Posts Tagged ‘Jon Lester’

It’s just one loss

Posted: May 15, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, sports, Sports Time Radio
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The Cubs wrap up the weekend series against the Pirates with John Lester facing Garett Cole who’s seeking his 4th win of the season like Lester.  Today’s match up would be another pitchers duel.  I know that everyone loves high scoring, home run smashing games but my favorite to watch are these battles.  I usually keep my opinion out of this but win or lose I love these games.   

The first 6 innings would see Lester shutting down the third place Bucs aside from a walk to David Freese in the first and a walk in the second to Framcisco Cervelli. The Cubs would start off with a leadoff double by Dexter Fowler for his 14th of the year.  That would be all until Addison Reed singles in the second and again until Ben Zobrist’s double in the fourth.  The fifth and sixth innings would be 1-2-3 innings for Cole.  Just three hits through 6 with no runs is today, not at all common place for the Cubs.  

Lester would continue his battle in the 7th making it exciting with a one out single to Starling Marte but would strike out Cervelli.  With two outs Jung Ho Kang would send a fly ball to Heyward that would turn into an RBI double prompting Maddon to pull Lester after 109 pitches through 6 2/3.   Adam Warren would come into close the inning out but would start with a walk.  Maddon would decide to have Warren intentional walk Gregory Polanco to get to Gerrit Cole.  He would ground into a force out to end the inning but would come into the bottom half and shut the Cubs down once again.  

Pedro Strop would come into the 8th giving up a single to Jody Mercer but would get the next three batters out, no problem.   Cole would stay in for the bottom half and all attempts by the Cubs to come back would be shut down.  

Hector Rondon would come into the ninth and immediately strikes out Cervelli.  The only run of the game was driven in by Jung Ho Kang, with one out he would send a fly ball to left center for his 4th home run of the season.  Josh Harrison would single and Polanco would walk again. Travis Wood replaces Rondon as Matt Joyce pinch hits for Cole. Wood gets the out but Maddon pulls him for Justin Grimm who walks Mercer but strikes out McCutchen.  Cubs down 2-0.  

Pirates closer Mark Melancon comes in for the save opportunity but walks Fowler and gives up a single to Heyward.  Bryant would fly out for the first out.  Rizzo would send a fly ball to right that’s scored as a sac fly scoring Fowler.  Zobrist comes to the plate for an opportunity to tie the game or get a walk off homer.  Heyward would steal second to prevent a force.  Zobrist with two outs would hit a ground ball to second ending the game.  

Now I know it’s a loss in the books but I still think it was a great outing for Jon Lester and the versatility of the bullpen.  Joel Maddon has 162 games to figure out how the bullpen works for the playoffs.  With the way they are playing, I feel there is no doubt that they will be in the playoffs and he needs to figure out this bullpen.  Again, I know it’s a loss but Cubs fans, take it easy, #ItsJustMay

@danzeeeman
The Podcast

Posted: April 29, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio
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Day game two and you never know in April what the weather will be like but the forecast was clear enough to get this one on the books.  The veteran John Lester vs 2013 first rounder, Aaron Blair.  

Both pitchers duel it out for three full innings without any real damage to either’s pitching count or ERA.  Lester would leadoff the fourth inning with three straight balls to Freddie Freeman, he would get the green light on 3-0 and send one deep into the right field bleachers, putting the Braves up 1-0.  Blair would make it through the fourth but would give up a lead off double to Javier Baez.  The Cubs would tie up with one out and a man on second, when David Ross would send a shot to left field scoring Baez.  Lester would end the inning with a double play.  Both men would make it through the sixth with no real issues but it’s the seventh, where things get exciting.  Jeff Francoeur would lead off with a single he would throw a wild pitch, then walks Tyler Flowers.  Erik Aybar would reach by simply bunting the ball back to Jon Lester, knowing he couldn’t make the throw to first.  Madden would come out to the mound to calm down Lester, which it would work.  He would strike out the next two batters and gets Nick Markakis to ground out ending his half of the inning.  

