Posts Tagged ‘MLB Trades’

How was your Week?

Posted: August 8, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football
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We had our first few waiver wire deals in Major League Baseball yesterday. It started with the Atlanta Braves sending 3rd baseman Chris Johnson the the Cleveland Indians for outfields Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn and cash considerations. There had been reports out for a while now that the Braves were interested in moving Johnson. Johnson is signed through 2017 with a $10 million dollar option for 2015. Bourn who played for Atlanta in 2011 and 12 is signed for 2016 at $14 million with a $12 million dollar option for 2017. Swisher is signed through 2015 as well for $15 million with a $14 million dollar vesting option for 2017 if he 550 plate appearances in 2016 and passes a physical. The next deal saw the Boston Red Sox send Mike Napoli and cash to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Napoli will also be returning to a team he has played for before. Napoli was with the Rangers for the 2011 and 12 seasons. Napoli is in the last year of his contract and it’s being reported that the Rangers will be responsible for paying $1.5 million of his $16 million dollar 2015 salary. The New York Mets picked up some bullpen help as they acquired left-handed reliever Eric O’Flaherty and cash considerations from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for a player to be named later. O’Flaherty had been designated for Assignment by Oakland over the weekend; so they had 10 days to trade, release him or have him accept a minor league assignment. In a corresponding move left handed reliever Alex Torres has been designated for assignment by the Mets to clear space for O’Flaherty on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. With these three deals getting the waiver period started will see if we get some more deals over the weekend.

So which division leader is going to get caught before the season ends? The New York Yankees (3 1/2), the New York Mets (2 1/2), the Kansas City Royals (9 1/2), the St. Louis Cardinals (6), the Houston Astros (1 1/2) or the Los Angeles Dodgers (3). Now the Mets may be the obvious choice, but it may be the other New York team that is in the most danger of losing their division lead. The Toronto Blue Jays have been closing the gap on the Yankees. With the acquisitions of Troy Tulowirzki and David Price the Blue Jays 9-1 over their last 10 games and are currently on a 6 game winning streak. Over that same 10 game stretch the Yankees are 5-5. Last night (Friday) these two teams started a 3 game series in New York. The Blue Jays got the win on Game 1; 2-1, but it took 10 innings. All 3 runs were scored on solo home runs. Josh Donaldson hit his 30th home run on the Top of the 1st inning to give the Blue Jays a 1-0, but it didn’t last long as Mark Teixeira tied the game at 1-1 with his 30th home run. The game stayed 1-1 until the Top of the 10th inning when Jose Bautista hit his 25th home run of the season off of Yankees reliever Branden Pinder to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. Roberto Osuna pitched the Bottom of the 10th for Toronto to pick up his 9th save while Brett Cecil got the win to move his record to 3-4. Pinder took the loss in his first decision of the season; so he’s 0-1. Both teams had 8 hits apiece in the game. Bautista was the only Blue Jays player with 2 hits in the game while Teixeira, Jacoby Ellsbury and Didi Gregorius all had 2 hits apiece for the Yankees. R. A. Dickey started the game for Toronto while Nathan Eovaidi made the start for the Yankees. Dickey pitched 7 innings giving up 1 run on 6 hits while striking out 3 and walking 2; he also threw a wild pitch. Eovaildi pitched 6 inning giving up 1 run on 5 hits while also striking out 3 and walking 2. Game 2 of the series is set for Saturday afternoon in New York and David Price is starting for the Blue Jays while the Yankees are going with Ivan Nova on the mound. Price was dominant on his Blue Jays debut; striking out 11 and retiring the last 15 batters he faced. Nova has made 7 starts for the Yankees since returning from Tommy John surgery and has an E.R.A. of 3.10. Look for Brian McCann to be a key factor in the Yankees line up against Price as he is a career .563 hitter against him with 3 home runs and 7 RBI’s. Jacoby Ellsbury also has good career numbers against Price hitting .370 in 46 career at bats. Both Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista average over .300 against Nova. Encarnacion at .364 and Bautista at .333 and each have 1 home run off Nova.  The Blue Jays (589) and Yankees (529) are the Nos. 1 and 2 teams atop the Major League leaderboard in runs scored; so will we see more than a 2-1 game like last nights?

On the Sunday Sports Time Radio podcasts Mr. Fantasy and I have tried to pick the best line up for Fanduel and sadly haven’t done very well. Now we’re going to continue to try and find ways to help you win money during the remainder of the season on Fanduel, but we’re also going to start taking a look at the upcoming football season. Our drafts will be held over Labor Day weekend; so we’re starting to get ready for them. If you’re interested in being in either of our league; they’re free and we run them through Yahoo. Both leagues are 20 team leagues; one is a traditional snake league style draft and the other league is an auction league. Again they are both free and if you’re interested in playing please e-mail us SportsTimeRadio@Hotmail.com and we’ll send you the link to sign up. One league has 5 spots left and the other has 8 spots left. Feel free to play in one or both leagues with us. Just please be a serious fantasy football player who’ll stay through the season even if your team struggles.

I was looking at the pre-season rankings for tight ends and they have Rob Gronkowski as the #6 rated player overall. I have to tell you I don;t think I would draft a tight end that high and in one of our leagues we start 2 tight ends a week. While there’s a bit of a drop off from Gronkowski to Jimmy Graham and then even a bigger drop off from Graham to the #3 ranked tight end Travis Kelce; I’m not sure if taking a tight end at #6 is the best choice. There’s also the issue of if there’s a Tom Brady suspension. How much will that affect Gronkowski’s numbers? be it for the 4 games that’s in place right now or even 1 or 2 games if it’s brought down in court. Now I won;t be surprised at all when Gronkowski comes off the draft board in the Top 10 and while he’s a great player and the best at his position can you win your league taking a tight end that high?

