Sports Time Radio

We’re just two days away from the start of what Major League Baseball hopes will be a 162 game regular season. I honestly hope they’re right because I’d love to see a full season of baseball.

As we head into the season it seems that a lot of people think that we’re going to get a classic World Series match up between the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees and I can understand why people think it’s going to come down to those two teams, but just for fun let’s take a look at some other teams that might factor in before it’s all said and done.

While the Dodgers went out and signed the best free agent pitcher on the open market in Trevor Bauer the San Diego Padres traded for three quality starters to add to their rotation. It’s clear that the National League West is the most top heavy division in baseball. If somehow the Dodgers don’t finish in 1st place the Padres probably would, but both teams should end up in the playoffs. Not only should both teams make the playoffs, but it appears as though they’re destin to meet in a seven game National League Championship Series. If they do get their who knows which team might win that and move on to the World Series.

Over in the National League East there are a few teams that have drawn interest from a lot of people. The Atlanta Braves still have a quality young core of players; so they’ll definitely be a factor in this division again. The New York Mets made a big time addition in trading for Francisco Lindor and they already have some quality starting pitching; so they might also be a team that wins this division. The Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies seem to be just a step behind New York and Atlanta in what is easily the best division in Major League Baseball. This should be the most interesting division to watch this season.

While the National League East is the best division in baseball the National League Central is the worst. The St. louis Cardinals made the biggest addition by trading for Nolan Arenado, but they also have three pitchers on the Injured list to start the season; so while they look like the favorite it’s not clear cut. The Milwaukee Brewers do what the Brewers do every off season. They added some lower tier pieces through trades and free agency and they’re hoping that’s enough to help them compete in a very weak division and it might be. No one seems to know what the Chicago Cubs or the Cincinnati Reds are doing and while the Reds have a everyday line up that can compete if they deal Sonny Gray and Luis Castillo like they’ve been trying to do all season they’ll have to win their games 12-11. As for the Cubs. Instead of dominating this division for years like they should’ve Theo Epstein ran away and the owner didn’t allow them to spend any money; so they’ll fade away like the Cubs used to.

Now the Yankees look like the best team in the American League East, but the Toronto Blue Jays seem to be up and coming quickly. Toronto added George Springer in free agency and they also brought in Kirby Yates to close games, but he won’t be pitching for them this season and will undergo Tommy John surgery. If Toronto can find someone to fill Yates’ role effectively maybe they can compete with New York. After get to the World series last season the Tampa Bay Rays decided to trade their #1 starting pitcher and try something different. With the exception of Tyler Glasnow; who’s now their #1 starter Tampa Bay is going to try to use eight to nine starting pitchers getting 100 innings out of each of them. I guess will see how it works for them, but I doubt it leads to them being able to hang with New York or Toronto.

The American League West looks like another weak division with the exception of Houston Astros and possibly the Los Angeles Angels. The Astros will have to manage to get through this season without Justin Verlander, but luckily they’re in the right division to do that. The Angels where unable to add a top of the rotation starting pitcher, but they did bring in some arms that upgraded the bottom of their rotation. Unfortunately it looks like the Oakland A’s took some big steps backwards this off season, but they do have quite a few young pitchers; so maybe they’ll find something with a couple of them. It looks like the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers will battle it out for last place in this division.

The American League Central could end up being a three team race. It appears as the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox are just slightly ahead of the Cleveland Indians, but the Indians may have the best starting rotation out of those three teams and that could help them stay with the Twins and the White Sox. The White Sox where dealt a blow when Eloy Jimenez torn a pectoral muscle; he had surgery yesterday and will be out 5 to 6 months. The Twins will probably need a full healthy season out of Josh Donaldson as well as Nelson Cruz being able to continue to hit like he isn’t 40 years old. So there are enough questions about the Twins and the White Sox that if the Indians don’t sell off pieces like they’ve been rumored to do for the past couple of seasons they might be able to hang around in this division.

Let me know who you think is going to win which division and which teams will grab wild card spots.

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

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

The Miami Dolphins shook up the 1st round of the upcoming NFL draft by making not one, but two trades involving 1st round picks. Here’s what the Dolphins did yesterday.

Miami started the day with the #3 overall pick in the draft and believe it or not there where quite a few experts who thought that the Dolphins should use that pick to take a quarterback. Now remember these are also the same people who thought that the Dolphins needed a quarterback in last years draft. In the end the Dolphins used the 5th pick in the 2020 draft to take Tua Tagovailoa: so it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for the Dolphins to take another young quarterback in this draft and luckily their front office was smart enough to not listen to the those “experts”.

The first trade the Dolphins made yesterday saw them send that #3 pick to the San Francisco 49ers for the 12th pick in the 1st round as well as a 1st and 3rd round pick in 2022 and a 1st round pick in 2023. Then the Dolphins took that 12th pick they had just acquired from San Francisco and sent it to the Philadelphia Eagles for the 6th pick in the draft. Now the Eagles also got the 123rd pick in this years draft and a 2022 1st rounder. Miami also received the 156th pick in this years draft.

