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The National Football League wrapped up its regular season on Sunday and now there are 12 teams left with a chance to win the Super Bowl while the other 20 teams get ready for the draft.

With college football also done the NFL will take over all of next weekend. There will be two games on Saturday, three games on Sunday and things wrap up with a Monday night game.

Here’s the schedule. Wild card weekend or Super wild card weekend as I heard it referred to starts with the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Seattle Seahawks. Fox is televising this game and it has a 3:30 p.m. start time. The second game on Saturday has the Los Angeles Chargers visiting the Jacksonville Jaquars. This game will be on NBC and has a start time of 7:15 p.m. On Sunday the playoffs kickoff with the Buffalo Bills hosting the Miami Dolphins. CBS will be showing this game and it has a scheduled start time of Noon. The second game on Sunday has the Minnesota Vikings hosting the New York Giants. This game is on Fox and has a scheduled 3:30 p.m. start time. The final Sunday game is on NBC, and it features the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Baltimore ravens and the listed start time is 7:15 p.m. Just like during the season ESPN will be showing the Monday night playoff game, but I believe that the game will also be shown on ABC. On Monday the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be hosting the Dallas Cowboys and the game is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m.

I decided that I’ll make my picks for the Saturday games now, but I’m going to wait and pick the remaining games in the Sunday blog. I must warn you that I am terrible at picking games and you’re much better off following someone else’s advice if you’re going to bet on the games.

I believe that San Francisco will beat Seattle in the playoff opener on Saturday, but I’m not sold that the 49ers will be able to cover the spread which is currently 10 points. That’s a big number for a playoff game and these are two teams that like to run the football, so that make keep scoring down a little and make the game closer. So, I’m going with San Francisco to win the game, but Seattle to cover the spread.

In the Saturday nightcap the Chargers are currently favored by 1 point against Jacksonville. this is a tough game to pick since I haven’t gotten to see much of the Chargers this season. This is Jacksonville’s first time in the playoffs since 2017 and I don’t think that any of the players from that team are currently on the Jaguars. I do think that the Chargers are going to win this game and one point isn’t very much to give, so I’m going to take the Chargers not only to win, but to cover.

Okay just to recap I have San Francisco and Los Angeles winning the Saturday games straight up. With the point spread I’m taking Seattle and the 10 points, but I’ll give the point and take the Chargers in the second game.

As I like to do let me know who you’re taking not only to win the game, but with the spread.

Going into Sunday’s games there are some quarterback questions that need to be answer before making picks. It’s currently unclear if Tua Tagovailoa is going to play for the Dolphins and we’re also waiting on work if Lamar Jackson will play for the Ravens this coming weekend.

No one is really sure what will happen with either quarterback, but most people seem to believe that Jackson will play against Cincinnati. In Tagovailoa’s case most people seem to think that he won’t be playing against the Bills this coming weekend, but there’s still some time and will have to wait and see what happens officially with both players.

Both of these quarterbacks’ health could have a big impact on if their teams can get past the wild card round. It’s shown that Miami is a much better team with Tagovailoa under center than with either Teddy Bridgewater or Skylar Thompson at quarterback. The same can be said about Baltimore being better with Jackson at quarterback than Tyler Huntley or Anthony Brown however Huntley did go 2-2 in his four starts this season. The Dolphins on the other hand went 1-3 in games not started by Tagovailoa.

Don’t forget to leave me your picks for the Saturday games and as always remember to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

It seems like the Major League Baseball off season went very quickly as pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training before we know it. What also went fast was the signing of the top tier or bigger name free agents. These guys really got paid this off season, but there’s a chance that teams will have one more of those big named players back on the market.

Originally Carlos Correa agreed to a very large long-term deal with the San Francisco Giants. Then there was something that the Giants saw on Correa’s physical that they didn’t like and voided their deal with him. That didn’t stop the New York Mets from moving right in and signing Correa to another large contract. Now it seems as though the Mets are having an issue with the same thing that the Giants saw and they’re trying to re-work their agreement with him.

Now there are reports that the Mets have become “frustrated” with on ongoing negotiations with Correa and there’s been talk that they might walk away from the deal they have in place with Correa. If that was to happen Correa would once again be free to sign with any team.

Believe it or not there are reports that if the Mets decide to void the deal, they agreed to Correa with there are two teams that are already interested in signing him. Of course, you’d have to think that those teams would want some type of protection in any contract they’d sign with Correa.

