Posts Tagged ‘Yoenis Cespedes’

Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: November 30, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, fantasy, football, sports
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games last season games last season nd see how we did with our NFL picks for Week 12. It was a good week for everyone, but Mr. Fantasy led the way with a record of 14-2. HIs two losses where the Seattle Seahawks; like I’m sure everyone lost on and he had the Denver Broncos over the Kansas City Chiefs. Dan the Man and I finished a game behind Mr. Fantasy at 13-3 while Schaumburg Stu was well over .500 as well at 11-5, but for a change he ended up last. Overall Schaumburg Stu is still in the lead with a record of 113-64. Dan the Man is in 2nd place at 109-68. Mr. Fantasy gained some ground, but is still in 3rd place at 106-71 and I am still in the cellar with an overall record of 100-77. Will have to see if we can continue to pick this well in Week 13.

Now I’m an avid fantasy player. I play in yearly leagues for the big four sports and would like to think I’m an above average player. I play in yearly leagues and I also play daily fantasy on the FanDuel website. I try to take in my share of fantasy news be it through the television or what I can read online. I’m always interested to see who they think the hot players are going to be and hopefully they’ll give a reason why they’re going with that player. When it came to quarterback for Week 12 it was a lot of the names that you’ll always hear; Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Russell Wilson where three of the guys that most experts liked in Sunday’s games. Now the name I didn’t hear as a hot play for Sunday was Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers. I think most of not all experts had Kaepernick as a below average play against the Miami Dolphins defense. In just one of those odd fantasy twist Kaepernick ended up being the highest scoring fantasy quarterback for Week 12. Kaepernick was 29 of 46 for 296 yards and 3 touchdowns. Kaepernick also ran the football 10 times for 113 yards. Now Kaepernick did throw an interceptions and was sacked 2 times for 14 yards, but in a basic Yahoo Public Fantasy :League Kaepernick was worth 34.14 fantasy points. According to Yahoo Kaepernick is owned in just 24% of their leagues. So the question becomes; is he a good pick up for the final 5 weeks? This week Kaepernick faces a Chicago Bears defense that is missing quite a few players due to injury and suspension. In Week 14 he faces the New York  Jets. Week 15 it’s the Atlanta Falcons. In Week 16 it’s the  Los Angeles Rams and to wrap the season up Kaepernick goes up against the Seattle Seahawks defense. It looks as though you could get some use out of Kaepernick if you’re looking for quarterback help down the stretch.

The Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals 19-14 on Sunday and while it wasn’t that interesting of a game it was the way it ended that has everyone talking. With 1:05 left in the game the Ravens got the football on there own 21 yard line. After three running plays that gained 7 yards total the Ravens where facing 4th down and 3 yards to go with 55 seconds left in the game. The Ravens took a delay of game call to make it 4th and 8 yards to go, but more importantly there was just 11 seconds left in the game. Baltimore sent out Sam Koch to punt, but when the ball was snapped to Koch he started to back up slowly into his own end zone as the clock counted down. Now to give Koch the time he’d need to run out 11 seconds all the blockers on the Ravens punt team held which every Bengals player that was closet to the and in some cases even tackled them. Koch worked his way to the back of the end zone and was able to run the clock out with yellow flags all over the field as I think every referee had throw his flag. What Ravens head coach John Harbaugh knew was that the game could end on an offensive penalty; so why take the chance on punting the football. This way there was no chance of a blocked punt or a punt return and he also took away the Bengals chance to throw a “Hail Mary” and win the game. Now there where quite a few people who didn’t like this play, but the Ravens didn’t do anything wrong. I thought that it was very smart of them to go this route. Just imagine the heat that Harbaugh would be taking if the punt had been either blocked and recovered by Cincinnati for a touchdown or if they would’ve returned that punt for a touchdown and what if they would’ve throw that “Hail Mary” for a game winning touchdown. This could turn out to be a big win for the Ravens as they improved to 6-5 and are tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for 1st place in the AFC North. Baltimore does currently hold the tiebreaker over the Steelers as they won their first head to head meeting, but the teams play again Week 16 in Pittsburgh.

The World Champion Chicago Cubs reached an agreement with free agent outfielder Jon Jay on a 1-year $8 million dollar contract. Jay missed about two months of the 2016 season when he was hit by a pitch and broke his forearm. The injury limited Jay to 90 games last season with the San Diego Padres. Jay hit .291 in those 90 games and has a career batting average of .287. Jay has played 7 seasons in the majors; his first 6 where with the St. Louis Cardinals before playing last season in San Diego. Jay has played all three outfield spots in his career and has a career fielding percentage of .995. It appears as though the signing of Jay ends any chance of Dexter Fowler returning to the Cubs. It looks as though Alberto Almora Jr. will be given a chance to be the everyday centerfielder with Jay serving as a back up to Almora and possible a late inning defensive replacement for leftfielder Kyle Schwarber.