So in the end the 49ers are now picking 3rd; the Dolphins will pick 6th and the Eagles will pick 12th in the first round of the upcoming draft.

After the trade was made the questions started on what the 49ers might do with that #3 pick. San Francisco announced that they didn’t have any plans to trade their current quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, but it’s assumed that the 49ers traded up to get one of the young quarterbacks in this draft. Now there have been plenty of reports about how the 49ers where ready to move on from Garoppolo; so it wouldn’t be a surprise if they selected a quarterback with that newly acquired #3 pick. It also wouldn’t be a bad thing to keep Garoppolo on their roster as that newly drafted quarterback learns the system and adjusts to the NFL game.

I’m not sure how many people remember this, but that’s how teams used to groom starting quarterbacks. They would draft a young quarterback and then he would normally sit behind the incumbent starter for a season or more and just watch and learn until the team felt he was ready to take over as the starter. Somewhere down the line things changed and young quarterbacks are rushed into starting roles in a lot of cases when they’re not ready to be an NFL starter.

In the end this deal may work out well for the 49ers; if they land the right quarterback in this draft, but they did give up quite a bit of draft capital to get into that 3rd spot.

With the move back to the 6th spot in the draft it’s clear that the Dolphins have settled on Tagovailoa as their starting quarterback and that they’ll try to build their team around him. With this pick Miami will have an opportunity to get Tagovailoa weapon on offense.

The Dolphins added wide receiver Will Fuller in free agency, but Fuller will miss the first couple games of the 2021 season as he serves out a suspension he received last season.

By moving back in the draft it not only allowed Miami to add more draft picks down the road, but at #6 they should still have their choice of the top receivers in this draft. Baring another team moving up in front of Miami in the draft they should have their choice of wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle or Heisman trophy winner DeVonta Smith. If the Dolphins don’t go with a wide receiver it’s possible they might take tight end Kyle Pitts who a lot of people think is the best overall receiver in this draft.

What was really interesting was that the Eagles decided to move back in the draft as they appear to be in sort of a rebuild mode. Obviously adding the extra 1st round pick will help them in this process and if they hit on that 123rd pick in this upcoming draft this trade will turn out well for them.

I’m sure the Eagles hope that moving back to the 12th pick won’t hurt them too much and that one of those receivers will be available when that 12th pick rolls around. Philadelphia has already made the decision that Jalen Hurts is their quarterback; so ow they need to find some receivers to put around him; so if I had to guess I’d say that’s where they’ll go with that 12th pick.

Now I’m sure you’ve already heard who won this trade and all of the things that come along with trades like this, but do we really know yet? We have absolutely no idea which team is going to take which player or how that player is going to work out in the NFL. We also don’t know if these teams are done dealing even though it looks like they are, but you never know.

The funniest thing about this trade is that the biggest winner out of all of this may be the New York Jets. The Jets currently hold the #2 pick in the draft and if they decide that Sam Darnold is their quarterback imagine what they could get for that pick if they traded it.

There are still a couple of teams in the market for a young quarterback and it looks like if they want one they’re going to have to move up in the draft to get one. You have to wonder if one of those teams would be willing to give up multiple 1st round draft picks to get what they’d hope is their franchise quarterback?

Now if the Jets decide to move on from Darnold they’d probably use that #2 pick to select their future quarterback. That means that Darnold would be available for one of those teams that is looking for a quarterback and he’d probably come a lot cheaper in a trade than that #2 overall pick would.

In all honesty I think that the Jets should hold onto Darnold and sell that #2 pick to the highest bidder, but since the Jets will be coming into this season with a new head coach and coaching staff it’s possible they might want their own young quarterback to work with.

It won’t take long to see how this all plays out as the NFL draft is only a little over a month away.

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

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

With their young players developing and the addition of a few veteran free agents the Toronto Blue Jays have been a trendy pick this off season. Well yesterday the Blue Jays chances for the 2021 season took a big hit as two of the veteran free agents they signed where injured.

First the Blue Jays announced that George Springer suffered a Grade 2 oblique. Toronto signed Springer to a 6 year $150 million dollar deal this off season and now it’s unclear if he’ll be available for opening day. While it seems that the team thinks Springer will be ready at the start of the season we’ve all seen these type of injuries linger; so will have to wait and see how his recovery goes. On the plus side the if Springer is healthy enough the Blue Jays could plug him in as their DH until he’s fully recovered and ready to play in their outfield.

Right now the bigger issue for the Blue Jays is; who’s going to close games? Toronto took a chance and signed former San Diego Padres closer Kirby Yates to a 1 year $5.5 million dollar deal this off season. Last season Yates only pitched 4 1/3rd innings for San Diego before he was sidelined with arm trouble and now it looks like he’s having trouble with his arm again. It’s been reported that Yates suffered a flexor strain on Monday and it appears as though he’s headed for Tommy John surgery.

Now the Blue Jays had handed Yates the closer role and didn’t even bring another pitcher in with any type of closing experience.

So who will the Blue Jays turn to at the end of games? Well it seems as though they’ll be going with a closer by committee set up and it appears as though there are four pitchers that may try and close games for Toronto.