The Mets issue as well as the Giants was an injury from back when Correa was a 19-year-old minor leaguer in the Houston Astros system. Correa suffered a fractured fibula while sliding into third base. The injury required surgery, and a metal plate was inserted into Correa’s leg.

One of the teams that would have interest in Correa and there are some reports that say Correa’s agent Scott Boras has already spoken to them is the Minnesota Twins. Correa spent last season with the Twins but opted out of the contract he had with them to enter the free agent market this off season.

Correa played in 136 games for Minnesota last season. He hit .291 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs. Defensively Correa played 1113 1/3rd innings at shortstop last season. Correa made 8 errors last season and posted a fielding percentage of .983.

Correa returning to Minnesota if his deal with the Mets falls through seems to make some sense. Since Correa was a member of the Twins last season and they went through the free agent process with him before you would think that Minnesota has a full grasp of his medical situation.

Now last season while with Minnesota Correa had a scare with his surgically repair leg. Correa slide into 2nd base and ended up staying down for a period of time before he finally got up and limped off the field. Now Correa remained in that game, but afterwards he did say that he had briefly felt numbness and vibration in that surgically repaired leg. This happened on September 20th and Correa did not miss any time in the subsequent, final weeks of the season. If there were any lingering issues, they weren’t made apparent through his performance on the field.

We’ll have to see how the situation plays out with Correa and the Mets, but there’s a chance that Correa will have an opportunity to sign with a third team this off season. I’m not sure, but I’d have to think that would be some type of a record.

Another player who appears to be the verge of becoming a free agent is Trevor Bauer. The Los Angeles Dodgers designated Bauer for assignment which means that they now have to either trade or release him within a certain length of time.

It’s very doubtful that the Dodgers would be able to find a trade partner for Bauer as he is owed officially $32 million dollars for this season, but after having to forfeit some of that salary he’ll still be owed right around $22.5 million dollars for the 2023 season.

If and when Bauer gets released it would be the Dodgers that would be on the hook for his 2023 salary. If another team signs him after his official release, they could pay him the league minimum if Bauer would be willing to accept that. I believe the Dodgers would then be responsible for the difference in what Bauer signs for and what they owe him.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that the Dodgers made this decision after the legal issues Bauer has had. What will be interesting is if another team will be willing to bring Bauer into their spring training camp to take a look at him. For what it’s worth Bauer never did end up facing any charges, but you’d have to wonder if another team was to bring him in if there would be any backlash.

Bauer hasn’t pitched in a game since June 28th of 2021 when he went 6 innings against the Giants and got the win in an 3-2 Dodgers victory.

Well as always, I want to hear from you.

It’s very clear that Carlos Correa will be playing somewhere in the 2023 baseball season, but where do you see him ending up. Will he be able to restructure his deal with the Mets? Or do you see him signing somewhere else?

What about Trevor Bauer, do you think that there’s a team out there that would be willing to take a chance on him? Don’t forget that at one time he was one of the top pitchers in baseball and is a Cy Young award winner.

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

The college football season is down to just one game as the Georgia Bulldogs will try to repeat as national champions when they face the TCU Horned Frogs on Monday.

I live in Big 10 country and there were two Big Ten teams in contention to play for the national championship, but they both lost. Michigan dropped its game to TCU and Ohio State was beaten by Georgia. Overall, the Big Ten had nine teams in bowl games and I’m not counting USC or UCLA as they’re not officially part of the conference yet. In those nine games the Big Ten managed to have a winning record at 5-4, but it wasn’t quite the performance that anyone was hoping for.

I don’t watch a ton of college football, but I have friends that watch multiple games every week and they pointed out to me that it seems as though teams are just faster than the Big Ten teams. Obviously the Big Ten gets top tier recruits like the other big time college football programs but is it possible that this is the case and that other teams are finding faster athletes than the Big Ten is.

For years the Big Ten has been thought of as a conference were running the football is king, but I think just about every team in college football has moved away from that kind of a game plan. Maybe Big Ten teams aren’t finding those faster players because they do at times have weather to deal with and speed doesn’t always benefit you in cases like that.

Now I’m not sure what the reason could be. All I know is the Big Ten had a 50% chance to get a team into the national championship game and neither one of them got in.

It appears as though college football is headed to a point where there will be four super conferences and the Big Ten will be one of them. I guess will have to wait and see once this situation starts to set up if the Big Ten can compete with those other conferences.

