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With pitchers and catchers reporting it’s time to look forward to the start of the Major League Baseball season. Since there’s labor peace we shouldn’t have to deal with any delays to the start of this season. Of course, you never know, but let’s hope.

So, what are you looking forward to this baseball season? Obviously, you want your favorite team to do well, but is there a certain player that you might have your eye on be it on that favorite team of yours or maybe someone from another team has drawn your interest.

Just yesterday Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres announced that he will opt out of his contract at the end of the 2023 season. Machado signed a 10-year $300 million dollar deal with the Padres back in 2019, so there are still five years left on his contract after the 2023 season. Machado will make $32 million dollars this season and would make that ever year for the remainder of the contract, but that won’t be the case.

You have to think that with players contracts getting bigger and bigger Machado must think that he’ll do better than that $32 million dollar a season rate on the free agent market. I’m not sure how much better Machado can do, but he’ll need either repeat or improve on the performance he had last season.

Machado hit .298 last season with 32 home runs and 102 RBI’s. he also finished 2nd in the voting for National League Most Valuable Player. Machado is also still a plus defender at 3rd base. Last season he ended up with w fielding percentage of .966.

Machado set a February 16th deadline to work out an extension with the Padres, but the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement. San Diego did make one offer to Machado. The Padres offered to add 5 years and $105 million dollars to his deal. Will have to see how this situation plays out, but it appears as of right now that Machado will be one of the top available free agents next off season.

Of course, the biggest name on the free agent market next off season if he makes it there will be Shohei Ohtani. He’s in the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Angels and will make $30 million dollars this season, but you have to wonder what a two-way player would get on the open market.

Ohtani hit 34 home runs and had 95 RBI’s last season while hitting .273. Now he does strikeout a lot he had 161 last season, but that no longer matters in today’s game. On the mound Ohtani made 28 starts and pitched 166 innings, both career highs. He had an ERA of 2.33 and struck out 219 batters.

Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are the two highest paid players for the 2023 season. Both of those pitchers will make just over $43 million dollars. The highest paid position player for next season is Aaron Judge at $40 million dollars.

How do you access Ohtani’s value? He doesn’t play defense, but with the DH now being universal it doesn’t affect his value as he can fill that DH role on any National League team now.

Ohtani turns 29 years old in July, so it won’t be surprised when teams start offering him 10-to-12-year deals, but for how much money? There has been a lot of talk that Ohtani will get over $50 million dollars a season. How many teams can actually offer him a contract in the neiborhood of $500 million dollars?

It will be interesting to see if the Angels can keep Ohtani in the fold or if he’ll sign somewhere else next off season. Of course, there will be a lot of talk about him going to play for either the New York Mets or the New York Yankees and I’m sure will hear the Los Angeles Dodgers mentioned as well. You’d have to think that if his contract reaches the numbers that are being projected it will be a big market team that signs him, but which one.

When I saw this signing, I got a chuckle out of it, and I had to make sure that Schaumburg Stu knew that his favorite former ex-Cubs player had signed with a team.

Left-handed reliever Justin Wilson signed a one-year deal with an option for 2024 with the Milwaukee Brewers. Wilson spent the 2022 season as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, but only appeared in 5 games and pitched just 3 2/3rd innings due to injury.

Wilson underwent Tommy John surgery last June and it’s still unclear if he’ll be able to pitch this season. The recovery time cis generally a little over a year, so he might be able to return late in the 2023 season. Of course, with the option on his contract Milwaukee will be able to hold onto if they choose to.

I’m sure that Schaumburg Stu will follow Wilson’s recovery closely and he’ll be able to update us on a possible return date for him.

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

So, the Kansas City Chiefs are the Super Bowl champions. Kansas City came back from a 10-point deficit at halftime to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on a last second field goal.

Now I’m not going to go into any type of game recap since by now if you’ve been looking for one of them you’ve probably found it by now. Sadly, the one thing that I can tell Eagles fans is yes that was holding. You could ask the question of if that penalty should’ve been called at that point in that game, but it was definitely holding.

There was one very interesting stat that caught my attention. I found it very surprising that Kansas City won a game with Patrick Mahomes throwing for just 182 yards, but that’s exactly what they did. There was a prop bet on Mahomes that he would pass for over 200 yards and even against the #1 Philadelphia defense you’d think that number would’ve been easily accessible for a quarterback by Mahomes. I bet the house picked up quite a bit of money on that prop bet.

Now, when it comes to my picks, I had the Chiefs winning and since they were the underdog I took the points as well, so I ended up being 13-9 on my playoff picks which is much better than I normally do. Now, I didn’t get my Most Valuable Player pick correctly, but that’s because I don’t like to pick the quarterback of the winning team. That’s just too easy of a pick to make, so I always like to try and find another player. I didn’t get the score correct, but that’s not really a pick it’s just something we used to do for fun when we were doing the podcast.

