Posts Tagged ‘Clayton Kershaw’

How was your week?

Posted: October 22, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports
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The NHL is just 5 or so games into the regular season and even though they haven’t played very many games there are only 2 undefeated team left in the league. The Washington Capitals are 3-0 while the Vancouver Canucks are off to a 4-0 start. The Montreal Canadiens don’t have a loss, but they’re 3-0-1; so do you count them as undefeated? While there are 11 teams with just 1 win this early in the season every team does have at least that 1 win. It’s way too early to panic if you’re teams not doing well, but it looks as though there’s a little parity at the start of the NHL season.

Stat wise early on Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks and Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins lead the league with 9 total points. Richard Panik of the Chicago Blackhawks and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs have 5 goals apiece to lead the league. Burns and Marchand are the assists leaders with 6 each. Marchand along with his Bruins teammate David Pastrnak are the +/- leaders at +9 to start the season. Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers is leading at goaltenders in wins at 4 to start the season. Al Montoya who’s filling in for an injured Cary Price in the Canadiens net is off to a good start with a Goals Against Average of 1.30. Montoya also leads in Save Percentage at .962. Montoya along with Semyon Varlamov of the Colorado Avalanche and Phillip Grubauer of the Washington Capitals each have 1 shutout this season.

I know it’s extremely early in the NHL season and these teams and these players might not stay at the top of the leaderboard as the season moves on, but it’s fun to look and see who’s off to the best starts. Then you never know if a player gets on a run he can carry that momentum for a while and he might be a great add to your fantasy team.

The Sports Time Radio auction style fantasy draft is tonight. Stephen Curry is ranked as the #1 player on the board and he’s followed by his new teammate Kevin Durant. Are you willing to pay over $100 for either of these guys? I believe that’s what they both went for in last years draft. James Harden is 3rd, Russell Westbrook is 4th and Karl Anthony Towns is 5th in the player rankings. I am very high on Westbrook as I think he’s going to play like he has something to prove every night. Westbrook pout up huge stats while sharing the basketball with Durant; so how will he do with Durant now in Golden State. Since there’s no set draft order for the players I have to hope that I have the money to compete when Westbrook’s name come up for bid. The Top   fills out with Kawhi Leonard at #6, Giannis Antetokounmpo at #7, Chris Paul at #8, Paul George at #9 and Anthony Davis at #10. This is a head to head style category league; so players who do more than one things well can be very important to your team. It’s a solid Top 10 list, but for are league Harden can be a tough guy to have as all he does is score. If you end up with him you have to find players to help you fill out your other categories, but to be fair having a big time scorer isn’t a terrible thing. The other Top 10 guy that I have to stay away from is Davis. There’s no doubt that he’s a great player and one of the best players in the NBA. when he’s healthy. Davis played in 61 games last season and has never played in more than 68 games in a season. Health and even sometimes rest is something you have to take into consideration when drafting. LeBron James who is one of the best and in some people’s mind the best player in the NBA is one of those type of players. James is ranked #11 in our league, but with the talk of him getting more games off how much is he worth this season? If you get James for let’s say 60 games and there’s a cheaper player a tier lower who’ll you’ll get for 80 games the guy playing 80 games will do more for your category league than James will. Plus you’ll have some extra money to spend somewhere else. I actually learned this first hand two seasons ago. I ended up with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili all of the San Antonio Spurs. You hear those names and you think they’re all great players and probably Hall of Fame players. The issue ended up being their head coach Greg Popovich likes to rest his players and as you all know this a player who’s not playing doesn’t do anything for your fantasy team no mater what format you’re in. It’s always fun to do the draft even though sometimes it can be long, but it’s time for the NBA to get started.

Game 6 of the NLCS is tonight. The Chicago Cubs have a 3 games to 2 lead and they have the league E.R.A. Leader Kyle Hendricks player card on the mound. The Los Angeles Dodgers turn to their ace Clayton Kershaw to get the series to a Game 7. Looking at the pitching match up you might say the Dodgers have an advantage, but don’t under estimate Hendricks with how well he’s pitched at Wrigley Field this season. So while Kershaw may have an advantage I don’t think it’s as big as some people will. One big advantage both pitchers will have is weather. It’s going to be much colder in Wrigley Field tonight than it has for any other game in this series and that’s not good hitting weather. This was the pitching match up for Game 2. The Dodgers got a 1-0 victory in that game with the only run being scored on an Adrian Gonzalez home run. Hendricks was handled like we’ve seen most starters handled in these playoffs. He pitched just 5 1/3rd innings while Kershaw was allowed to pitch and went 7 full innings before turning the baseball over to Kenley Jansen for the final 2 innings. It’s setting up to be a low scoring game and you never know the team that scores first might get a win. So will we see a Game 7 tomorrow? Or will the Cubs be packing their bags for Cleveland and Game 1 of the World Series?

