2016 for the Blue Jays

For the Blue Jays, 2016 was a crazy one. Let's divide them up in parts so that you know what I mean.

January-March
The Blue Jays sign Drew Storen, Jesse Chavez, and J.A. Happ. The internet exploded on the debate on who the closer should be, Roberto Osuna or Drew Storen? WOW, hindsight really makes this debate seem lousy, huh?

April-August
Chris Colabello is suspended, Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney pitch in the same game, Marcus Stroman to the minors? #votecaptaincanada, Aaron Sanchez's pitching limit, Marco Estrada the new ace? Jason Grilli and Joaquin Benoit are on fire! Josh Donaldson hat trick!!! Playoffs here we come!

September
We might not make it to the playoffs. This offence is due any day now...

October
EDWIN YOU ARE OUR SAVIOUR, get the brooms out thanks to the Donaldson Dash! "I'd rather be punched in May than knocked out in October", the offence is back baby! Where did the offence go?

November-December
Yay we got Kenrys Morales? Bye bye Cecil and Edwin.

As you can tell, 2016 was one emotional year for the Blue Jays, but one that we will never forget.

2016 for the Maple Leafs

When the Auston Matthews hoists the Stanley Cup, which year will be the one that triggered this? 2016. This year was seperated into 2 parts. January-August and September-December. January-August was one hell of a ride. We finished 30th in the league, won the lottery, drafted Auston Matthews, signed Frederic Andersen, resigned Rielly and Kadri, changed our freaking logo, and so much more.

Those months were the building blocks that made September-December so great. We saw Auston Matthews on a line with CONNOR MCJESUS in the World Cup, we saw him score 4 goals in one game, Mitch Marner showed us that he belongs in the NHL for good, Nikita Zaitsev became a wonderful surprise, Zach Hyman and Nikita Soshnikov showed us what a "dog on raw meat" really means, and our specialty units improved drastically.

2016 is going to be forever remembered by Leafs Nation as the year we finally saw hope.

The Auston Matthews Dilema

Yesterday Auston Matthews scored his 15th goal of the season making him the goal leader of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sadly, we lost. Watching the game, I couldn't help but notice that it seemed like everytime Matthews' scores, we lose. I did a bit of research and the stats I found were shocking.

Auston Matthews scored in 11 games this season. Of those 11 games, we won 2. That means that we only win 18% of the games he scores in. THAT'S HORRENDOUS. Even the game where he had a 4 goal game wasn't enough to bring a victory to the team. Compare that to Mitch Marner's numbers. He scored in 7 games, and of those 7, we won 6 of them. that's 86%.

Now ask yourself why? Well let's see if it's because of the teams they played.

Auston Matthews scored against:

• Ottawa (Andersen)
• Tampa Bay (Bishop)
• New Jersey (Schneider)
• Washington (Holtby)
• Edmonton (Talbot)
• Vancouver (Miller)
• Boston (Rask)
• San Jose (Jones)
• Arizona (Smith)

Mitch Marner scored against:

• Boston (Rask)
• Buffalo (Nilsson)
• Vancouver (Miller)
• Philadelphia (Mason)
• Nashville (Rinne)
• Florida (Luongo)
• Arizona (Smith)

It obviously isn't the goalie situation because both of them score against elite goalies so what is it? What makes Auston Matthews so unlucky?

Phil Kessel

The Maple Leafs beat the reigning Stanley Cup champions on Hockey Night in Canada. That was a phenomenal game and it had a great finish. The only thing that really bothered me was the booing of the former Leaf, and now Stanley Cup champion, Phil Kessel.

He shouldn't have been booed because he didn't deserve it at all. He brought our team to the first playoff appearance since 2004. He scored his brains out in Toronto while the media hounded him day after day. HE BROUGHT THE STANLEY CUP BACK TO TORONTO. If you had one day with the cup, would you return to your former team's city and spend it in a Sick Kids' Hospital?

Phil Kessel should be respected and remembered in this city rather than booed and made fun of. He is a great player and deserves way more than this disrespectful crap.

