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As I was doing my research for fantasy baseball season one of the things that seemed to be agreed on was that with the exception of the very best starting pitchers they wouldn’t have much impact this season. There where also people who thought that starters would only pitch 3 or 4 innings per start. Now either these experts where wrong or after last night Lucas Giolito has moved into the upper echelon of starting pitching.

Through five starts this season Giolito was 1-2 with and ERA of 4.88. On August 20th he went 7 innings against the Detroit Tigers. He struck out 13 and didn’t give up any runs. Last night it was Giolito’s turn to start. This time against the Pittsburgh Pirates and made it a memorable start.

Last night Giolito threw the 19th no-hitter in Chicago White Sox history. He also recorded the most strikeouts 13 in any no-hitter thrown by a White Sox pitcher.

It took Giolito 101 pitches to no-hit the Pirates last night. He did walk one batter and of course there where some good defensive plays to help keep the no-hitter in tacked.

Jose Abreu made two good plays on throws from Tim Anderson. On one play Abreu had to come off of 1st base to handle a throw from Anderson, but was still able to tag the Pittsburgh runner trying to reach base safely. The other play saw Anderson one hop a throw to 1st base that Abreu was able to pick cleanly for an out. The other quality defensive play was the final out of the game. On what may have been the only bad pitch Giolito made all night he left a pitch up and Eric Gonzalez hit a line drive that looked like it might be headed for the rightfield corner. Luckily Adam Engel took the proper angle on it and was able to cut the ball off and make the catch to end the game and keep the no-hitter for Giolito.

Giolito was the 16th pick in the 2012 draft by the Washington Nationals, but thing didn’t go all that well for him with Washington. After pitching in part of four minor league seasons with the Nationals Giolito was called up. He made 4 starts for Washington and pitched in 6 total games to end the 2016 season. Giolito had his issues; he pitched 21 1/3rd innings and went 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA. After having those struggles at the major league level Washington traded Giolito along with Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning to the White Sox for outfielder Adam Eaton.

After being drafted as high as he was Giolito was looked at as someone who would develop into a #1 starter. He spent most of the 2017 season in AAA Giolito was called up and made 7 starts that season and pitched well. In those 7 starts Giolito went 3-3 with a 2.38 ERA. After showing that potential Giolito spent the entire 2018 season in the starting rotation and he had his issues. He made 32 starts that season pitching 173 1/3rd innings. He went 10-13 and posted a 6.13 ERA which I believe was the highest for any starting pitcher that season. It should’ve come as no surprise that there was talk that Giolito would never become the pitcher people thought he would be when he was drafted, but last season he showed he could develop into that. Giolito pitched in 29 games covering 176 2/3rd innings. He went 14-9 ad his ERA came down to 3.41. He also had 3 complete games; 2 of which where shutouts. Now you add a no-hitter to Giolito’s resume and it looks like the White Sox got a pretty good deal.

Giolito’s next start is scheduled for this coming Sunday against the Kansas City Royals; so we’ll see if he can continue to pitch well or if there might be a little bit of a no-hitter hangover.

The White Sox could use for Giolito to turn into that #1 starter people thought he’d be coming out of the draft. Right now the White Sox would make the expended playoffs, but they’d be one of the two wild card teams. As it’s turning out the AL Central is looking like it’s going to be a tougher division than people predicted it to be. The Minnesota Twins currently lead the division by 1 1/2 games over the Cleveland Indians and the White Sox.

With the win last night the White Sox are 18-12; so their season is officially half way over. They’ll have seven more games against the Twins and three more games against the Indians to try and make up some ground and not have to play in that wild card game.

Do you see the White Sox making the playoffs? And if they do get into the playoffs; would you consider that a surprise?

While we’re in the AL Central the Indians and the Twins are playing the third game of a three game series today. Minnesota won the first game 3-2 behind Kenta Maeda while Cleveland took the second game 4-2 behind Shane Bieber. Interestingly for the rubber match today the Indians are bringing Mike Clevinger back from the teams alternative training site to make the start in today’s game. The Twins will be countering with Jose Berrios.