Sports Time Radio can be heard on the BlogTalkRadio.com website as well as on TuneIn.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

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How was your week

Posted: September 3, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in NASCAR, sports
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We had the first of two Sports Time Radio fantasy football drafts last night. This was the traditional snake style draft. Dan the Man got the 1st pick in the draft and used it to select Antonio Brown the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver. Brown has pretty much been the #1 ranked player; so it was a good choice by Dan. I ended up with the 16th pick and Mr. Fantasy ended up picking 19th out of 20 teams. It’s always fun to get that first draft out of the way. Now tonight we have out suction style draft. It took a while, but I’ve gotten the hang of these auction drafts. When we first started doing them I would end up with quite a bit of money left over. There are still times I look at the prices and just can’t believe that someone is paying that for whatever player is on the board. So we had a Friday draft, a Saturday draft and then Mr. Fantasy and I have a draft on Monday morning. Yes you read that right we’re doing a fantasy football draft on Labor Day.

In case you where wondering how the 1st round fell for me I took Dez Bryant the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver with the 16th pick. I had to decide between Bryant and New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks. It was a tougher choice than I thought it would be. I think Bryant is still one of the top receivers in the NFL and I know he might suffer a little bit without Tony Romo, but I think he was the better choice. Cooks is a good receiver as well, but I think he’s more a function of the Saints offense. I know there where a lot of people who liked Dak Prescott. I just hope he throws the football to Bryant.

It was announced yesterday that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss the remainder of the NASCAR season. Earnhardt Jr. has missed the last 6 races and will skip the final 12 as well due to the concussion like symptoms he’s suffering from. It’s believed that Earnhardt Jr. suffered the concussion when he was involved in a crash June 12th at the Michigan International Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports announced that Jeff Gordon will drive the #88 car this week at Darlington. Gordon along with Alex Bowman will finish the season behind the wheel for Earnhardt Jr.In addition to Sunday’s race, Gordon will be behind the wheel of the No. 88 for races at Richmond (Sept. 10), Dover (Oct. 2) and Martinsville (Oct. 30). Bowman will drive at Chicagoland (Sept. 18), New Hampshire (Sept. 25), Charlotte (Oct. 8), Kansas (Oct. 16), Talladega (Oct. 23), Texas (Nov. 6), Phoenix (Nov. 13) and the series finale at Homestead (Nov. 20). With the missed races Earnhardt Jr. fell out of the Top 16 in points and even if he was to return for this weeks race at Darlington or next weeks race at Richmond he’d have to win one of those two races to get into The Chase. Earnhardt Jr. has been undergoing regular evaluations at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program and is being treated for issues related to balance and focusing on objects that are at a distance while moving his head. On August 5th at the Watkins Glen race Earnhardt Jr. spoke with the media and said he wants to continue racing. Earnhardt Jr. is under contract with Hemdrick Motorsports for the 2017 NASCAR season. He is son of seven-time Sprint Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr. has never won a Sprint Cup title, with a best finish in the season standings of third in 2003. After missing The Chase for two consecutive seasons, he has enjoyed a career resurgence with five consecutive Chase appearances from 2011 to 2015.

At first it didn’t look like the Los Angeles Dodgers would be bringing Yasiel Puig back to the majors as a September call up. Now they did decide to add Puig to the roster when it expanded to 40 players. Puig got the start in right field for the Dodgers and hit 5th last night against the San Diego Padres. Puig spent a month at Triple-A Oklahoma City before returning to the Dodgers line up last night. Now the Dodgers did end up losing the game 4-2 to the Padres, but Puig went 2 for 4 and upped his batting average to .263 on the season. Puig was placed on revocable waivers last month by the Dodgers. One team claimed Puig on waivers, but it was never reported who that team was. It is being reported that the team was the Milwaukee Brewers and they where interested in sending the Dodgers Ryan Braun as part of a Puig trade. The Dodgers decided to hang onto Puig and have said that if they do trade him they would wait until the off season so they could talk to all the teams interested in him.

http://m.mlb.com/gameday/padres-vs-dodgers/2016/09/02/448874?#game_tab=box,game=448874,game_state=final

In other Dodgers news Clayton Kershaw is schedule to make a rehab start today for the Class-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes today. Kershaw is scheduled to throw 50 pitches in this minor league rehab outing. Kershaw has been out since June 26 with a lower-back injury, and it is possible he could return to the  Dodgers on the club’s next road trip. While Kershaw is the big name pitching at Rancho Cucamonga today Brett Anderson is also going to pitch in their game today following Kershaw to the mound. Rancho Cucamonga has been a popular landing spot for rehabbing Dodgers players this season. Los Angeles has put a record tying 27 players on the disabled list this season. Now depending on when Kershaw actually returns he could make up to four starts for the Dodgers. The Dodgers are currently in 1st place in the National League West. They’re holding a 2 game lead over the San Francisco Giants coming into Saturday’s action. Just imagine what adding a pitcher like Kershaw would do for your stretch run and playoffs.