There’s a lot going on in the NFL, but first and foremost is the condition of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. I haven’t heard any new updates on his condition, but like everyone else I hope that he’s able to make a complete recover and is released from the hospital very soon.

It’s unclear what the NFL is planning for the final week of the regular season, but I’m under the impression that they’ll play the games. I did like the way they set up this final week. We knew which teams would be playing which, but the NFL waited to announce which games would be at what time. I thought that made things interesting and it allowed the NFL and their television partners to get the games with playoff implications into prime television spots.

The Sunday night game for Week 18 has the Green Bay Packers hosting the Detroit Lions. The winner of this game will get the last NFC wild card spot. Who would’ve thought that the Lions would have a chance at making the playoffs after starting off the season 1-6. You could almost ask the same thing about the Packers after the trial and tribulations they had this season, but one of these teams will be a playoff team.

The other game with pretty big playoff implications has the Baltimore Ravens visiting the Cincinnati Bengals. Both of these teams will be in the playoffs, but the winner of this game will win the AFC North and get a home playoff game while the loser will go into the playoffs as a wild card team.

As of right now I don’t believe that the NFL has announced a start time for the Cincinnati vs. Baltimore game. The last listing, I saw for the game had the start time as TBD.

The Jalen Hurts injury has also given teams the opportunity to take the #1 seed away from the Philadelphia Eagles. Currently Philadelphia has a one game lead on the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings. I believe that the Cowboys hold the tiebreaker advantage over the Eagles, but I don’t know where the 49ers or the Vikings sit in a tiebreaker situation.

Minnesota and San Francisco both have very winnable games in Week 18. The Vikings are in Chicago to play the Bears while the 49ers are at home against the Arizona Cardinals. The Cowboys are on the road in what is a rivalry game against the Washington Commanders while the Eagles are at home against the New York Giants, and it’s been reported that Hurts is on track to play.

Now it’s possible that the Giants might rest players as they can’t improve their playoff position. Will have to see what those teams with a shot at that #1 seed do.

Remember it’s just the #1 seed in each conference that gets the bye in the first playoff round.

Let me know if you have any NFL predictions for this final week of the regular season.

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

It’s the very 1st day of 2023 and I’m guessing that a lot of you made resolutions for this year. Now I’m not going to ask you to tell me your New Year’s resolutions. What I would like to know though is what are your New Year’s resolutions for your favorite sports team or the teams in your area.

Now I didn’t have to think about this very long before coming up with resolutions for the teams in my area. As I’ve mentioned before I live in the Chicagoland area, so we have five teams in the four major America sports. I actually think that all five of the major Chicago sports team fit into my New Year’s resolution.

What I’d like to see the Chicago teams do for the New Year is to start acting like the major market teams they are. As of right now three of the five teams the Bears, Blackhawks and Cubs are rebuilding, but they’re not going about rebuilding like a major market sports team would normally do.

All three teams are looking to rebuild through the draft and adding younger players instead of spending the money that they have and bringing in top talent to try and win.

I know, I know you’re going to say that the Cubs just signed free agent Dansby Swanson to a big free agent contract. Well, that is true, but is the signing of one player going to be enough to turn the Cubs around and make them a World Series contender. Ask yourself this, does the signing of Swanson even make the Cubs a playoff team?

While it’s a big signing there was talk that the Cubs were in on all of the other free agents that signed elsewhere, and I believe that Swanson got the smallest of the free agents deals that the name free agents got this off season. So even when making a what was considered a big-time free agent signing the Cubs opted for the cheapest one available.

All the talk with the Bears is that they have nine draft picks in the upcoming draft, and they have a lot of salary cap space to sign free agents. So, what I’d like to know is what gives you confidence that the Bears will make good draft choices. Remember the Bears rarely if ever hand out big free agent contracts, so why would this upcoming off season be different.

The Blackhawks have the lowest point total in the NHL as they’ve managed to acquire just 20 points in 35 games, they’ve played this season. Now to be fair to the Blackhawks they did say that they expected this to be a down season as they rebuilt and with the hard salary cap in the NHL it’s tough to rebuild quickly. Of course, that also means that it may take quite a few seasons for the Blackhawks to just get into the playoffs again.

That leaves the Chicago fans with just two teams that have any chance of contending for anything this season and even their chances don’t look good.