So, with the National Football League season over everyone’s attention turns to the draft. The Chicago Bears have the #1 pick in the draft and there’s a lot of speculation on what they might do with that pick.

If the Bears truly believe that Justin Fields is their franchise quarterback, then it might be in their best interest to trade that #1 pick and stock up on draft picks as their rebuild continues.

There are three teams that have 1st round draft picks in the upcoming draft, but it’s doubtful that the eagles or the Detroit Lions would be interested in moving up to the #1 spot since they appear to have their starting quarterbacks. The Seattle Seahawks are the third team that has two 1st round draft picks in this draft and they could be in an interesting situation.

Geno Smith is coming off the best year of his NFL career and is a free agent. I don’t think that the Seahawks would use a franchise tag on Smith because it would cost them close to $30 million dollars and Smith isn’t worth that. It’s also possible that another team might be interested in signing Smith. If that was to happen, then the Seahawks would be in the market for a quarterback.

The Seahawks have the 5th and the 20th pick in the 1st round of the upcoming draft. It’s possible that Seattle could package those two picks along with some future draft picks to move themselves up to the #1 spot and take their future quarterback.

Between here and the draft there will be a lot of talk about teams moving up to that #1 spot. The Houston Texans sit at #2, so it’s doubtful they’d be willing to move up to that #1 spot. It’s more likely that a team like the Indianapolis Colts, Las Vegas Raiders or Carolina Panthers are the teams that would be the most interested in moving up to the #1 spot in the draft. The question would be what the Bears would want for that #1 draft pick and is there a team out there that is willing to give that up.

The other theory out there has the Bears moving on from Jusitn Fields and keeping that #1 pick for themselves and using it to take a quarterback. That means the Bears would probably have to find a trading partner to move Fields to.

Most mock drafts have Bryce Young from Alabama being the first quarterback selected. Would a quarterback like Young being intriguing enough for the Bears to move on from Fields and take Young with the #1 pick.

Fields is still a very young quarterback; he’ll turn 24 years old in March and is coming off a solid if not spectacular season. Fields did throw for more touchdowns (17) than interceptions (11), but it was really him running the football that drew people’s eye to him. Fields rushed for 1143 yards and averaged 7.1 yards per carry. Those are pretty impressive numbers, but that also means that it gives the opposing defense a lot of chance to hit Fields. Fields started 15 of the Bears 17 games last season and you’d have to wonder if he could play a full season if he has to carry as big of offensive burden as he did last season.

Now in Fields defense he didn’t actually have a lot of weapons to work within the Bears offense. Tight end Cole Kmet was the Bears leading receiver with 50 receptions. Darnell Mooney was expected to be the Bears #1 receiver, but he got injured and only played in 12 games. Even with the injury Mooney still recorded the second highest number of receptions on the Bears, 40.

The Bears did go out and acquire Chase Claypool from the Pittsburgh Steelers mid-season, but he didn’t contribute much to the offense. Claypool played in seven games for the Bears, but only managed to catch 14 passes. It’s doubtful that Claypool will ever turn into a #1 type of receiver.

It makes for an interesting off season for the Bears. If you’re sitting in the Bears front office, what do you do. Are you trading that #1 pick and sticking with Fields as your quarterback? Or do you trade that #1 pick and stick with Fields as your quarterback?

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

Well, today is the day. It’s Super Bowl Sunday. We’ve got the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles in the big game, today.

In general, the Super Bowl is one of if not the most watch television event of the year. Of course, people have different reasons for watching the Super Bowl. There are the hard-core fans of the Chiefs and the Eagles who actually have a team in the game and wouldn’t miss it for the world. Then of course fans of football will watch the game even though their team isn’t playing because it’s the Super Bowl. There will even be some people who watch the game that aren’t fans, but they bought a square at work or at their favorite watering hole, so they’ll watch the game to see if they win some money. Then you also have the people who have no interest at all in the game and just want to see the commercials or the halftime show. Then there is the other group that doesn’t like football at all, but one of their friends is having a party and they go and just end up hanging out by were the food is or stay close to the drinks. No matter which one of these groups you might fit into this all equals up to one big television rating for the National Football League.

The Super Bowl is also one of the most bet on games in the sports year and today will be no exception. There are many different aspects to wager on in this game, but I’m going to focus on the picks I’ve made throughout the playoffs.

The betting line for the game has moved quite a bit during the time off, but as of right now Philadelphia is favored by 1 1/2-points. I’m going to take Kansas City to win the Super Bowl and I’ll happily take those 1 1/2-points.