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: January 21, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball
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1/21/15

Are the Atlanta hawks the best team in the Eastern conference of the NBA? With a 34-8 record and on a 13 game winning streak you could make that argument. Under 2nd year head coach Mike Budenholzer the Hawks are playing more of an uptempo style and have been compared to the team that Budenholzer worked for 16 or 17 seasons the San Antonio Spurs. Yesterday on the Sports Time Radio podcast Brad Rowland from ATLallday.com talked about the fact that the hawks are just one win away from tying the team’s all-time record for wins in a row. They’ll get their chance to tie that record tonight (Wednesday) as they host the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are in last place in the Central division of the Eastern conference at 15-28 coming into tonight’s game. This could be considered a classic trap game for the Hawks as they have a big match up with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday and if they’re looking ahead to that game the Pacers may surprise them. If the Hawks can get their 14th win tonight and they find a way to get past the Thunder for #15 they’ll have a couple of winnable games Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves and then a week from today against the Brooklyn Nets. Could the Atlanta winning streak be at 17 when they go up against the 2nd best team record wise in the Western conference the Portland Trailblazers. Now if you don’t consider Atlanta to be the best team in the Eastern conference; you’d have to say they’re the biggest surprise right now. Stat wise you wouldn’t know how well this team is doing. They don’t have a player who averages 20 points a game. Jeff Teague is averaging the most points per game with 17.2. Paul Milsap isn’t far behind at 16.9 points per game. Milsap is the teams rebounding leader with 7.9 per game. Al Horford is 2nd in rebounding at 6,6 per game. Teague is easily the team leader in assists handing out 7.3 per game. You can’t talk about the success the Hawks are having without mentioning the role that Kyle Korver has played. Korver is shooting 53.6% from behind the three point line and adding 13.2 points per game, 4.2 rebounds per game and 2.9 assists per game. The Hawks have avoided a major injury to a star player this season and still may have some issues inside against bigger teams, but their isn’t a team in the NBA on a better roll right now.

The team in the Eastern conference that might give the Hawks the most problems could be the Washington Wizards. While the Chicago Bulls are struggling right now and the Cleveland Cavaliers are still trying to find their way the Wizards have the 2nd best record in the Eastern conference at 29-13. The Wizards have what the Hawks struggle against; bigger player who can move. The Wizards have Marcin Gortat, Nene as starters with Kris Humphries and Kevin Seraphin coming off the bench. While I think everyone is expecting the Cavaliers or the Bulls to represent the Eastern conference in the NBA finals, but don’t be surprise if you see the Wizards vs. the Hawks for the right to play for the NBA title.

7 years and $210 million is what it took the Washington Nationals to land Max Scherzer. Scherzer turns 31 in July; so that means the back-end of this contract will be terrible for Washington. There was a lot of money deferred; so does that make Schrezer the new Bobby Bonilla? While the contract says seven years he’ll be paid over a period of fourteen years. Schrezer was 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA last season for the Detroit Tigers. The knock on Schrezer is the fact that he’s had one complete game in 198 career starts, but that complete game was last season. Schrezer is also one year removed from a Cy Young award-winning season. Schrezer joins the nationals starting rotation along with Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez and Doug Fister. They also have Tanner Roark, but you’d think if the Nationals don’t make another deal Roark may be ticketed for the bullpen. There is talk of the Nationals looking for a bullpen arm, but would they deal Zimmerman to get him or would Roark be the starter that gets dealt. Either way with the Schrezer signing the Nationals have on paper what appears to be the best starting rotation in Major League Baseball but will it win them a World Series.

I was a little surprised to see the Milwaukee Brewers trade Yovani Gallardo. He had been the ace of their pitching staff and even though his stats where in decline I didn’t think they would trade him. In return for Gallardo Milwaukee received a group of young players. Infielder Luis Sardinas and right-handed pitchers Corey Knebel and Marcos Diplan. There was some talk that the Brewers would be interested in Jordan Zimmerman of the Nationals, but it doesn’t appear that will happen; so it looks like Jimmy Nelson is the guy tab to move into the Milwaukee starting rotation. We’ll have Phil Watson from DairylandExpress.com on the podcast today (Wednesday) and you know this topic will come up.

The Houston Astros and the Chicago Cubs made a deal as the Astros have traded outfielder Dexter Fowler to Chicago for infielder Luis Valbuena and right-handed pitcher Dan Straily. The Cubs had reportedly been seeking an outfielder, and Fowler will take over in center and join an outfield mix that also includes Jorge Soler, Chris Coghlan, Chris Denorfia and Arismendy Alcantara. Alcantara is just 23 and struggled in his first big league season in 2014, so perhaps the Cubs will have him start the season in the minors, or maybe they’ll also have him play infield, perhaps using him at third base until Kris Bryant arrives. Mike Olt and Tommy La Stella could also be in the short-term mix at third. If you’ve ever heard the podcast you know I’m all in on Kris Bryant and thought he should’ve been with the major league team at the end of last season. Sadly the Cubs are looking for control of Bryant for as long as they can; so I won’t be surprised at all if the Cubs keep Bryant in the minors until July just for that one extra year of control. Where Bryant starts the season at will tell you exactly where the Cubs think they are. If he’s in Chicago with the big club the Cubs think they have a shot at a playoff berth. If Bryant starts the season at Triple A Iowa the Cubs feel they won’t be a playoff team and hold Bryant back.

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