Peter Holland's Sweet Revenge Story

How many Leafs fans heard the name Peter Holland announced during the shootout and had their hearts drop? I know I did because EVERY FREAKING FORMER LEAF SCORES. That's not an opinion, its a fact.

Peter Holland is a decent NHL player that played for the Leafs for almost 3 seasons. He was on that Maple Leafs playoff team in 2013. He has been okay for the Leafs but we just have no room for him so instead of sitting him out for months (Frankie Corrado), we trade him to the Arizona Coyotes, a team with promising young players.

And how does he repay us? HE SCORES THE SHOOTOUT WINNER. Thanks Pete.

I wonder how many goals Phil Kessel's going to score tomorrow!

LEAFS CAN'T HOLD A FREAKING LEAD

The Leafs are up 2-0 with eight minutes to go! Yay! We are about to beat the 2015 Stanley Cup finalists! Oh no they scored, but thats okay, there's only six minutes left! Now there's a penalty- but we killed 5 straight this game! let's make it si-they tied it. THEY FREAKING TIED IT. For the THIRD time this season we blow a 2 GOAL LEAD IN THE THIRD.

I'm not even ready to blame this game on the Leafs though.

The first goal was a laser and a miracle I cannot blame Andersen or any of the defenders because that outcome was the last thing I expected. THIS DUDE HASN'T SCORED IN 31 GAMES AND NOW HE BREAKS THE DROUGHT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

They also had some pretty crappy calls against them. The overturned goal because of "goalie interference" was absolute trash.

"Goaltender interference is a penalty in ice hockey whereby a player is found in the goal crease when a goalie is establishing his position in the same area." (Wikipedia)

Let's run through that play shall we? Kadri is pushed by Pavelski into Jones. Kadri barely grazes the goalie AND THIS WAS NOT EVEN IN THE BLUE PAINT. How can the refs call this a bad goal? How can they review it and still call it a bad goal?

The Matt Hunwick penatly was a pretty crappy call too.

All in all, this was a pretty forgettable game.

Peter Holland is Free

Peter Holland has been sent to the Arizona Coyotes for a conditional 6th pick. That pick could be ours or not, but the main reason that this is important is because we finally freed up a roster spot and Peter Holland can finally play a freaking hockey game. The last time he played an NHL game was November 26. This means that a roster spot will be open for potential Marlies players such as Josh Leivo, Brooks Laich or Milan Michalek to finally play in the NHL.

A New Blue Jays Team

As of the time that I am writing this post, the Blue Jays have already signed DH Kendrys Morales and utility player, Steve Pearce. These two players are very important to mention because now the chances of resigning Edwin Encarnacion is literally impossible. Everybody in Canada already said their goodbyes to Jose Bautista, and Joaquin Benoit and Brett Cecil have resigned elsewhere. This team already has a different look to it. We have a utility player and a hitter who hits for average rather than power, and our rotation will look so much stronger with R.A. Dickey gone. Here's a list to really help you understand the magnitude of changes that have happened in this off season so far.

Gone                                                New Guys                               Current Rotation
Jose Bautista                                   Steve Pearce                            Marco Estrada
Edwin Encarnacion                         Kendrys Morales                     Aaron Sanchez
Brett Cecil                                       Jason Grilli (resigned)             J.A. Happ
Joaquin Benoit                                                                                 Marcus Stroman
R.A. Dickey                                                                                     Francisco Liriano OR Joe Biagini
Josh Thole
Michael Saunders
Chris Colabello
Dioner Navarro

I just decided to include our rotation as of now because the Red Sox just signed CHRIS SALE and I wanted to see if we could compete with their rotation. In my opinion, we DEFINITELY can. We have 3 pitchers who deserve at least a CY Young candidacy and 2 pitchers who are also really good. I'm quite confident next year. How about you guys?

Leafs and the Playoffs?

Are the Toronto Maple Leafs a playoff contender this season? They've managed to play tight games against some of the best teams in the league (one goal games with Montreal) and it seems like every time they lose, they dominated the game, whereas when they win, they were dominated. If they can figure out all the defense nonsense, this team will look really scary. Look at the Maple Leafs' lineup as of now.