Back when we were doing the podcast, we used to pick not only the winner of the Super Bowl, but what would be the final score and who would win the game’s Most Valuable Player award. As you’ve read by now, I’m picking the Chiefs to win the game and in general the quarterback of the winning team gets the MVP award, but I’ve never like to take the obvious pick, so I am going to select Travis Kelce as the game’s MVP. As for the final score I have the Chiefs winning by a score of 31-27.

There are my picks for the Super Bowl, by as always, I want to know yours. Feel free to just pick the winner of the game or jump in and let me know who you think the MVP will be and what the final score of the game will be.

If you’re betting on the game I’m interested to know if you ever take a chance on some of the odder bets that they have for the Super Bowl. You can bet on things like will the coin flip be heads or tails, how long the national anthem will last and what song Rihanna will start the halftime show with it. There are way more than those three, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. If there’s a bet out there that you’d take a chance on, please let me know.

Fox has the broadcast of the game this season, but there are various other ways to watch the game now. I saw an ad yesterday that YouTube is televising the game and I’m sure there are quite a few other steaming options. Of course, since I’m old I’ll just sit down on my couch and watch the game on regular broadcast television, but I’m interested to know which way and what device you’ll watch the game on.

Once the Super Bowl ends the off season gets started one of the biggest stories will be what happens at the quarterback position and with some of the bigger name quarterbacks in the league.

To no one’s surprise the Baltimore Ravens have said that they’ll franchise tag their free agent quarterback Lamar Jackson, but there is still a trade possibility with Jackson. As of right now it seems that the Green Bay Packers are actually open to trading Aaron Rodgers. Of course, will have to see if Rodgers make any type of statement after he finishes his four-day blackout retreat. Apparently, this is a real thing as Rodgers will spend four days living in pitch blackness and will be given food and water through a opening in the building. Of course, one quarterback that we know will be on a different team next season will be Derek Carr. The New Orleans Saints have contacted the Las Vegas Raiders and have asked for permission to talk to Carr. It appears as though any deal involving Carr will require the team that acquires him to pick up the $40.4 million dollars left on his contract. There are reports that the Saints don’t have any trouble doing that, so it looks like the deal could move forward once all the other compensation is worked out. Carr does have a no-trade clause, so will have to wait and see if New Orleans would be a team, he’d be willing to play for if a trade can be worked out.

Alright, I hope that you enjoy the Super Bowl tonight and don’t forget to leave me your picks for the game.

As always you can find me on Twitter, @Burketime.

Through the years there are players that have been looked at as bad teammates and I have a feeling that Kyrie Irving is someone who’s looked at that way.

On February 3rd Irving asked the Brooklyn Nets to trade him after the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement on a contract extension. Well, earlier this week the Nets dealt Irving to the Dallas Mavericks. It will be Ircving’s fourth team in seven years.

The Mavericks acquired Irving and Markieff Morris from Brooklyn in exchange the nets received Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 unprotected 1st round pick a 2027 2nd round pick and a 2029 2nd round pick.

It’s expected that the mavericks will expect Irving to fill the role that Jalen Brunson had last season. Brunson took some of the offensive load off of Luka Doncic, but Brunson signed with the New York Knicks this past off season, so Doncic has had to carry more of the offense for the Mavericks.

Irving is older than Brunson, Irving is 30 years old while Brunson is 26 years old. Irving however is far more proven than Brunson. Irving is an 8-time All-Star and has won an NBA championship when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Now it appears as though the Nets didn’t quite get the haul that a lot of people thought they would when trading a player, the caliber of Irving, but they didn’t do too badly either. Dinwiddie is having a solid season as a ball handler on the second unit, plus he played very well the first time he was a member of the Nets. Finney-Smith may turn out to be the real steal in this trade. He is looked at as one of the best “3 and D” wings in the NBA. Teaming him up with the likes of Royce O’Neal, Nic Claxton and Ben Simmons and Brooklyn should be able to play top tier defense which would be something different in today’s NBA.

Another key to this deal could be that unprotected 2029 1st round pick. Doncic is only signed with the Mavericks through the 2027 season. If he was to take his services elsewhere it’s possible that draft pick could end up in the lottery.

The biggest question for the Mavericks in this deal is can Doncic and Irving mess on the court together. Irving is a quality ball handler and he’ll be able to give Doncic a break there, but will they be able to get the ball to each other when needed. Irving can also score and I’m not sure he gets the credit he deserves in that department. He is averaging 27.1 points per game in the 40 games he’s played this season. Doncic is a triple-double waiting to happen, but Irving’s scoring might help relieve Doncic from having to score 30 or more when posting those triple-doubles.

