Posts Tagged ‘Toronto Blue Jays’

How was your Week?

Posted: September 12, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, tennis
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The NFL season officially opened Thursday night in New England as the Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-21. Now the game wasn’t as close as the score indicates as the Steelers added a touchdown with 3 seconds remaining in the game t get it to that 28-21 final score. Now I’m sure that all of the fantasy football players out there had their Patriots and Steelers in there line up as that would’ve paid off for them. Tom Brady was 25 for 32 for 288 yards and threw 4 touchdowns. Ben Rothlisberger was very good as well going 26 for 38 and 351 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. With Le’Von Bell suspended the Steelers turned to veteran DeAngelo Williams to run the football and he did well. Williams carried the football 21 times for 127 yards, but didn;t get the goal line carries as Will Johnson got the Steelers rushing touchdown. On the Patriots side it was journeyman Dion Lewis get the most carries in Week 1. Lewis rushed for 69 yards on 15 carries, but did get into the end zone. Lewis did factor a little bit in the New England passing game catching 4 passes for 51 yards while Williams only caught 1 pass for 5 yards for Pittsburgh. If a fantasy owner played either Williams or Lewis he got very good value out of them in Week 1 even without a touchdown from either running back. The receivers is where fantasy owners cashed in on this game. Antonio Brown led the Steelers in receptions with 9 for 133 yards and scored a touchdown. Heath miller added 8 catches out of the tight end position for 84 yards. If you happen to be in a very deep receiver league Darrius Heyward-Bay 4 catches for 58 yards and Markus Wheaton 3 catches for 55 yards would’ve picked up some points for you. It seemed as though New England picked up right where they left off last season. Julian Edelman led the team in receptions with 11 for 97 yards, but it was tight end Rob Gronkowski catching all the touchdown passes from Brady. Gronkowski caught 5 passes for 94 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. The other New England passing touchdown went to another tight end as well, but it was Scott Chandler who had just that 1 catch for 1 yard, but it went for a touchdown. It seems as every year someone thinks that Danny Amendola will finally have a break out season; especially since he’s been with New England. Amendola was targeted 3 times and he caught 2 of those passes for 24 yards. If your league scores defensive players Will Allen had 8 tackles to lead the Steelers and also had a sack. Rookie linebacker Bud Dupree had the Steelers other sack on the night, but added just 2 total tackles. Dont’a Hightower was the Patriots leading tackler with 8; he also had a sack. Jabaal Sheard and Malcolm Brown also picked up a sack apiece for the Patriots. There was only 1 interception in the game and New England’s Duron Harmon was the player who made that interception. It’s always difficult to get the right defensive players in your line up, but hopefully you had the right ones in this game and they put up some points for you.

I don’t think we’ve ever talked about tennis on the Sports Time Radio podcast and I don’t watch tennis except for a highlight here or there, but I have to tell you I was disappointed to hear that Serena Williams lost her semi-final match at the U.S. Open yesterday to Roberta Vinci. Williams won the first set of the match 6-2, but lost the next two sets 4-6 and 4-6. It was a gigantic upset by Vinci; who was unseeded coming into the U.S. Open. It was Williams’ first loss in a Grand Slam singles match this year and ended her bid for the first calendar-year Slam since 1988. Williams had won 26 straight matches in grand slam competition and 33 straight matches overall until Vinci defeated her. It was also the first time in her career that Vinci had taken so much as a set from Williams. Williams lost a three-set match for only the second time this year, her record now 18-2. Vinci will play Flavia Pennetta, another Italian, in Saturday’s final.. Earlier Friday, Pennetta defeated No. 2 seed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-3.It’s the first time in the U.S. Open era that two Italian women will meet in a major final. Pennetta defeated Vinci 6-4, 6-1 in their most recent meeting in the 2013 US Open quarterfinals.