You can Listen to Sports Time Radio live on BlogTalkRadio.com but remember you can listen to the podcast any time you want to on TuneIn.com

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

How was your Week?

Posted: September 5, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, NASCAR, Sports Time Radio
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If you’re a Kansas City Royals fan are you worried that your team has a 13 game lead in the American League Central and are pretty much cruising into the playoffs. Some experts seem to think that it’s a bad thing that Kansas City won’t have any high tension games going down the stretch to end the regular season. I’m kind of on the other side of this and while I get it that a team can’t turn it on and off as needed I think Kansas City is in a great spot. Kansas City has 28 games left in the regular season; they are 82-52 and like I mentioned 13 games ahead in the A.L. Central. This can work to Kansas City’s advantage. They’ll be able to get their pitching rotation in whatever order they decide. They should also be able to get some players like Kendrys Morales (133), Eric Hosmer (131) and anyone else they thin needs a day off as their regular season comes to an end. While Salvador Perez is one of the better young catchers in baseball; he has caught a lot of games this season (117) and if Kansas City can get him some time of as their season wraps up he’ll be at or close to at the top of his game going into the Division series. Kansas City made one of the bigger moves at the trade deadline giving up 3 players to get Johnny Cueto from the Cincinnati Reds. Cueto has made 7 starts for Kansas City; he has a 2-4 record with andERA of 4.21 not the top of the rotation pitcher they thought they where getting in the deal. Cueto has really struggled in his last 2 starts. He gave up 7 runs (6 earned) on 13 hits over 6 innings 2 starts ago to the Boston Red Sox and in his last start he gave Cueto gave up 6 runs on 8 hits over 5 innings against the Baltimore Orioles. Now with the lead the Royals have in their division they’ll be able to let Cueto go out and continue to work on whatever he needs to as he faces American League hitters on a regular basis for the first time in his career. Kansas City will also be able to use the rest of the regular season to evaluate the bullpen. While the Royals bullpen is still one of the best in baseball closer Greg Holland has battled injuries off and on all season and while he has saved 29 games his ERA is on the higher end for a closer at 3.83. Any time Holland has had to miss games due to injury Wade Davis has filled in and has been very good. Davis has picked up 13 saves in place of Holland this season. Davis also has a record of 7-1 and an ERA of 0.97; yes you read that right his ERA is under 1. Kansas City still has Kelvin Herrera setting up games before Davis and Holland and they’ve even gotten Ryan Madson helping out in the bullpen. Madson hadn’t pitched since 2011 because of injuries. Kansas City brought him into spring training and it’s paid off for them. Madson has appeared in 55 games for Kansas City this season; he has a 1-2 record with an ERA of 2.45 over 51 1/3rd innings. Madson has also gotten 2 saves this season out of the Kansas City bullpen. As good as the Royals bullpen was in the playoffs last season if Holland is 100% and with the addition of Madson believe it or not it might be better this season. Having as big of a division lead as the Royals do will allow them to get Holland rested and healthy and not worry about the bullpen. Also with the re-emergence of Madson not all the closing duties will fall on Davis and he’ll be able to get some days off down the stretch. So I have to wonder if Kansas City have a big division lead is really an issue.

I believe that I’ve mentioned on Sports Time Radio podcast that I watch way too much of the MLB Network. Earlier this week they had a plug that they would be discussing the race for the National League Cy Young award. I sat through the commercials and waited for them to start talking about it. After a couple of boring segments and another commercial break they finally said let’s look at the Top 3 contenders for the N.L. Cy Young award. Teammates Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner where the 3 names they threw out. Greinke may be the front runner for the award as he is 15-3 through 27 starts with a fantastic ERA of 1.59. Kershaw is 12-6 with an ERA of 2.16 over 27 starts. Bumgarner has started 27 games as well and is 16-7 with an ERA of 2.96. Three very good  candidates, but for some reason they seem to have overlooked a top Cy Young Award contender. Now I don;t know if it’s because he’s not a big name like the other 3 pitcher they brought up, but Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs should really of been mentioned with the other 3. Arrieta has more wins (17) than any of the 3 pitchers they brought up and his ERA (2.11) is 2nd in the National League among starting pitchers behind Greinke. Why was Arrieta left off of their list? He’s pitching for a winning team as the Cubs are in control of the last N.L. wild card spot and he just threw a no-hitter which the MLB Network did completely devalue after he pitched it. I don’t understand the stupidity of not looking at every pitcher especially one that’s putting up the numbers Arrieta is this season. The sad part is I’m sure there are a lot of guys who work for or appear on the MLB Network that hold votes for the end of the year awards and if they’re not believing in Arrieta he’ll have no chance at winning anything no matter how well he pitches or if his team makes the playoffs.