Also on the free agent front one of the top names looks to be off the board as it’s being reported that Yoenis Cespedes as re-signed with the New York Mets on a 4-year $110 million dollar deal. Cespedes will get $22.5 million next season, $29 million in 2018 & 19 then his salary goes to $29.5 million for the 2020 season. The deal also includes a full no trade clause. It’s no surprise that Cespedes re-signed with the Mets as they seemed to be the front runners as soon as he opted out of his deal after last season.

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Let’s call it Wednesday

Posted: December 30, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, football, sports, Uncategorized
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There’s only one week left in the NFL regular season; so that means there’s only one week left for us to make picks. Well I guess that’s not totally true as we will try to pick the winners in the playoff games. Anyway Mr. Fantasy won Week 16 with a record of 12-4. Schaumburg Stu was 2nd with a record of 11-5 while I was 3rd at 10-6. Dan the Man picked a bad time t go into a slump as he finished with an 8-8 record for the week. Overall I am hanging onto 1st place with a record of 148-91. Dan the Man is holding on to 2nd with a record of 139-100, but Mr. Fantasy is gaining ground with a record of 137-102 and Schaumburg Stu is still in the running with a record of 135-102. There’s no Thursday night or Monday night games; so the Sunday night game the Minnesota Vikings at the Green Bay Packers will end the regular season.

The playoff picture in the NFC has taken shape for the most part except the NFC Central. The reason that Vikings/Packers game was moved to Sunday night is because the winner goes int the playoffs as the #3 seed and NFC North champion while the loser of the game goes into one of the wild card spot. If Minnesota loses they would actually fall to the 6th seed; I’m not sure where the Packers go as a wild card, but I believe they would be the 5th seed. All the NFC teams are set it’s just which seeds will they end up in. Over in the AFC there are still two playoff spots open. The Houston Texans hold a 1 game lead in the AFC South over the Indianapolis Colts. So for Houston it’s simply win and there in. If the Colts win and the Texans lose it will come down t to a tiebreaker. The teams split the season series 1-1 and I have no clue what the next tiebreaker the NFL might use is. They have quite a few to choose from. The New York Jets also have a win and your in set up. The Jet have a 1 game lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers for the last AFC wild card spot. The Steelers where in control of that last wild card spot until they choked last week against the Baltimore Ravens. The AFC will also have to shake out their seeding after this week, but the teams are narrowed down.

One game short of 3 seasons and the Philadelphia Eagles decided to relieve Chip Kelly of his coaching and player personnel duties. In 2013 Kelly’s Eagles went 10-6 and won the NFC East. They did lose in the wild card round to the New Orleans Saints. In 2014 the Eagles again finished 10-6, but didn’t make the playoffs. Through 15 games this season the Eagles are 6-9 behind Kelly and while they are in 2nd place in their division, but nowhere close to being a playoff team. Kelly took over all player personnel decisions last off season and made whole sale changes to the team. Judging from this years 6-9 record maybe Kelly the player personnel director should of been let go, but Kelly the coach might’ve been alright to keep. I’m not going to go through all the moves Kelly made as personnel director, but what I’m interested in is how tough will he be to replace. Kelly and the Eagles play a style that no one else does in the NFL on a full time basis. Whoever ends up with this head coaching job will have to have a completely new system in and will they have the personnel to fit it. You’ll hear a lot of the same names that you always hear when a head coaching job opens up. I’d bet money that someone has already said Jon Gruden’s name. I’d be shocked if this is the team that brings Gruden back to the NFL sideline. Maybe this is a landing spot for Sean Payton. There’s a lot of talk that this may be Payton’s last season in New Orleans and if wants to continue to coach this could be the place. Maybe Josh McDaniels would like to take another shot at being a head coach. You’d have to figure he’s the coach in waiting in New England, but this job is open now; so maybe. There will be a ton of other names that will come up for this job, but look out for Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase. Gase was a pretty hot name last off season and after having success with Jay Cutler this season Gas’s stock has to have went even higher. Whoever gets the job will have some talent to work with, but that question will be can the new system fit the players Kelly has brought in.