The Bulls found themselves in the playoffs last season, but they were quickly eliminated in the 1st round. The Bulls didn’t make any big off season moves even though they knew that there was a chance that Lonzo Ball would miss the entire season with an injury.

As of right now the Bulls are holding onto the 10th spot in the Eastern conference which would get them into the play-in round of the NBA playoffs. It’s doubtful with the way the NBA is set up that a team will ever come out of the play-in round and win the NBA title.

That leaves us with the White Sox who were probably the biggest disappointment in Major League Baseball last season. There were quite a few people that thought the White Sox would represent the American league in the World Series and they didn’t even make the playoffs.

Now the White Sox didn’t make any big-time free agent additions they didn’t really need to since they’re still looked at as a young team. The White Sox did add the outfielder they needed in Andrew Benintendi and they added depth to the starting rotation by signing Mike Clevenger.

The White Sox did allow Jose Abreu to sign elsewhere, and he ended up with the Houston Astros. Abreu is going to be 37 years old and didn’t fit the White Sox plans, but they’ll have to find a way to replace the leadership that he brought to the team.

Obviously, we can’t force teams to spend money, but it would be nice to see them be in play for some of the better players that are available.

I’m also tired of hearing that people will stop going to games because they won’t. I believe that attendance was down a little last season, but there were quite a few people still getting back on their feet after dealing with the Covid-19 garbage we went through. Just look at the recent Bears game against the Buffalo Bills. The wind chill was 30 degrees below zero and while the game might not have been a complete sellout it was very close to one. If fans can afford to go to games, they’re going to go to games no matter if the team is good or not, so stop trying to use that as a reason for these teams to spend money.

Alright it’s your turn. Let me know what New Year’s resolution you have for your favorite team.

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

Now after looking at the comments from Sunday’s blog there was an interesting point that was brought up and I’d be interested to know how everyone really felt about it.

Is Major League Baseball headed into a situation where it’s going to be the have and the have nots? We’ve seen just these pasts few off seasons that there are only a certain number of teams that can pay players the outrageous sums of money that they’re now receiving.

Obviously, Both of the New York Teams the Mets and the Yankees are willing to give out big contracts and then you add teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Chicago Cubs would also be able to do this, but so far, they’ve chosen not to. There are a few more teams that you could add to this like the Texas Rangers that have handed out some large contracts these past two off seasons.

Now of course if you’re a fan of teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates or Kansas City Royals you have to wonder were that leaves your team. You can throw in just about any other team that’s considered small market except for maybe the St. Louis Cardinals who somehow seem to be able to give out larger contracts than the other small market teams.

You can look at a team like the Cleveland Guardians who surprisingly won the American League Central last season and while they have a solid core of younger players, they didn’t add any significant free agents because they can’t give out the type of years and money that these top tier free agents got this off season.

Now it’s not the player’s fault. If someone was offering, you $300 million or more dollars I’m sure you’d quickly sign the contract and take that money, but how is this going to affect the game of baseball?

Major League Baseball is the only one of the four major sports that doesn’t have some type of a salary cap in place. Baseball does have a luxury tax penalty that teams pay., but it’s clear that a team like the Mets is willing to pay that with the moves they’ve made this off season.

That’s great if you’re a Mets fan because it’s clear that they’re doing everything they think is necessary to win, but the majority of Major League teams can’t do what the Mets are doing.

The Mets have signed six free agents this off season and yes, I’m counting Carlos Correa as one of those signings. Out of those six signings three have been big names Correa, Justin Verlander and Japanese pitcher Kodai Senga. These six signings don’t include resigning their own player Brandon Nimmo, so that could be looked at as a seventh signing. Is there another team that has signed anywhere near the free agent that the Mets have signed? I almost forgot that the Mets also resigned their closer Edwin Diaz, so he could be looked at as an eighth signing.

Don’t forget that just last off season the Mets signed Francisco Lindor long term after trading for him and they add outfielder Starling Marte as a free agent as well as starting pitcher Max Scherzer.

As of right now the Mets estimated payroll is $376 million dollars for next season. In comparison at the start of the 2021 season the Oakland A’s payroll on opening day was $31 million dollars. The Mets currently have three players that will be paid more than what the A’s opening day payroll was.

Again, this is great for Mets fans as they have to be a World Series favorite at this point, but how or can the rest of baseball keep up. The Mets aren’t doing anything wrong as their owner Steve Cohen seems more than willing to pay the luxury tax to build a winner.