The Mavericks are on the road tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers and Irving is expected to play. Now it’s doubtful will see him and Doncic on the court together tonight as Doncic has missed the Mavericks last two games with a heel injury. It’s possible that will see Irving and Doncic play together in one of the Mavericks back-to-back games against the Sacramento Kings on February 10th and 11th.

The Mavericks are currently 29-26 and in 6th place in the Western conference. They trail the Western conference leading Denver Nuggets by 9 games, and they have a 1/2 game lead over the 7th place Golden State warriors and the 8th place New Orleans Pelicans.

While we’re on the NBA the Milwaukee Bucks currently have the longest winning streak at 8 games while the San Antonio Spurs have the longest losing streak at 9 games.

The NBA trade deadline is tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if any other big-name players get traded. There are some rumors where I live in the Chicagoland area that the Chicago Bulls could trade either Demar DeRozan or Zack Lavine before tomorrow’s deadline. There was also some talk that the Nets might not be done dealing and that Keving Durant might be on the move. I believe that Brooklyn shot down those rumors yesterday, but you never know. I guess will find out who goes where tomorrow.

So, let me know what you think of the Irving to Dallas trade. Do you think that Brooklyn got enough in return for Irving? And do you see Irving and Doncic being able to play together?

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

I guess the best way to look at this if you’re a fan of the National Football League is while there’s no actual football game today there are football like activities to watch.

While we have to wait a week until the Super Bowl is played the NFL is running out its new version of the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl festivities as I guess you’d call them started on Thursday as they had organized skill challenges. Now I’m going to be completely honest with you, I didn’t watch any of these skills challenges that the NFL had starting back on Thursday. I just wasn’t really interested in them just like I have no interest in what is now the actual Pro Bowl game.

I’m sure you know by now that the Pro Bowl game is now a flag football game. I understand why the NFL had to make these changes. When you have professional football players who make millions of dollars playing the sport the last thing that anyone wants to have happen would be for one of them to get seriously injured in a game that means absolutely nothing. The last few years the game has more or less been a flag football game anyway as there was no real hitting that took place in it.

What’s always come as a surprise to me is that the Pro Bowl has always done well in the television ratings. Now to be fair those ratings have declined the last few years and I’m sure that was part of the reason that the NFL looked for ways to change the game.

I used to watch the Pro Bowl pretty much every season because it was the last chance to see the best players on the non-playoff teams play in a game. You also have to remember that I live in the Chicago area and growing up Bears playoff appearances were few and far between, so I liked to watch those guys play one more time before their off season started.

Even with the new Pro Bowl format it’s clear that not all of today’s players have any interest in playing in it. There were still multiple players that asked out of the game due to injury. In one of the funnier cases Buffalo Bills quarterback josh Allen said he couldn’t play in the game because of an injury. Interestingly Allen played in the Pebble-Beach Pro-Am golf tournament this weekend. Of course, it’s Allen’s choice weather he wants to play or not, I just thought it was funny that he ended up in a golf tournament this weekend.

Now if you’re interested in checking out this new version of the Pro Bowl it’s on ABC, ESPN and ESPN plus. The game has a scheduled start time of 2:00 p.m.

Now the National Hockey League just also happens to have reached the All-Star break in their season. Now I actually would’ve watched the NHL Skills competition and I would’ve checked out some of the game, but I somehow forgot that everything was this weekend.

In the semi-final games the Central division beat the Pacific division 6-4 while the Atlantic division won their semi-final match up against the Metro division 10-6. Then in the finals the Atlantic division got the win over the Central division. 7-5.

Mathew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers was named the All-Star game Most Valuable Player. Tkachuk had a goal and an assist in the Atlantic divisions 7-5 victory in the finals.

Now unlike a lot of other professional sports specifically the National Basketball Association the NHL doesn’t give their players too many days off after the All-Star game. There are six games on the NHL schedule for Monday, so it’s right back to work for a few teams.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the NHL, you might be a little bit surprised to find out that the Boston Bruins have been the best team in the league heading into the All-Star break.

The Bruins have racked up 39 wins which is five better than anyone else in the league and Boston has also posted a league leading 83 points. The Bruins currently lead the Easten conference and the Atlantic division by 13 points.

Currently the Eastern conference has the four teams with the highest point totals in the NHL. The Bruins is on top with their 83 points. Boston is followed by Carolina Hurricanes who have 76 points. Then the Toronto Maple Leafs are 3rd with 70 points while the New Jersey Devils have the 4th highest total with 68 points. Over in the Western conference the Dallas Stars have the highest point total, but they trail the Bruins, Hurricanes, Maple Leafs and Devils with 66 points.

