Weekly Takes - Monday, October 20th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, October 20th Edition 

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs' annoying loss to the Red Wings on Monday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. Easton Cowan

3. Matthew Knies

When the Leafs win a game they do not deserve to in the not-so-distant future, remember this game. Toronto dominated start to finish.

Craig Berube is right, though. William Nylander has to be way better. John Tavares, too. A safe bet that they will be.

2. My three stars from the Leafs win over the Predators on Tuesday…

1. Matias Macceli 

2. Oliver Ekman-Larsson

3. Bobby McMann

The first line played great on Monday, followed by the second line playing great on Tuesday, and the bottom-six playing great in the first two games.

I would leave things as is and keep trying to build continuity. They have looked way better the last two games than their first two.

3. My three stars from the Leafs overtime win over the Rangers on Thursday…

1. Anthony Stolarz

2. McMann

3. Jake McCabe

Another strong performance. You can do a lot worse than this for a start to a season.

4. I did not watch Kraken/Leafs close enough on Saturday to form an opinion on the game itself, but I am happy Anthony Stolarz called out his teammates for their lack of response to Mason Marchment running him.

I understand Brandon Carlo’s perspective of wanting to go on the power play, but it’s October. Set the standard of what’s going to happen if your goalie gets run. I can promise you it’ll pay off more in the long run than a random power play less than ten games into the season.

5. My takeaways from the Jays’ game two loss to the Mariners…

• John Schneider never should have brought Trey Yesavage out for the fifth inning, given his dip in velo, combined with not generating much swing-and-miss in his final two innings. But at the end of the day, the bullpen did not get it done. 

• Neither did the offence, to be fair to the pitching staff. I think this is a good old fashioned case of the offence regressing to the mean after a red-hot series against the Yankees, combined with the Mariners pitching staff being elite.

• Toronto needs to win two of three in Seattle, to say the least. Let’s see if Shane Bieber is worth bringing back after his start on Tuesday. If he’s an ace, he’ll get Toronto back in the series.

4. My takeaways from the Jays’ game three win over the Mariners…

• An ace performance from Bieber, who looked like he was about to be run out of town after the first inning. I would have liked to see Schneider leave him in for the seventh inning so that Mason Fluharty did not need to pitch, but nonetheless.

• I completely disagree with Schneider – all postseason long – neglecting the idea of protecting his bullpen. The more a pitcher appears in a series (the more a team sees him) the worse they get. I just despise exposing Fluharty in a blowout.

• I cannot say I am a fan of Max Scherzer starting game four. Pitch him, absolutely. I am all for seeing if one of the best pitchers of all-time has anything left in the tank. But I would be using an opener. Scherzer’s first innings speak for themselves this season.

6. My takeaways from the Jays’ game four win over the Mariners…

• In a postseason run filled with generational memories (Guerrero Jr.’s grand slam, Yesavage’s game two performance, Kevin Gausman striking out Aaron Judge, and the Jays beating the Yankees), Scherzer’s performance – and interaction with Schneider – is right up there. That’s what postseason baseball is all about.

• The Jays did their job in Seattle, taking at least two games to bring the series back to Toronto. But you have to get greedy and try to take all three. You cannot allow Bryce Miller to dominate you for the second time in less than a week. 

7.  My takeaways from the Jays’ epic collapse in game five against the Mariners…

• One of, if not the worst, decisions in Toronto sports history occurred when Schneider went with Brendon Little. It made no sense coming into the inning, it made no sense as the inning unfolded, and it made no sense after the damage was done. Just disgusting. 

• The logic, of course, was that Schneider wanted to “turn around” Cal Raleigh and Jorge Polanco. The issue with that is, Polanco is better against lefties than he is against righties – as evident in game one when Polanco came up with the game-winning hit against Little. Just an awful decision to use him (or any lefty.) I do not care that Josh Naylor (lefty) was the third batter. I would take my chances with a righty against Naylor with two out and no one on instead of Little facing Raleigh and Polanco.