Now I’m looking for you to weigh in here. Do you think this is good or bad for baseball? I’d also like to know if you think there’s a way baseball might be able to level the playing field so to speak so every team has a shot at signing a big-name free agent.

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

Due to Major League Baseball rules we’ll never know what the issue is that are concerning teams about Carlos Correa, but isn’t everyone wondering. There are reports that the concern has to do with his surgically repaired lower right leg.

Correa originally signed a 13-year $350 million dollar contract to join the San Francisco Giants earlier this off season. Then there was that the Giants had over something that came up during Correa’s physical and San Francisco decided it was better to void his deal.

Even though the Giants showed some concern the New York Mets swept right in and agreed to a 12-year $315 million dollar deal right after the San Francisco voided their deal with Correa. As of right now it appears as that Correa will still be a member of the Mets and will have a long-term deal, but there are reports that there were attempts to rework his contract.

It’s unclear right now if a re-worked contract would still be for the same number of years and the same amount of money, but what the Mets are apparently looking for is some sort of protection if Correa misses any length of time due to that surgically repaired lower right leg.

Correa played in 136 games last season as a member of the Minnesota Twins and had the opportunity to stay with the Twins but chose to opt out and become a free agent. Interestingly when signing with Minnesota last off season, we didn’t hear anything about his surgically repaired lower right leg, but now there are two teams that seem to have a concern with it.

What brings even a little more intrigue to this is that the leg injury that teams now seem to have a concern with, is an injury that happened back in 2014 when Correa was playing in High Class-A for the Houston Astros. Correa suffered a fractured right fibula and sustained minor ligament damage then but has never been placed on the Injury List at the major league level due to this injury. Correa has missed time with thumb, back and rib issues over his eight-year career, but he’s never missed time because of a leg issue.

It really makes you wonder what teams are seeing during these physicals that are making them have concern about Correa long term. It’s possible that this is something that might not affect Correa until down the road in his career and that’s why the Mets and the Giants had issues since the contract Correa signed was for such a long period of time. It could also explain why nothing came up with the Twins last off season since his deal with them was very short term and ended up lasting just one season.

Don’t forget that just a few seasons ago the Mets drafted Kumar Rocker and then ended up pulling out of the deal they had with him because of concerns that they had with his physical. Rocker was the 10th overall draft pick and had agreed to a $6 million dollar signing bonus.

Now there’s a big difference between backing out of a $6 million dollar signing bonus with a draft pick and a $315 million-dollar long term contract with a player like Correa are two very different things.

Mets owner Stev Cohen addressed the situation and said, “We needed one more thing and this is it” It’s unclear what the one thing the Mets needed was, but from all reports it seems as though when it’s all said and done Correa will still be with the Mets.

Let me know what you think. I believe that Correa will be with the Mets. Do you see it that way? Or do you think that he’ll be back out on the free agent market?

Alright I hope that you’ve had a safe and Merry Christmas.

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

We’ve talked about it before how Christmas has been the NBA’s holiday and there are still five NBA games on Christmas day, but this year they have some competition. This year the NBA has to go up against the NFL which has three games schedule for Christmas day.

The NBA gets the jump on the NFL with their first game starting an hour before the NFL kicks off its first game. The NBA opens with the New York Knicks hosting the Philadelphia 76ers while the first NFL game of the day has the Green Bay Packers at the Miami Dolphins.

What I’m interested to know is once the NFL game starts which game are you going to watch? As you know I’m not a huge NBA fan, so I’ll switch over to the NFL game.

Now you would think that fans of the Knicks and the 76ers will stay with the basketball game, but what will the other casual sports fans do. The NFL is always the highest rated of the four major sports, so will the audience switch over once the football game starts or does the NBA have a chance to hold onto some viewers?

The Packers/Dolphins game will also go up against the NBA’s second game of the day which has the Los Angeles Lakers at the Dallas Mavericks. What’s interesting here is the fact that the Lakers are considered a premier NBA franchise while the Mavericks feature MVP candidate Luka Doncic. Could this matchup be good enough to bring back any fans that may have turned away for the football game?

There will also be some overlap between the second NBA game and the NFL’s second game. In the second NFL game the Denver Broncos are at the Los Angeles Rams. In this case it will be two Los Angeles teams head-to-head on television, but you could argue that the Lakers are more popular than the Rams.