NASCAR’s regular season ends tonight at Richmond International Speedway with Joey Logano on the pole for the Federated Auto Parts 400. Logano won the pole with an average speed of 126.470 just edging out Matt Kenseth; who had a qualifying speed of 126.357. Brad Keslowski; Logano’s Penske racing teammate will start 3rd with Kyle Busch starting 4th and David Ragan rounding out the Top 5. Ragan is the top qualifier who doesn’t have a win this season and if he wants to get himself into next weeks Chase he’ll have to find a way to turn that 5th starting spot into a trip to victory lane. Tony Stewart is the next highest qualifier who doesn’t have a win; Stewart starts 10th tonight. Dan the Man’s favorite driver Clint Bowyer is holding on to the 16th and final Chase spot going into tonight’s race, but if someone who doesn’t have a win finds a way to get one Bowyer could be knocked out of the Chase. Bowyer is however just 10 points behind the 15th place driver Paul Menard; so if either driver has a bad night and that outside driver gets  a win they could be knocked out of the Chase. The other 3 drivers without wins who are in the Chase right now are Jamie McMurray; who clinches a Chase spot just by starting tonight’s race; so he’s as good as in. Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon are the other two drivers without wins that will qualify for the Chase unless something almost impossible happens to them. It will be interesting to see if someone outside of the Chase can get a win and find their way into it tonight, but none of those drivers have really shown they can jump up and get a win. Will find out tonight when they take the green flag at Richmond.

It’s the New York Yankees hosting the Toronto Blue Jays in a series that may end up deciding the American League East. Toronto took Game 1 yesterday 11-5. Toronto got to Yankees rookie pitcher Luis Severino right out of the gate scoring 5 runs in the 1st inning highlighted by a Josh Donaldson (38) and Justin Smoak (17) home runs. Severino didn’t last long pitching just 2 1/3rd inning giving up 6 runs on 8 hits while walking 3 and striking out 4. David Price started the game for Toronto, but while he did get the win he only lasted 5 innings. Price gave up 2 runs on 6 hits while walking 1 and striking out 7, but did throw 96 pitches over his 5 innings. LaTroy Hawkins relieved Price and gave up the other 3 runs (2 where earned) to the Yankees, but the Blue Jays still had a 9-5 lead at that point. Russell Martin (18 & 19) capped off the Blue Jays scoring with his second home run of the night; a 2-run shot to make the final score 11-5. The teams play a doubleheader today with Game 1 being Marco Estrada vs Michael Pineda on the mound. Game 2 feature the return of Marcus Stroman who’s missed the entire season to this point after tearing the ACL in his left leg during spring training. Ivan Nova is the Yankees listed starter for Game 2 of the twin-bill. Toronto takes a 2 1/2 game lead into the doubleheader tonight; so will they extend that lead, have the Yankees cut into or will we just get a split?

Some tough news for the Yankees as it was announced yesterday that 1st baseman Mark Teixeira will miss the remainder of the season as an MRI reveal a fracture in his leg. Teixeira was having a bounce back season for the Yankees. While his batting average was a little low at .255 he was supplying power for te Yankees with 31 home runs and he has driven in 79 runs. It looks like rookie Greg Bird will replace Teixeira in the Yankees line up. Is this the injury that hurts the Yankees the most?

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How was your Week?

Posted: August 15, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football
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I get it people missed the NFL, but the reactions to how teams played is a little over the top. The New England Patriots lost their pre-season opener to the Green Bay Packers 22-11. Now we know that the outcome of these games don’t matter at all, but the analysis was out of control Jimmy Garoppolo went 20 for 30 in the loss for 159 yards and threw 1 interception. Pretty average numbers for a pre-season game, but I saw a breakdown of his play and the expert was just destroying Garoppolo because he was sacked 7 times. While I get it; you never want to see your quarterback get sacked that many times, but it’s the first game of the pre-season for the Patriots. Garoppolo is expected to fill in for New England’s regular starting quarterback Tom Brady if he ends up having to miss any games because of the Deflatgate situation. It just seemed kind of dumb to me that the Patriots season was pretty left for dead if Garoppolo had to start any games if or when Brady is suspended. Did I mention that it was the first week of the pre-season for New England. Maybe it should’ve been called over reaction week.

The other thing I got quite a laugh about with pre-season was the way they where playing up the Denver Broncos vs. the Seattle Seahawks game. It was being billed as a re-match of the 2014 Super Bowl and they wrote how the Broncos would be out for revenge. I guess I understand that you’re trying to get people to watch the game on television; it was the late game on the  NFL Network last night. Now Denver beat Seattle last night 22-20, but does a 2 point win in their first game of the pre-season get them their revenge for losing a Super Bowl? Peyton Manning didn’t play; neither did Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson threw 1 pass in the game. Revenge; really!