Now even though Mr. Fantasy and I will be at our money league fantasy football draft Dan the Man is going to step in and talk to Chris Olmstead from BeyondtheFlag.com tomorrow (Sunday) on Sports Time Radio. They’ll preview the Bojangles Southern 500 for you. The race is at Darlington Speedway and is a Sunday night race. You’ll want to listen to Chris as he makes his Top 3 picks on which driver will end up in victory lane.

You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast at BlogTalkRadio.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime.  

Who’s the ____ Starting Pitcher

Posted: March 31, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports
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All we have left to look at before the baseball season starts is pitching. So of course we should begin with the first guy to take the mound the starting pitcher.

The Best: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers. A back to back Cy Young award winner and Kershaw has won the award 3 times in 4 seasons. The year he didn’t win it 2012; he finished 2nd. He added the MVP award as well last season when he was 21-3 with a 1.77 E.R.A. and he completed 6 games and 2 shutouts as well. Kershaw missed a few starts early in the season and only made 27 starts last season; imagine what his numbers might’ve been had he started 33 games like he had the past 3 seasons. While Kershaw would be hard pressed to match the season he had in 2014 if he gets close to his numbers it’s a successful one.

Underrated: Tyson Ross, San Diego Padres. Ross was 13-14 with a 2.81 E.R.A. with 2 complete games and a shutout last season. It was his first full season as a starter. Ross made 31 starts last season and before that he had never made more than 16 starts in a season. Ross only has 68 career starts over 5 seasons and should be the Padres 3rd starter in 2015. Ross struckout 19 batters last season while walking 72 for a WHIP of 1.211. Ross was also selected to the All-Star team in 2014. It looks like San Diego has improved in the off season and they should win some more games in 2015. More win for the Padres should equal more wins for Ross and if his other stats stay close to his 2014 numbers he’ll be a solid fantasy pitcher.

Bounce Back: C.J. Wilson, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Wilson made 31 starts for the Angels last season and posted a 13-10 record, but his E.R.A. was 4.51. If the Angels wouldn’t of scored runs last season Wilson’s record would’ve been terrible. Wilson did throw 1 complete game and it was a shutout last season. Besides lowering the E.R.A. Wilson needs to lower his walk total; he led the A.L. in walks last season with 85. Wilson has made 31 or more starts every season since 2010; so he takes the baseball. If Wilson can get his E.R.A. back to around his career total of 3.72 and bring his walk total down he should repeat his win total or even pick up a few more in 2015.

Stay Away from: Jeremy Hellickson, Arizona Diamondbacks. Hellickson was the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 2011 and has won double digit games every season until last season when he went 1-5 and made just 13 starts because of injuries and a demotion to the minors. In 2013 when he made 31 starts his E.R.A. was 5.71 in his limited starts last season it was 4.52. A move to the National League might help Hellickson’s E.R.A. some, but he never turned into the top of the rotation starter the Tampa Bay Rays thought he would. The Rays dealt Hellickson to the Diamondbacks for 2 minor league pitchers Andrew Velazquez and Justin Williams. Hellickson might be good at the bottom of a solid rotation, but Arizona needs more than that from him and I’m not sure he’ll deliver.

How was Your Week?

Posted: November 15, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football
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11/15/14