The Braves would bring in Alexi Ogando.  Rizzo would leadoff the bottom half with a walk, Soler would single.  Baez would ground out moving up both batters.  The Braves would put Russell on first but Ross would end the inning with a 4-6-3 double play if your scoring at home.  

Pedro Strop would move quickly through his portion of the eighth.  Jim Johnson would come into the game to try and stop the Cubs.  Tommy La Stella would lead off with a double would be caught trying to reach third on a infield ground ball by Dexter Fowler.  Heyward would walk.  Zobrist would single to load the bases.  Rizzo would send a line drive to center scoring Fowler.  Cubs up 2-1, with Mr. Hitting Instructor, Matt Szczur would challenge new pitcher, Chris Withrow.  With bases loaded, 1 out and an 0-1 count, Withrow would serve up a 92 mph fastball right over the plate, Szczur would send one into the bleachers for his first grand slam of his career! 

Hector Rondon would come into the ninth to preserve Pedro Strop’s chance for a win.  Francoeur would fly out to right, Flowers would strikeout.  Erik Aybar would ground out to Rizzo.  

Cubs Win!  Cubs Win!  First to 17.  They shoot to close out April with the best record in the MLB! 

@DanZeeeMan

The Podcast 

Cubs, Angels game 2

Posted: April 5, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, Minor League Baseball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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U It’s game 2 of 162 and Jon Lester gets the nod.  There’s big expectations for this team, especially the top 3 in this rotation.  If you were listening to the Big Jack & I on the podcast, he asked me what I’d like to see out of Lester.  Being that #ItsOnlyApril, I’d be happy with him completing 6 innings with a max of 6 hits possibly 2 runs.  You’d hope he’d not go passed 100 pitches and get at minimum 5 K’s. Now he ended going a full 7 innings giving up only one run on four hits.  He only had four strike outs but walked no one.  He ended up only throwing 93 pitches.  Very solid outing. At first it appeared, that he might night come out but he was relieved in the eighth by Trevor Cahill, who struck out one in 2/3. Daniel Nava was announced as the pinch hitter, which prompted Maddon to call Travis Wood to the rubber who closed out the eighth inning.  Pedro Strop would come into the 9th, striking out Mike Trout, getting Pujols and CJ Cron to ground out to sweep the Angels in this two game series.

As for the lineup, Maddon switched it up for game 2, was he listening to us today?  The Big Jacks biggest question was Ben Zobrist in the three hole.  He stayed with Dexter Fowler and Jason Heyward in the one, two but put Chris Bryant in at three, followed by Zobrist, Jorge Soler, Addison Russell, Matt Szczur and catching David Ross.  

Pitching for the Angels, Andrew Heaney held was able to hold the Cubs to nothing in two innings despite an injury delay due to a bloody nose.  But in the top of the third it was Szczur who got things going with a lead off home run. Ross would go on to double and move over to third on a Fowler single to short stop.  Heyward would ground into a force out at second but scoring Ross.  Bryant’s fly ball to left would advance Heyward but it was Anthony Rizzo’s brute strength that would score Heyward on 400 foot home run to dead center.  

In the 7th inning Mike Scioscia, would bring in 24 year old, right handed Mike Morin to face Matt Szczur who reached on a soft liner to Mike Trout.  David Ross would like out to Trout but it was Dexter Fowlers line drive home run to right that would bring Szczur home and secure the Cubs lead at 6-1.  After that, the Angels bullpen would hold the Cubs from creating anymore damage. 

