washington Commanders will finish in last place.

In the NFC North I think that the Detroit Lions will win the division with the Green Bay Packers finishing 2nd. I’ll put the Chicago Bears in 3rd place while the Minnesota Vikings end up at the bottom of the division.

In the NFC West I have the San Francisco 49ers winning the division. I think that the Seattle Seahawks will finish in 2nd while the Los Angeles Rams take 3rd place. That leaves the Arizona Cardinals as the last place team in this division.

In the NFC South I have the New Orleans Saints winning the division with the Carolina Panthers finishing in 2nd place. I have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the 3rd place team and the Atlanta falcons as the last place team in this division.

So, in the AFC I have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Jacksonville winning their divisions. For my AFC wild card teams, I’ll go with Miami, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.

In the NFC I have Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco and New Orleans as my division winners. For my NFC wild card teams, I’ll go with New York, Dallas and Seattle.

In the AFC I think this is finally the year that the Buffalo Bills win the conference and advance to the Super Bowl. In the NFC I think it’s going to be a repeat of last year and the Philadelphia Eagles will win the conference again.

So, my Super Bowl matchup has the Buffalo Bills vs. the Philadelphia Eagles and for the second straight season I have the Eagles just coming up short in the Super Bowl as I’m picking the Buffalo Bills to win the NFL title.

As for individual awards.

I’ll take Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills to be the NFL most valuable player.

I’ll take A’Shawn Robinson of the New York Giants for defensive player of the year.

I’ll take Jahmyr Gibbs of the Detroit Lions as the rookie of the year.

I’ll take Doug Pedersen of the Jacksonville Jaquars as coach of the year.

There are my picks for the NFL season. I’d like to know what you think is going to happen this coming NFL season. Feel free to leave me your picks and awards winners in the comments.

As always remember to look for me on X, I’m @Burketime.

It’s Labor Day weekend which means that the start of the National Football League season is right around the corner. The season kicks off Thursday night when the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Detroit Lions.

That almost means that there is a lot of fantasy football drafts going on as well. It appears as though I’ll only be doing three fantasy football leagues this season.

I had a draft last night. I just wrapped up a draft as I started to write this and then I have one more draft tonight.

Last night was our snake league draft which moves along pretty quickly. I just finished up what is our money league draft and even though it has the smallest roster of all of the drafts that I do it never fails to take the longest out of all of them. Then tonight I have my auction league draft.

My biggest pet peeve when it comes to doing any type of fantasy draft is when you have people who aren’t prepared. Now if your draft has timed picks it’s not so bad, but in our money league there is no clock so we have to just sit and wait for someone to pick no matter how long that might be.

Now what I always find humorous is the fact that this draft date is set a month or two in advance and yet there are people who aren’t there for the start of the draft. This morning we had a guy who wasn’t online, and we waited about ten minutes for him to find his way into the leagues draft room and then we had to wait for him to make his pick. Then for some reason even though people have been sitting for quite a while when there turn to draft comes around, they’re not ready. I get that everybody is looking for that late round steal or that under the radar rookie, but you’ve literally had 30 plus minutes to find a player or players that you’d be interested in drafting. What’s the hold up when your turn comes around?

So far in both of the leagues that I’m in Justin Jefferson the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver has been the #1 pick. That’s not really a surprise as he’s looked at as the best wide receiver in the NFL and receiver has become the #1 fantasy position.

Last night I had the 6th pick in our draft, and I was hoping that Tyrek Hill the Miami Dolphins wide receiver would get to me. Sadly, he didn’t as he was selected right in front of my pick at #5. After looking at the draft board I had decided that since Hill didn’t get to my pick, I was going with Christian McCaffery the San Francisco 49ers running back.

I thought that taking McCaffery was the best pick and that there would be enough wide receivers available in the draft that I would be okay at that position. As it turned out I ended up with D.K. Metcalf of the Seattle Seahawks, Deebo Samuel another 49ers player, Jordan Addison of the Minnesota Vikings, Darnell Mooney of the Chicago Bears and Hunter Renfrow of the Las Vegas Raiders as my wide receiver group.

I may not end up with the best group of wide receivers, but for a 20-team league I think that I have a pretty good set of receivers to choose from.

In case you’re wondering wide receivers went #1, #2 and #3 in my draft. I mentioned that Jefferson went first. He was followed by Ja’Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals and Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets.