We’re heading into the home stretch for fantasy football as a lot of leagues wrap up a week or two before the regular season ends. I thought it would be a good time to look and see who’s been disappointing for fantasy owners. I’m going off of the ranking that were used in our longest running fantasy league called Next Year is Here 13. I know it’s 2014, but when I renewed the league I forgot to change the year. We’re going to try and stay away from players who missed multiple games because of injuries or suspension. At quarterback Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears was the 18th rated player at draft time. Cutler is the 63rd ranked player going into Week 11. Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was ranked 39th at the start of the season. Newton missed a lot of the pre-season injured and it seems to have carried over into the season as Newton is ranked as the 65th overall player right now. Colin Kaepernick the San Francisco 49ers quarterback was the 31st ranked player coming into the season. Through 11 weeks Kapernick is in the 89th position among all players. If you remember at the start of this fantasy football season all the talk was about the running backs being the guys you needed to have. In our league running backs where projected to be the top 5 scoring players in our league. Through 11 weeks there is only 1 running back (DeMarco Murray) in the top 5 total scores. LeShon McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles was the #1 overall rated player in our league coming into the 2014 season. Right now McCoy is the 71st rated player in our league. Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy was the 5th rated player in our league. As of right now Lacy is the 44th rated player. Zac Stacy of the St. Louis Rams came into the season as the 29th rated running back. Through 11 weeks Stacy is rated at 215th. There are probably quite a few more running backs that we could list here, but we’ll save that for the end of the season. A lot of the top wide receivers have been injured and missed multiple games; so they’ll get a pass right now. Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall was rated as the 13th overall player coming into 2014. Right now Marshall is rated as the 70th overall player. Keenan Allen if the San Diego Chargers was supposed to be the 27th overall player. Even with the solid year San Diego is having Allen is rated at 161st right now. Maybe Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson was over rated at 36th to start the season. Even if Jackson was rated a little to high; he should be in a better position than 124th where he is right now.Injuries affect the tight end ratings as well and I actually had to search a little bit to find 3 tight ends. Playing in the up tempo Philadelphia Eagles offense Zac Ertz was in the 102nd position to start the season. Through 11 weeks Ertz is rated as the 137th overall player. Ladarius Green of the San Diego Chargers was supposed to take some catches away from Antonio Gates at tight end and that made Green the 137th rated player to start the season.Green was ranked 7 spots ahead of Gates. After 11 weeks Green is the 1782nd rated player overall while Gates is in the 37th spot. Since we need a third tight end let’s go with Tim Wright of the New England Patriots. Wright was traded to the Patriots at the start of the season and he was ranked as the 208th overall player. Right now Wright is ranked as the 208th overall player and while that not a huge drop I’m sure fantasy owners where looking at Rob Gronkowski’s injury history and thinking they might have a steal with Wright. I figured I’d looking and see if there where some kickers we could add as disappointing, but all 4 of them are rated higher now than where they started the season. The 4 kickers that are down from the start of the season are Josh Brown of the New York Giants. Brown started at 1814th and is now 2285th. Greg Zuerlein of the St. Louis Rams started the season at 1852nd and is now at 2301st. Ryan Succop of the Tennessee Titans started the season at 1857th and is now at 2309th. Oakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski started at 1968th and is now 2313rd. The team defense/special teams category had a few teams that dropped way down from where they started the season at. The Denver Broncos were rated 282nd to start and are now at 1755th. The Seattle Seahawks where rated at 133rd to start the season; the highest rated defense to start the season. Now the Seahawks defense is ranked at 177th. The St. Louis Rams defense came in at 177th to start the season. At the start of Week 11 the Rams defense is at 1785th. Come the end of the season we’ll have to see if these players turn it around of if 2014 is going to be disappointing for their fantasy owners.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) handed out their awards for the Major League Baseball regular season. Remember these awards cover just the regular season; no post season included. Overall I thought they did a good job of picking award winner for the American League and National League at 4 of the 4 categories. AL Manager of the Year was Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles while the Washington Nationals Matt Williams won the NL award. On a side note Schaumburg Stu picked both of these guys to win this award at the start of the season. In the AL, Jose Abreu won the Rookie of the Year award while Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets was the winner in the NL . I actually picked Abreu to win at the start of the season. I thought they might miss the AL Cy Young award winner, but they got the right guy as Cory Klober of the Cleveland Indians won the award. I thought they might go with “The King” Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners, but Hernandez finished 2nd in the voting. On the NL side Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers won the award getting all of the 1st place votes. Of course Kershaw was Dan the Man’s pick at the start of the season. Mike Trout was the unanimous selection for AL MVP and while Schaumburg Stu, Mr. Fantasy and I all had Trout winning this award I don’t think any of us thought he get all of the 1st place votes like he did. Where I think the BBWAA missed was their choice for NL MVP Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw pitched in 27 games this season. 27 games is just under 17% of the season. Does he deserve this award based on the fact that he’s only involved in 17% of his teams games; the answer should be NO! While Keshaw was dominant when he pitched he didn’t show up in enough games to win the MVP award. The mainstream media push that Kershaw got probably put him over the top for this award, but it’s sad that voters pay more attention to what people say than players on the field. Looking at the NL voting San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey finished 6th and was actually left off of a ballot; really off a ballot. I thought Posey and Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates who finished 3rd where the players who would battle it out for this award. Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies got a 10th place vote from the voter who left Posey off his ballot. I would love to know how he thought that Tulowitski was a Top 10 MVP candidate, but Posey wasn’t. I know every year there are questions about how these awards are handed out, but like I said I think they got most of them correct this season. Well all, but one. Maybe next season they’ll get them all right.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