The Cubs were able to stop the Angels biggest stars combined Albert Pujols & Mike Trout went 0 for 15 with 5 strike outs.  I think someone needs to remind the Angels that spring training is over…sorry had to steal that line!  Overall I think we will start to see the Cubs settle into a groove over the next month.  Last night we saw three less strikeouts but Schwarber wasn’t in the line up, which may have given them one or two more but with I’m sure with one bomb, but Szczur filled that spot.  I still think down the line pitching may be an issue which is why I’d love to see Soler perform better than 1-8.  I believe that if he’s able to get going he would be the guy to bring back some value by the trade deadline.  Hence why Maddon is going to do what he has to, to get him the lineup. Just hoping he doesn’t lose his value like Javier Baez has done. 

Game 2 and the Cuns and Pirates are tied for 1st but like I said earlier #ItsOnlyApril

@danzeeeman
@SportsTimeRadio
STR podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: September 16, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football
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Week 1 of the NFL season is in the books and Mr. Fantasy had the best week of picks in our little contest. He ends Week 1 with an 11-5 record. Dan the Man is a game back at 10-5 while Schaumburg was 9-7 for Week 1. Sadly I was a huge embarrassment going 7-9 for the first week of the season. Looks like I have quite a hole to dig myself out of right from the start of the season.

So if your a New York Giants fan and your team misses winning the NFC East by 1 game or just happens t miss the playoffs by 1 game you can look back at their Week 1 (27-26) loss to the Dallas Cowboys as the reason for it. This was far and away the stupidest football played by any team in Week 1. The Giants where on the Cowboys 2-yard line with about 1:40 to go in the game with Dallas having no timeouts. On 3rd down instead of just jamming the football int the line and trying to pound it in for a touchdown Eli Manning decides that he’s going to throw for it. Now there’s no issue with that, but as he rolled to his right he threw the ball away. Now I don’t know if he forgot the situation or is just dumb, but he stopped the clock. Then instead of going for it on 4th down the Giants decided to take the field goal and give themselves a 6-point lead. If Manning would’ve taken the sack and then New York would’ve just ran the ball on 4th down they would’ve had a 3-point lead with about .45 seconds to go in the game and Dallas would have to go 98 or 99 yards for a touchdown to win the game. So the Giants opt for the field goal and then they have to kickoff to the Cowboys. Oddly they decided to squib kick instead of just kicking out of the end zone and making Dallas start from the 20- yard line. This of course backfires as well and Dallas ends up wit the football at the 30-yard line instead where they easily drove down into scoring position. Dallas went 72 yards in 1:27 and Tony Romo even dropped the last snap he took before picking up the football and throwing the game winning touchdown pass to Jason Witten. With as easily as Dallas moved the football on their last drive could they of done the same if they had started at their own 1-yard line. I’m sure they could’ve, but remember they would’ve had far less time if Manning doesn’t throw the football away and if they had ran the football instead of kicking the field goal. Even stranger a story came out that on 1st and 2nd down Manning told running back Rashad Jennings not to score to run some time off the clock. I guess Manning’s math is bad because a touchdown and the extra point would’ve given the Giants a 10 point lead and Dallas would’ve needed 2 scores to tie or win the game. Manning has actual confirmed that he told Jennings this and Jennings has apologized for more or less throwing Manning under the bus to the media. 2015 is Manning’s 12th season in the NFL he’s a 3-time pro bowler and has won 2 Super Bowls. What I’m wondering is how? It’s almost as if Manning didn’t want Jennings to score so he could throw a game winning touchdown pass and be the hero. I’m sure that wasn’t it, but the shear stupidity of the situation is just impossible to figure out. Now I myself was dumb enough to pick the Giants to win the game on Sunday night and I also having them winning the NFC East this season. Looking back at that; maybe I’m the dumb one.

