Weekly Takes - Monday, October 9th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, October 9th Edition

1. My 2023-2024 NHL Predictions…

Eastern Conference…

Atlantic…

1. Toronto (2)

2. Florida

3. Boston

4. Ottawa (WC2)

5. Tampa Bay

6. Buffalo

7. Detroit

8. Montreal

Metropolitan…

1. Carolina (1)

2. New York Rangers

3. New Jersey

4. Pittsburgh (WC1)

5. New York Islanders

6. Washington

7. Columbus

8. Philadelphia

Western Conference…

Central…

1. Dallas (2)

2. Colorado

3. Winnipeg

4. Minnesota

5. Nashville

6. Arizona

7. St. Louis

8. Chicago

Pacific…

1. Edmonton (1)

2. Vegas

3. Calgary

4. Vancouver (WC1)

5. Los Angeles (WC2)

6. Seattle

7. Anaheim

8. San Jose

Stanley Cup Finals Prediction…

Edmonton defeats Toronto

Individual Awards Predictions…

- Hart Memorial Trophy: Connor McDavid

- Calder Memorial Trophy: Connor Bedard

- James Norris Memorial Trophy: Cale Makar

-Vezina Trophy: Juuse Saros

- Art Ross Trophy: Connor McDavid

- Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy: Auston Matthews

- Frank J. Selke Trophy: Matthews

- General Manager of the Year: Jim Nill

- Jack Adams Award: Rod Brind’Amour

2. I like Sam Lafferty as a player. He is fast and kills penalties, while he is also a right-handed shot who can play centre. But given the lack of cap space the Leafs had, trading him for a draft pick is tidy business, more so when Fraser Minten and Noah Gregor showed they can be cheaper upgrades over him.

3. The camp Minten had, if you are the Leafs, will hopefully translate to the regular season, as it would allow two things to happen for the Leafs.

1. Nylander can go back to the wing and help the Leafs form the best top-six in the East.

2. The Leafs will not need to find a third-line centre at the deadline, which would allow them to completely focus on addressing the defence, which will have to be addressed at some point.

4. My takeaways from the Blue Jays game one loss to the Twins…

• Kevin Gausman, perhaps predictably, was bad yet again against the Twins, who clearly have something on him. This does not mean the Jays made the wrong call in starting him, as you have to start your ace whenever you have the chance in the playoffs to do so. But instead of finally solving his woes against the Twins, he doubled down against them in the worst way possible.

• Gausman’s tough outing did not mean a whole lot given the offence picked up where they left off in the regular season. Between the lack of offence and Bo Bichette trying the arm of Carlos Correa – one of the better defensive shortstops in the last decade – it was just another day in the offence for the Jays repulsive offence and decision-making.

5. My takeaways from the Blue Jays era-defining loss to the Twins in game two…

• Deeming the Jays offence and decision-making “repulsive” after game one, I thought, was justified, as surely it could not get worse in game two.

Instead, Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, John Schneider, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and the Blue Jays offence embarrassed themselves in historic fashion.

Taking Jose Berrios, your $131M man, out of the game as he was cruising, only to bring in a starter who did not come out of the bullpen all season, is indefensible. There was no amount of hindsight needed. It was the wrong decision at the moment and it was the wrong decision after it was 2-0 Twins. I am all for the analytics department drawing up different possibilities heading into the series/game. In fact, that is their job and not doing so would be malpractice. But for Shapiro, Atkins, and Schneider to follow through with it – completely ignoring how great Berrios was pitching at the moment – exposes the organization’s decision-making process in a terrible way. Jobs should be lost at the highest level.

• Berrios deserves a ton of credit for the character he showed during and after being pulled. It would have been more than defensible to let his emotions out on Schneider, but he did the opposite. If rebounding to become a true co-ace, a season removed from finishing with the highest ERA in all of MLB was not enough of an endorsement of his character, this moment certainly was.

• The only thing worse than pulling Berrios was watching the face of this team’s underwhelming era get caught daydreaming at second base with the team’s best player at the plate in a must-score situation. There is not a moment that could better define Guerrero Jr., the 2023 season, and this core more than that one. They are not built for the bright lights.

6. The attention now turns to the offseason, where major changes are needed.

I would lean towards firing Atkins, who has largely done a great job, but a fresh set of eyes on this team may very well be needed as he seems so set in his way as to how the team should be operated. There is also the reality that he has been the general manager since October of 2015 and this team has little to show for it in the way of playoff success. It’s a results business and the results have not been there. As for Schneider and the hitting coaches, they have to go. He is not a serious manager. “It was not his decision to pull Berrios” is not good enough for me. Did he fight like hell to not allow it to happen? The answer is no, and that alone is a fireable offence. The only positive with Schneider is the players seemed to understand it was not his decision, with Berrios going as far as consoling him after the decision was made. As for the hitting coaches, I do not want to blame them directly, because I do think the hitting approach of sacrificing power and strikeouts for more contact is an organizational one, but a change is clearly needed.

Roster-wise, the rotation should be set, with Alek Manoah getting a chance to redeem himself in the spot of Hyun Jin Ryu.

Bullpen-wise, bringing back Jordan Hicks would be ideal in a perfect world, but more money, and a better role, is likely somewhere else for him. The bullpen, the team’s bright spot in 2023, should otherwise return as is, outside of adding one more arm to replace Hicks and to protect themselves from an arm or two regressing, which so often happens to a team’s bullpen from year-to-year.