I found it interesting that Clevinger is being brought back up, but Zach Plesac is not. Without going into the whole story I’m sure you remember that Clevinger and Plesac had some issues in Chicago after going out on the town after a Plesac start.

I understand that Clevinger is the better pitcher out of the two, but I really think what he did ended up being worse than what Plesac did. Remember Clevinger actually got on the team plane and flew back to Cleveland with his teammates potentially exposing them to Covid-19. Now it’s possible Plesac would’ve gotten on the plane as well, but he got caught sneaking into the team hotel and was given a rental car and had to drive back to Cleveland alone.

Adam Plutko took a couple turns in the starting rotation and top prospect Triston McKenzie made his major league debut while Clevinger and Plesac where at the alternative training site. It looks like Plutko will head back to the bullpen while McKenzie will stay in the rotation along with Clevinger.

So what does this mean for Plesac? With the trade deadline 5 days away you have to wonder if his days in Cleveland are numbered.

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

Feel free to look me up on Twitter @Burketime

The Cleveland Indians are currently in 2nd place in the American League Central just 1 1/2 games behind the division leading Minnesota Twins, but they find themselves in a bit of a quandary with a couple of their starting pitchers.

Let’s do a quick recap. On August 8th Zach Plesac made a start against the Chicago White Sox. Plesac picked up the win; he pitched 6 innings gave up 5 hits and no runs while walking 1 and striking out 7. It was Plesac’s first win of the season in 3 starts and it lowered his ERA to 1.29. So he was off to g a good start this season.

Now Plesac was born in Crown Point Indiana and went to college at Ball State which is in Muncie Indiana neither of which are too far from Chicago. After the game Plesac decided to go out to dinner with some friends. Now this is against MLB’s protocol due to the Covid-19 situation. Now Plesac got caught sneaking back into the Indians hotel and the team got him a rental car and made him drive back to Cleveland by himself just in case he had been exposed to the Covid-19 virus while he was out.

As it turned out unbeknownst to the Indians another of their starting pitchers was out that night with Plesac. Mike Clevinger joined Plesac on his night out in Chicago, but apparently made it back into the team hotel without being caught and even flew back to Cleveland on the team plane before it was found out that he was out with Plesac.

Once back in Cleveland Plesac and Clevinger where both placed in quarantine and tested for the Covid-19 virus now luckily neither player has had a positive test, but the incident has caused a bit of a rift with their Indians teammates. With both Plesac and Clevinger going through their 10 day quarantine with no positive tests they where eligible to rejoin the team. Now before the Indians game Friday night against the Detroit Tigers there was a team meeting and players spoke their minds about what Plesac and Clevinger had done. Now apparently Francisco Lindor spoke and was very critical of Plesac and Clevinger’s action, but the player who really made an impact at the meeting was veteran reliver Oliver Perez who went so far as to say that if Plesac and Clevinger where put back on the roster he’d opt out of the remainder of the season.

Now I thought they might all be able to get together and work something out so Plesac and Clevinger could rejoin the team, but as of right now they are both at the teams alternative training site, but that can’t last forever.

So what do you do if you’re the Indians?

Clevinger is 29 years old and has really come into his own as a starting pitcher. He had some injury issues last season, but still went 13-4 in his 21 starts with an ERA of 2.71. Plesac is even younger; just 25. Last season he made 21 starts going 8-6 with a 3.81 ERA.

Is it possible that the Indians might be forced to trade away two young starting pitchers? If they did go that route; what could they get for them? and which team would be willing to make a deal?

Not only are both of these starters young, but Clevinger has two more seasons of arbitration while Plesac is still in pre-arbitration and doesn’t reach free agency until 2026. That’s a lot of value in two young starters, but do the Indians have to trade them?

Now look what they did was wrong and they got very luckily that neither of them contracted Covid-19 while they where out especially Clevinger who endangered his entire team, but I’m not sure if this is an offense that  means banishment from the team. I can understand their teammates being upset with them and they should be, but there’s got to be a way to work this out without them being forced off the team.