9/10/14 Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: September 10, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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Week 1 of the NFL season is in the books. If you’re a regular listener to Sports Time Radio you know that Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I picked the winners of the games. This season we classed it up a little bit by adding Schaumburg Stu to the list of people picking games. I do have to warn you not to bet your hard-earned money on any choices we make. As you’ll be able to tell by our records we don’t bet our own money on our picks. For Week 1 we all ended up taking different roads, but everyone got to 9-7 for the 1st week. We’ll pick the Thursday night game on Thursday’s show 5:00 p.m.to 6:00 p.m. and will announce the rest of our picks on the Sunday morning show 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

On last Sunday’s show I made Mr. Fantasy pick one player at each position who would be the highest scoring player for fantasy in Week 1. Now I’m using the scoring system we use in our Yahoo fantasy league to get my point totals; so your league may use a different scoring system. Mr. Fantasy was a little Denver Bronco heavy for his Week 1 picks; so let’s see how that worked out for him. At quarterback Mr. Fantasy said Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos. Manning ended up being the 3rd highest scoring quarterback as Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons and Matt Stafford of the Detroit Lions scored more points. At running back Mr. Fantasy went with Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings. Peterson finished 23rd among running backs as Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Von Bell was the highest scoring running back in Week 1. The next Denver Broncos player Mr. Fantasy went with was wide receiver Demaryius Thomas. Thomas finished Week 1 54th out of the wide receivers. Calvin Johnson “Megatron” was the top wide receiver in Week 1 action. At tight end for Week 1 Mr. Fantasy went with Dallas Cowboys veteran Jason Witten. Witten was the 34th tight end from Week 1. This is where Mr. Fantasy should’ve went with a Denver Broncos player as Julius Thomas was the highest scoring tight end for Week 1. I even made Mr. Fantasy pick a kicker for Week 1. Again he went to the Denver Broncos for his pick. Brandon McManus is the Broncos kicker filling in for the suspended Matt Prater. McManus ended Week 1 in 16th place among kickers. Matt Bryant of the Atlanta Falcons took the top spot for kickers in Week 1. To be fair to Mr. Fantasy I didn’t give him any time to prepare for this segment of the show and I just dropped these questions. Now he’ll know every week that they’re coming.

While the baseball season is headed to a close the experts are starting to throw out their picks for the top awards. The debate that always seems to come up is who is the National League MVP? Many of these experts are picking Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw as MVP While Kershaw is far and away the best pitcher in major league baseball I don’t think he should be the NL MVP As of this writing Kershaw has made 24 starts for the Dodgers. It doesn’t look like Kershaw will get to 30 starts this season. A baseball team will play 162 games in a season; should a guy that plays in less than 30 games be the M.V.P. Kershaw will easily win the Cy Young award for the NL this season. Kershaw is 18-3 with a 1.67 ERA in his 24 starts. While Kershaw has had a great season and has great numbers I again have to ask; is a guy who plays in less than 30 games the MVP? No one in the NL has stepped up to claim this award as their own, but we still have some time left this season. San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey has been one of the hottest players in baseball and if he can continue will be in the running for MVP The Miami Marlins have hung around the wild card race even after losing their #1 pitcher (Jose Fernandez) to injury. Will that get their star player Giancarlo Stanton some MVP consideration. The Pittsburgh Pirates find themselves back in the wild card chase. Defending MVP Andrew McCutchen is their star, but would the Pirates be where they are without the play of Josh Harrison? While I don’t think that McCutchen or Harrison will win the NL MVP they both should pick up some votes. Just to put it out on the table; st the beginning of the baseball season we selected who would win awards this season. For NL MVP, Dan the Man picked Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mr. Fantasy went with Carlos Gomez of the Milwaukee Brewers. Schaumburg Stu selected Bryce Harper of the Washington nationals and I went with Yader Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Did you know that the WNBA is playing their championship right now. The Phoenix Mercury have a 2 games to 0 lead over the Chicago Sky. The Mercury won Game 1 83-62 and last night won Game 2 97-68. The series is set for a best 3 out of 5 games. Phoenix will try to close out the series Friday night in Chicago. Phoenix set a record in Game 1 by shooting 58% and added some more records in Game 2. The Mercury set a WNBA Finals record margin of 29 points. Tonight was another record-setting night for the Mercury all around with Diana Taurasi surpassing Katie Smith for second on the WNBA Finals all-time scorers list and tying her for the most 3-pointers made in WNBA Finals history. I’m betting you weren’t expecting any WNBA in this blog.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

6/21/14 How was your Week?

Posted: June 21, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Uncategorized
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If you’ve been listening to Sports Time Radio you know that I’ve been giving Dan the Man & Mr. Fantasy NBA & NHL playoff games to pick along with other miscellaneous games to pick. We ended this until next season on Tuesday with Dan the Man taking them out on a high note going 3-0. Sadly even with a perfect last day they still ended up under .500 at 39-45-1. Mr. Fantasy has suggested that they pick against each other next season; so maybe will go that way for picks. Schaumburg Stu also helped out making picks any time he filled in as a co-host.