Of course, it’s been proven over and over again in the NHL that the team or teams that end up with the highest regular season point totals don’t always win the Stanley Cup. The NHL may be the only one of the four major professional sports where the lowest seeded playoff team actually has a shot at winning the title.

Now’s the time that I turn things over to you. Did you watch any of the NFL or NHL skills challenges? Did you watch any or all of the NHL All-Star games? And finally, are you planning on watching the Pro Bowl this afternoon?

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

Between the National Basketball Association and the National Football League there’s been quite a bit of discussion about officiating.

This is actually something I have experience in since I’ve coached Baseball, Basketball and football at the youth level and have dealt with referees and umpires. I have also umpired some baseball games as well, so I have some experience on that side as well. I also have three very close friends that have been Illinois high school basketball referees for over 20 years now.

I’ve had people tell me that the officiating is much worse now than it used to be at all levels of sports, but I’m not sure that’s the case. You have to wonder if the fact that technology has improved so much that we’re seeing things that have always been there and we didn’t notice before.

Now any time you have a human being doing something there’s always going to be human error involved there’s just no way around that. None of us are perfect and every referee or umpire is going to miss a call or two from time to time. The best you can really hope for is that the game is called evenly for both teams.

I read a report yesterday on how referees and umpires are quitting right and left, and I can’t say I’m surprised by that. Now the reason their quitting is one that should be controlled, but it’s not. We’re losing these referees and umpires because of the way the parents are treating them.

Now I have no issue at all with a parent being upset with a call that an official made and voicing their opinion while the game is going on, but some of these parents take it way too far. Parents have followed officials to their vehicles and in some cases have even gotten physical with them and there’s no place for that in youth sports.

Now I’m not a parent, but like I mentioned I have umpired baseball games before and I have been yelled at quite a bit by parents, but that was all that ever happened to me. I honestly don’t know how I would’ve handled a situation like some of these officials have had to deal with, but I know the first question I would’ve asked that parent would be, is this the example you want to set for your child?

You actually have to start to wonder if there will come a time when we don’t have enough officials for these games. It’s not a well-paying job and in some cases it’s actually a volunteer position. Imagine getting screamed at when you’re just there as a volunteer. I don’t know how you get people to sign up for that.

Now in baseball there has been a lot of talk the last few seasons about having a robot umpire to call balls and strikes, but there are plenty of other sports where having a robot officiate the game isn’t a possibility.

I’m not sure what the answer is or if there even is an answer, but I keep hoping that adults will act like adults and understand the position some of these officials are in especially at the youth levels. In no means am I saying that you can’t voice your opinion. All I’m saying is remember who’s watching you voice that opinion and remember the affect you could have on those kids or even young adults that are also able to hear what you say and see how you act.

I’d love to hear if you’ve had experience with a situation like this. Maybe you coached or officiated like I did. Or maybe you were just a parent watching your kid play and did some yelling at an official. I’d like to see as many sides of this as possible.

Here’s an update on my NFL playoff picks. I actually went 3-1 on Sunday. I had the Philadelphia Eagles winning and covering which they did. I also had the Kansas City Chiefs winning and covering. Well, the Chiefs did win, but they didn’t cover. Either way as we head to the Super Bowl in just under two weeks, I’ve actually managed to win more than I’ve lost this playoff season. I’d have to go back and check, but I believe that I am now 14-10 on my playoff picks. Now, I know that’s still not great, but usually I’m right at .500 or under .500, so I’m pretty happy how these NFL playoff picks went.

Since the Super Bowl is still aways off I’ll wait until the Sunday of the game to make my pick. I did see that Philadelphia was the early betting favorite, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that go back and forth between both teams quite a few times before the game.

As always don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

We’ve reached the conference championship games in the NFL playoffs, so after today will know which two teams will meet in the Super Bowl on February 12th.

The NFC has the first game today as the Philadelphia Eagles host the San Francisco 49ers. Looking at the betting line this morning the Eagles are a 2 1/2-point favorite in this game. San Francisco has the #1 rated defense in the NFL while Philadelphia has recorded more sacks than any other team since the 1986 Chicago Bears. Looking at that you’d think that this game might be a defensive struggle, but that’s no longer the case in today’s NFL. Both of these teams like to establish their running game, but what I think the difference is going to be is the deep passing game. San Francisco has given up some long touchdown passes this season and if Jalen Hurts can find the time either with the help of his offensive line or by using his legs to create it he could beat that #1 rated San Francisco defense deep.

With that in mind I’m going to go with Philadelphia to get the win in this game and I also think that they’ll cover the 2 1/2-point spread.