Now if the Indians where to trade them; what would they be looking for? Don’t forget that Lindor only has one more year of arbitration before he becomes a free agent and there’s very little chance of him staying in Cleveland unless he’s willing to sign a contract they way under his value. Is it possible that Cleveland could use either Plesac or Clevinger to try and get their future shortstop? There are some shortstops ranked in the Top 10 major league prospects, but would their current teams be willing to deal them for a young starting pitcher; it’s difficult to say. It’s possible that the Indians might want young pitchers who are still in the minors for their major league young pitchers and it also might be that Cleveland could be looking for a cornerstone type of outfielder since they haven’t had much luck with their own outfield prospects.

Now only time will tell which way the Indians go with this situation, but it might be sooner than you think. I believe that since Plesac and Clevinger where on the 40 man roster they can only spend a maximum of 10 days at the alternative training site; so we might get a answer as soon as next week.

I definitely need your opinion on this one. How do you feel about what Plesac and Clevinger did? Then what do you think the Indians should do? Do you think they should trade them? Or do you think they should let them stay with the team and try to regain their teammates trust? Now if you think they should be given a second chance by the Indians; do you think this affects the way the team plays? I’m also wondering if you think that other players have done something similar to this and gotten away with it?

I do know if I was many of the rebuilding team in MLB I’d be in contact with the Indians very quickly to find out if we could work out a deal. A pair of starters like Plesac and Clevinger could really speed up a teams rebuilding process.

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

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

The New York Yankees are 13-6 and have won their last three games in a row. They are in 1st place in the American League East two games ahead of both the Tampa Bay Rays and the surprising Baltimore Orioles.

Now the Yankees where a popular pick to win the World Series before the season started and they’ve looked like a good choice so far, but they’ve had a couple of injuries that could slow them down.

Now the Yankees knew all along that they would be without starting pitcher Luis Severino for the entire  game season. Aroldis Chapman hasn’t pitched this season due to illness, but was scheduled to throw a simulated game yesterday. If Chapman’s simulated game went well he could possibly join the Yankees bullpen soon. That bullpen took a hit earlier this month when set up man Tommy Kahnle injured his elbow. Unfortunately Kahnle is done for the season and will require Tommy John surgery. In almost a flashback to last season the injuries just seem to keep coming for the Yankees. Four days ago the Yankees placed outfielder/designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton on the Injured List. Stanton was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of his left hamstring. This injury normally has a recovery time of three to four weeks, but it was reported yesterday that Stanton’s injury is worse than expected and his timetable for return may be long than those three to four weeks. Then yesterday the Yankees added outfielder Aaron Judge to the Injury List. Judge hadn’t played in the last couple of games because of his injury which was diagnosed as a mild calf strain.

Judge has been the Yankees best player this season. He was hitting .290 with 9 home runs and 20 RBI’s. Those 9 home runs lead all of baseball and his 20 RBI’s are tied for the lead in baseball with three other players. Even though Judge had played just 17 games there where quite a few media members who had already awarded him the MVP.

Now last season the Yankees had quite a few injuries and where still able to win the A.L. East. The Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS before being beaten by the Houston Astros 4 games to 2 in the ALCS. Of course the Yankees where able to recover from their injuries last season over the course of a 162 game season. Will they be able to do the same thing this season with just a 60 game season?

In last nights Yankees line up Luke Voit batted 2nd in the Yankees line up; which is where Judge normally hits. Mike Tauchman played rightfield in Judge’s place while Clint Frazier was called up from the teams alternative site and filled in for Stanton as the designated hitter. Thairo Estrada was called up to take Judge’s spot on the roster.

Obviously not just one player can replaced what Judge has given the Yankees on offense this season, but it could soften the blow a little if Gary Sanchez, Gleybar Torres and Brett Gardner start to hit. Currently Sanchez is hitting .113, Torres is hitting .217 and Gardner is hitting .163.