Jordan Romano has 32 games of major league experience, but did have some success out of the Toronto bullpen last season picking up 2 saves and posting an ERA of 1.23. Rafael Dolis also had some success out of the Toronto bullpen last season. Dolis appeared in 24 games picking up 5 saves and posting an ERA of 1.55. David Phelps is another option at the end of games. Phelps is entering his 9th major league season, but only has 6 career saves; so he’s been used as a set up guy and has never closed on a consistent basis. Tyler Chatwood seems to be the other option to close games for the Blue Jays. Chatwood is entering his 10th season and has appeared in 197 games, but 143 of those appearances was as a starter. Chatwood does have 3 career saves and spent quite a bit of time the last two season coming out of the bullpen for the Chicago Cubs.

Now if Romano and Dolis can continue with the success they might be able to split the closer workload and give the Blue Jays what they need, but if they struggle Toronto might have to look elsewhere and there are a few options still available.

Toronto’s former closer Roberto Osuna could be an option. Now Osuna only pitched in 4 games covering 4 1/3rd innings last season because of arm trouble. It was recommended that Osuna undergo Tommy John surgery, but he chose to rehab his arm instead. On March 12th Osuna held a showcase for teams to take a look at him, but I don’t know if the Blue Jays where one of the teams that attended.

David Robertson could be another option for Toronto. Robertson missed all of last season and only pitched in 7 games in the 2019 season. He had Tommy John surgery, but with almost two full years off should be ready to go. Now Robertson will be 36 years old next month, but he does have three seasons of 34 or more saves on his resume.

A. J. Ramos is still a free agent. Ramos appeared in just three games for the Colorado Rockies last season as he’s another pitcher coming back from Tommy John surgery which cost him the entire 2019 season. Ramos has had a 40 save season, but the issue with him is he’s always been that closer you’re concerned with as he seems to get himself in trouble in a lot of his saves.

Shane Greene is the final pitcher still on the free agent market that has closing experience. Last season Greene pitched out of the Atlanta Braves bullpen as a set up man. He appeared in 28 games for Atlanta and posted an ERA of 2.60. Now before being acquired by Atlanta Greene was closing for the Detroit Tigers and had a career high 32 saves in 2018.

What do you think Toronto will do with their closer role? Will they stand pat and hope that the guys they already have on their roster can fill the void that Yates injury created? Or will they bring in one of these four veterans that have closing experience and see if they can help the back end of their bullpen? Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Remember the Sports Time Radio podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the podcast live you can stop by TuneIn.com and listen to the podcast any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

The new NFL season officially started on March 17th. That means all of the trades and signings you heard about before that date have now become official. I do find it odd that a league like the NFL has to have a start date for their next season, but that’s how they do it.

Like every NFL off season when teams are allowed to sign free agent the action gets hot and heavy. In what came as a surprise to a lot of people this off season the New England Patriots where one of the most active teams in free agency. After a down 2020 season the Patriots had some holes to fill and they wasted absolutely no time find the players they wanted in free agency and getting them signed.

Now of course since it is the Patriots we’re talking about there where quite a few people who criticized the moves they made, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by that.

New England landed the top two tight ends on the free agent market. First the Patriots signed Jonnu Smith to a four year $50 million dollar deal. Then the next day New England inked tight end Hunter Henry to a three year $37.5 million dollar deal. Now I heard a lot of people who get paid to talk about this kind of stuff on television take shots at the Patriots for signing two tight ends. I guess these people forgot about the success that New England had when they found ways to use Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez on the field together.

I understand that the thing to do is take shots at the Patriots any chance you get, but this one didn’t make a lot of sense to me. You also have to remember that Henry has never played a full season in his five year NFL career. I guess these analysts also forgot that Smith missed about a game and a half last season due to injury.

Maybe I missed this memo, but do NFL teams no longer carry more than one tight end on the roster. Going into to training camp last season the Chicago Bears actually had nine or ten tight ends listed on their roster.

I’m hoping there’s someone out there that can explain the thinking behind taking shots at the Patriots for these moves. Is it anything more that it’s the Patriots and they’ve been good for so long that people just want to find ways to tear them down.

Now tight end wasn’t the only offensive skill position were the Patriots brought in multiple players. New England also added two wide receivers in free agency. Kendrick Bourne signed a three year $15 million dollar deal while Nelson Agholor agreed to a two year $22 million dollar deal. It also appears as New England is going to go with Cam Newton as their quarterback again. Newton was signed to a one year $5.1 million dollar extension by the Patriots.

Now it wasn’t just offense the Patriots where after during this free agent signing spree. They also added one of the best pass rusher available in the free agent market. New England added Matthew Judon on a four year $54 million dollar deal. Judon is a two-time Pro Bowler and has 34 1/2 career sacks with 6 of those sacks coming last season as a member of the Baltimore Ravens.

Now of course no one can tell how these signings will work out, but it appears as though most people are hoping that they all fall flat on New England. I’m not a fan of the Patriots, but I also don’t root against them either; so I find it odd that people who actually get paid to talk about the NFL actually come off as rooting against a certain team.

