Weekly Takes - Monday, May 27 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, May 27 Edition

1. Reading the tea leaves, I think it is safe to say what the Maple Leafs hope to accomplish with the "Core Four" this summer.

They are keeping Auston Matthews and William Nylander, without even entertaining otherwise, they will keep John Tavares and let him play out his contract, and they will do everything in their power to trade Mitch Marner.

This is going to come down to what Marner wants.

Does he refuse to go, walk as a free agent a year from now, and go down as the most despised Maple Leaf of all-time? Does he waive his no-trade and go down as the most disappointing Maple Leaf of all time? Does he refuse to go, have a brilliant playoffs next spring, and go down as the second greatest Leaf of all-time?

We are about to find out.

2. The NHL needs to bring back the "foot in the crease" rule if Oliver Ekman-Larrson's goal in game one is not a good goal.

Ryan Lomberg was in the crease, yes, but he did not interfere with Igor Shesterkin until he was pushed into him by a Rangers player.

Until the rule is brought back, the standard has been set. If an opposing player is in your crease, just push him towards your goalie and the goal will not stand.

Insane.

3. I wrote in the offseason, after the Blue Jays missed out on Shohei Ohtani, that this entire era of Jays Baseball was going to be determined this season.

Was management going to be correct about banking on internal improvement/regression? Would Vladimir Guerrero Jr. return to form?

The answers to both were unlikely, and so here we are. This entire era has been determined, barring a miracle in the next month or so.

The end to the most disappointing era in Blue Jays history is neigh, and those responsible should not be tasked with retooling/rebuilding the next era.

Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins inherited a prospect system that started with Guerrero Jr. and continued with Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio (the head scout who drafted Bichette and Biggio in 2016 was an Alex Anthopoulos carryover and was fired shortly after the draft.) Despite that, they failed to build a winner almost ten years later.

One of the greatest letdowns in Toronto sports history.

4. The shocking thing is, Shapiro and Atkins have made so many amazing moves.

Letting Robbie Ray walk so they could sign Kevin Gausman was ballsy, but the right move to say the least. The Jose Berrios trade was outstanding, the Chris Bassitt and Yuesui Kikuchi signings panned out better than anyone could have hoped, the drafting of Alek Manoah, despite everything that has happened, was a win, and the signing of JA Happ many years ago was a win.

Signing Yimi Garica to a three-year deal was a savvy move too, out of the bullpen.

That is all just on the pitching side.

Never mind the George Springer signing (like the Tavares signing, it would have been a success if they won with him still in his prime) the Daulton Varsho trade, which, for all of its hate, saw the Jays land the best player in the trade), and the Teoscar Hernandez trade, way back when.

Signing Marcus Semien and trading for Matt Chapman were great moves too, to say the least. It would have been great to re-sign Semien, but he was coming off what many thought was a career year. This front office was great about knowing when to move off players, despite it not being the popular decision (David Price, Edwin Encarnacion, Ray, etc.) Semien was the one who got away.

But, there are three things this front office will be (or at least, should be) remembered for.

1. Their inability to determine issues and act upon them in a timely matter. The Jays should have begun their rebuild at the 2017 trade deadline, after it was clear the core ran its course. Instead, they did not begin to rebuild until a year later, leading to losing Josh Donaldson for nothing. They also would have been a World Series contender in 2021 if Shapiro and Atkins added to the bullpen and did not keep trotting out Tanner Roark every five days for the longest time. Instead, they watched game after game slip away from them in the early portion of the season. Never mind the trade deadline a season ago, followed by their offseason. They needed offence and simply did not address it at any point. A reactive front office.

2. Shifting from a high-powered, explosive, fun team to a... defensive juggernaut after the 2022 season. Changes were needed, with attention to detail from their younger players being... inconsitent to say it lightly, and their defensive outfield being a mess. But they went (and have gone, since they have not cared to fix it, outside of bringing back the home run jacket) too far to the other extreme. This is what truly crushed them. For as late as they began their rebuild, they still managed to usher in a new era with lots of hope. And despite flaming out in 2021, they still had a window of success. The turning point of this era was choking away game two against Seattle.

3. Their lack of drafting and developing. They have simply not done this well enough relative to other teams that sustain success. I think there are a lot of smart people who work for the Jays (their Sports Science department is world class, for example), but I would take a blow torch to their scouting and player development departments.

5. What I cannot understand is how Shapiro and Atkins have not fired John Schneider and Don Mattingly.

Why not give yourselves a couple of months before the trade deadline to get one last look at this core with a new manager and offensive approach in place?

Going down with the ship, and not making the obvious move, would be a fitting end to the Shapiro and Atkins era, though.

6. Going back to the Leafs, the inaction of Shapiro and Atkins at least has me respecting Brendan Shanahan a little more.

He did everything to support his core. He brought in a proven winner in Mike Babcock to be his head coach. When that did not work, he replaced him with the coach that everyone wanted in Sheldon Keefe, even if he should have done so the offseason earlier. He brought in a veteran general manager in Lou Lamoriello, and when that ran its course, he handed the keys to Kyle Dubas, who everyone also wanted. They tried surrounding the core with skilled, young players in Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, etc. When that did not work, they tried surrounding the core with skilled, older players in Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, etc. When that did not work, they tried bringing in tough players, both at the top of the lineup (Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi) and at the bottom in Ryan Reaves, Joel Edmundson, etc.

And with his recent hirings of Brad Treliving and Craig Berube, he has brought in two traditional hockey guys, neither of whom are on either end of the Lamoriello/Babcock - Dubas-Keefe extreme.

You cannot blame Shanahan for not going down guns blazing, more so now given he is actually going to move off the Core Four.

7. The Pacers game one loss to the Celtics was an all-time choke job from a team who looked like they were playing on the big stage for the first time.

Turns out, that was exactly the case.

As was the case with the Cavs after JR Smith's blunder in game one against Golden State in 2018, the Pacers are done. They are not good enough to recover from a loss that bad.

8. In NBA circles, so many are always debating "who will be the face of the NBA once LeBron James retires," as if there can ever be a replacement to LeBron.

The NBA got so lucky that they went from Michael Jordan, to Kobe Bryant, to LeBron.

Maybe this time around, they have to settle for the likes of Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards.

That is not too shabby, is it?