While I wasn’t surprised to see wide receivers taken with the first three picks, I was a little surprised to see Wilson go 3rd overall. I guess the addition of Aaron Rodgers as Wilson’s quarterback has really increased his value in fantasy football this season.

Well, I guess I should get prepared for my auction league draft. I’m interested to know what you think of my group of wide receivers, and I’d also like to know if and how many fantasy football leagues you participate in.

Don’t forget to look for me on the X, I’m @Burketime.

Now that Major League Baseball no longer allows trades after August 1st it’s become very clear how teams are going to get around that rule. Teams are just going to place those players that they would’ve tried to deal after the trade deadline on waivers and allow other teams to either claim them or sign them after they’re released.

After being buyers at the trade deadline the Los Angeles Angels placed five players on waivers yesterday. After trading for Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Randall Grichuk at the trade deadline the Angels placed all three on waivers yesterday along with Matt Moore and Hunter Renfroe.

You’d have to think that all the Angels are looking for is some type of salary relief, so they’ll have a little more money to resign Shohei Ohtani this coming off season.

If any of these players are claimed on waivers by another team all the team claiming them is required to do is pay that players remaining salary. The Angels will get nothing in return of any of the players they placed on waivers.

Now the Angels aren’t the only team that is doing this. It’s being reported that players like Harrison Bader of the New York Yankees, Carlos Carrasco of the New York Mets, Mike Clevenger of the Chicago White Sox and Jose Cisnero of the Detroit Tigers will be joining the group of Angel players on the waiver wire.

I guess this is just the way that things are going to go in MLB since there can no longer be any trading done after that August 1st deadline, but for some reason it just doesn’t seem right to me.

The waiver claims do start with the team with the worst record and work their way up to the team with the best record, but do we really think teams like the Oakland A’s who have the worst record in baseball or a team like the Kansas City Royals or Colorado Rockies the next two teams with the worst records would be inclined to add salary at this point of the season.

That means that these players on waivers will be sitting there when the playoff contending teams turns come up to claim players and they’ll have the chance to add a quality player without having to give up anything. This has to be too good to be true for a big money team that’s not going to be afraid to add a little bit of salary to try and win a World Series.

None of these players are making an outrageous amount of money and a lot of them are in either the final year of their contract or arbitration eligible, so any contender that might end up with one of these players would only be paying what’s left on his salary for the remainder of this season. If the player is arbitration eligible the team that claims him can simple not offer him arbitration and allow him to become a free agent.

At the trade deadline I’m sure you heard the term “rent a player”. I don’t know about you, but this seems like the perfect rent a player type of situation for contenders.

I don’t think that there is anything that Major League Baseball can do about this because they can’t really tell teams how to spend their money, but it almost seems unfair that a team can acquire a solid player for the stretch run and not give up anything to get them.

I don’t know, let me know what you think about this situation and if you think there’s a way to fix or rectify it.

Don’t forget to look for me on the X, I’m @Burketime.

We’re about a week and a half away from the start of the National Football League season. I’m not sure why, but I just really haven’t been looking forward to fantasy football this season. I have some drafts coming up and I have no idea when or what time they are. I also haven’t done any research whatsoever into who’s being drafted where and why. I actually think I know why this is happening.

In our fantasy baseball money league as I’ve called it here for years, we had a very good season. We finished second in our division, and I was looking forward to the playoffs and actually winning some money for a change. Oddly when the playoffs started even though we had the 6th best record overall in a league of 18 teams we didn’t make the playoffs.

As it turns out apparently winning isn’t as important in this league as scoring points is as somehow a team with a much worse record than ours got into the playoffs over us because they scored more points throughout the season.

Now to be fair I knew this rule existed because it’s actually happened to us before, but it’s an incredibly stupid rule and it really dampened my excitement for fantasy anything.

Sadly, there seem to be no way that I can get this rule changed. I’ve made suggestions for rule changes before only to be shouted down very quickly. I actually suggested the same rule change two seasons in a row and was told to not even bother to continue to suggest that because it would never happen.

I don’t know maybe I’m just bitter or maybe I’m just starting to tire of fantasy sports. I’ve been involved with them for a very long time and maybe I just need a break. Since I did sign up for a couple of leagues, I feel that I should go through and play the season, but maybe that will be it for me.