Over in the AFC championship game we have the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Cincinnati Bengals. This is a rematch of last season AFC championship game, a game that the Bengals won. No one has really mentioned that this week as most of the talk has been about Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his high ankle sprain. To no one’s surprise Mahomes is going to play in this game, but we won’t know what type of mobility he has until the game is under way. On the Cincinnati side they’ll still be without three of their starting offensive linemen, but they seemed to be able to work around that last week. The betting line on this game has moved all over the place and right now Kansas City is favored by 1 1/2-points.

This is a tough game to pick, but I’m going to go with Kansas City to get the win and a little revenge from last season and I believe that the Chiefs will cover the 1 1/2-point spread in this game.

As always let me know who you think is going to win both of these games and where you’d put your money according to what the point spreads are. Will also have to see if I can manage to keep doing fairly well with my picks.

The baseball Hall of Fame announced the results from their vote this year and there will be one new member added to the Hall of Fame.

Scott Rolen was the only player to receive enough votes to get into the Hallof Fame this time around. Rolen received 297 votes or 76.3% of the writers’ votes. You need 75% of the votes to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

If no player had been elected, it would’ve been the second time in three years that no player had received the 75% of the votes necessary to get into the Hall of Fame. Now I don’t have an issue when no one gets into the Hall of Fame, but there are plenty of people that do. You have to remember what this award is. This is for the greatest players off all-time, and this is where my issue comes up.

In my opinion Rolen was a very good player, but not an all-time great player. Rolen’s career started in 1996 with the Philadelphia Phillies. From Philadelphia he went to the St. Louis Cardinals. He also spent a couple of seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays before finishing his career in 2012 as a member of the Cincinnati Reds.

Overall Rolen played in 17 seasons. Rolen was the 1997 Rookie of the Year with the Phillies and won a World Series in 2006 as a member of the Cardinals. Of course, when I think most people think of Rolen they think of defense as he is an eight-time Gold Glove award winner. In a way that kind of proves my point. Rolen was very good, but not great.

Rolen never had a 40-home run season. Over his career he had three 30 home runs seasons with his career high in 2004 when he hit 34. He never won the Most Valuable Player award; he ended up in the Top 25 of the MVP voting four times in his career with 4th being the highest he ever finished in the voting. Rolen is not a member of the 3000-hit club he had 2077 in his career and he’s not a member of the 600-home run club as he hit 316 home runs in his career. Rolen never won a batting title and had just two seasons in his career where he hit over .300. When you look at Rolen’s offensive stats he actually never led the league in any category.

Now I’m never going to say that Rolen wasn’t a good player, but good players don’t belong in the Hall of Fame great players do. So, ask yourself this do you think that Scott Rolen was a great player?

Remember to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

Well, my predictions for Sunday went pretty well as I hit on three of the four, I made. That actually puts me two games over .500 at 11-9 for the NFL playoffs. I guess will have to see how it goes for the conference championship games.

I did have the Buffalo Bills winning their game against the Cincinnati Bengals, which was the one prediction I got wrong, but luckily, I took the Bengals and the points. In the second game I had the San Francisco 49weers to win and to cover which they managed to.

What I did find kind of strange was the way the media especially ESPN covered the San Francisco victory. Oddly they focused on the Dallas Cowboys losing the game more than San Francisco winning the game. As you may have noticed in the paragraph before this that I mentioned that San Francisco covered the spread which meant they were favored to win the game all along, but the way it was covered you would’ve thought that San Francisco pulled off an upset.

I understand that Dallas is “America’s team” and they’re always going to get coverage when they don’t deserve it, but if you think about San Francisco’s situation it’s pretty impressive that they’re where they are right now. The NFC West had the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams who had a very down season, but the division did have the surprising Seattle Seahawks team in it. You also have to remember that San Francisco is on its third starting quarterback this season and he’s a rookie.

It might actually be in San Francisco’s favor that the media isn’t making as big a deal out of their success as they should as it might make it just a little easier for them to sneak up on or maybe surprise teams a little. Of course, now that there’s only two teams left in each conference that will be a lot harder to do.

Both conference championship games are on Sunday, so I’ll make my picks in the Sunday blog, but here’s how the schedule is set up for Sunday. The NFC has the first game as San Francisco visits the Philadelphia Eagles. Philadelphia is a 2 1/2-point favorite right now. The game is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. and it’s on Fox. In the second game the Kansas City Chiefs host the Cincinnati Bengals. Right the now Bengals are a 1 1/2-point favorite, but I’m sure this line will move quite a bit depending on the injury status of Kansas City’s quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain but is expected to play in this game. The game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and it’s on CBS.