Forwards

Zach Hyman          Auston Matthews          Connor Brown

                           James van Riemsdyk        Tyler Bozak              Mitchell Marner

                                  Leo Komarov            Nazem Kadri            William Nylander

                                    Matt Martin               Ben Smith               Nikita Soshnikov

Defense

Morgan Rielly          Nikita Zaitsev

Matt Hunwick           Roman Polak

Jake Gardiner           Connor Carrick

Goalies

Frederick Andersen

Jhonas Enroth

So how do you improve this team? The defense just sticks out like a sore thumb but fixing it will be a challenge. The average age of this team is around 25 years old. That makes them the youngest team in the NHL. If you want to improve, you have to think about that. We cannot start trading young prospects for single year defensive improvements, you need to stay young, Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev have been great but we need more. Sadly, young defensive players are really rare and their teams know that. Obtaining young, talented defensive players will be very hard and if the Leafs don't find any soon, the playoff push will be lost.
I've seen rumours about Peter Holland being on the market for a "shut down defense man" but I don't really know if that is true. He is being paid 1.3 million dollars and I don't know if anyone is willing to take that on for a potential 15-20 goal scorer. To make matters worse, the most logical choices for defense men have recently signed (Trouba and Lindholm) so I wonder who the Leafs' management are targeting.

Encarnacion turns down the deal?

Edwin Encarnacion, the beloved parrot walker of Toronto, has turned down the $80 million, 4 year offer the Blue Jays offered him. In my opinion, I thought that was a fantastic deal. He would be paid tons and play in Toronto until he is 37. I guess he thought otherwise. The only other reasonable teams he could be going to are the

1. Boston Red Sox (God, I hope not)
2.  Houston Astros (I doubt it, but can you imagine a lineup with Encarnacion, Altuve, AND Evan Gattis?!)
3. Texas Rangers (Even worse than Boston I'm going to barf if this actually happens)
4. New York Yankees (Holy crap, he will be the most hated player in the A.L. East if he goes THERE. Are you kidding me?)

As you can tell, if the Blue Jays don't take another shot, he is most likely going straight to a rival team. How about he just stays here and everybody can just rest easy knowing that Justin Smoak won't get a lot of playing time? I think that's the best option.

Blue Jays' Off-Season So Far

With the baseball season over for about a month now, a lot of trades and signings have been happening. Here are some interesting ones concerning Blue Jays fans:

1. Blue Jays sign DH Kendrys Morales for 3 years and $33 million. He is 33 years old and the perfect power hitter that the Blue Jays need. He's a switch hitter which will help balance the lineup, he hits for power which we will need if we don't resign Edwin. Finally, he's been to the Post Season seven times in his career so he will bring some experience as well. 
2. Blue Jays sign RH reliever Leonel Campos from the San Diego Padres. He is 29 years old and pitched ok in the big leagues last season with an ERA of 5.73. Not the best numbers, but we need more bullpen depth and he's still young.
3. Blue Jays sign RH reliever Domonic Leone from the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is 25 years old and had an ERA of 6.33. Yikes. Hopefully he will do better in a Blue Jays uniform.

As you can see, the Blue Jays got a switch hitter, and two right handed relievers. That's pretty good, but considering that Brett Cecil just signed with the Cardinals, we still have a long was to go.

Maple Leafs Offence is on Fire

For the fourth time in six games, the Maple Leafs have scored 6 goals. In a league where scoring has become a premium, that is pretty impressive, also considering the fact that almost half the team consists of rookies, that is pretty impressive. Now, you can look at this in another light. Those 4 teams they beat up on were either bad teams (Vancouver and Philadelphia) or we were playing against their back up goalie (Mazanec and Reimer). What you cannot do though, is undersell how good this team looks. We have been playing much better defensively and for the most part, Frederic Andersen has been solid. Even more good news, the Maple Leafs are finally winning games against teams that they should be winning against. Gone are the days where we win against the defending Stanley Cup champions in the Chicago Blackhawks and we totally cough up against the bottom-feeders in the Carolina Hurricanes. The Maple Leafs might not be Cup contenders this year, but we sure are breaking some really bad habits and it looks pretty bright for the future.

