Posts Tagged ‘playoffs’

5/24/14 How was your Week?

Posted: June 2, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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I think that the NHL playoffs have been pretty exciting this season. The problem I’m having now is the scheduling with the Western conference finals. For some reason they went away from the every other day format and now seem to be working with two days off in between games. In a way I guess it’s good for the teams as players get an extra day of rest, but this will stretch out the playoffs until June. By the time the Stanley Cup finals rolls around I’m not going to care who wins the cup. Now that would be sad because like I said the playoffs have been exciting. The Blackhawks/Kings series is tied at 1 game apiece with the series headed back to Los Angeles for Game 3 tonight. The New York Rangers have a 2 games to 1 lead over the Montreal Canadians in the Eastern conference finals with Game 4 tomorrow in New York. In the Rangers/Canadians series the home team hasn’t been able to win a game in the series.

The NBA playoff scheduling is just as bad if not worse than the NHL’s. The Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers played Game 2 of their series Tuesday night. Then the teams were given three days off to travel to Miami for Game 3 tonight. The series is tied at 1 – 1 and the extra rest might help the Pacers more. Paul George got hit in the back of the head by Dwayne Wade in Game 2 and suffered a concussion. Now with the extra rest George has been cleared to play tonight. Even with George playing the Pacers will have a tough time beating the Heat. In the Western conference finals the San Antonio Spurs have looked like the best team in the playoffs. They have a 2 – 0 lead in their series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. I think everyone thought the loss of Serge Ibaka would be a big issue and the Spurs have taken advantage of this situation. There’s been some reports that Ibaka will be available to play in Game 3 tomorrow. If Ibaka isn’t completely healthy I don’t think he’ll be able to help the Thunder, but just his presence might make a little difference on the mental side for the Thunder. The Spurs/Thunder series resumes Sunday with Game 3 in Oklahoma City.

If you’re a fantasy baseball player injuries are a big concern for you right now. Of course I guess the injuries would be a big concern for major league baseball teams as well. Off the top of my head there where some big name players that ended up on the disabled list (DL) this week. The Cincinnati reds got Jay Bruce back from knee surgery, but Joey Votto went on the DL the day Bruce came off the list. Ryan Braun is on the DL for the 2nd time this season. The Brewers played okay with Braun out the first time, but you can only be without your best player for so long. Prince Fielder went on the DL for the Texas Rangers with season ending surgery on his neck. Fielder has been bothered by a herniated disc in his neck and has opted for surgery to correct the problem. Then just to add to the Rangers injury issues top prospect and projected starting 2nd baseman for this season Jurickson Profar had a set back in his injury rehab and the reports are saying he’ll be out 10 – 12 more weeks. Profar hasn’t even had an at bat this season. Those are just some of the injuries I thought of off the top of my head and I didn’t even get into the injuries pitchers have suffered this season. Just going over the list of pitchers who need Tommy John surgery this season is a long one. Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I are in a couple of large fantasy baseball leagues. One league has 18 teams and the other has 20 teams; this makes injuries tough to deal with. You can’t go out and pick up a star player on the waiver wire when one of your top guys gets injured. To me it makes the leagues fun to play in, but it also will drive a lot of fantasy players away. A lot of fantasy players want the easy smaller leagues to play in where if you lose a player or a guy is having a bad year you just drop him and there’s an all-star out there on waivers waiting for you to pick him up. Dan the Man has told the story on air before where two people he knew got in our 20 team fantasy football league a couple of seasons ago. These guys ended up meeting in the leagues Super Bowl that season. Then the next year neither of them came back to play in the league because 20 teams was too hard and they where looking for easier leagues to play in. This is the first time ever that I’ve been in any type of fantasy league where the top two teams didn’t return the next season. I guess it’s to each his own when it comes to fantasy sports.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

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

So how was your week?

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5/10/14 How was your Week?

Posted: May 10, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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So the NFL draft has pretty much taken over the sports world with round 1 starting Thursday night and rounds 2 & 3 following up on Friday night. This is the first year that I’ve had the NFL network during a draft, so i was interested to watch it on that channel. I have to tell you I thought their coverage was terrible. I get it that they have more or less 10 minutes to fill between first round picks, but that wasn’t an issue. They almost seemed unprepared to cover the draft and they did a lot of stalling for no real reason. They some how even managed to get behind on picks even though there was the 10 minute gap. Maybe I expected to much, but since it is the network that just covers pro football I thought the coverage would be better.