It appears as these moves all make sense for New England and they need them to work out as they’re in a division with the Buffalo Bills who look like they’re in a position to win again. Then there’s also the Miami Dolphins who improved greatly last season and if Tua Tagovailoa improves as their starting quarterback they’ll be a contender in the AFC East as well.

What do you think about the free agent singings the Patriots made? I’d also be interested to know if you’re a fan of the Patriots? Or if you’re someone who wants to see them fail?

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament started yesterday and I’m sure to no one’s surprise there where some upsets on Day 1. A couple of the bigger upsets involved two Big Ten teams as #2 seeded Ohio St. fell to 15th seeded Oral Roberts 75-72 in overtime. Also in overtime #4 seeded Purdue dropped it’s game to 13th seeded North Texas 78-69.

Those weren’t the only two first day upsets. Here are some other lower seeded teams that got past higher seeded teams on the first day of tournament action.

I’m not even sure if it’s an upset anymore when a 12th seed beats a 5th seed, but 12th seeded Oregon State beat 5th seeded Tennessee 70-56. As a #10 seed Rutgers was able to get past #7 seeded Clemson 60-56. 11th seeded Syracuse beat #6 seeded San Diego St. 78-62 and a lot of people had San Diego St. as their lower seeded team that would make a tournament run.

Will have to see how the rest of the first round goes today and if there are any more upsets.

One final question for you. How does your bracket look after just one day?

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRado.com, but if you happen to miss the podcast live all you have to do is head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Do you have your NCAA tournament bracket up and ready to go? If not you better get gong on it because the tournament play-in games are tomorrow.

How many brackets do you actually fill out? I’m not over the top like some people. I do two brackets every year, but this year I did a third as I helped Dan the Man out with his NCAA office pool. Now I have Gonzaga winning in one of my brackets and then I went with Illinois in my other bracket. Now that might’ve been a homer pick as I live in the Chicago suburbs. What that also means is neither team will win the NCAA title and will probably be upset early in the tournament because I picked them. It just seems that’s how things go for me when it comes to my NCAA bracket and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Not the Big Ten was clearly the best conference in college basketball this season and it showed in the NCAA brackets. Illinois and Michigan are #1 seeds while Ohio State and Iowa grab #2 seeds. Purdue also made the NCAA tournament field and they where seed at #4. You can also add four other Big Ten teams into the NCAA field. Wisconsin is an 8th seed while Rutgers is in as a 9th seed. Maryland is also in the field as a 10th seed and the final Big Ten team in the field is Michigan State who is an 11th seed and will be facing UCLA in one of tomorrow’s play-in games.

Does this mean a Big Ten team will win the tournament; not necessarily. I did hear quite a few experts say that they thought Illinois was playing the best basketball coming into the tournament, but will that carry over into the tournament since they’ll be off for four days before they play their opening round game.

Now don’t forget that the 1st round will be on Friday and Saturday this year. Normally it’s Thursday and Friday, but not this season. The 2nd round games will be played on Sunday and Monday. Will still have a lot of college basketball over a four day period; it’s just going to start a day later than we’re used to.

Now the Big Ten wasn’t the only conference that got a good number of teams into the NCAA tournament. The Big 12 and the ACC each got seven teams into the NCAA tournament. The SEC got six team in while the PAC 12 got five teams in. The Big East got four teams into the NCAA tournament while the American, Atlantic 10, Mountain West, Missouri Valley and the West Coast Conference all sent two teams to the tournament.

Now everybody is always looking for those 1st round upsets when they’re filling out their brackets. The best bet for these upsets seems to be a 12th seed beating a 5th seed. That means teams like Georgetown, Oregon State, Winthrop and UCSB will be popular upset picks in Round 1. It’s a very good bet that all of the #1 seeds win their first game as only one time in NCAA tournament history has a 16th seed beaten a #1 seed, but with the way this year has went we see an upset like that again?

There also always seems to be one lower seeded team that makes it farther than anyone expected. In my bracket I have San Diego St. advancing to the Elite Eight. San Diego St. is a #7 seed; so they’ll have to pull off an upset or two to get to the Elite Eight, but they where my surprise team. Of course since I’m picking them they’ll end up going out in the 1st round.

I’d be very interested to know some things about your NCAA tournament brackets. How many brackets do you fill out? How do you have winning the tournament? Who’s your sleeper team or teams?

I wish you good luck with your bracket and I hope you’re not someone who ends up with the bracket being a complete mess after these first couple of rounds of games.

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com. Now if you miss the live edition of the podcast don’t worry. All you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen anytime you want.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

I look forward to the NFL draft and I’m one of the few people who will end up watching all three days. All I want now is for the draft to get here so I can stop seeing and hearing about these mock drafts. Let’s face it very few of the people who put these out every get any of the picks correct and now that they’re all putting out about 100 mock drafts each there seems to be a new one everyday. I just need it to be over; please.