It’s looking as though the Chicago Cubs will end up with one of the two National League wild card spots. Now the debate has started; who is the Cubs starting pitcher for that game? Everyone I know and have spoken to on the podcast think it’s a slam dunk that Jake Arrieta will get the ball for that game, but I’m the one not sure about that. With the season Arrieta has had 19-6 in 29 starts with an ERA of 1.99 with 3 complete games and 2 shutouts as well. Arrieta goes for his 20th win tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates. If it’s not Arrieta; who would be the other Cubs option? Jon Lester is the answer. Lester is 10-10 in 29 starts with an ERA of 3.38 with 1 complete game which he threw yesterday (Tuesday) against the Pirates. Lester was given big money in free agency last off season to pitch these kind of games. Lester has had his issues, but his last 2 September starts have been good. He went 7 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals giving up 1 run on 2 hits while walking 1 and striking out 7 in a no decision. Against the Pirates last night (Tuesday) Lester went 9 innings giving up 1 run on 5 hits while walking 1 and striking out 9. Now I’m in the Arrieta camp here. I think he should get the ball for the wild card game but you’re going to hear about Lester’s post season experience in comparison to Arrieta’s; who’s never pitched in a post season game. My question is, does Joe Maddon make this decision or does the front office of General Manager Jed Hoyer and team President Theo Epstein get involved. Which ever pitcher gets that start in the wild card game if the Cubs don;t win it there are going to be questions as to why they didn’t start the other pitcher.

The Texas Rangers took over 1st place in the American League West by a 1/2 game last night when they beat the Houston Astros for the 2nd time in a row 6-5. On Monday the Rangers won the first game of the series 5-3. Last night it was 5-5 going into the bottom of the 9th. Prince Fielder led off with a single off of Oliver Perez. Will Harris came out of the Astros bullpen to replace Perez and face Adrian Beltre. Drew Stubbs enters the game as a pinch runner for Fielder. Beltre singles to centerfield and Stubbs goes to 3rd base. It’s 1st and 3rd for Mitch Moreland. The 1st pitch of the at bat is a ball. Moreland hits the 2nd pitch to centerfield and Stubbs tags and scores to win the game and put the Rangers in 1st place. While a sacrifice fly isn’t the exciting highlight the networks like when it comes to walk offs I’m guess the Rangers could care less. The Astros look to get back into 1st place as they send Dallas Keuchel to the mound. Keuchel is a 3-time pitcher of the month. He leads the AL in ERA (2.22) innings pitched (206 2/3rd) and my favorite stat WAR (7.1). Keuchel is 13-0 at home, but just 4-7 with a 3.13 ERA on the road. By the way the Rangers are the home team. Keuchel does have a win over the Rangers this season, but it was back in April. The Rangers are going wit Martin Perez on the mound. Perez is 1-3 with a 5.64 ERA over his last 4 starts. His win was at home, but his home ERA is 5.82. Perez is 3-1 with an ERA of 2.17 in 4 career starts against the Astros. These two teams have a 3-game series on the 25th, 26th and 27th of this month whcih may decide who wins the AL West.

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It’s just 1

Posted: April 7, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports
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The baseball off season was very exciting in Chicago. The Cubs went out and signed the top starting pitcher on the market (Jon Lester) to a 6 year $155 million dollar deal. They also signed Jason Hammel to a 2 year $20 million dollar deal to round out the starting rotation. The Cubs also sent Dan Straily and Luis Valbuena to the Houston Astros to get centerfielder Dexter Fowler. Now not to be out done the White Sox added 3 players of their own. They signed left handed power hitter Adam LaRoche to a 2 year $25 million dollar deal. They also inked Melky Cabrera to a 3 year $42 million dollar free agent deal. Then the White Sox sent Rangel Ravelo, Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Marcus Semien to the Oakland A’s for starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija.

Now after these signings and deals most if not all fans of Chicago baseball where looking forward to opening day. Well opening day was Sunday night for the Cubs and yesterday (Monday) for the White Sox. Both teams lost their opener. The Cubs 3-0 to the St. Louis Cardinals and the White Sox 10-1 to the Kansas City Royals. Now what surprised me was how after each of these losses was how quickly the excitement that was there in the off season quickly turned to negativity and dislike for each team.