Kobe Bryant has said that he’d like to play for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Now I would have no problem at all if they just gave Bryant a spot on Team USA; he’s earned that type of award. Bryant has come out and said that he doesn’t want to be a token on Team USA in Rio de Janeiro, but that he wants to earn his spot on the team. Remember that this is Team USA where Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook come off the bench and Klay Thompsom is more or less used as a role player; is there room for Bryant? Don’t forget that Bryant had a relatively minor role in 2012, when he ranked sixth on the team in minutes per game. Now if the 2015-16 season is Bryant’s last in the NBA he’s not going to go out on top with the Los Angeles Lakers. Wouldn’t the best image for the ending of Bryant’s career be with a gold medal around his neck and holding an american flag.

I noticed that the Dallas Mavericks have signed center JaVale McGee to a contrtact, but I didn’t see how long it was for; I’d have to guess it’s just for one year. McGee has averaged 8.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in his seven NBA seasons. The 7-footer has played 382 games with Washington, Denver and Philadelphia. McGee was waived in March by the Philadelphia 76ers, two weeks after he had been acquired in a trade from the Denver Nuggets. He averaged 4.6 points and 2.7 rebounds in his 23 combined games last season for the two teams. The Washington Wizards selected McGee 18th overall in 2008 after he declared for early entry in the draft after his sophomore season at Nevada. McGee’s father, George Montgomery, was a second-round draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in 1985. His mother, Pamela McGee, played in the WNBA. Remember the Mavericks had originally signed free agent D’ Andrea Jordan, but he changed his mind and returned to the Los Angeles Clippers. McGee has a similar skill set to Jordan on the court; so the Mavericks may be looking for him to fill some of the role they had planned for Jordan to fill before he went back to the Clippers.

The Toronto Blue Jays finally lost a baseball game last night. The Blue Jays entered the game on an 11 game winning streak and looked like they would make it 12 with David Price on the mound and a 3-0 lead going into the top of the 8th inning. After Chase Headley doubled home the Yankees first run off of Price Aaron Sanchez came out of the Blue Jays bullpen to replace Price with Yankees on 2nd and 3rd base. Carlos Beltran came off the Yankees bench to face Sanchez and hit a 3-run home run to right-centerfield to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the game. Dellin Betances pitched and bottom of the 8th inning for the Yankees and after New York couldn’t add to their lead in the top half of the 9th inning Andrew Miller came in to try and close the game out for the Yankees. Russell Martin flew out to leftfield for the 1st out of the inning. Chris Colabello pinch hit for Ryan Goins and drew a walk. Cliff Pennington came into the game to pinch run for Colabello. Kevin Pillar singled to center with Pennington moving up to 2nd base. Ben Revere came to bat for the Blue Jays and during his at bat Miller threw a wild pitch to move the base runners up to 2nd and 3rd. With the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd Miller struck out Revere for the 2nd out of the inning. Wouldn’t you know it that the next hitter for the Blue Jays was Troy Tulowitzki. Now the Blue Jays haven;t lost a game that Tulowitzki has started for them and I was wondering if they would intentional walk Tulowitzki and face Josh Donaldson with the bases loaded, but the Yankees choose to have Miller pitch to Tulowitzki. Of course the count had to go full and Tulowitzki fouled off 7 pitches in this 12 pitch at bat. Finally Miller got Tulowitzki to swing and miss on a slider to end the game and a 4-3 win for the Yankees. The win not only ended the Blue Jays winning streak it out the Yankees back in 1st place in the A.L. East by a 1/2 game. Game 2 of the series is at Noon today. The Yankees will have Masahiro Tanaka starting on the mound for them and the Blue Jays are going with Marco Estrada. Tanaka is 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA in his last 3 starts while Estrada is 3-0 with a 1.45 ERA in his last 3 starts. Do the Blue Jays bounce back today? Or will the Yankees add some more room to their A.L. East lead??

How was your week?

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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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