This isn’t a great matchup for the NFL as each team is coming into this game with a 4-10 record and there’s really nothing on the line for either team. Will casual fans stay with the basketball game over a football game featuring two 4-10 teams?

The Broncos/ Rams game will also have to go up against what would be considered the NBA’s marquee matchup of the day the Boston Celtics hosting the Milwaukee Bucks. These games going against each other will be a true test of the NFL’s ratings power. If two 4-10 teams can draw better ratings than the NBA’s two best Eastern conference teams that would be saying something.

The NFL’s third and final game starts just about the same time as the NBA’s fourth game of the day. The NFL has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Arizona Cardinals while the NBA has the Memphis Grizzlies at the Golden State Warriors.

This is another interesting matchup as while the Buccaneers are 6-8 on the season, they’re a 1st place team and of course Tom Brady is their quarterback. The NBA does have some star power in their matchup as well with Ja Morant and Stephen Curry being on the court.

The Buccaneers/Cardinals game will also go up against the NBA’s final Christmas day game which has the Denver Nuggets hosting the Phoenix Suns.

The Nuggets and the Suns are both good teams, but I’m not sure they have the drawing power to beat out an NFL game even if it’s another game with teams that have losing records.

Well, there it is your Christmas day all laid out for you. Now you tell me what you’re going to be watching? It’s totally acceptable to flip back and forth between games, but let me know which games you’d favor and why.

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

Yesterday we had our first three NFL games of this season. Sadly, for me I was unable to watch then since AT&T U-verse decided to remove the NFL Network from my cable package a few years ago. Oddly they told me that it was to keep cost down, but yet my monthly rate still went up. Does that sound right? Anyway, judging from the scores and the highlights I saw they were at least decent games to watch.

The day started off with the Indianapolis Colts visiting the Minnesota Vikings. These were two teams headed in different directions as the Vikings will be in the playoffs and while a lot of people thought that the Colts would be a playoff team, they had a 3-9-1 record coming into this game. Oddy with the way the game started off you would’ve thought that these teams’ records were the opposite of what they were.

In the first half of the game Indianapolis scored on special teams with four field goals and a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown as well as an interception that was returned for a touchdown. The Colts did a traditional touchdown as Matt Ryan threw a 1-yard touchdown pass. Going into halftime the Colts had a 33-0 lead on the Vikings.

33 points is a large deficit for any NFL team to make up and Minnesota has had some issues in its last few games, so it was actually looking like this game might’ve been over at halftime. Fortunately for the Vikings and their fans Minnesota had other ideas.

Kirk Cousins led the Vikings to five second half touchdowns, four passing and one rushing including a 64-yard touchdown pass to Dalvin Cook with 2:15 left in the game to tie the score at 36-36. That’s how regulation ended, and the game went into overtime.

Both teams possessed the football, but neither could score right away. In the end Minnesota ended coming all of the way back and won the game 39-36 on a 40-yard Greg Joseph field goal with 1:39 left in the overtime period.

The 33-point comeback by the Vikings was the largest in NFL history. Minnesota’s comeback exceeded the previous record of 32 points set by Buffalo Bills against the Houston Oilers in a 1992 playoff game.

Minnesota’s comeback win not only set a new record, but it also clinched the Vikings the NFC North title. This is the first time that the Vikings have won the NFC North in five years.

The second game of the day was the first of two division match ups as the Cleveland Browns were hosting the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC North match up.

The Ravens came into this game without the services of their starting quarterback Lamar Jackson. As for the Browns this would just be the second start of the season for their quarterback Deshaun Watson coming off his suspension.

It’s unclear if the fact that this game had a backup quarterback and a quarterback just getting his season started, but it didn’t seem to hold up to the excitement of the first game.

Cleveland got on the scoreboard first with a 47-yard field goal from Cade York. Justin Tucker tied the score for the Ravens with a 53-yard field goal, but Cleveland took the lead into halftime 6-3 as York added a 23-yard field goal.

The only touchdown of the game came in the 3rd quarter as Watson threw a 3-yard pass to Donavan People-Jones to give Cleveland a 13-3 lead.

Even with Tyler Huntley under center the Ravens were the favorite to win this game, but Cleveland and their defense was able to hold Baltimore to a field goal and picked up a division win over the Ravens.

The third and final NFL game of the night was another division matchup as two AFC East teams faced off with the Buffalo Bills hosting the Miami Dolphins.