I get to talk sports 5 times a week on Sports Time Radio. It airs Sunday at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday at 5:00 p.m., Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., Thursday at 4:00 p.m. and Friday at 5:00 p.m. You can find the show on Blog Talk Radio, the one Dan the Man is supposed to be on three days a week with me and then of Mr. Fantasy is on twice a week. As I mentioned Schaumburg Stu is a more than capable fill in any time we need him to do that. With all the sports talk it started me thinking back to how I developed my love for sports. Like most this goes back to when I was a very young boy. My father was a huge sports fan and I’m talking about every sport. We watched them all together and he would try to explain what was going on during the games. Now this really picked up in the summertime especially on Sunday’s. My father was a chef; so every Sunday morning he made a big breakfast for my mother and I and then he’d get whatever we where having for dinner going. After that he’d take his 10 inch black and white television and he and I would head out to the backyard for the day. Now my father had a Goute; so he wasn’t really able to run around with me in the backyard, but he watched like it was the most important game on. Since he couldn’t get around all that well and I was an only child I was supplied with the equipment to play games myself. I had a Johnny Bench Batter Up and I also had a Pitch Back. Do you remember those? The Cubs game would come on first; because they didn’t have lights at Wrigley Field yet. Now my father was a Cubs fan; so this was a must watch. After that if it was early spring we might catch the end of a Bulls or a Blackhawks game. That was if the Blackhawks where on the road. You might not remember, but they didn’t show Blackhawks home games on television. In the summer he’d try to find the White Sox game to watch but it seemed every Sunday in the backyard ended with golf on that little black and white television. As I got a little older my father put a hole in the backyard; so I could practice putting at home. Now my father was a little older than the other kids father’s when I was born. He was 40 years old when I came along and sadly I lost him 28 years ago this month to cancer. Looking back I realized how he passed his love of all sports on to me. What I’m wondering is where did your love of a sport or sports as a whole come from?

On Wednesday Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitched what is being called one of the greatest games ever pitched in major league baseball. Kershaw no hit the Colorado Rockies and was one Hanley Ramirez throwing error away from a perfect game. Kershaw threw 107 pitches; 79 of which where strikes in the game and he struck out 15 Rockies hitters during the game. It was an 8-0 Dodgers win and Kershaw improved to 7-2-on the season. A pitching performance like this one re-establishes Kershaw as the premier left-handed pitcher in major league baseball. It was I who had mentioned that White Sox lefty Chris Sale had passed Kershaw as the best left-handed pitcher in baseball, but it looks like I was off on that. Bill James has come up with a sabermetric stat called Game Score. Game Score is a simple way of measuring the effectiveness of a pitcher’s start. A pitcher starts with 50 points, gets a point for each out, two points for each innings completed after the fourth inning, and one point for a strikeout. He is docked two points for each hit, four points for each earned run allowed, two points for each unearned run allowed and one point for each walk. An average Game Score in a given season usually ranges from 49 to 50. The way Game Score is calculated, nearly every start ends up scoring between 0 and 100, with occasional exceptions for extraordinarily good or bad pitching performances. Kershaw 15 strike out no-hitter was the 2nd highest game ever scored on Game Score. The only game it scored lower than was Kerry Wood’s one hit 20 strikeout performance from May 6th 1998. My only negative to this game was I didn’t get to see it. Being that it was a west coast game I was in bed long before this game ended. I know I’m just nitpicking, but I would’ve loved to see it live.

You can find Sports Time Radio on BlogTalk Radio and you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.

So how was your week?

How was your Week? 3/22/14

Posted: March 22, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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There’s a special edition of Sports Time Radio today (Saturday) at 11:00 a.m. on www.blogtalkradio.com Mr. Fantasy and I have our first fantasy draft of the upcoming baseball season tomorrow (Sunday) so will discuss our strategy and what we might do with the 14th and 15th picks. Will work our way deeper into the draft and find some sleepers for you to use to win our own fantasy league as well. This is an interesting league for whatever reason outfielders seem to hold less value. I’d have to guess it’s because it’s not position specific or maybe the fact that there are so many more outfielders than other positions. It’s always fun to do and depending on how your season goes sometimes the draft is the most fun. Hopefully you’ll be able to listen live, but if not you can always find the show in the Blog Talk Radio archives or look for the show at www.ultimatesportstalk.com.