I think everybody’s mock draft was shot after the Jacksonville Jaguar’s selected quarterback Blake Bortles at #3. I read quite a few mock drafts and no one I read, had Bortles going to Jacksonville. I give Jacksonville a ton of credit for being able to hide their interest in Bortles for this long. I even heard a report that said Jacksonville had been targeting Bortles when they 0 – 8 last season. I’m not going to go over the draft, pick by pick as there will be enough of that from every other blog out there. I was surprised to see the quarterbacks drop like they did, but three did go in the 1st round like most experts thought. Johnny Manziel went #22 to the Cleveland Browns and the Minnesota Vikings traded for the last pick in the 1st round (#32) and took Teddy Bridgewater. No running backs were taken in the 1st round as the position has pretty much been devalued by the new rules favoring throwing the football. There was a run on running backs in the 2nd round as three went in four picks. Rounds 4 through 7 are held today as teams fill out there rosters.

I did find it weird that the NFL draft did better ratings wise than playoff games in the NHL and the NBA. I saw a report that said the only place a playoff game beat out the NFL draft in the ratings was Miami. I know Heat fans arrive late and leave early during Heat games, but they did support their team on television. The NFL draft also beat out all of the baseball games that it was up against, but that’s no surprise as it;s still very early in the baseball season. What did you watch?

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? 4/5/14

Posted: April 5, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
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So the baseball season is underway and as I like to do I’ve been enjoying my free preview of the MLB Extra Innings package. I like being able to go from game to game and see how all the games are going. I just enjoy watching the teams from the different markets that I won’t see much of as the season moves on. I also enjoy listening to which ever teams announcers are doing the game. Dan the Man is so jealous that I was able to watch all of these games while he had to work.

Some of the surprises I caught while checking out all of these games. The Houston Astros winning their opening series against the New York Yankees. The Seattle Mariners sweeping the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I saw Aaron Harang and Matt Garza pitch against each other and have dueling no hitters for 6 2/3 innings. The Chicago Cubs Emilio Bonifacio tied a 100-year-old major league record by getting nine hits in the Cubs first two games this season. Bonifacio is 11 for 19 this season as is Miami Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria. Bonifacio also has four stolen bases to start his season. Did you have Brandon Belt or Alejandro De Aza hitting three home runs this week? While You wouldn’t expect these players to end up at the top of these hitting categories by the end of the season I did have a good time watching Colorado Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon go 6 for 6 yesterday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Blackmon had three doubles and a home run among his six hits in the Rockies 12 – 2 win.

While I was watching baseball game after baseball game Kevin Durant was tying Michael Jordan’s record by scoring 25 points in a game for the 40th straight time. Durant’s team the Oklahoma City Thunder ended the San Antonio Spurs 19 game winning streak during the week. Even with the win the Thunder are still 3 1/2 games behind the Spurs for the #1 playoff spot in the Western conference. The battle in the West will be for the 6th, 7th and 8th spots. Right now the Golden State Warriors are in 6th; the Dallas Mavericks are in 7th and the Memphis Grizzlies are holding the 8th spot. The Phoenix Suns are the odd team out right now, but have the same record (45 – 31) as Memphis. Dallas is only one game ahead of them in 7th; while Golden State is two games ahead of them in 6th. Even a 5th seed isn’t out of these teams reach as the Portland Trailblazers are just four games ahead of the 8th seed. While a team with a winning record will miss the playoff in the Western conference a couple of teams at or below .500 will make the playoffs in the Eastern conference. The Charlotte Bobcats hold the 7th Eastern conference playoff spot and are 38 – 38. The Atlanta Hawks are in the last playoff spot right now, but the New York Knicks are just a game behind the Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers hanging around just three games back of the 8th playoff spot. With only a couple of weeks left in the regular season the race for these last couple of playoff spots will make things interesting.

The NHL regular season is coming to a close as well and they have a couple of good playoff battles going on. In the Eastern conference it looks like 5 teams are going to battle it out for just 2 wild card playoff spots. The Detroit Red Wings (88 points) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (85) hold those wild card spots, but the Toronto Maple Leafs (84) are just one point out of a wild card spot. The New Jersey Devils (82) and the Washington Capitals (81) are still trying to grab a wild card spot. In the Western conference 6 of the 8 playoff spots have been locked up; it’s just the two wild card spots that are up for grabs. It looks like the Minnesota Wild are going to take one (1) of those wild card spots with 90 points this season and a four (4) point lead in the wild card standings. Right now the Phoenix Coyotes (86) hold the other wild card spot, but have just a one point lead over the Dallas Stars (85).

