Weekly Takes - Monday, November 4 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, November 4 Edition

1. By trading Timothy Liljegren, the Maple Leafs clear up cap space, add draft picks, and find a cheap depth option on defence.

Tidy business by Brad Treliving, whose next step is going to be trading a forward.

2. My three stars from the Leafs win over the Kraken on Thursday...

1. William Nylander

2. John Tavares

3. Max Pacioretty

It is going to be tough for the Leafs to lose on many nights when their top-six forwards and top-four D perform as well as they did in this one.

3. My three stars from the Leafs overtime loss to the Wild on Sunday...

   
   

   1. Anthony Stolarz

   2. Auston Matthews

   3. Mitch Marner

   
   

   Tough getting to three stars in this one. A 50/50 game that could have gone either way, but the Leafs have to start playing better on back-to-backs.

Domination.

4. My free agent targets for the Blue Jays, based on their needs...

   
   

   Starting Pitcher... (Only should be in the market for an impact starter)

   
   

   1. Corbin Burnes

   2. Yuesi Kikuchi

Relievers...

1. Tanner Scott

2. Jeff Hoffman

3. Carlos Estevez

4. Jose Leclerc

5. AJ Minter

Catchers... (Backup Catcher)

1. Carson Kelly

   
   

   Third Basemen...

   
   

   1. Alex Bregman

Outfielders...

1. Juan Soto (this is not happening, of course)

2. Tyler O'Neill

3. Teoscar Hernandez

4. Anthony Santander

5. Jurickson Profar

   
   

   5. The one thing that stands out to me from the World Series is how different the Dodgers and Yankees are.

   
   

   Yes, they both spend a boatload of money, but that is where it begins and ends. The Dodgers spend a boatload of money on players and resources to be the best organization they can be.

   
   

   The Yankees will forever remain lazy in their approach to team-building. They were exposed in the Series.

5. Doug Ford's "$200 for every taxpayer" is great in theory, as it is progress on the idea of universal income.

But of course, he is not handing out $200 to every taxpayer because he wants to improve people's lives -- he is handing out $200 because he wants to do as much lazy goodwill as he can ahead of a snap election.

And we know this because he is not dividing the money up based on people's income. It is a flat-out, free hand-out for everyone, no matter their situation.

A classic con-man ploy by Ontario's ultimate con-man.

6. Below is my electoral map prediction.

As difficult of an election to predict as possible.

Is it truly a 50/50 election, based on the polls in the battleground states? Is Kamala Harris actually up by more, but pollsters are hedging against the dreaded silent Donald Trump voter? Is Trump actually up more, with pollsters ignoring the silent Trump voter?

We are going to find out.