How long after the New Year do you think it will take for one of the top free agent outfielders to sign? Yoenis Cespedes and Alex Gordon seem to be the most talked about, but don’t forget about Justin Upton. Upton is the youngest of the 3 at 28 while Cespedes is 30 and Gordon is 32. While Cespedes has played the other outfield positions they are all at their best defensively in left field. It seems as though just about every team has been linked to these guys; so it will be interesting to see who ends up where and how much money they end up getting. Once these 3 players find homes it should open up the market for players like Dexter Fowler, Gerardo Parra and Dan the Man’s guy Denard Span to find teams. Besides the big outfielders 1st baseman Chris Davis is still out on the free agent market. Davis got the big money long term deal from the Baltimore Orioles that he turned down or was taken off the table depending on who you believe. If your favorite tams starting 8 are all set and it’s starting pitching you’re looking for there’s still a couple of I guess you’d call them second tier free agents out there. Scott Kazmir, Wei-Yin Chen and Japanese free agent Kenta Maeda are all still available. There always seems to be a bit of a break in signings between Christmas and New Year’s; so maybe next week things will heat up on some of these players as we’re just a couple of months away from spring training opening.

Have a safe and Happy New Year.

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Looking at the Mets

Posted: November 5, 2015 by Sports Time Radio in baseball
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The New York Mets where the surprise team in the National League this season. Not only did the Mets find a way to win the NL East they upset the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS before sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS advancing to the World Series. While the World Series didn’t go the Mets way; they lost 4 games to 1 to the Kansas City Royals, it has to be looked at as a successful season. Looking towards the off season; what do the Mets have to do to get back?

The Mets may be the only team in baseball that isn’t going to be chasing starting pitchers this off season. As a matter of fact barring an injury or a trade, the Mets will have the Top 4 in there starting rotation set for years. Matt Harvey, Jacob deGroom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz will in some order be the #1 through #4 starters for the Mets. It looks as though Jon Niese may take the 5th starter spot to round out the rotation. It’s a starting rotation that could scare the national League for a long time.

Every team is looking for some type of bullpen help and the Mets will be no different. While they do seem to have their closer (Jeurys Familia) the rest of the bullpen isn’t set. Tyler Clippard and Bobby Parnell and free agents and who knows if they’ll get anything out of Jenrry Mejía. Mejía is in the process of serving a 162 game suspension and won’t be eligible to return until July of next season. Addison Reed and Hansel Robles did well in set up roles, but someone will have to step up to fill Clippard’s role. Sean Gilmartin was a solid left-hander out of the Mets bullpen and Jerry Blevins should be back from injury to add another lefty to the bullpen. Bullpens are so interchangeable that with the exception of Familia you just don’t know who’ll be down there for the Mets in 2016.

There where some reports that the Mets will look to increase there payroll for next season, but will it go up enough to bring back Yoenis Cespedes. In 57 games Cespedes hit .287 with 14 home runs and 44 RBI’s in the middle of New York’s line up as they won the division. Of course Cespedes didn’t do it alone. He had help from a healthy David Wright; a couple of other veteran  acquisitions Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson plus the play of 22 year old outfielder Michael Conforto. Besides Cespedes 2nd base man Daniel Murphy is also a free agent. Murphy had a solid 2015 season hitting .281 with 14 home runs and 73 RBI’s while playing 2nd base in 69 games, 3rd base in 42 games, 1st base 17 times and was even the DH in 1 game. While Murphy struggled at the plate during the 5 game World Series hitting just .150 overall he had a very good post season. Murphy ended up hitting .328 with 7 home runs and 11 RBI’s in 14 games. The Mets have to decide how much Murphy is worth and it looks as though at the least they’ll extend him a qualifying offer. Uribe and Johnson are both free agents, but I don’t think either player will be back with the Mets unless it’s under a very friendly team contract. Last season it looked as though the Mets where in the market for a shortstop before Ruben Tejada took over the job. Tejada was injured by a Chase Utley slide in the NLDS. Tejada suffered a non-displaced fractured right fibula and there is a chance that he might not be ready for the open of the 2016 season. Will Tejada’s injury force the Mets to look at shortstops this off season or can Wilmer Flores hold down the position until Tejada is ready to go. The Mets have shown some interest in  Alexei Ramirez who became a free agent yesterday when the Chicago White Sox declined his option for next season. Could Ramirez be a guy the Mets can fit into their payroll?

Every team has questions going into the off season. It looks as though the Mets may be in the same spot they where before they dealt for Cespedes last season. If they can find the hitting with there starting pitching they should contend in the NL East.

@Burketime

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