Here’s what I’m finding humorous about these mock drafts. If you remember just last season both the Cleveland Browns and the Buffalo Bills needed to draft new quarterbacks because Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen weren’t what these teams needed. Now I understand that I’m getting older and my memory isn’t what it used to be, but didn’t the Browns and the Bills not only make the playoffs last season didn’t each team also win a playoff game? Would they have done that if they had listened to the draft experts and started over with a new quarterback? I doubt it.

The Bills tied for the second best record in the NFL at 13-3 and Josh Allen’s name was mentioned in the MVP conversation. The Browns went 11-5 in a division where they were the third team to win 11 games or more. Again I ask; would either team have done this if they had listened to the draft experts and started over with a new quarterback?

So we get to this upcoming draft. Now it makes perfect sense for the Jacksonville Jaquars to select a quarterback with the #1 pick. I believe every mock draft I’ve seen has them taking Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence with that pick and it will probably be the only selection a lot of those mock drafts get right. Oddly the majority of the mock drafts I’ve seen has the next three draft picks also being quarterbacks with a fourth quarterback going in the Top 10. Does this make sense?

After the Jaquars the New York Jets have the 2nd pick and a lot of the draft experts think it’s time for them to move on from Sam Darnold. Does this sound familiar? Now Darnold was the 3rd pick in the 2018 draft. Mayfield was the 1st pick in that draft while Allen was the 7th selection. I’m not sure if the Jets are in the same position talent wise as the Browns and the Bills where last season, but should they give up on Darnold after just three seasons?

The 3rd pick in this draft belongs to the Miami Dolphins. Now the Dolphins used the 5th pick in last years draft to take Tua Tagovailoa, but there are draft experts out there that have suggested the Dolphins need to move on from a quarterback that only played in 10 games last season. The Dolphins might be better off trading this pick as they have another 1st rounder as it is. If they acquire more draft capital they can surround Tagovailoa with the weapons he needs to be successful. Who gives up on a quarterback 10 games into his career?

Now at #4 it would be just fine if the Atlanta Falcons selected a quarterback. Matt Ryan will be 36 years old at the start of next season. Would it be terrible for the Falcons to draft a quarterback to learn under Ryan for a year or more? Ryan is signed through the 2023 season. Now that may be a long time to have a young highly drafted quarterback to have to sit and wait for the starting job, but I believe Aaron Rodgers sat for a number of years and he turned out just fine. I’d like to see the Falcons hang onto Ryan for at lest one season to work with whoever their possible draft pick could be, but you know how teams are now everybody wants to see that young quarterback even if he’s not ready.

Now obviously there could be trades as teams that actually need or think they need a quarterback try to move up in the draft to get a guy. It appears as though the Pittsburgh Steelers are looking for someone to take over after Ben Rothlisberger retires. The Chicago Bears only have Nick Foles under contract; so I’m sure they’d like to land a young quarterback. There’s been talk that the Carolina Panthers are interested in trading up to get one of those quarterbacks even though they have Teddy Bridgewater. The New England Patriots resigned Cam Newton yesterday, but his deal was only for one year; so I’m sure they also have some interest in a quarterback to take that spot. Don’t forget that the Washington Football Team is also probably in the market for a quarterback after they agreed to release Alex Smith.

Of course you’re going to hear a lot of these teams names mentioned in the Deshaun Watson Russell Wilson situation, but don’t believe those rumors. Eventually Watson may be traded if he doesn’t report to the Houston Texans, but it’s highly doubtful that Wilson will be playing anywhere except Seattle next season.

Well it took more or less two years, but Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys finally came to a contract agreement that will keep Prescott in signed for the next four seasons.

Prescott ended up getting a four year deal worth $160 million dollars. As part of the deal Prescott will receive a signing bonus of $66 million dollars which is the largest ever given to a player.

The signing bonus will be paid out in $13.2 million dollar increments over the next five years. Yes even if Prescott signs to play somewhere else in the year 2025 the Cowboys would still owe him one more signing bonus payment of $13.2 million dollars.

As for Prescott’ yearly salary he’ll receive $9 million next season. His salary jumps to $20 million dollars in 2022. Then it moves up to $31 million dollars in 2023 before it drops a couple million dollars to $29 million dollars for the final year of his deal.

Now the question will become; will the Cowboys be able to surround Prescott with what he’ll need to win? The Cowboys already have some pretty big money tied up in long term deals with other players; so it’s going to become more and more difficult to add players to help the team as the current roster gets older. The Cowboys already have eight players that make an average of $10 million dollars or more a season: so will see how they handle what would be considered the bottom of their roster when it comes time to fill that out.

Now it was obvious that Prescott was the quarterback that the Cowboys wanted under center, but is it possible that they overpaid for him? Of course if they would’ve had to use the franchise tag on him again for this coming season his salary would’ve been much higher than what they ended up signing him for. I guess will just have to wait and see how this plays out.

I believe that Dallas is the favorite right now to win the NFC East, but what does being the best team in the weakest division mean? Do you think that the Cowboys are Super Bowl contenders?

There were nine players that where franchised by their teams yesterday. Here they are.