The only positive for me football wise is that after quite a few years the NFL Network is finally back as part of my cable package.

I have AT&T U-verse for cable and they had that contract issue with the NFL Network as they called it probably four or maybe it was five years agio and the channel went away on my cable package. Of course, it was still available on their higher priced cable packages. It’s funny how that happens.

At least now I have a little more access to NFL news, and I’ll be able to watch the games that are exclusively on the NFL Network. I’m not sure how many of them there still are with NFL games being shown on all kinds of streaming platforms now, but at least when they do show one, I’ll be able to watch it.

If I decide to stop playing fantasy sports it won’t stop me from continuing to watch sports, so getting the NFL Network back is a good thing for me.

Interestingly AT&T U-verse is going through the same issues with WGN in my area. Luckily for me WGN no longer carries the majority of the Chicago sports teams like they used to when I was growing up. If they still had those games on their network I’d be missing out on some Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls games.

I guess most professional sports teams have their own network or a local sports channel that carries their games. It makes sense for teams to have their own networks now as it’s another revenue stream for the team.

Hopefully your fantasy drafts go or went well and you’re more interested in fantasy football than I am right now.

Don’t forget to look for me on X (Twitter), I’m @Burketime.

Much, much more has been expected out of the Chicago White Sox the past few seasons. Unfortunately, the White Sox didn’t live up to those expectations and this season may be the worst of them all. The White Sox are currently 49-77 and in 4th place in a very weak American League Central.

When a team doesn’t perform how it’s expected to it’s going to end up costing someone their job and in the case of the White Sox it cost two people their jobs.

Yesterday the White Sox announced that they’ve fired Executive Vice President Kenny Williams and General Manager Rich Hahn.

In a statement yesterday White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said

“Ultimately, the well-worn cliche that professional sports is results-oriented is correct”. “While we have enjoyed successes as an organization and were optimistic heading into the competitive window of this rebuild, this year has proven to be very disappointing for us all on many levels. “This has led me to the conclusion that the best decision for the organization moving forward is to make a change in our baseball department leadership.”

Williams has been with the team since 1992, working his way up in various roles, including general manager. He oversaw the team that won the 2005 World Series before being promoted to executive vice president in 2012. That’s the same year the team promoted Hahn to general manager.

The White Sox have been in the post season very recently. In 2020 they were a wild card team but lost the wild card game to the Oakland A’s. In 2021 they won the A.L. Central but were eliminated 3 games to 1 in the first round by the Houston Astros.

The other question you have to ask is how does this front office change affect first year manager Pedro Grifol. In most cases a new general manager likes to bring in his own manager, so it’s possible that Grifol will be one and done as White Sox manager.

Whoever ends up taking over the White Sox will inherit some young talent, so there could be a quick turnaround for the team. The only regular over 30 years of age is catcher Yasmani Grandal.

Of course, the White Sox were sellers at the trade deadline dealing away quite a few of their pitchers, so whoever takes over will have to find a way to replace the arms that were traded.

The White Sox made news by firing their front office yesterday, but they were also mentioned in a big rumor.

There have been reports that the White Sox have looked into moving. Apparently, the White Sox have checked into the possibility of moving to Nashville Tennessee. There was talk of this move coinciding with the team being sold.

The White Sox have and will always be the second baseball team in Chicago behind the Cubs, so a move might give them their own new identity in a new city.

Jery Reinsdorf has threatened to move the White Sox before. In 1988 there were reports that the White Sox would move to Florida unless they were able to secure a new stadium. As we know the White Sox ended up getting a new stadium and stayed in Chicago. It’s unclear if or what the White Sox could be looking for with this story of a possible move.

Since the story of the move just popped up yesterday will have to kind of wait and see what else starts to come out. Maybe the team is looking for a better lease deal at Guaranteed Rate Field or maybe they’re looking for some upgrades to the ballpark.

Jump in here and let me know what you think about the White Sox situation. Will Grifol be the manager next season? Is the threat of the White Sox moving to Nashville real? Or is it just another ploy to get something out of the state of Illinois?

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

Now it’s never a good time for a Major League Baseball team to go on a losing streak, but at this time of the season a losing streak could cost that team a division title or wild card spot.