It appears as though the Boston Red Sox have made a decision on their shortstop for the 2023 season. The Red Sox decided to not try and sign Xander Bogaerts and he ended up signing with the San Diego Padres. With Bogaerts moving on it looked like Trevor Story would take over as the Red Sox shortstop. Story turned out to have an issue with his right elbow and needed internal brace surgery and will miss a significant part of the 2023 season. Story’s injury left the Red Sox with a hole at shortstop again. Yesterday it seems as though the Red Sox fill the shortstop position by acquiring Adalberto Mondesi from the Kanas City Royals for left-handed pitcher Josh Taylor.

Mondesi has appeared in parts of seven seasons for the Royals and was thought to be their starting shortstop last season, but injuries limited him to just 15 games in the 2022 season. Unfortunately, Mondesi has had a bit of an injury plagued career and will be looking to change his luck with the Red Sox. Tye most games Mondesi has played in a season is 102, but it appears as though the Red Sox will be hoping that he’ll be able to play more games this season.

Besides trading for Mondesi the Red Sox also announced that they have signed outfielder Adam Duvall to a one year $7 million dollar deal. With incentives Duvall could make $10 million dollars in total.

Duvall spent the last season and a half with the Atlanta Braves and was a member of their World Series winning 2021 team. Last season Duvall was limited to 86 games due to injury, so he’s another player the Red Sox will be looking to be healthy for the 2023 season.

Duvall is a Gold Glove winner who can play all three outfield positions, but it’s possible that the Red Sox will play him in Centerfield full time. Duvall hit a career high 38 home runs in 2021 and is expected to add that power to the Red Sox line up especially in Fenway Park.

Alright, if you’d like to feel free to leave me your picks for the conference championship games if you’d like to. If not feel free to wait until Sunday like I’m going to.

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

Well, as it turned out it was another set of predictions that ended up at the .500 mark for me. Yesterday I had the winners of both games correct, but I was way, way off on betting the spread of those games.

In Saturday’s opening divisional playoff game, the Kansas City Chiefs had a tougher time getting past the Jacksonville Jaquars than I thought they would. Kansas City ended up picking up a 27-20 victory. Patrick Mahomes injured his ankle in the game, but I don’t know how much affect that had on the final score as Jacksonville found ways to stay in the game and it appeared had chances to tie or maybe even find a way to get win, but two late turnovers cost them.

The divisional round night playoff game wasn’t anywhere bear as close as the first one was, The Philadelphia Eagles cruised past the New York Giants by a score of 38-7. Philadelphia had a 14-0 lead after the 1st quarter and never looked back. The Eagles were up 28-0 by the time the Giants scored their touchdown in the 3rd quarter. The Eagles added 10 4th quarter points just to extend the final score.

So, we move on to today’s games and the AFC has the first game on the schedule today as the Buffalo Bills host the Cincinnati Bengals.

Last season Cincinnati made a run through the playoffs and represented the AFC in the Super Bowl, but they didn’t have to face the Bills on that run. The other interesting fallout from this game is that if Cincinnati wins, they’ll play the AFC championship game in Kansas City, but if Buffalo wins the game will be played at a neutral sire which is Atlanta. I don’t think that the weather will be too big of a factor in this game and Buffalo is currently a 6-point favorite. This is probably the toughest game of the weekend for me to pick, but I’m going to go with Buffalo and I’m going to lay the points.

The divisional round playoffs wrap up with the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Dallas Cowboys. I’ve heard a lot of the sports personalities on ESPN complaining that the 49ers have an unfair advantage coming into this game since they had two extra days rest. I guess these people didn’t notice that the Cowboys played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the network they work for on super wild card Monday, and it was probably at the request of that network. I guess they were setting up an excuse for the Cowboys if they lose which I think they will.

San Francisco is currently a 4-point favorite for today’s game. It will be interesting to see how Brock Purdy plays against the Cowboys defense, but I believe that he’ll do enough for the 49ers to win and to cover the 4-point spread.

Now I understand that with the way baseball is looked at now through sabermetrics and analytics that winning a batting title is no longer considered what it used to be, but I still think it’s a pretty impressive feat. You’ll have to let me know your feelings about that in the comments.

Anyway, Luis Arraez of the Minnesota Twins won the American League batting title with a .316 average. Arraez played in 144 games last season and had 547 at bats, so it’s not like he backed into the batting title.

Well yesterday Arraez is now a member of the Miami Marlins as he was dealt along with two minor leaguers for right-handed pitcher Pablo Lopez and two minor leaguers.

There had been a lot of rumors that the Marlins would trade one of their starting pitchers this off season and that Lopez was the most likely candidate to be dealt.