The New Orleans Saints used their franchise tag on safety Marcus Williams. The Denver Broncos also franchised tagged a safety as they used their franchise tag on Justin Williams. The New York Jets used their franchise tag on a safety as well as they tagged Marcus Maye. There were three offensive lineman who where franchised tagged by their teams; two tackles and a guard. The Jacksonville Jaquars franchise tagged tackle Cam Robinson: the Carolina Panthers used their franchise tag on tackle Taylor Morton while the Washington Football Team franchised tagged guard Brandon Scherff. The New York Giants franchised tagged defensive tackle Leonard Williams. The other two franchise tags were used on wide receivers as the Chicago Bears used their franchise tag on Allen Robinson and the World Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers used their franchise tag on Chris Godwin.

Franchise tags were used on all of these players and that means are essentially signed to one-year contract offers that come in two forms: exclusive and non-exclusive.

There are three other forms of tags that NFL teams can use; Exclusive Tags, Non-Exclusive Tags and Transition Tags. Here’s what they mean if a player is designated with one.

An Exclusive tag restrict negotiating rights to the tagging team and pay out an average of the top five salaries at the player’s position in the current year, or 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater.

A Non-Exclusive tag means a pay out an average of the top five tag amounts at the player’s position from the previous five years (applied to the current cap), or 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. Players who receive this tag can negotiate with other teams, but the tagging team has the right to match any offer — and would also receive two first-round draft picks in the event the player signs elsewhere. These are the more commonly used tags by teams.

A Transition Tag are also one-year contract offers. They pay out an average of the top 10 salaries at the player’s position. Players who receive this tag can negotiate with other teams, but the tagging team has the right to match any offer. If the tagging team declines to match, it would not receive any compensation in return.

The new league year in the NFL starts on March 17th, but the deadline to use a tag on a player was yesterday. If a team didn’t use a tag on a player that player is now a free agent.

Have you been listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast? It airs live on BogTalkRadio.com. If you do however miss the live edition of the podcast you can just head on over to TueIn.com and listen any time you want.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

We’re still waiting the final word, but it looks like the Houston Astros may have suffered the first significant injury of spring training.

In his first start of spring training Framber Valdez was hit with a comebacker and ended up fracturing his left ring finger. Oddly Valdez pitched another inning before coming out of the game, but this injury could be more serious than thought. As of now the only recommended treatment for Valdez is to have surgery. If this is Valdez only option there’s actually a chance he could miss the entire season with this injury.

If this is the case it would be a huge blow to an Astros starting rotation that was already going to be without Justin Verlander for the entire 2021 season.

Valdez appeared in 11 regular season games last season with 10 of those being starts. He pitched 70 2/3rds innings going 5-3 with a 3.57 ERA while striking out 76 batters. Then in the post season Valdez really stepped up for the Astros. He made 4 appearances; 3 of which where starts. He pitched 24 innings over three post season series. He went 3-1 with an ERA of 1.88 while striking out 26 batters.

There where some who thought that with Verlander out this season Valdez would turn out to be the Astros top starting pitcher, but as of now his status is in limbo and to be safe the Astros are going to look for a way to replace him in case they lose him for the season.

How could the Astros fill Valdez’s rotation spot? Well they have quite a few internal options if that’s the way they want to go. Brandon Bielak, Luis Garcia and Bryan Abreu may get the first look, but none of them have a ton of experience at the big league level. Tyler Ivey and Nivaldo Rodriquez are both on the Astros 40 man roster, but neither has pitched full time above the Double-A level. Rodriguez did pitch 8 innings of relief for the Astros last season, but Ivey has yet to pitch in the major leagues. The Astros did add former Boston Red Sox pitcher Hector Velazquez this off season, but he’s always been used as more of a fill in starter. The Astros aren’t known for bringing in non-roster invitees like Velazquez, but with the injury to Valdez it’s a route they might have to look at.

Now I’m sure that there where a few people who thought that the Astros would turn to Austin Pruitt or Josh James. While that would make this decision much easier for the Astros unfortunately both of those pitchers will start the season on the IL. Pruitt had elbow surgery in September of last year and isn’t expected to be ready for opening day. James had hip surgery in October of last season and his recovery time was expected to be six to eight months; so the earliest he could be back is possibly April, but then he’ll have to get ready to pitch.

What you have to wonder is if it’s time for the Astros to take a look at their top pitching prospect Forrest Whitley as a candidate for this spot in the starting rotation.

Whitley isn’t looked at as the top prospect he was at one point in time, but he’s just 23 years old; so he’s still very young. Whitley only has 8 appearances at the Triple-A level and has never pitched in the major leagues, but sooner or later the Astros are going to have to find out what they have in Whitley and if he can show in spring training that he could fill in for Valdez maybe this could be his spot.

Now it also makes sense that the Astros have looked outside their organization for a starter to fill Valdez’s role. It’s been reported that the Astros reached out to Jake Odorizzi after Valdez was injured and since he’s the top starting pitcher left on the free agent market this makes all the sense in the world, but the Astros aren’t the only team that has been in touch with Odorizzi.

So far only the Toronto Blue Jays name has come up as contacting Odorizzi, but apparently there are other teams that have also reached out to him. As of now there have been no reported contract offers for Odorizzi, but if Valdez is going to end up missing the entire 2021 season it might be smart for the Astros to get and offer on the table and try to get the veteran starter into their spring training camp.