Unfortunately for the New York Yankees that looks just like the spot they might be in at this point. The Yankees have lost seven games in a row, have dropped to under .500 at 60-63 and find themselves in last place in a very tough American League East.

Looking a little deeper the Yankees are actually 3-11 over their last 14 games and they haven’t won back-to-back games since beating the Tampa Bay Rays on August 2nd and then the Houston Astros on August 3rd.

With the A.L. East being as good as it has been this season there was very little chance that the Yankees would win the division, but they have been in contention for a wild card spot. After this stretch the Yankees now find themselves 8 games out of a wild card spot. With 39 games and five teams left to pass for a wild card spot it’s looking more and more like the Yankees won’t be a playoff team this season.

It seems as though this season might end up costing Yankees manager Aaron Boone his job, but you have to wonder if it’s time for the Yankees to make a change in the front office instead.

When you go back to the Yankees off season, they did the right thing and re-signed Aaron Judge, but their only other big move was to sign oft injured starting pitcher Carlos Rodon to a 6-year $162 million dollar contract.

Rodon was looked at as the best starting pitcher on the free agent market, but we’re talking about a pitcher who only made 30 starts one time in his career and it just happened to be the year he was headed into free agency. This is Rodon’s 9th year as a major league starting pitcher and he’s made 153 career starts. Rodon averages just a little over 18 starts per season coming into 2023 and it’s not looking like he’s even going to get to that number for the Yankees this season. Due to injury Rodon has only made 6 starts for the Yankees this season.

There were other questionable moves by Cashman that for some reason he doesn’t seem to being held accountable for.

Cashman bought into Aaron Hicks as a starting outfielder. Hicks was released this season after hitting .188 in 28 games for the Yankees this season. The Yankees never settled on a #1 catcher as Kyle Higashioka, Jose Trevino and Ben Rortvedt have all spent time behind the plate. The Yankees also never decided on a closer. Eight different pitchers have recorded a save for the Yankees this season. Clay Holmes is the team leader in saves at 16, but it’s unclear if he’s the go to guy at the end of the bullpen.

There are always going to be people who will defend the Yankees are try to blame this season on injuries, but as we know every team has to deal with injuries. Of course, the Judge injury was a big blow as he’s clearly the best player on this team, but besides that the other injuries are unfortunately part of baseball.

Of course, the quick fix for the Yankees and the move that it seems like everyone is expecting them to make is to sign Shohei Ohtani this off season.

I’m honestly beginning to wonder if people realize that Ohtani can only play for one team because he seems to be linked to every single team.

While whichever team ends up signing Ohtani it’s going to be a great signing. Of course, you have to remember that we’re talking about a player who’s never made the playoffs. Also, if people think pairing him with Judge helps Ohtani don’t forget that Mike Trout is one of Ohtani’s teammates right now. You also have to realize that Ohtani has been shut down as a pitcher after 22 starts this season and it’s looking more and more like he won’t pitch again this season.

It’s also unclear to me how signing Ohtani would clear up all of the Yankees problems. Yes, he’d give them another big bat and a quality starting pitcher when he’s healthy. That doesn’t seem to solve the catching or outfield issues since Ohtani no longer plays in the outfield and is strictly a DH. While we’re on that if the Yankees did sign Ohtani where would Giancarlo Stanton play. Stanton has had quite a few injury issues in his career and has been a in 43 of the 73 games here’s appeared in for the Yankees this season. There’s a 0% chance that Stanton could move back into the outfield full-time at this point in his career.

At this point with the Yankees I’m not interested in the what if’s as we’re going to deal with that all off season with every team especially when it comes to who’s going to sign Ohtani. What I want to see is what the Yankees plan to do with Boone and if he’ll be the one who’s blamed for this season or if they’ll finally look at the front office and point the finger at them. I guess we might only be a month or so away from finding that out.

While I’m thinking about this, I wanted to see how many of you are watching the preseason national Football League games.

I’ll watch the game if the starters are actually playing, but once they’re out of the game or in some cases they don’t play at all I just can’t watch. Honestly, I’m not sure why. I guess watching guys who will either make the teams as special team players or just get cut doesn’t interest me. To me it’s similar to watching an XFL or USFL game which I never watched from start to finish.

Let me know your NFL preseason television habitats as I’m very curious if there are people out there who watch the entire game.

Don’t forget to look for me on X (Twitter), I’m @Burketime.