We have two radio stations in Chicago that cover sports 24/7. There’s the one that offers national coverage with a couple of local shows added in; this is the one Dan the Man listens to. Then there’s the station that focuses on just Chicago teams and that’s the one I listen to. I was actually caught off guard with some of the callers to the overnight show I was listening to after both games. I heard everything from wait until next year to the Cubs wasted their money on Lester and the White Sox made a bad trade for Samardzija. It was just 1 game. There are 161 more games left this season.

The Cubs had some good scoring chances and just didn’t get that hit when they needed it. Do fans really think the Cubs will go 0-13 with runners in scoring position every game. They should also factor in that the pitcher they where facing was Adam Wainwright; who is a Top 10 or maybe even a Top 5 pitcher in baseball. Now Lester didn’t have a great outing, but he found a way to limit the damage when he had to. Remember that Lester had some dead arm issues towards the end of spring training and he has to work his way through that. There where 2 things that concerned me with the 1st Cubs game. Lester not being able to make pick off throws to the bases is one. Now he he doesn’t let any runners get on base this won’t be an issues, but you’d have to think that any team who gets a runner on against him would take a shot at stealing a base. The other one was the batting order. I’ve heard all of the reasoning for hitting the pitcher 8th and they always sound like excuses to me. It came back to bite the Cubs a little as Lester came up with a runner in scoring position and 2 outs. Now 1st base was open and they could’ve worked around a guy to get to Lester anyway, but there was no decision involved with Lester at the plate because he was in the 8th spot. I think this move was Joe Maddon trying to prove he’s a wacky guy and he’ll go against the grain. Or it was just a sad cry for attention.

With the White Sox it looks like it was a bad outing for your pitchers. Samardzija really struggled through 6 innings giving up 5 runs on 6 hits while striking out just 1 batter. Samardzija had some control issues as well as he walked 3; hit 2 batters and uncorked a wild pitch. The fans will dump all of the blame on Samardzija since he was the big guy they picked up in the off season, but the 2 pitchers who followed him weren’t any better. The White Sox picked up Dan Jennings to help shore up the bullpen and get lefties out. Jennings struggled on opening day just like Samardzija did. Jennings pitched 2/3rds of an inning gave up 3 runs on just 1 hit while walking 2 (1 intentionally) and striking out 1. Kyle Drabek was the next White Sox pitcher out of the bullpen. Drabek pitched an 1 1/3rd giving up 2 runs on 6 hits with 1 strikeout. Call it opening day jitters or just a bad outing, but don’t forget that the Royals are the defending American League champions and while they haven’t gotten a lot of respect from the baseball experts this off season maybe they’re better than people thought. Maybe you could add in that Yordano Ventura was the Royals opening day starter and he’s an up and coming pitcher in the game of baseball. Ventura along with Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Ryan Madson held the White Sox to 5 hits, but 1 of them was a Jose Abreu home run. If yoou noticed last season that’s the Royals formula for winning. 6 innings out of the starter and an inning each out of 3 relievers to wrap the game up. Hopefully White Sox fans can let this game go unless you think Samardzija is as bad as he was on opening day.

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 10, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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12/10/14

The baseball winter meetings are rolling along this week and there have been some big name players signed and traded. Late last night the Chicago Cubs where able to sign their #1 free agent target; Jon Lester. Lester gets a six year deal for $158 million dollars and a vesting option for a 7th year. The 7th year option is being reported to be worth $15 million dollars. This offer beat out the Boston Red Sox to who were the other team left in the Lester derby. The Red Sox final offer to Lester was six years and $135 million dollars. Lester joins Jason Hammel in the Cubs 2015 starting rotation. Hammel signed back with the Cubs earlier in the week for two at $10 million dollars. The Cubs dealt Hammel to the Oakland A’s last season. The Cubs also acquired catcher Miguel Montero from the Arizona Diamondbacks for young pitchers Zack Godley and Jefferson Mejia.