• Further to that, if Schneider was dead set on going with a lefty in the 8th, it should have been Fluharty. But he pitched the last two games due to Schneider pulling Bieber an inning too early in game three. Small moves like that creep up on you in a long series.

• To make it worse, it was so obvious that they should have gone with Jeff Hoffman. He breezed through the same part of the lineup less than 24 hours earlier. Schneider’s defence being “we wanted to give Seattle a different look” is insane. Do not use Hoffman in a blowout the night earlier then.

• And let’s not kid ourselves – he would have gone with Hoffman if there was a 9th inning. He was saving his closer for a situation that never arrived. Gross. 

• I am out on Schneider, completely. Between this, pulling Gausman early in 2022, and pulling Jose Berrios early in 2023, that’s three mishaps that will forever live in Blue Jays lore. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me…

• Overall, it is one of the worst moves in franchise history – if not the worst. If Hoffman came in and blew it – oh well. You lose a game with your closer and highest-paid reliever. It would suck, but you can say that you died with a sword in your hand at least. The Jays are now one game away from their season ending because they used a struggling reliever in the most important inning the team has had since 1993. Just gross.

8. My takeaways from the Jays’ game six win over the Mariners on Sunday…

• I had no issue with pulling Yesavage when Schneider did. He gave him two cracks to close out the inning and was not able to. Bring in the power with Louis Varland. (Though that got negated when Alejandro Kirk weirdly called for all off-speed against Varland’s first batter)

• This is the best Hoffman has looked since moments of greatness in April. If only Schneider would have gone with him in the eighth inning on Friday.

• I would be rather avoidant of bringing Gausman out of the bullpen in game seven. Ideally, Bieber can go toe-to-toe with George Kirby, so that Schneider can go from Bieber into Varland/Fluharty/Hoffman/Seranthony Dominguez. The X factor is Max Scherzer, who I would have no hesitation going to on three days rest.

9. Yes, the Dodgers making light work of the Brewers is bad for baseball. 

Yes, their player development, analytics, and scouting departments are elite. But so are the Rays’. The difference is the Dodgers have an unlimited amount of money and the Rays do not. A hard cap is needed, because as is also the case in society, when the financial gap gets wider and wider, the more unsustainable things become.

We are looking down the barrel of an MLB lockout.

10. My 2025-2026 NBA predictions…

Eastern Conference 

1. Cleveland

2. New York

(Gap)

3. Orlando 

4. Detroit

5. Milwaukee 

6. Atlanta 

(Gap)

7. Miami

8. Toronto

9. Philadelphia 

10. Boston

11. Indiana 

12. Chicago 

(Gap)

13. Charlotte

14. Brooklyn 

15. Washington 

Western Conference

1. Oklahoma City

(Gap)

2. LA Clippers

3. Golden State 

4. LA Lakers

5. Denver

6. Houston

7. Minnesota 

(Gap)

8. San Antonio 

9. Dallas

10. Memphis 

(Gap)

11. New Orleans 

12. Sacramento 

13. Portland

14. Phoenix 

15. Utah

NBA Finals Prediction 

Oklahoma City defeats New York

• Most Valuable Player: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 

• Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg 

•  Most Improved Player of the Year: Shaedon Sharpe 

• Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama 

• Sixth Man of the Year: Josh Hart

• Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson 

• Executive of the Year Award: Sam Presti 

• Coach of the Year: Jamahl Mosley

10. The Steelers loss to the Bengals is exactly why they have no business being in the Super Bowl conversation. I like their offence a lot, as long as Aaron Rodgers can stay healthy. I truly think they, for the first time in seven years, can win shootouts with their offence.

But they are going to have to win shootouts, because the defence, despite being the highest-paid defence in the league, is severely flawed. I love the “turnover culture” that they all preach. It, combined with their pass rush, wins games. But it will not win a Super Bowl. There is zero reason to think they can stop elite offences via defensive stops. A major indictment on Mike Tomlin and Terryl Austin.