On the surface this might not be a blockbuster trade, but what I thought was interesting about it was this is the second time since 1979 that the winner of the American League batting title has been traded and oddly it was the Twins who were involved in that deal as well.

After winning the American league batting title in 1978 Rod Carew was traded by the Twins to the then California Angels for four players.

Who knows if Arraez will go on to have the same type of career that Carew did and to be fair it’s doubtful, but as for now they have this little odd tidbit in common involving the Twins and winning a batting title.

Well, it’s that time again. Let me know who your picks for the two NFL playoff games we’ve got going on today and also include if you think your picks will cover the point spread.

Remember to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

I got off to a bad start with my NFL playoff predictions, but I managed to bounce back and finished the super wild card weekend 6-6. So, I’m dead even heading into this weekend. This week we have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday and just like last week I’ll make my predictions for the Saturday games today, but I’ll wait until the Sunday blog to make my picks for those two games.

Saturday kicks off with the AFC #1 seed Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Jacksonville Jaquars. Arrowhead stadium is a tough place to play, and a young Jacksonville team might run into some issues against a veteran Kansas City team there. I believe that the Chiefs will win this game outright and I’m going to go ahead and lay the 8 1/2 points that the Chiefs are currently favored by. This has a chance to be a very good game to watch, but I believe that in the end Kansas City will pull away and win.

The second game on Saturday has the NFC”s #1 the Philadelphia Eagles hosting a team they’re very familiar with the New York Giants. Philadelphia won both of the regular season match ups against the Giants including the final week of the regular season when Jalen Hurts returned. There will be some questions about how healthy Hurts is for this game, but there’s no doubt that he’ll be playing. I have the Eagles winning this game, but I’m going to take the Giants and the 7 1/2 points as I think this will be a close game.

On Sunday night the Cincinnati Bengals got by the Baltimore Ravens on one of the odder plays that I think anyone had seen. Baltimore’s quarterback was trying to stretch the football out to break the plain of the goal line. While Todd Hundley was trying to get the ball across that line it was knocked out of his hands and Bengals defensive lineman Sam Hubbard grabbed it and took it 98 yards for the game winning touchdown.

While that was truly and exciting play, but things could’ve just as easily went the other way, and it might’ve been the Ravens moving on to the divisional playoff round and there are a few people out there who think that Baltimore would’ve advanced had Lamar Jackson decided to play.

Jackson last played in Week 13, but it looked as though he was going to be able to recover in time to play in the playoff game against the Bengals. Jackson ended up sending out a tweet explaining that his injury was worse than expected and he would be missing the Ravens playoff game against Cincinnati. Jackson injured his PCL, and it was originally called a Grade 2 sprain, but in his tweet, Jackson said it was actually a Grade 3 sprain and that would keep him out of the game.

There are actually people who have question the extent of Jackson’s injury. Now Jackson is in the last year of his contract with the Ravens and acts as his own agent. Baltimore made Jackson a very good offer right before the season started as Jackson mentioned that he wouldn’t negotiate during the season. It seemed as though there was a good chance that Jackson would sign the deal that included $133 million dollars in guaranteed money.

Right before Baltimore and Jackson agreed to any kind of deal the Cleveland Browns announced that they had signed their quarterback Deshaun Watson to a five-year deal worth $230 million dollars with all of the money guaranteed.

While the total money in the Ravens contract offer to Jackson would’ve been very close in total dollar amount to what Watson got from Cleveland the guaranteed money wasn’t in the same ballpark. The guaranteed money gap ended any type of negotiations between Jackson and the Ravens as the regular season was getting ready to start.

You can’t really blame Jackson for wanting the same amount of guaranteed money as someone like Watson. Jackson has won a league MVP and is looked at as one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Watson on the other hand is 1-2 in three playoff games and missed 11 games last season while suspended under the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

The question that came up about Jackson was did he sit out the playoff game as a punishment of sorts to the Ravens for not giving him a new contract.

You would have to think that if Jackson and the Ravens can’t agree on a new deal that they’ll use their franchise tag on him, but there’s also talk that Baltimore may be interested in trading Jackson if the right deal came about. If Baltimore is serious about trading Jackson by applying a tag to him would allow them time to find a trade partner.

If Baltimore does decide to move on from Jackson it would be interesting to see which way, they went at the quarterback position. Could Hundley thrive knowing that he was the #1 guy from the start? Would they bring in one of the veteran quarterbacks that will probably be available this offseason? Or would they try to move up in the draft and find Jackson’s replacement that way.

Let me know what move you think the Ravens would make if they decided to move on from Jackson. I’d also like to know your picks for the Saturday playoff games.

Remember to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.