Tauchman and Frazier should get the majority of the playing time in rightfield, but it’s possible that utilityman Tyler Wade might see some innings out there. Even though Frazier filled in at DH last night you have to think that Mike Ford will get some of those DH at bats. The Yankees also have Miguel Andujar at their alternative training site; so it’s possible he could be brought back up and help fill the void left by the bats of Judge and Stanton.

The Yankees currently have a two game lead in the division, but can they hold onto that lead with Judge gone for a minimum of 10 days and Stanton appearing to be gone for a month or more. With the expanded playoffs this season it’s doubtful that even if the Yankees struggle with these players out they’d miss out on those playoffs, but I guess it’s an outside possibility.

With 41 games left on their schedule; where do you think the Yankees will end up?

The St. Louis Cardinals haven’t played a game since July 29th do to a Covid-19 outbreak within the team, but the Cardinals are scheduled to restart their season with a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox today.

With just five games under their belt this season it’s very doubtful that the Cardinals will be able to play the entire 60 game schedule. It does appear that Major League Baseball is going to try and get the Cardinals to that 60 game mark, but that’s going to entail them playing multiple doubleheaders and you have to think that the strain of that kind of schedule isn’t going into play towards the Cardinals favor of making the playoffs.

How do you think the rest of the Cardinals season goes? When the Miami Marlins came out of their Covid-19 quarantine they played and have continued to play very well. Could St. Louis go on a run like the Marlins did and get themselves into the expanded playoffs? Or is the strain of trying to play 55 games over the remainder of the season just be too much for the team to handle?

The Cardinals four have doubleheaders schedule between now and their next day off which is September 3rd. After that day off the St. Louis has seven doubleheaders on the schedule and just one other schedule day off on September 9th. I doubt that at any other time in baseball history has a team tried to play that kind of a schedule.

Just as the Cardinals are getting ready to return to play it was reported that the Cincinnati Reds had a player test positive for Covid-19 jeopardizing the teams game tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

While this isn’t the first time this season that the Reds have had Covid-19 issues it doesn’t appear as this is the first actual case the team has had. Reds infielder Matt Davidson actually had a positive test results, but all follow up testing came back negative which led to the belief that the first test result was a false positive. Mike Mouatakas and Nick Senzel self reported symptoms and ended up on the injury list until a negative test allowed them to be reinstated. Joey Votto also spent one day on the injury list before being allowed to return.

The Reds will have to go through extensive testing and with that going on you’d have to think that the remainder of their series against the Pirates will be postponed. Hopefully those will be the only postponements the Reds will face, but will have to wait to find that out.

The Sports Time Radio podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you don’t catch up with the live edition of the podcast just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you’d like.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Major League Baseball announced the suspensions from Sunday when the benches emptied in the Oakland A’s/Houston Astros game and I have to say I think they really dropped the ball on this.

Now if you remember there was a lot of concern at the start of spring training that pitchers would throw at Astros hitters because of the cheating scandal. MLB even went so far as to warn teams about excess Astros being hit by pitches. Apparently MLB didn’t happen to mention anything to the Astros about their pitchers hitting batters.

As of now Joe Kelly of the Los Angeles Dodgers appears to be the only pitcher who has intentionally tried to hit Astros hitters. Kelly ended up with an eight game suspension even though he didn’t manage to hit anyone and wasn’t even ejected from the game he was pitching in.

That brings us to last weekend. In the process of being swept in a three game series by the A’s somehow Astros pitchers managed to hit five Oakland hitters while no one from Houston was hit. If you go back to the start of the accusations about Houston’s cheating it was one of their former players Mike Fiers who pretty much confirmed everything and that’s when MLB decided to look into the matter further. Interestingly enough Fiers now pitches for the A’s. Is it possible that the Astros are the team that’s carrying the grudge and not the teams they cheated against? Obviously with Fiers being a pitcher in the American League he’s never going to come to the plate for an at bat; so what’s the next best thing? Go after his teammates and it appears that’s what the Astros pitchers did.

