Weekly Takes - Monday, October 27th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, October 27th Edition 

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs’ awful loss to the Devils on Tuesday…

1. John Tavares

2. Bobby McMann

3. William Nylander

A tough night to get to three stars, given absolutely no one was impressive. A slow-looking, fightless performance. 

It is early, but woof. 

2. Watching the Leafs next two games against Buffalo, it is clear that this is just a team going through the motions. (Though they played with a lot more edge on Saturday.) 

Concerning, given all the changes. But the Eastern Conference has been very middling to begin the year. No, they did not do themselves any favours by taking an early lead in the East. But at the same time, they have not fallen behind at all either.

3. My takeaways from the Blue Jays’ iconic game seven win…

• As cool as it gets. The George Springer home run is right there with Joe Carter’s, Jose Bautista’s, Robbie Alomar’s, and Edwin Encarnacion’s. I get it’s the first World Series appearance in a long, long time, but that does not change the fact that this fan base has been spoiled with iconic memories over the years. 

• Going into the seventh, it was tough not to think something was going to happen. No way their season was going to end with a lifeless performance from the offence. Sure enough, it did not. It was the bottom of the order setting the stage for one of the greatest player performers in baseball history.

• It was nice to see Seattle be on the end of bad managing for a change. Not going with your lights out closer in the biggest moment of the game – against Springer, of all people – is obviously absurd. John Schneider learned from game five. Dan Wilson did not.

• I would only start Shane Bieber once against the Dodgers. He simply has not looked good, for the most part. I would go with Max Scherzer game one on extreme rest, Trey Yesavage on extended rest in game two, Kevin Gausman on much-needed rest in game three, Bieber in game four, Scherzer in game five, Yesavage in game six, and Gausman in game seven. Keep Yesavage at home and have Gausman as your guy for a game seven.

• Obviously, it will not be easy against the Dodgers. This may be the greatest baseball team ever assembled. But it is the Jays – not the Yankees, Red Sox, etc – facing them. Soak it all in and enjoy it. You never know what can happen.

• “You never know what can happen” is an understatement when referring to this Jays team, by the way. I had them missing the playoffs. I thought Springer was cooked. Yesavage started the season in A-ball. Bo Bichette has not played all playoffs. Anthony Santander was a non-factor all year. Their opening day starter (Jose Berrios) has not pitched in the playoffs. Myles Straw was days away from being out of the big leagues again. Nathan Lukes easily could have been DFA’d if Joey Loperfido had a better Spring Training. There was no reason to think Ernie Clement was anything more than an important utility player. Yet here they are, in the World Series after being the best team in the AL during the season. Full credit to everyone, in particular their player development staff and David Popkins.

• The “Shapkins” era is officially a success too, of course. They started their rebuild later than they should have, Ross Atkins could have used a PR class or two, and their 2023 offseason was truly awful, but the fact is, they built a World Series calibre team. And while they will have to add to the bullpen and make two additions to the rotation this winter, it all feels sustainable given the age of this core, Gausman and Springer aside. 

4. My takeaways from the Jays’ game one win in the World Series (!) over the Dodgers…

• You will take four innings of two-run ball from Yesavage every day of the week against LA, more so when he was off. His splitter – his calling card – was nonexistent on Friday. 

• They say “a loss is a loss” and a “win is a win” in the playoffs, but that is not true. Blowing the Dodgers out and saving Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland is absolutely huge.

• You cannot ask for much more from Bo Bichette, on both sides of the ball. An absolute game-changing addition to a lineup that did not exactly need one to begin with.

• The Jays are simply relentless. Every day, it is someone new stepping up. They work the pitch counts. They get on base. They come back in games. They set the tone in the first inning by working up Blake Snell’s pitch count. They are just relentless. 

5. My takeaways from the Jays game two loss to the Dodgers on Saturday…

• Yoshinobu Yamamoto was fantastic. It is hard to pitch a game better than he did. The Jays feast on hard velocity in the strike zone and by laying off all speed that moved out of the zone. Yamamoto flipped the switch by his stuff being elite in the zone. 

• It is tough to waste such a great start from Gausman, but the underdog Jays have turned a best-of-seven into a best-of-five. It looks less daunting now. Just find a way to get the series back to Toronto 

6. I am officially out on the Steelers, if I was not already. Can they win the division? I guess, if Lamar Jackson and the Ravens have any sort of slip up. But winning the division will just equal out to losing early in the playoffs again anyways. They are an awful defensive team, despite having the league’s highest-paid defence and a defensive head coach. Ugly.

7. Do not feel bad for Myles Garrett. He made his bed. He decided to take money over winning. He has that right, but it’s a right he exercised. He will go down as one of the best to never compete for a Super Bowl.

8. The Tush Push is a boring, predictable play. Because of that alone, you can make the case to ban it. But when the Tush Push becomes impossible to officiate, benefiting one team and one team only? It’s time for it to go.

9. The Cowboys, with all their draft picks, should make a move for a star defensive player if they can. (They should have just paid Micah Parsons, of course.) But they are way more than just one piece away from having a competent defence. A shame, given how fun their offence is to watch.