The baseball team on the south side of Chicago was busy as well as the White Sox agreed to a deal with the Oakland A’s that sends Jeff Samardzija back to Chicago, though this time with the South Siders. Righty Michael Ynoa is going with him in return for infielder Marcus Semien, righty Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and Rangel Ravelo. The White Sox also added a closer having agreed to sign David Robertson to a four year deal worth more than $46 million dollars. Robertson has been zeroed in on landing a four-year deal this winter and he found a team happy to give him one with a solid average annual value.

Yesterday the Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to a deal with left-handed pitcher starting pitcher Francisco Liriano. The deal is for three years at a total of $39 million dollars. The deal seems quite a reasonable price for a pitcher with Liriano’s ability to dominate. The Pirates had express interest in bring Liriano back, but with the resigning Pittsburgh will give up the ability to add draft pick compensation, which it was in line to receive if Liriano had found a new home after declining a qualifying offer.

The story I kept hearing reported from the winter meetings was that the Houston Astros where looking to add to their bullpen. They where in on left-handed reliever Andrew Miller and actually offered Miller more money then what he got when he signed with the New York Yankees. Robertson was also a reported target of the Astros before he signed with the White Sox. Today the Astros added two relievers that should help improve their bullpen. The Astros have agreed to a three-year, $18.5 million dollar deal with reliever Luke Gregerson. Also the Astros have reached a deal with fellow right-handed reliever Pat Neshek. Neshek receives a $12.5 million dollars guarantee over two years, with an option for a third.

Also earlier in the week the Oakland Athletics have officially agreed to ship outfielder/first baseman/DH Brandon Moss to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for minor league second baseman Joe Wendle. This deal had been talked about between these 2 teams for a couple of weeks and they finally agreed to it Tuesday.

We’ll have to see if they are a couple pf more moves out there before the winter meetings end, but if we don’t it’s been a pretty exciting week for baseball fans.

Let’s look at how we did in Week 14 of our NFL picks. Schaumburg Stu and Mr. Fantasy tied for the best record at 12-4. I finished a game behind them with and 11-5 record while Dan the Man ended the week at 9-7. For the season Mr. Fantasy and I are ties for the lead at 135-71-1. Schaumburg Stu is three games behind us with a record of 132-78-1. Dan the Man is stuck at the bottom of the standings with a record of 128-78-1. Let’s see what Week 15 brings us.

How did Greg and Mr. Fantasy do against each other in Week 14? Well let’s take a look at who they picked and how they did. At quarterback Greg took a chance on Thursday night with Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears while Mr. Fantasy went with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Cutler scored 24.22 points and finished 8th in the quarterback standings for Week 14 while Brady scored 17.54 points and ended up 12th for the week. It was Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton who led all players at that position for Week 14 with 39.82 points. It seems like both Greg and Mr. Fantasy rate their running backs similarly as they managed to select the same player again. This time it was Eddie Lacy of the Green Bay Packers. Lacy finished 4th for the week with 29.60 points. He was behind Joique Bell (Detroit Lions), DeMarco Murray (Dallas Cowboys) and Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers who topped all other running backs with 52.50 points in Week 14. At wide receiver Greg went with a Oakland Raiders player as he likes to do and this week it was James Jones. Mr. Fantasy took Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions for his wide receiver. While the Raiders did get their 2nd win of the season in Week 14 Jones only scored 2.60 points for Greg and finished ranked 103rd among wide receivers. Johnson had a little better week scoring 28.05 points and finishing 6th among wide receivers for Week 14. At tight end Greg took Jordan Reed of the Washington Redskins while Mr. Fantasy went with Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers. Reed scored 4.75 points and finished 26th among tight ends for the week. Gates scored 7.15 points which was good for 17th among tight ends for Week 14. At kicker Greg picked Matt Prater of the Detroit Lions while Mr. Fantasy selected Mason Crosby of the Green bay Packers. Prater scored 11 points in Week 14 and tied for 6th place. Crosby out up 15.25 points which was good for 3rd place among kickers for Week 14. The sleeper picks for Week 14 where Sebastian Janikowski the Oakland Raiders kicker for Greg and Charles Johnson the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver for Mr. Fantasy. Janikowski scored 9 points for Greg while Johnson scored 19.55 points for Mr. Fantasy. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a kicker being a sleeper pick, but hey why not. Let’s see who Greg and Mr. Fantasy like for Week 15. You can hear Mr. Fantasy make his choices Sunday morning in between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. during the Sports Time Radio preview podcast for Week 15 of the NFL on www.blogtalkradio.com Sadly you have to wait until I write this blog on Wednesday’s to know who Greg selected and how they did against each other.

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I need to thank NHL.com for the stats and awards that Jean Beliveau won during his career. Without that site I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much about Beliveau.

8/2/14 How was your Week?

Posted: August 2, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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If you’re an Indiana Pacers fan the worst possible thing happened last night in the scrimmage for Team USA basketball. George’s leg landed and then buckled at the base of the basket stanchion after he fouled James Harden on a drive to the basket just 27 seconds into the fourth quarter. George suffered a open tibia-fibula fracture and had surgery on it last night. George is expected to remain hospitalized for about three days. One of the reports that came out said that while there didn’t appear to be additional damage besides the fractures, doctors believe George likely will miss all of next season, though no official prognosis has been given. The White team led George’s Blue team 81-71 in the scrimmage at the time of the injury, but the rest of the game was cancelled after George got hurt.

The Indiana Pacers had the best record in the Eastern conference last season before losing in the conference finals to the Miami Heat. George is the Pacers best player averaging 21.7 points per game, 3.5 assists per game and 6.8 rebounds per game. In 19 post season games last season George’s scoring average increased to 23.6 points per game. With the majority if not all of the top NBA free agents signed by now the Pacers don’t really have to many options to try to replace George outside of the organization. Remember the Pacers lost Lance Stevenson as a free agent in the off-season. I guess will see if the Pacers male a move and try to add a player like Shawn Marion or Al-Farouq Aminu to fill some of the void left by George’s injury.

The MLB non-waiver trading deadline was July 31st and a lot of teams made moves before the deadline. The day start with the Boston Red Sox making their 1st of s couple trades they would make by sending Jon Lester, Jonny Gomes and cash to the Athletics for Yoenis Cespedes and a Competitive balance pick. The day ended with the Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays making a three team deal. The Tigers landed the big prize in this deal getting David Price. The Mariners got the right-handed bat a lot of experts say they needed in Austin Jackson and Tampa Bay came away with three players Nick Franklin, Drew Smyly and top shortstop prospect Willy Adames. The Red Sox also sent John Lackey, minor league pitcher Corey Littrell and Cash considerations to the St. Louis Cardinals for Allen Craig and Joe Kelly. By far the busiest team at the trade deadline Boston made two other trades sending Andrew Miller to Baltimore for minor league left hander Eduardo Rodriguez and then trading Stephen Drew and cash to New York Yankees for Kelly Johnson. It was a year where major league players were traded for major league players, but as always there was a share of prospects moved in deals. The Yankees added another infielder getting Martin Prado from the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league catcher Peter O’Brien and a player to be named later. The Diamondbacks also Gerardo Parra to Milwaukee Brewers for two minor leaguers Anthony Banda and Mitch Haniger. The A’s sent Tommy Milone to the Minnesota Twins to get back outfielder Sam Fuld. The mariners did land a 2nd right-handed hitter getting Chris Denorfia from the San Diego Padres for Abraham Almonte and minor league pitcher Stephen Kohlscheen. The Houston Astros had said earlier in the week that they would be willing to trade a starting pitcher and they did sending Jarred Cosart, Enrique Hernandez and Austin Wates to Miami Marlins for Jake Marisnick, Colin Moran and Francis Martes. If you where listening to the show yesterday (Friday) you heard us talking about the Cubs trade to get another prospect. The Cubs traded Emilio Bonifacio, James Russell and cash to Atlanta Braves for Victor Caratini.

I think I got through all of the trades from deadline day and now will see if these deals work out for the stretch run. Of course there will be questions out there. Did the Rays get enough in the David Price deal? If Jon Lester is just a rental for the A’s; do they have to win the World Series to validate this trade? As this plays out the last couple months of the season will get these answers.

Did your favorite team make a move? Did they make themselves better or did they ship off players from their major league roster for prospects?

So how was your week?

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Let’s call it Wednesday 7/30/14

Posted: July 30, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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Is there another sports league that gets more negative publicity than the National Football League (NFL)? It seems like almost daily there’s another NFL player arrested for something or failing a drug test. There’s the ongoing storyline with Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and his now wife. ESPN’s Steven A. Smith was suspended over the comments he made about the situation. There’s the suspension of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon. Gordon not only failed a drug test, but then got arrested for DUI. Just a month ago Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman John Abraham was arrested for DUI. Just in the month of July besides Gordon; Jimmy Smith of the Baltimore Ravens, Keelan Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jo-Lonn Dunbar of the St. Louis Rams and Jacksonville jaguars wide receiver Justin Blackmon have all been arrested for different offenses. There was also Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s arrest for DUI and I didn’t even mention that former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is still in jail awaiting trial for murder. I also left out former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe. I thought Kluwe was trying to do something good when all of this first started with him, but more and more it’s starting to seem like he’s just out for himself.

Even through all of this the NFL remains the most popular sport in the United States. If you’re reading this I’m guessing you have at least one (1) if not more NFL fantasy drafts coming up. I myself actually have 3 (three) fantasy drafts coming up. I have a money league team that I share with Mr. Fantasy. Then there are the 2 (two) Yahoo fantasy football leagues we have. There’s the Sports Time Radio league which is an auction style draft and then there’s the league we’ve had for years titled Next Year is Here; which is a more traditional snake style draft. If you’re interested in joining either of our leagues they are free and run through Yahoo sports; email me at Sportstimeradio@hotmail.com

The Major League Baseball (MLB) trading deadline is tomorrow or at least the first trading deadline is tomorrow. Is your favorite team a buyer or a seller this season? David Price looked like he was going to be the big pitching prize on the market this season, but then his team the Tampa Bay Rays began to play better. Now the talk has turned to Boston Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester. Lester is a free agent after this season and the Red Sox look to be out of it in the American League (A.L.) East. Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington has said he’d need to be blown away by an offer to move Lester as the Red Sox hope to resign him in the off-season. It looks like the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners are the primary suitors for Lester heading into Wednesday. The Miami Marlins aren’t entirely out of the Lester sweepstakes. However, the Marlins won’t part with top prospect Andrew Heaney in a Lester deal or a deal for any rental player. Last night, Lester was scratched from his scheduled start tonight. A clear indicator that the Red Sox are looking to deal there ace. Lester may not be the only Red Sox starting pitcher headed out of Boston at the trade deadline. John Lackey’s name has come up in trade rumors with the Kansas City Royals and the Los Angeles Dodgers showing the most interest right now. Lackey’s five-year, $82.5MM contract with the Red Sox contained a clause that gave Boston a 2015 club option at the league minimum in the event that he missed significant time with an elbow injury. A torn ulnar collateral ligament that required Tommy John surgery triggered that clause, making Lackey a highly appealing trade chip even to teams with the most modest of payrolls. It seems as if the Dodgers are in on even big name pitcher or just pitcher whose name comes up on the trade market. They’ve been linked to Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres closer Joaquin Benoit. Benoit got the Padres closer job when Huston Street was trade to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It seems like teams are looking for pitching, pitching and more pitching. Will have to wait and see if any of these big names pitchers changes teams and how much a team will have to give up to get one. If your favorite team could land a Lester, Price or Hamels in a deal it could lock up a playoff spot for that team and maybe get them into the World Series.

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

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