On Sunday after Oakland outfielder Ramon Laureano was hit for the second time in the game he was a little upset on his way to first base and rightfully so. Laureano started jawing with the Astros dugout on his way to first base and things escalated after he got to first base. Houston’s hitting coach Alex Cintron was responding to Laureano from the dugout and from reports was saying some disparaging things about Laureano’s mother. After trading some barbs Laureano had enough and went after Cintron, but Cintron hide behind some of the Astros players and Laureano was cut off by his former teammate now Houston back up catcher Dustin Garneau. Of course the benches emptied, but there where no punches thrown just a lot of pushing and shoving.

Now going back to the start of this 60 game season MLB told each team that they didn’t want the benches to empty in situations like this because of the Covid-19 outbreak. MLB also said there would be harsh penalties if teams didn’t follow this rule. I’m not sure the suspensions they announced would be considered hash.

Yesterday MLB announced that Laureano is suspended for 6 games. He is appealing by the way. Cintron who was really the instigator in this incident was given a 20 game suspension. Being that he’s a coach Cintron doesn’t have the option to appeal and began serving his suspension last night.

Now I think MLB really blew it here, but not with Laureano. I honestly thought that Laureano would get an eight game suspension like Kelly got, but I’m okay with him getting six games. It the Cintron suspension that I have a real issue with.

Now you can’t hear what anyone is saying on the video, but you can clearly see that it’s Cintron who is the main Houston in this case coach who is doing the majority of the bantering with Laureano. You can also see Cintron motion over and over for Laureano to come towards him, but when Laureano did Cintron hide very, very quickly. I’m sorry, but this deserved way more than a 20 game suspension. I really believe that Cintron should’ve been suspended for the rest of the season and the playoffs if the Astros make it into the post season. MLB had said that this is the last thing they wanted to have happen this season and Cintron was the guy who made it happen. You’d think that would make him the perfect guy for MLB to make an example of to make sure no coach does something like this again. I just don’t think 20 games is enough.

If you haven’t seen the video please take the time to take a look at it and then try to tell me I’m wrong. If you’ve seen the video I’d be interested to know what you think about these suspensions. Do you think 6 games was enough for Laureano? Or do you believe he should’ve gotten more or less? What about Cintron was 20 games enough? Or do you believe he should’ve gotten more or less?

How about we wrap the blog up with a nice comeback story.

Last night in the Colorado Rockies 8-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Daniel Bard got his 1st save for the Rockies this season. Not only was that Bard’s first save this season it was his first save since 2011 when he was a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Bard was looked at someone who would be a future closer for the Red Sox and after very good years as a set up man in 2010 & 2011 an injury limited Bard to just 17 appearances in 2012. Unfortunately Bard also struggled with more injuries in 2013 and only made 2 appearances for the Red Sox that season. Bard was always thought to have a good arm; so teams continue to take a look at him. He pitched in the minors with the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets and teams like the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates had him on their rosters, but he never pitched for them. Bard pitched in 23 games from 2014, 2016 & 2017. He hadn’t pitched the last two seasons or in 2015, but this off season the Rockies signed him. That time off seems to have done Bard some good. He’s appeared in 8 games for the Rockies this season. Bard has an ERA of 3.00; he’s 1-0 with that 1 save and he’s struck out 12 hitters over 9 innings while not walking anyone. Since the media likes to hand out awards early in a season I’d have to say that Bard is definitely the front runner for Comeback Player of the Year.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkradio.com, but if you miss the live edition of the podcast all you have to do is head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want.

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

Apparently this is going to be a different type of baseball season for me. When they first put in this 60 game season I had almost no desire to watch any of the games, but then they started. Opening day didn’t really interest me; so I only ended up watching an inning or two of those games, but then my local teams opened up. I don’t know why, but my interest really picked up for opening day of the two local Chicago teams. Now we’re six games into the season and I barely watch either of what turned out to be three games the Chicago games where involved in yesterday. I’m not sure what causing this, but all of a sudden I’m this bipolar baseball fan and I’m wondering if the entire season is going to be like this.