What do you see the Astros doing to fil this spot in their starting rotation? Do you think they’ll stay within their organization? Or do you think they’ll sign Odorizzi to fill that role?

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

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

There seems to be a lot of discussion this week on who should be the MVP in the NBA this season; so I thought we could take a look and see who the frontrunners are and if we can find an under the radar guy or two.

It seemed right from the start of the season that everyone was giving the MVP award to LeBron James. After all he is still one of the best players in the NBA; so winning this wouldn’t be a huge surprise, but they may have given him the award too early. Oddly people act like James has never won this award, but he actually has four different times and each time it was in back to back seasons. James won his first two MVP’s in 2008/09 & 2009/10. He then won the award again in the 2011/12 & 2012/13 seasons. James is having a good season and should be considered for this award for his play on the court not the fact that the mainstream media think he should’ve won this award more times than he has.

In the NBA like in every other major sport the winner of this award will be from a winning team; so even though Bradley Beal may be having the best season of any other NBA player this season he unfortunately plays for a terrible Washington Wizards team and while he’ll gets some votes for MVP he won’t receive enough to be a serious threat to win it. Beal is currently the league leading scorer. He is averaging 32.9 points per game for the 13-20 Wizards. It’s doubtful that Beal will even get to show his skills in the playoffs as the Wizards are currently 13th in the Eastern conference standings, but they are only 2 1/2 games out of the 8th spot; so maybe they’ll find a way into the playoffs, but it’s doubtful.

Joel Embiid is another name that’s gotten a lot of MVP buzz this season and rightfully so. The key for Embiid is staying healthy and so far this season he’s played in 29 of the Philadelphia 76ers 35 games this season; which by NBA standards is good. Embiid is currently 2nd in the league in scoring as he’s averaging 29.8 points per game and he’s 8th in the league in rebounding as he’s grabbing 11.3 rebounds per game. Philadelphia also has the best record in the Eastern conference at the moment at 23-12 and there’s no doubt that Embiid is a big part of that. If Embiid can continue to stay on the court this season he could be the leagues MVP.

Now a new name that’s appeared in the MVP conversation just this week is James Harden. After playing 8 games with the Houston Rockets Harden got his wish and was traded ending up with the Brooklyn Nets where he’s played more to the level that people where used to seeing Harden play at. Now it wasn’t expected that Harden would have to carry the load in Brooklyn like he did in Houston for so many seasons, but with the injury to Kevin Durant and the fact that game to game you just don’t know if Kyrie Irving will suit up Harden has had to really step up as the got to guy for Brooklyn. Harden has always been looked at as a scorer and he has led the NBA in scoring three times, but this season he’s averaging 11 assists per game and he’s also grabbing 8.7 rebounds per game. Harden seems to have inserted himself into the MVP conversation, but if and when Durant and Irving start to play regularly will Harden’s numbers take a hit?

Now generally when you’re the best team in the NBA your top player is in the conversation for the MVP award, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case this season. The Utah Jazz have the best record in the NBA at 27-8, but have you heard any of their players mentioned as a possible MVP candidate? Is it because they play in Utah? Is it because they don’t play with the flash of some of the other NBA teams? Or is it because the people who report on the NBA don’t take them as serious title contenders? There has to be something going on that we haven’t heard Donavan Mitchell’s name mentioned in the MVP conversation. If the Los Angeles Lakers had the best record in the NBA every show on ESPN would lead with LeBron James’ candidacy for MVP even if it wasn’t a NBA show, but you hardly hear anything about Mitchell.

Now I want to be fair here. I don’t think that Mitchell is the NBA’s MVP, but he should get the same consideration that other top players get if or when their team has had the best record in the league. I think if the Jazz finish with the best regular season record this season at best Mitchell will finish Top 5 in the MVP voting.

Could it be possible that Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers could find a way t sneak in and win the MVP? Lillard is quietly the leagues 3rd leading scorer averaging 29.6 points per game and the Trail Blazers 19-14 and should find their way into the Western conference playoffs. Lillard has had three 40 point games this season with his season high being 44 and he’s a threat to hit that number in any game. Of course being that Lillard plays in the Western conference he’s over shadowed by the bigger names like James or Kawhi Leonard, but when you look at his numbers it wouldn’t be a surprise if he picks up a large number of MVP votes, but I’m not sure he could get enough to win the award.

Another player that got a lot of MVP talk early in the season was Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, but I don’t know why people stopped mentioning him as an MVP candidate. Jokic averages a double-double a game as he’s scoring 27.3 points per game and grabbing 11 rebounds per game. Jokic is also handing out 8.6 assists per game which is good for 6th in the league. Two nights ago Jokic had 39 points and 9 rebounds in the Nuggets win over the Chicago Bulls and then last night Jokic had a triple-double in a win against the Milwaukee Bucks. Jokic had 37 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in the Nuggets win against Milwaukee. Why did he fall out of the MVP conversation?