Edwin vs Jose

This off season for the Blue Jays is going to be revolving around one player, Edwin Encarnacion. Jose Bautista is going to take his arrogance and controversy elsewhere. He was a great player but his last season really left a bad taste in our mouth with his injuries and lack of clutch in the ALCS. Bautista was always known as a clutch player, he came through a couple of times in the season but when his team needed his bat the most, he batted .167. He never changed his swing-for-the-fences approach and it cost the Blue Jays valuable offense. He had a great tenure with the Blue Jays but I believe his time here is over.

Edwin Encarnacion is different. He is 33 years old and is one of the most consistent hitters in our lineup. He can play great defense and his batting numbers are out of this world. I really hope that we can resign him but I know there is a limit. I think 3 years for 25 million would be the max. Anything more would be way too risky. Look at the David Price trade as an example. He under performed by a mile and still has 6 years left on his contract. We don't want to make the same mistake as Boston.
Who do you guys think we should keep and what are you willing to pay?

Maple Leafs vs Jets, Matthews vs Laine

All hockey fans need to shut up about this "rivalry" between Laine and Matthews. How one is better than the other, they are different players. Matthews got drafted first for a reason right? They have different styles but they put the puck in the net and that is all that matters. Laine can score like crazy, but in my opinion, Matthews means more to the Maple Leaf franchise. The fanbase of Toronto has been dying for a good #1 center since Mats Sundin so his role is going to be magnified. Now everyone go back to your seats and just appreciate the amount of skill and speed the young players are bringing.

The Blue Jays Migrate South for the Winter

The Toronto Blue Jays' season ended yesterday at the hands of the Cleveland Indians and now the city of Toronto will not see any baseball until April.  Surprisingly, I didn't feel as bad as I thought I would of. Cleveland out-played us in every aspect of the game and quite frankly, we deserved it. Our pitchers were amazing as well but our offense went dry as it seemed to do all season long. This season did not exceed my expectations. I'm sure every fan thought that the offense was going to bomb and that our pitching rotation would be mediocre, but that wasn't the case. Our pitching rotation was the best in the American League and our offense was not. That really surprised me. We barely made it to the playoffs and our offense was hot and cold. If I have any expectations for next season, it would be to have a more balanced lineup (more speed, more left-handed bats). Our pitching rotation is going to be strong and our bullpen will hold up like it did for most of the season (remember Drew Storen and Jesse Chavez?). I do expect us to go to the playoffs again and maybe we will be even better prepared. Remember this though, baseball playoffs are a crap shoot and all we have to go is get in to be a contender for the elusive World Series. Do you guys think that we will make it to the Post Season three years in a row?  

Toronto Maple Leafs' Season of Hope

After watching the first two games of the season, I have felt something that as a Leafs fan, have never felt in a long time. Hope. I know it's only been two games, but the energy and talent that this Leafs team has is something I have not seen in a while. Doesn't it remind you of team North America during the World Cup of Hockey? I feel excited and confident that this new regime of Shanahan, Lamoriello, and Babcock won't figure out a way to mess things up and I am pretty confident with our goaltenders. This season will finally be one that I'm excited about. How do you guys like this new, young team?

How I feel about the Blue Jays Postseason run

The Toronto Blue Jays have been in the 2016 Postseason for about 2 weeks but it feels like it has been months that this team has been playing must-win games. As a Toronto sports fan, I just want to say that I have had enough playoff baseball for a while. These games are just so stressful and high intensity. Every pitch matters and when there is a full count, I am just about ready faint. To make matters worse, baseball games are so damn long. The amount of time in between pitches seems to stretch forever and the teams always seem to be switching their pitchers which takes even longer. After watching almost 7 months of baseball, you can get pretty sick of it. Especially with the hockey season starting up and the Toronto Maple Leafs coming out of the gate like a team North America. For these reasons, I honestly think the baseball season should be a month shorter or they should limit the off days during the Postseason, which quite frankly, are pretty useless and just messes up the usual tempo of the regular season. What do you guys think?