Lineup-wise, I am not sure where one can even begin. There is not one player, sans Bichette, that should be locked into a spot for 2024. That does not mean management should get the green light to sell low on the likes of Guerrero Jr. or Alejandro Kirk, but a massive revamp is in order. This lineup was not at any point good enough and if trading a core piece is needed to help make it so, then by all means.

There is no reason to be attached to this flawed, unlikeable core, even if bounce-back performances from some seem like a reasonable bet. Because while bounce-back performances from the likes of Guerrero Jr., Kirk, and Daulton Varsho are more than possible, what if George Springer continues to decline? He is not getting any younger.

7. The point of the Jays organizational hitting approach, in my eyes, will have to be the most important development this upcoming offseason.

At the end of the 2022 season, they made a decision that they have to do a better job of playing the game “the right way.” That was evident by the team removing the home run jacket and emphasizing the importance of defence, both of which I agreed with.

But it was also evident by the team wanting to cut the number of strikeouts down/using the entire field, rather than striking out as often as they did due to how often they were trying to pull the ball.

The issue with that is, as everyone knows, it came at the expense of almost everyone’s power numbers dipping significantly – a true organizational failure.

The approach has to change in 2024. Situational hitting is needed to win a World Series, but this team has too much power on their roster to be shifting their players away from pulling the ball.

8. One of the reasons I have been on the “fire Atkins” movement can largely be summed up with his press conference from Saturday.

No leadership (putting the Berrios decision all on Schneider is a slap in the face to Schneider and the fan base), is tone-deaf, and is so set in his ways.

He is a smart baseball mind who deserves to land another job elsewhere, but it is time to move on.

9. Raptors media day came and went with me more confused and concerned about the direction of the team moving forward.

Why is Masai Ujiri saying now is the time to discuss extensions with his three key pending free agents, instead of doing so throughout the summer? Why did he all but call out Pascal Siakam for being selfish? Why did he say he did not trade Fred Van Vleet at the deadline out of loyalty rather than doing what was best for the team?

All questions we do not have answers to, which is probably better for the sanity of Raptors fans, I guess.

10. With Toronto not getting a WNBA team because MLSE decided it was not a worthy bid, it is important to remember that a lot of what is bad, or at the very least, off, with Toronto sports right now, can be chalked up to Ed Rogers.

His world views, his disdain for Ujiri as a person, and the in-fighting he has going on with his family, are slowly but surely putting a dent into the Toronto sports scene.

Ed and the red-coloured company should be public enemy number one in Toronto.

11. Remember when people debated who the Pats would be better off keeping around, if they had to pick one of Tom Brady or Bill Belichick?

Funny.

12. The best hire of the NFL offseason? Shane Steichen.

The Colts are way better, way sooner, than anyone thought.

13. My Super Bowl power rankings, after the first five weeks of the season...

1. 49ers

2. Kansas City

3. Eagles

4. Bills

5. Dolphins

6. Cowboys

7. Ravens

Could the Bengals, Chargers, and Jaguars throw themselves in the mix? Maybe, but I do not see it.

14. My Week 6 NFL Picks, after going 6-7 in Week 5, with MNF still pending.

• Kansas City (-10.5)

• Titans (+4.5)

• Vikings (-3.5)

• Colts (+5.5)

• Seahawks (+3)

• Dolphins (-13)

• Texans (+2.5)

• 49ers (-2.5)

• Falcons (-1.5)

• Raiders (-2)

• Lions (-3)

• Eagles (-6)

• Rams (-5)

• Bills (-13)

• Cowboys (+1)

15. What is Ontario doing at this point with Doug Ford, the most disgraced Premier of our time?

Paying Mark Saunders to be on the Ontario Place Advisory Board, only to never ask him for advice or recommendations, should be a historic provincial scandal. Paying his friends, at the expense of the taxpayers, simply because he feels as though he can, is a level of corruption that I can’t even fathom from a provincial leader.

16. Maybe Ford and his cronies could help keep Toronto’s Line 2 Subway alive with the money he is paying his friends to sit on boards.

And if he does not want to, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has neglected Toronto at every turn, should finally do something before the damage is done,

And so we are clear, the damage of Line 2 being shut down due to lack of funding for new trains would be the end of Toronto as we know it. The worst-case scenario of Line 2 shutting down is not even something I can even envision. The city will simply cease to exist as we know it. This should be a federal emergency.

17. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can not exactly be addressed in one “take,” but here is what I do know…

• Innocent people, on both sides, continue to die, and anyone cheering for that has completely lost the plot in life, never mind on this issue. Even in the worst of wars, the lives of innocent people should be off-limits.

• Anyone who is “pro-Hamas” does not actually care for human rights in the slightest, as even if you, for whatever reason, wanted to defend the killing of innocent people by chalking it up to “this is war,” the reality is a Hamas-led state would be barbaric for any minority group. You are exposing yourself if you are pro-Hamas. They are savages.

• It is interesting that attacks by the Israeli government are labelled as “self-defence,” while the attacks by Hamas are labelled as terrorist attacks, as if Hamas’ escalations are not largely in response to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. This is not an equal war in terms of whose crimes are more barbaric and more frequent. Not all savages are equal. We can condemn Hamas without acting as if the Israeli government is just in their crimes.

• The escalation in this war is the final dent (in all likelihood) of a two-state solution, which was never going to be a long-term solution. There was never going to be long-term peace with occupation still in place.

• Hamas’ attacks are a bad look for Israel’s government. How can you commit occupation and Apartheid over Palestine, yet have no idea that the attacks were coming? That is an incredible amount of incompetence.