You can follow me on Twitter @ BurkeTime. You can find the show archives for Sports Time Radio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com

So how was your week?

03/15/14 How was your Week?

Posted: March 15, 2014 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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NFL free agency kicked off this week. Did your team sign a player you wanted them to? I woke up this morning (Saturday) to find out the Julius Peppers signed with the Green Bay Packers. When it comes to the years on these deals they don’t really matter; it’s the guaranteed money that’s important. The Denver Broncos signed the most well-known names this week. They added safety T.J. Ward, cornerback Aqib Talib and linebacker DeMarcus Ware. As Denver tries to build a defense to go with that #1 offense that went to the Super Bowl last season. Cleveland filled Ward’s spot by signing hard-hitting safety Donte Whitner and also added linebacker Karlos Dansby. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and new head coach Lovie Smith made a big splash in free agency this week. The Buccaneers added quarterback Josh McCown, defensive end Michael Johnson, cornerback Alterraun Verner, defensive tackle Clinton McDonald, center Evan Dietrich-Smith, plus tackle Anthony Collins. While Tampa Bay was bringing in all these new free agents they released cornerback Darrelle Revis after one season with the team. Revis went on to sign with the New England Patriots. Don’t panic if your favorite team hasn’t signed a free agent yet; their are still plenty of players on the open market. Does your team need a pass rusher? How about Brian Orakpo. Does your team need some help in the defensive backfield? How about two guys with the same last name. Antonio Cromartie and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie are available. Michael Vick is still a free agent if your team needs a quarterback with a bit of an injury history. Ben Tate is probably the #1 running back on the free agent market, but he comes with an injury history as well. If your team can’t find the player they want in free agency maybe they could make a trade. There where three made this week and the San Francisco 49ers were involved in two of them. The 49ers sent a 6th round draft pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for quarterback Blaine Gabbert and then the 49ers sent a 2015 conditional 7th round draft pick to the Miami Dolphins for Jonathan Martin. Yes that Jonathan Martin; he’s going to play for his old college football coach Jim Harbaugh. Martin won’t be asked to start for the 49ers and Harbaugh should be able to give him some protection from any bullying or any type of locker room hazing that might go on. Martin can play both tackle spots and should be a solid back up for the 49ers. In the other trade this week the Philadelphia Eagles sent a 5th round draft pick to the New Orleans Saints for running back Darren Sproles; who seems to be tailor-made for a Chip Kelly offense. Sproles is a good back up for LeShon McCoy and I’m sure jumped way up all the fantasy boards looking at next season all ready.

It’s getting close to playoff time in the NBA and the Miami Heat seems to be in a bit of a funk. The Heat lost last night (Friday) to the Denver Nuggets and the Heat have dropped five of their last six games. I don’t think Miami cares if they end up with the #1 seed in the Eastern conference. One expert mentioned that the Heat are on “cruise” control. Miami has dropped a couple of games to conference opponents Brooklyn and Chicago. A lot of talk seems to think that Brooklyn is the team if there is one that could get by the Heat in the playoffs. The Nets do have Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, but how much do the veteran players have left fun a playoff run. Garnett has played limited minutes this season and has taken games off just to be ready for the playoffs. Some where lost in all of this are the Indiana Pacers who right now are the #1 seed in the Eastern conference. You’d think the Pacers would be the team to knock off the Heat this season, but they’ve seem to have gone unnoticed these last few weeks. The Pacers where in a bit of a slump, but have seemed to came out of it with victories over Boston and Philadelphia. While the Celtics and the 76ers aren’t playoff teams they’re still on your schedule and you need to win those games. In the end will anyone be surprised if it comes down to the Heat against the Pacers in the Eastern conference finals. In other big NBA news Phil Jackson has agreed to a five year contract to become President of the New York Knicks. Jackson won 2 championships as a player with the Knicks. Jackson was also the head coach for 11 championship teams with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jackson has no front office experience; so you have to wonder if he’s the guy to turn the Knicks around. Jackson is scheduled to be introduced by the Knicks on Tuesday and you have to wonder if Mike Woodson’s job is in trouble. Jackson is an advocate of the triangle offense and no one knows if that will suit Carmelo Anthony’s game. Of course even more of a question is will Anthony still be with the Knicks next season. Jackson has his hands full with fixing the Knicks. The Knicks don’t have a 1st round draft pick and they don’t have any money to bring in a top-notch free agent. This will be a monstrous test for Phil Jackson and if he can find a way to turn this Knicks team around or at this point just become a contender he’ll ensure his legacy in New York forever.

