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.