How’s your NCAA tournament bracket going? It looks like no one is perfect as I saw a blurb that nobody will win the Warren Buffet billion dollar bracket challenge. I was a respectable 25 of 32 correct so far. Luckily I got some upsets right and of course lost some games because of upsets. While we don’t talk much college basketball on the show it’s always fun to put a bracket together and who doesn’t want to win a billion dollars. I was unhappy to see the way the tournament committee treated Wichita State. The bracket they made them the #1 seed in was so stacked against them winning it that it makes you want to root for them. I get it they don’t want the smaller schools to advance to far in the tournament. If they go to far it’s bad for television ratings and of course that means less money. Just to put it out there; so no one can say I lied about it; here’s my final four. I have Louisville, Virginia, Creighton and Florida. I have Florida and Louisville in the championship game with Florida winning the tournament. I showed you mine; what does your bracket look like?

Patrice Bergeron and Carl Soderberg each had a goal, Chad Johnson stopped 31 shots for his third career shutout, and the Boston Bruins beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-0 on Friday night for their 11th win in a row. The Bruins became the 1st team to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Boston has 101 points and is the leader in the Atlantic division of the Eastern conference. I saw some talks about who is going to win the Hart (MVP) trophy; there seems to be three top candidates. It’s looking more and more that Sidney Crosby is going to win this award, but there are a couple of other players who will get some votes. How about Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks. Getzlaf has put up career highs in points per game at 1.15 and goals with 29. Then there’s Phil Kessel, Toronto Maple Leafs. Kessel has 35 goals and 39 assists and Toronto is in 4th place with 80 points in the Atlantic division. It will be difficult to give this award to anyone else but Crosby, but Getzlaf and Kessel should get special mention for the seasons they’re having.

Did you get up at 3:00 a.m. central standard time to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1st game of the baseball season in Australia? The Dodgers won the game 3 – 1; Clayton Kershaw pitched 6 2/3 innings striking out 7 and giving up 5 hits. Scott Van Slyke doubled and homer while driving in two runs for the Dodgers. Wade Miley took the loss for the Diamondbacks while Paul Goldschmidt had two hits. Kenley Jansen did save the game for the Dodgers. The two teams play again tonight.

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

01/18/14 How was your Week?

Posted: January 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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The Anaheim Ducks are on a roll right now. Even with a 4 – 2 loss last night (Friday) to the Chicago Blackhawks the Ducks have won 18 of there last 20 games. Anaheim has 77 points and are in 1st place in the Pacific division. They are 11 points ahead of the 2nd place San Jose Sharks. The Ducks are also 1st overall in the Western conference 4 points ahead of the Blackhawks. Ryan Getzlaf leads the Ducks in scoring with 56 points. Corey Perry leads the team in goals with 27; Getzlaf leads the team in assists with 32. Francois Beauchemin and Hampus Lindholm both lead the team in plus/minus with a +25. Perry has 8 game winning goals for the Ducks while Getzlaf is right behind him with 7 game winning goals. On Wednesday Anaheim put up 9 goals against Vancouver. The Ducks play tonight (Saturday) for the second night in a row against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are 3rd in the Western conference standings with 69 points and it’s a home game for St. Louis.

There’s been some talk of who will be the MVP in the NBA this season. If you where up a little late last night you got to see two guys state their case. The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors 127 – 121. Kevin Durant set a career high in scoring with 54 points for the Thunder while Stephen Curry scored 37 points for Golden State. Durant was 19 for 28 from the field including 5 of 9 q from behind the three-point line. Durant was also 11 for 13 from the free throw line and added 4 rebounds and 6 assists. Curry was 37 of 57 from the field hitting 6 of 10 from behind the three-point line. Curry was also 9 of 11 from the free throw line adding 3 rebounds and 11 assists. Two pretty good nights to get yourself into the M.V.P. conversation.

I didn’t forget about it or anything like that. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the conference finals to see who goes to the Super Bowl. 11:00 a.m. Mr. Fantasy and I will make our picks. You can listen live at BTR the show can also be found on Ultimate Sports Talk. Last week in our picks Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy where 2 – 2; I was 4 – 0. For the first two rounds of the playoffs Mr. Fantasy and I are 5 – 3 while Dan the Man is 4 – 4. It’s the Seattle Seahawks vs. the San Francisco 49ers to see who represents the NFC in the Super Bowl. Over in the AFC it’s the Denver Broncos vs. the New England Patriots. Seattle and Denver are the home teams for these games; so will see if that helps either team. Who are you picking?

Clayton Kershaw signed the largest contract in baseball history for a pitcher. The Dodgers signed Kershaw for 7 years and $215 million. It’s always a risk to sign a pitcher to a long-term deal, but Kershaw might actually be worth the risk. Kershaw was 16 – 9 with a 1.83 E.R.A. last season. Kershaw won the Cy Young award last season; his second. Kershaw also won the award in 2011. Do you think this is a good deal?

So how was your week?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime