Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Love’

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 15, 2017 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports
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With pitchers and catchers just reporting the St. Louis Cardinals got some bad news already. The Cardinals top pitching prospect and the #6 rated minor league prospect overall Alex Reyes needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire 2017 season. An MRI revealed a complete tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.Reyes had the MRI on Tuesday after letting the Cardinals of elbow discomfort. The scan was examined by team physician Dr. George Paletta; who confirmed that Reyes requires Tommy John surgery. The images have been sent to Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion, but the Cardinals do not expect the diagnosis to change. Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said Reyes will likely have the surgery on Thursday. It will be performed by Paletta. Reyes first notified the Cardinals of arm discomfort late last week, and the club recommended the imaging scan after running Reyes through a physical exam at their spring training complex. Reyes has been pitching with a compromised ligament in his right elbow since at least 2013; when he was diagnosed with an elbow strain. Reyes will no longer pitch for the Dominican Republic team in next month’s World Baseball Classic. Reyes pitched in 12 games last season for St. Louis making 5 starts. He pitched a total of 46 innings going 4-1 with an E.R.A. of 1.57 and getting 1 save. Reyes was expected to contribute at the major league level this season, but his role hadn’t been decided yet. While it was never announced you have to believe there was a plan in place to limit his innings this season be it as a starter or out of the bullpen. Not that you ever want to lose a player for the season this early, but the Cardinals do have Lance Lynn returning from Tommy John surgery which cost him the entire 2016 season. St. Louis also has 23 year old prospect Luke Weaver who made 8 starts for them last season to help in the rotation if needed. Weaver was 1-4 in those 8 starts with an E.R.A, of 5.70 over 36 1/3rd innings. Weaver did make one relief appearance last season.

Kyle Schwarber has said that he wants to continue to catch and the Chicago Cubs cane out yesterday and said that they will allow him to do some catching this spring. Schwarber  tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee in the third regular season game in 2016 was examined by the Cubs medical staff yesterday and if they clear him he’ll catch one or two days a week this spring. Schwarber miss all but those first three games of the regular season, but he did return to serve as the Cubs designated hitter in the World Series. Schwarber will have to wear a brace on his left knee this season and possibly the rest of his playing career. The Cubs are working on creative ways for Schwarber to work with the catchers and not put any unnecessary stress on his knee. Coming into the 2017 season Wilson Contreras looks to be the Cubs starting catcher with Miguel Montero being his back up. If Schwarber can catch he could be a very valuable 3rd catcher for the Cubs.

Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star forward Kevin Love will have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and is scheduled to miss 6 weeks. Love began suffering from a sore left knee Saturday against the Denver Nuggets and sat out from the Cavaliers game Tuesday. An MRI on Sunday didn’t reveal any structural damage, but Love sought out a second opinion. If Love is out the 6 weeks he should be able to return at the start of April and that would give him 7 games to get ready for the playoffs. That actual should give Love enough time to test the knee out and get back into game shape. Love is currently 3rd on the Cavaliers in scoring averaging 20 points a game. He is the teams leading rebounder grabbing 11.1 per game. Love is also one of the Cavaliers best 3-point shooters making 38.4% from behind the 3-point line. Cleveland is 38-16 and have a 2 1/2 game lead over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference. Will they still be in 1st place when Love returns? More importantly does it matter at all where the Cavaliers are seeded come playoff time? You have to think that even if the Cavaliers fall into 2nd or even 3rd place they would still be the clear favorites to win the conference and go to the NBA Finals.

The Anaheim Ducks beat the Minnesota Wild 1-0 last night, but they may lose Antoine Vermette to a suspension after he slashed linesman Shandor Alphonso. After losing a face off with 7:33 left in the 3rd period Vermette slashed the leg of the linesman. This earned Vermette a 10 minute penalty for game misconduct and an ejection for abuse of an official. NHL Rule 40.3 explains that a player will receive a 10 game suspension for deliberately applying physical force to an official in any manner. Vermette’s slash fits into this category. Just last season Dennis Wideman of the Calgary Flames received a 20 game suspension for cross-checking a ref on his way back to the bench. Wideman’s suspension was later reduced to 10 games through an appeal. Vermette is in his 13th NHL season, but this is his 1st one with Anaheim. In 58 games this season Vermette has 22 points on 8 goals and 14 assists, but is a -10 for +/- this season. There is no timetable for an NHL ruling on Vermette’s slash, but you have to think there will be a suspension involved with this incident.

For the Super Bowl the Atlanta Zoo had a bet with the Rhode Island Roger Williams Park Zoo that the loser would name a baby animal after the winning team’s star quarterback. The Atlanta Zoo paid off there bet by naming a Madagascar hissing cockroach Tom Brady. The animal to be named had been agreed upon between the two zoo’s since it was expected the loser of the bet would be bitter. The zoo introduced a whole family of cockroaches in a video Monday, including a tiny Tom Brady.

You can listen to Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com or you can listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: February 17, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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I hope you’re ready for the NASCAR season to start because this Sunday Chase Elliott will lead the field to the green flag on the pole for the Daytona 500. Elliott who’s a rookie and is taking over the #24 car from Jeff Gordon ran a lap of 196.314 m.p.h. just narrowly edging out Matt Kenseth who ran a lap of 196.036 m.p.h. and will start 2nd. Elliott who is just 20 years old used the same chassis as Gordon did last season and got the same result Gordon got last year; the pole position. Elliott and Kenseth are the only drivers whose positions for the Daytona 500 are now locked in. The balance of the field will be filled and ordered in Thursday night’s 150-mile Can-Am Duel qualifying races. Elliott’s first Sprint Cup pole was a milestone in many other respects. At 20 years, 2 months and 17 days, he is the youngest-ever winner of a Daytona 500 pole, supplanting Austin Dillon (23 years, 9 months 27 days in 2014). This was the 10th Daytona 500 pole for Hendrick Motorsports and the third for the #24 Chevrolet, with Gordon winning the previous two in 1999 and 2015.  The qualifying times of the #4 and #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolets, driven by Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers, were disallowed after NASCAR discovered track bar infractions during post-qualifying inspection. Those cars will start from the rear in their respective Duels. Another car with qualifying issues was The #78 Furniture Row Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. Truex Jr. failed to post a time after NASCAR inspectors noticed that one of the roof flaps was out of compliance. The car was on the 5-minute clock at the time and the problem could not be corrected in time to make a qualifying run. As a consequence, Truex will start from the rear of the field in the second Can-Am Duel. Chris Olmstead from http://www.BeyondtheFlag.com will join The Big Jack and Mr. Fantasy during the Sunday morning edition of Sports Time Radio to breakdown Sunday’s Daytona 500 and give you his Top 3 drivers you might see in victory lane.

The NBA doesn’t take the court for action until Thursday, but the trading deadline is also Thursday and we’ve had a couple of deals already. The Detroit Pistons sent Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova to the Orlando Magic for Tobias Harris. Both teams are currently out of playoff position and have been looking to get back in. With Harris, who is 23 and averaging 13.7 points and 7.0 rebounds this season, the Pistons get a young power forward with shooting range, but the team will also take on the rest of the 4-year, $64 million deal he signed last year. Detroit is 27-27, a 1/2 behind Charlotte in the competition for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons expect Harris to bolster their chances of reaching the postseason for the first time since 2009. The Magic, who had one of the youngest rosters in the league, get veterans to help with a run toward the playoffs, which 1st coach Scott Skiles has been pushing for in recent weeks. They are expected to have additional trade talks about adding more veteran players.

Bare with me here as there was also a 3-team deal and I’ll try to explain it the best I can. The Miami Heat received Brian Roberts from the Charlotte Hornets. The Memphis Grizzlies received Chris Andersen and a 2nd round pick from the Miami Heat. The Grizzlies also received P.J. Hairston and a 2nd round draft pick from the Charlotte Hornets. While Courtney Lee went from the Grizzlies to the Hornets. Okay; so Miami got 1-player, Charlotte got 1-player and Memphis got 2-players and 2-draft picks.

The question is will we see a big name player get dealt. Dwight Howard’s name has been mentioned quite a few times this week; so maybe he’s the guy to go. While it’s difficult to find a quality big man in the NBA is Howard the guy to get a playoff contender over the top. If Howard is dealt to an Eastern Conference team like most of the rumors are; can he help the team he’s traded to get past the Cleveland cavaliers in the playoffs? The other big name that may or may not be on the trading block is the Los Angeles Clippers Blake Griffin. There was a lot of talk about Griffin going to the New York Knicks for Carmelo Anthony, but Anthony has a no trade clause in his contract. Anthony also came out this week and said he won;t be going anywhere; so I’m guessing that deal isn’t going to happen. I really think that the best landing spot for Griffin would be the Cavaliers. A Griffin for Kevin Love deal might work well for both teams. The Cavaliers are looking to play a more up tempo style and Griffin would fit right into that. While Griffin isn’t the outside shooter that Love is he could take up some room in the paint and allow LeBron James to spend some more time on the perimeter. While Love might not look like the best fit for the Clippers style Imagine Chris Paul leading the break for Los Angeles and there’s nothing there. Love would be the perfect fit to trail that play and hit a 3-pointer in transition. Cleveland has said that they wouldn’t deal Love unless they got a star player in return and Griffin fits that bill. Love played his college basketball at UCLA and was born in Santa Monica, California. Would a return home to another contending team be alright with Love? Griffin could probably use a fresh start after his incident with the assistant equipment manager that saw Griffin break his hand. I guess we just have to wait and see if either team tries to make this deal before Thursday’s deadline.

Shayne Gostisbehere of the Philadelphia Flyers extended his record point streak by an NHL rookie defenseman to 13 games Tuesday with a first-period goal against the New Jersey Devils . Gostisbehere scored with 2:37 remaining in the period. Gostisbehere 13 game point streak is the second-longest in the NHL this season, behind the 26 games of Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane. It is the longest by an NHL defenseman in almost 20 years, since Brian Leetch had a 14-game streak for the New York Rangers.and the longest by any Flyers rookie. The longest point streak by an NHL rookie since 1987-88 is 20 games by forward Paul Stastny of the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado Rockies defenseman Barry Beck held the rookie defenseman record with two 10-game point streaks during the 1977-78 season.

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You can find me on Twitter @Burketime

 

7/19/14 How was your Week?

Posted: July 19, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have acquired Huston Street from the San Diego Padres in a 6 player deal. Prospects Taylor Lindsey, R.J. Alvarez, Jose Rondon and Elliot Morris will head to San Diego while the Angels will also get right-hander Trevor Gott. Street has 24 saves and has only given up 4 earned runs in 33 appearances for an ERA of 1.09. Ernesto Frieri started the season as the Angels closer and did get 11 saves, but had his issues along the way and was eventually dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Joe Smith moved into the closer role after the Frieri deal and picked up 15 saves to this point for the Angels. Street is in his 10th season and the Angels will be his 4th team. He has closed for the Oakland A’s, Colorado Rockies and of course the Padres before the trade. Street has 258 career saves with his high water mark being 37 saves for the A’s in 2006. The back-end up the bullpen was the Angels weakness going into the season, but with the trade for Street they get an experienced closer who should help keep them in the American League West race. The Angels are 1 1/2 behind the A’s in the West and would claim a wild card spot right now. The top two teams in the A.L. West the A’s and the Angels have made big trades. Does this mean the Seattle Mariners have to make a deal to stay in the A.L. West race? The Mariners are currently 9 games behind Oakland, but would be the 2nd wild card team right now.

I’m not sure how many of you where rooting for the New York Yankees this season. With it being Derek Jeter’s last season I thought they might get themselves into the playoffs and Jeter would go out that way. Now with the pitching injuries the Yankees have had I don’t think will get to see Jeter in the playoffs one more time. Masahiro Tanaka has issues with the ligament in his pitching elbow. No one has said the magic Tommy John word when it comes to Tanaka, but you have to wonder if that surgery is down the road for him. The Yankees have also announced that CC Sabathia’s season is officially over. Sabathia is scheduled to have arthroscopic debridement surgery this coming Wednesday. No team can lose it’s top two starting pitchers and hope to compete; so sadly for Yankees fans and Derek Jeter fans it looks like his career will end at game 162 this season.

As you’ve known for a week or so now LeBron James signed a 2 year deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Well now James wants Kevin Love to be a Cavalier and the trade rumors have started. Unlike James’s situation when he went to Miami, Love has a contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves; so Cleveland just can’t sign him. The trade rumor I’ve heard the most has Cleveland sending this year’s #1 overall draft pick; Andrew Wiggins, last years #1 overall draft pick Anthony Bennett and a 2015 1st round draft pick to Minnesota for Love. It’s being reported that the Timberwolves want more than this for the Cavaliers for Love. James must realize that the way the cavaliers roster is right now that they’re too young and inexperienced to win and NBA title and adding a player like Love brings the Cavaliers closer to that title. Don’t forget though that the Golden State Warriors have long had an interest in Love. The Warriors are offering a package that includes David Lee and Harrison Barnes. Minnesota would like Klay Thompson in any deal they make with Golden State, but right now the Warriors have been hesitant to include Thompson in any deal. The Chicago Bulls where the 3rd team that had major interest in Love, but with the signing of Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic signing the Bulls are out. I mentioned earlier that James only signed for two seasons with Cleveland. Will we have to go through “Decision 3” with James? I don’t think that will happen. Two years is a good signing by James and his people. After that 2nd season the new television contract kicks in for the NBA and the salary cap should go up allowing James to get more money in a couple of seasons. I don’t think Cavaliers fans should panic about the short-term deal for James; I think it was just a smart business move by his agent.

So how was your week?

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

Let’s call it Wednesday 6/18/04

Posted: June 18, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Uncategorized
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Since the followers to this blog seem to be increasing I figured I’d try to start writing a 2nd blog during the week and Wednesday seemed a good a day as any to do it. The plan is to get a blog up every Wednesday along with the Saturday blog and we’ll see how this goes.

While I wasn’t surprised to see the San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat to win the NBA championship it was the way they beat them that surprised me. Game 1 was a 15 point win 110-95. Game 2 of course was the only game Miami won during the series. A 2 point Heat win 98-96. Game 3 of course went to San Antonio 111-92. Game 4 saw San Antonio win 107-86. San Antonio won the championship with a Game 5 victory 104-87. While I never made a prediction in this series; I just said I’d like to see the Spurs win. The majority of the experts I heard predicted the Heat to win this series; actually come to think of it I didn’t hear anyone pick the Spurs to win the series. While the experts thought the Spurs would keep the series close and some even said it would go seven games none of them thought San Antonio would win it let alone win it in the fashion they did. No one had Miami winning only one game in this series and no one had them being beaten the way they where. Going into the series I thought Miami was the better team, but San Antonio dominated Miami in winning the championship. Kawhi Leonard was the Spurs player who broke out in the finals. He averaged 17.8 points per game for the series, but in the final three games he went for 29 points in Game 3. 20 points in Game 4 and 22 points in Game 5. Leonard actually posted double-doubles in Games 4 and 5. He grabbed 14 rebounds in Game 4 and then 10 rebounds in Game 5. For his play Leonard was named NBA finals MVP. While Leonard was the breakout star San Antonio’s big three did their part to win this championship. Tim Duncan had double-doubles in three games; Game 1, Game 2 and Game 4. Tony Parker made a case for himself being the best point guard in the NBA. Parker averaged 18.0 points and 4.6 assists during the finals. Manu Ginobili averaged 14.4 points and 4.4 assists during the finals. When Danny Green struggled shooting the ball in Game 5 it was Ginobili who stepped up and went 3 for 6 from behind the three-point line. Green was held scoreless in Game 5 and the Spurs needed Ginobili to come up big like he did. Will this be the Spurs last title with this big three no one can be sure. Duncan is 38 years old, Ginobili is 36 and Parker is 32. Head coach Greg Popovich has said he plans on coaching next season after some rumors came out that he might retire if the Spurs won the title. There was also that same rumor floated out there about Duncan, but nothing has been confirmed. Ginobili as well may retire from the NBA and return to Argentina and play for their team. Will have to wait and see what these Spurs do, but they’ll do it as champions.

Let the NBA off-season rumor mill start. Will LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh all stay in Miami? Where will Carmelo Anthony be playing next season? The Houston Rockets and the Chicago Bulls are the reported front-runners if Carmelo does opt out of his deal and become a free agent. All reports have indicated that he will opt out, but remember the New York Knicks can pay him more than any other team out there. How would interest in Carmelo change if LeBron opted out of his deal in Miami and became a free agent? Could a team Like the Los Angeles Clippers who are on the verge of winning a title make the moves they’d need to make to bring in a player like Carmelo. The Clippers are a team that could be a dark horse for a guy like Anthony. Can Kevin Love force the Minnesota Timberwolves to trade him? and where would he end up. Love has mentioned the Bulls as well as the Golden State Warriors as two places he’d like to go. Could Carmelo be a sign and trade player for the Knicks? Could LeBron end up playing in Cleveland next season? Is there a team that’s willing to pay the price Minnesota would want for Love? Plus the NBA Draft is right around the corner; Thursday June 26th. All this and more will be answered in the NBA off-season.

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

How was your Week? 6/14/14

Posted: June 14, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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Did you stay up to watch the Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers in double overtime to win the Stanley Cup? I can say that I did. While I didn’t watch the entire game; I go back and forth between the hockey game and the different baseball games o that where on. Once overtime started I was locked on as the Kings where one goal away from winning the Stanley Cup and the Rangers where one goal away from going to Game 6. Schaumburg Stu had this series right on; he had the Kings in five games while I thought the Kings would win the series in six games. Alec Martinez scored the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Kings in the 2nd overtime. Martinez scored 14:43 into the second overtime on a rebound off of Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s pads. It’s the second Stanley Cup win for the Kings in three seasons; they won in 2012 as well. This is also three Stanley Cup wins in a row for the Western conference and four out of the last five as well.

With the NHL season over there is only one playoff series left. The San Antonio Spurs lead the Miami Heat, 3 games to 1 in their NBA finals series. After a win on the road by Miami, San Antonio bounced back and won both games in Miami this week and I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted that. We talked on the show about San Antonio being able to go into Miami and split games, but I didn’t think they would win both games. The Spurs have their 1st chance to close out the series tomorrow (Sunday) in San Antonio. Kawhi Leonard has been the breakout star for the Spurs especially the last two games. Leonard has drawn the defensive assignment of guarding LeBron James and has done a solid job. Let’s face it no one player is going to shut down James and Leonard has done a better than average job. James is also guarding Leonard and part of the reason for Leonard’s success on defense is he’s making James work to cover him. Leonard has put up 29 points on Game 3 and then 20 points and 14 rebounds in Game 4 both Spurs wins. Do you think the Spurs close out the series tomorrow night?

Besides the NBA finals there’s a lot of talk about where a couple of players will be playing next season. Carmelo Anthony has been saying for a while now that he’ll opt out of his contract and enter free agency and Kevin Love has told the Minnesota Timberwolves that he won’t sign an extension and will enter free agency after next season. It seems like Anthony has been linked to every NBA team since he announced he’d opt out. There;s been a lot of Carmelo to the Chicago Bulls talk, a little Carmelo to the Los Angeles Lakers talk, but the new one if Carmelo to the Miami Heat. This talk started when the Heat got into trouble in their series. This could be done in Miami, but it would take some doing. I believe LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh would have to opt out of their deals and then agree to resign at lower salaries than they have right now. Carmelo would also have to agree to a much lower salary than he could get from another team. This is the main reason I don’t see this happening, but if some how Carmelo ends up with Miami it will kill the NBA for me. Now in Love’s case he has a contract for next season and the only way he’s going anywhere is if Minnesota agrees to trade him. Love has mentioned the Bulls and the Golden State Warriors as two (2) teams he’d like to play for. It would be a blockbuster trade if Love is moved, but would a team take him without an agreement on a new contract. Love would be a great fit for either the Bulls or the Warriors, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll end up with either of those teams. Minnesota hasn’t mentioned anything at all concerning Love, but it’s very early and as we get closer to the draft and then the season things should pick up.

If you’ve been listening to the show; Sports Time Radio
you know that Dan the Man and Mr. Fantasy with help from Schaumburg Stu every now and then have been predicting games not well, but they’ve been predicting games. It started as just selecting winners in the playoff games, but as the playoffs got smaller other picks have been added. They’ve had a bad week and going into today (Saturday) they are 32-41 overall. Mr. Fantasy made the picks for today and he went with Uruguay to beat Costa Rica in Group D of the FIFA World Cup. He has Shelby Miller pitching more innings today than Steven Strasburg; they’re pitching against each other today. His 3rd pick was Robinson Cano to get an extra base hit in the Seattle Mariners game tonight. You can tune in tomorrow (Sunday) at 11:00 a.m. and hear us discuss they struggles they’ve had or just follow along with their picks.

I woke up this morning to find out that former Pittsburgh Steelers coach and Hall of Famer Chuck Noll passed away. Noll went 209-156-1, including the postseason. He also led the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles. Noll was the Steelers head coach when their defense had the “Steel Curtain” nickname. Noll is seventh on the NFL’s all-time list for regular-season wins by a coach, and in 23 seasons he went 193-148-1 during the regular season. Noll was 82.

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

So how was your week?