Baseball season is getting close. Mr. Fantasy and I have our first fantasy in eight days, but I know there are some people who have already had there drafts. I hope in one of these drafts you didn’t end up with Atlanta Braves pitcher Kris Medlen. Medlen left his spring training start last week with elbow pain and during his examination they found a torn ligament in his pitching elbow. Medlen will under go a 2nd “Tommy John” surgery and be out for the entire 2014 season. That’s one of the reasons I’ve never been a big fan of those early fantasy drafts. Drafting can sometimes be the best part of a fantasy season, but when you do them that early you can lose guys like Medlen before the season even starts. Hopefully soon will get a Mr. Fantasy draft list for you to follow.

So how was your week?

You can listen to Dan the Man, Mr. Fantasy and I on http://www.blogtalkradio.com and http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your Week? (10/5/13)

Posted: October 5, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey
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It’s playoff time in major league baseball and not only did we get the wild card playoff but before that we got the Texas Rangers hosting the Tampa Bay Rays in a game 163 just to get into the wild card game. Tampa Bay and the Pittsburgh Pirates won their wild card game and advanced into the best of 5 division series. It looks like the loss to the Pirates in the wild card game cost Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker his job. The Reds fired Baker on Friday with one year remaining on his contract. Some of the stories out there have said that Baker’s choice to start Johnny Cueto in the wild card game and Cueto’s poor performance was the reason Baker was let go. There was also some talk that the way Baker handle the bullpen during the wild card game had something to do with his release. A lot of the experts didn’t understand why Baker didn’t go to another starting pitcher when Cueto was removed from the wild card game. Baker had guided the Reds to the playoffs two of the last three seasons but it looks like the failure to win a World Series title in Cincinnati cost Baker his job. The division series match ups started with a few blow out games but Game 2 of the Atlanta Braves/Los Angles Dodgers series and the opening game of the Oakland A’s/Detroit Tigers series where closer games. With the division series being five game match ups no one has taken control of a series just yet. With the Dusty Baker firing there are four major league baseball teams looking for new managers. Washington, Cincinnati, Seattle and the Chicago Cubs all have openings for a manager right now. A couple of names have surfaced on some of these cities. Cincinnati has been rumored to be interested in Tony LaRussa. LaRussa has said he has no interested in the Reds job but that’s what you’d expect him to say. Reds general manager and President of baseball operations Walt Jocketty has a working relationship with LaRussa from the time they spent together in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. In Chicago the Cubs are interested in hiring Joe Girardi and there’s a report out today that said the Cubs are willing to make Girardi one of the highest paid managers in baseball. The New York Yankees would like to keep Girardi’s managerial services and they haven’t given the Cubs permission to speak to Girardi. Girardi’s contract runs until the end of the month and the Yankees would like to have a new deal done with him before his contract ends. The interesting name that has come up in Washington Nationals manager search is Cal Ripken Jr. While Ripken has no managerial experience he was a student of the game while he played; everyday by the way. I haven’t heard any names mentioned for the Seattle Mariners job as of yet. I’m sure there will be a few more opens for managers before we get to next season, so will see how this plays out.

Over shadowed by the baseball playoffs the National Hockey League season kicked off. I actually get a NHL free preview this week, so I’ve been able to check out some games from different markets. Chicago Blackhawks got a win opening night as they celebrated winning the Stanley Cup last season. It’s a full season for the NHL this season after a strike shortened season last year. I’m wondering how many of you are watching hockey with the baseball playoffs going on?

The National Basketball Association exhibition season starts today as well and there has been a lot of talk about what kind of season Derrick Rose will have. Rose didn’t play at all last season and this was a big topic in and around the NBA. You’d think Rose will be 100% to start this season and one of the rumors is that he’s improved his jump shot. Dwight Howard has been a topic of off-season conversation as well this week. I guess Howard can make free throws with his eyes closed and has had a little war of words with Kareem Abdul – Jabbar.

How was your Week? You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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