I’m looking for some kind of help here. If this is happened to you or if you have any idea why my interest in this baseball season waned so quickly.

I do know that one of the things that has bothered me the last couple of days is the way the mainstream media has reacted to the Miami Marlins situation.

I’m sure you know that they had multiple players and coaches test positive for the Covid-19 virus and their games have been suspended until at least Sunday.

I found it shocking that there where mainstream media members that where surprised this happened and they went on to call it a nightmare scenario for baseball and there where even some of these goofs calling for an immediate end to the baseball season. Did they honestly believe that we would get through the entire baseball season without one positive test for the Covid-19 virus?

I know that a lot of people and the media want to try and compare Major League Baseball to the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, but you can’t.

Both the NBA and the NHL have set up “bubble” situations for their players to pay under. If you’re a baseball player you’re more or less living your normal life. If you have a home game you sleep in your own bed and spend time with your family before going to the ballpark. In the case of the Marlins they where on the road; so they where staying in a hotel. Did someone pick up the virus there or did some of the players or coaches go out for dinner and possibly contracted it while they where out. Unfortunately there’s just no way to tell.

Now of course this was played up as a terrible story and everyone wanted to put baseball in a bad light over this. Oddly what very few reporters mentioned was that the Philadelphia Phillies who where the team that was hosting the Marlins had ZERO positive tests for the Covid-19 virus. Do you find it odd that a lot of reporters left this fact out of their story?

Obviously it’s a big deal that these players and coaches got sick and hopefully they’ll all recover quickly and without any issues, but unfortunately this kind of thing can happen when you’re working in normal society. Remember these players are going to work like a lot of people still are; so they’re having interactions with people who aren’t involved with Major League Baseball and they can’t control how or what those people do in their lives. Of course this doesn’t mean that people are out there intentionally trying to infect a sports team all I’m saying is their daily interactions can’t be monitor by Major League Baseball, but a player may run into someone on a plane, in the hotel the team is staying at or quite a few places when a team is on the road.

I’m sure that most of the mainstream media just wants to point the finger at Major League Baseball and say it’s all their fault, but since all of the Phillies players and coaches tested negative you’d have to think that Citizens Bank Ballpark where the Philadelphia plays it’s home games is clean.

Now not only did Major League Baseball postpone all of the Marlins games until Sunday they also postponed the series between the Phillies and the New York Yankees that was scheduled to start last night in Philadelphia. As of now Miami has seven games postponed; four against the Baltimore Orioles and three against the Washington Nationals. The next scheduled game the Marlins might play might be at home oddly enough against the Phillies. Will have to wait and see if Major League Baseball allows the Marlins to play those games.

The one thing that I’m very interested in that Major League Baseball hasn’t announced yet is how are they going to make up these games. I’m sure most people don’t consider the Marlins a playoff contender, but in a shortened 60 game season you never know. Of course the Yankees and the Phillies where considered playoff contenders and they’ll have four games to make up against each other when this is all said and done. Those four games could have huge playoff ramifications; so they’re probably going to need to find a way to play them.

What do you think Major League Baseball should do with these postponed games? Should they make them up? Or just try to go with an unbalanced schedule?

Should anybody be really surprised that the Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers threw inside, over and behind some of the Houston Astros hitters last night?

As I’m sure you all remember that it was the dodgers that the Astros where caught cheating against in the 2018 World Series; so you had to expect that there where going to still be some hard feelings on the Dodgers side. What may be more surprising is the fact that there where no hit batsman in the game.

In the end the Dodgers used a 5-run 5th inning to put the game away winning 5-2. This is just a short two game series and you have to wonder if we’ll see some more inside pitches from the Dodgers staff tonight.

Have you been listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast? The live version airs on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss that edition you can head over to TuneIn.com and listen any time you want.

Also feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @Burketime