Unfortunately if the mainstream media wants LeBron James to win this award; well he’s going to win this award, but there are some other candidates to consider.

As always I’d like to know what you think. Who’s going to win the NBA MVP award?

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

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Now I think we all understand that the NFL is a quarterback driven league, but I think things are getting a little ridiculous. Now any idiot can do a mock draft and I’ve even tried my hand at a couple, but the last few I’ve seen have been a complete joke. Apparently the first four picks in the upcoming NFL draft are all going to be quarterbacks as these mock drafts have a couple of teams trading up into the top of the draft to take one of these quarterbacks.

In reality it would be really stupid for certain teams to trade up in the draft to take one of these quarterbacks. If you’re a non-playoff team; is adding a quarterback going to make you not only a playoff team, but a Super Bowl contender? In almost every case the answer is no. Now your favorite decides to move u in the draft and take that quarterback. Well look what they’ll have to give away. It’s doubtful that any team holding one of those first four draft picks are going to take any of the players on your current roster with the exception of a Deshaun Watson or a Russell Wilson; so what’s your team giving away? That’s right draft picks. Great; so now you have that quarterback you’ve always wanted and you have no way to put any players around him because you gave away all of your draft capital to get him. How’d that work out for you?

The new thing that also seems to be happening with just about everyone who reports on the NFL is wanting teams t give up on a young quarterback very quickly. Unfortunately not every quarterback is going to step into the NFL and be successful and in some cases it takes a few seasons for them to get comfortable. In other cases it’s the system or coaching staff they end up with, but just because a team made a coaching change doesn’t mean that new head coach needs his team to draft another young quarterback and start all over at that position. There are two cases I can think of right off the top of my head.

The New York Jets hold the second pick in the upcoming draft and apparently they’re supposed to trade Sam Darnold and start all over again with whoever they decide is worthy of that #2 pick.

Darnold was the 3rd pick in the 2018 draft ad has started 38 games over three seasons for the Jets. Now the Jets are just 13-25 in the 38 starts that Darnold has made for them, but can you tell me what weapons he had to work with in that offense in all three of those seasons; yeah I didn’t think so.

Here I’ll help you. In 2018 the Jets leading receiver was Robby Anderson while their leading rusher was Isaiah Crowell; neither player went over 1000 yards. In 2019 the Jets leading receiver was Jamison Crowder while their leading rusher was Le’Veon Bell and again neither player went over 1000 yards. Last season the Jets leading receiver was Crowder again and believe it or not 37 year old Frank Gore was the teams leading rusher. Do you think those are high quality weapons for a young quarterback to work with?

Don’t forget that the same people that are saying it’s time for the Jets to move on from Darnold are the same people that said the Cleveland Browns needed to move on from Baker Mayfield before last season. Well the Browns stuck with their young quarterback and not only made the playoffs, but won a playoff game. Would they have done that with a young inexperienced quarterback?

The other team that I can’t seem to figure out why they think they need to make a change at quarterback is the Miami Dolphins. Last year at this time all of the talk was would the Dolphins have to trade up to get their franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. As it turned out the Dolphins where able to stay at #5 and still land Tagovailoa.

Now it was understood that Tagovailoa had just had hip surgery and it was unclear if he’d be ready to start the regular season. The Dolphins where prepared for that as they had veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick on their roster. As it turned out Fitzpatrick was needed, but Tagovailoa did play in 10 games last season started 9 of those games. The Dolphins went 6-3 in the games that Tagovailoa, but Fitzpatrick did come into a couple of those wins.

Now after seeing Tagovailoa play in just 10 NFL games it’s clear to a lot of people who report on the NFL that the Dolphins need to find another quarterback. Why didn’t they know this last season when they wanted the Dolphins to draft Tagovailoa? Do they not do their do-diligence and watch these guys either in college or at the NFL combine? It seems very odd that they’re ready to give up on Tagovailoa after just 10 NFL games.

The other thing with all of the excitement about teams drafting quarterbacks at the top of the draft and moving up to draft quarterbacks at the top of the draft is; do they really need to?

There have been quite a few quarterbacks that weren’t taking at the top of the draft that have led their teams to Super Bowl victories. Tom Brady is the obvious name here, but don’t forget that Russell Wilson was a 3rd round pick. Aaron Rodgers slipped all the way to the 24th pick of the 2005 NFL draft and not only has he won a Super Bowl, but he was just named league MVP. Don’t forget Nick Foles who was a 3rd round pick in the 2012 NFL draft.

Now these are just four quarterbacks that are starting in the NFL right now, but if you look at the history of teams that won a Super Bowl you’ll find quarterbacks who where drafted in rounds that don’t even exist anymore as well as at least one quarterback who wasn’t even drafted. So ask yourself; is your favorite teams just that quarterback away from going to the Super Bowl? If the answer is no like it is for most of the teams that the experts want to see trade up to get. Would it be worth it to give away what you’d have to give away to get that quarterback? If they did make that trade would they be back in this position in a few years with a new head coach looking for another quarterback?

The Sports Time Radio podcast airs live Monday through Friday live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you somehow miss the podcast live just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

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