Miami traded two field goals for Buffalo touchdown as the Bills had an early 7-6 lead in the 2nd quarter. The teams then went on to swap touchdowns and Buffalo went into halftime with a 21-13 lead.

In the 3rd quarter the Dolphins scored two touchdowns, but on the first touchdown Miami failed on their two-point conversion attempt. At the end of the 3rd quarter Miami had taken a 26-21 lead over the Bills.

The Dolphins started off the 4th quarter adding a field goal to their lead, but Josh Allen was able to throw a game tying 5-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Knox with 2:54 left in the game. Buffalo decided to go for the two-point conversion to tie the game and it was Allen who ran the football in for the conversion and the game was tied at 29 all.

So, we had our second game of the day that went into overtime, but just like the first overtime game neither team was able to find their way into the end zone when having the football first. In the end it was the Bills that pulled out the victory as Tyler Bass hit a 25-yard field goal with 5:56 left in the overtime period to give the Bils a 32-29 win.

Now this was just what you’d call a preview of Saturday NFL football. Next week the NFL has 11 games that will be played on Saturday. Now I’m sure this was set up because next Sunday is Christmas, so the bulk of the games will be played on Christmas Eve. Now there will be three games on Christmas day as the NFL has their schedule set up just like they did for Thanksgiving.

Well, since I was unable to watch the games yesterday if you did let me know what you think of the game or games that you watched.

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

The free agent position players seem to be signing fast and furious, but with the exception of Justin Verlander and Jacob deGroom there are still quite a few starting pitchers still out on the free agent market.

We can scratch one more position player off the list as shortstop carols Correa has agreed to a 13-year $350 million dollar deal to join the San Francisco Giants.

Now if a team is in the market for pitching there’s a lot of them still out there. It does appear as though the only starting pitcher that could be looked at as a top of the rotation #1 type of starter would be Carlos Rodon, but there is still enough talent to fill out your starting rotation.

I’m sure there are teams that could use a starting pitcher like Noah Syndergaard or Nathan Eovaldi in their rotation. Michael Wacha had what was probably his best season in 2022 and he’s still available. Johnny Cueto really saved the Chicago White Sox rotation last season, so maybe there’s a team willing to take a chance and see if he can repeat his performance from last season. There’s even 43-year-old Left hander Rich Hill out on the free agent market. Who knows if managed right and kept healthy Hill could be a solid starter at the back end of a rotation.

As for Rodon there are reports that the Giants are still interested in bringing him back, but over the past two days they’ve added Ross Stripling and Sean Manaea. Stripling and Manaea each signed identical two-year $25 million dollar deals with San Francisco. Apparently, the New York Yankees have also shown some interest in Rodon, but reports are there’s a large gap between what the Yankees have offered and what Rodon is asking for. There are also some reports out there that the St. Louis Cardinals and the Minnesota Twins are interested in Rodon. With Correa moving on from Minnesota it might give the Twins the money to make Rodon an offer he’s looking for. As for St. Louis it’s said that they are prominent players for Rodon, but no reports about a contract offer have been mentioned.

It appears as though Rodon is looking for contract that would pay him right around $30 million dollars a season. It’s unclear what Rodon has been offered by any of the teams with reported interest but will see if any of them can get close enough to his asking price to sign him.

With Correa now a member of the Giants it leaves Dansby Swanson as the last free agent shortstop standing. There were some reports that the Giants had talks with Swanson, but obviously they decided to sign Correa instead.

What could be Swanson former team the Atlanta Braves made a trade yesterday. It ended up being a three-team deal with the Braves, Oakland A’s and Milwaukee Brewers. The Braves acquired catcher Sean Murphy the Brewers received catcher William Contreras, Joel Payamps and Justin Yeager while Oakland ended up getting four players in the deal, catcher Manny Pina, Kyle Muller, Esteury Ruiz, Freddy Tarnok and Royber Salinas.

There seems to be little interest by the Braves in re-signing Swanson and there have been reports that the two sides have had very little contact this off season.

Swanson will be 29 years old at the start of next season and is coming off what has to be considered his best offensive season. He hit 25 home runs drove in 96 runs while hitting a career-high .277 and add 18 stolen bases, also a career high.

If the Braves do end up deciding to move on from Swanson it appears as though Vaughn Grissom would take over as their everyday shortstop. Grissom played in 41 games for the Braves last season, playing 10 innings at shortstop. Over three minor league seasons Grissom played 161 games at shortstop and had a fielding percentage of .945.

One thing the Brav

There seems to be little interest by the Braves in re-signing Swanson and there have been reports that the two sides have had very little contact this off season.

Swanson will be 29 years old at the start of next season and is coming off what has to be considered his best offensive season. He hit 25 home runs drove in 96 runs while hitting a career-high .277 and add 18 stolen bases, also a career high.

If the Braves do end up deciding to move on from Swanson it appears as though Vaughn Grissom would take over as their everyday shortstop. Grissom played in 41 games for the Braves last season, playing 10 innings at shortstop. Over three minor league seasons Grissom played 161 games at shortstop and had a fielding percentage of .945.

One thing the Braves have going for them is Ron Washington who is their 3rd base coach but is also considered the best infield instructor in baseball. If Swanson isn’t re-signed Washington would be given the task of teaching Grissom the ins and outs of playing shortstop at the Major League level.

I guess time will tell if Swanson ends up back in Atlanta with the Braves or if another team ends up making him the contract offer he’s looking for and he moves to a new team.

What do you think, any predictions on where Swanson might end up playing in 2023?

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

The Major League Baseball winter meetings wrapped up and there was quite a bit of action. Even though there’s still a lot of down time before spring training gets started there was enough that went on to talk about until then. Plus, there are still a few name players out there that still have signed.

With a lot of money and a lot of years being handed out I did notice one thing about these meetings. It seems as though it’s the same teams that are pursuing the top free agents that are on the market. Obviously, you hear the reports that just about every team is interested, but when it comes down to it it’s the same teams that are spending the money and giving out the years to top players.

It seems as though both New York teams the Mets and the Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Texas Rangers seem to be the teams that are always involved with whatever top free agent is available.

There are exceptions to this rule every now and then as the St. Louis Cardinals signed the best available free agent catcher and last year the Colorado Rockies handed out a big contract, but for the most part and especially this off season it seems as though those six teams were talked about offering all of the bigger free agents’ large contracts.

While this is obviously good for the players as they’re getting their money you have to wonder if it’s good for the game of baseball. Now there are always going to be smaller market teams that aren’t going to give out large contracts, but there are quite a few teams that could’ve been involved in signing a big-name free agent that just never seemed to even make an offer and these teams have holes to fill.

If this type of a situation continues it will start to look as only five or six teams will have a chance to win the World Series every year. Of course, every now and then a young team or a team that gets hot at the right time would grab a World Series title, but more often than not it will be those teams that are loading up with talent winning.

Signing a talented free agent doesn’t mean that player development isn’t important for teams it just means that they’re adding to a position that might be a little down in their minor league system or they might just add a top player in the game. It seems as though if this trend continues will end up with a big separation between the teams.

What I do find curious is to why some of the bigger market teams stayed away from a lot of the top free agents this off season. The Dodgers had mentioned that they wanted to be more luxury tax friendly this season, so that may have precluded them from handing out another big contract, but even without making a big signing they’ll still be a top team in 2023. The other teams however never really gave a reason for either not making an offer to a free agent or not trying to sign them.

Humorously here in Chicago, the Cubs have been telling fans that they would be big players in the free agent market this off season and even mentioned that they might sign multiple free agents. I guess to be fair the Cubs did make two free agent signings they signed pitcher Jameson Taillon and outfielder and former National League Most Valuable Player Cody Bellinger. I’m not sure that these were the two big signings Cubs fans were looking for especially since there was a report that came out earlier this week that the Cubs would be involved in trying to sign both Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson. Now it’s possible that the Cubs might still sign Swanson, but Bogaerts signed an 11-year $280 million dollar contract with the Padres.

Now I’m sure other fans from other teams have heard the same reports about the team in their area and then had nothing had happened. I just happen to live in the Chicago area, so the Cubs and the White Sox are reported on more heavily than other teams.

Of course, in the end baseball is a business, but if you’re a fan of a team that isn’t or doesn’t get involved in the free agent market will it make it harder for you to watch them or even harder to go to games if you’re looking at a team that doesn’t appear to have a chance to win. Now there are a couple of bigger name free agents left on the market, but do you honestly see the team you root for singing them?

I’d be interested to know what you thought of your favorite baseball teams off season so far. Have they made a big signing? Or are they one of the teams that seem to be on the outside looking in this of season?

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, @Burketime.