Out With The Old, In With The New + CFootball Talk

The Toronto Blue Jays season is coming to a close but their have been some significant things that have happened that could be positive in the 2009 season। The Blue Jays took two of three from the Yankees and made the most of their final trip to Yankees Stadium and the team looked very composed and made the most out of their bats, the Blue Jays road trip was also a new look at things, gone are Matt Stairs and David Eckstein and now in the lineup new players Travis Snider and Jose Bautista। Matt Stairs was a great guy to have on the team, despite being a older player he brought solid production from the DH spot and always wanted be a Toronto Blue Jay and its kind of sad to see him get traded but I am sure that he would much rather be in a pennant race then on the Blue Jays at the moment because the Blue Jays are restructuring their team for the best and that was likely going to mean Stairs wouldn't be a part of the lineup. David Eckstein was a great player and a better person, despite not being in the lineup much he never complained and took the role that he was given and did the best to his ability, it is tough to see him go but he is in a much better situation and I hope that he excels because he is going to be in the playoffs and that is where Eckstein plays best, thanks for the service guys. The trade opens up positions for both Johnny McDonald and recently recalled Travis Snider. McDonald provides top notch defense and is improving on his hitting and makes the Blue Jays a better team and the trade of Matt Stairs gives Travis Snider some designated hitter bats and despite being 20 years old Snider plays the game surprisingly well and mature. The team did the right thing by trading the two players and the Blue Jays are turning into a better team day by day, manager Cito Gaston has done a fantastic job mentoring young players like Adam Lind (who has been amazing) and batting coach Gene Tenace has revitalized players like Vernon Wells, the team has really come together as a whole and have been playing the best baseball as a team all year, the progress under the new staff has been incredible. I have never talked hockey on my blog for a fair bit of time and I just got my internet working again and learned that the Tampa Bay Lightning gave up Alexandre Picard, Filip Kuba and a first rounder in exchange for defenseman Andrej Meszaros, don't get me wrong, I think Meszaros is a strong player but he is not worth a first round pick by itself I think that the Lightning were very desperate for another impact player and they reached quite a bit in order to acquire one and then signed him to a ridiculous contract which made the Brad Richards contract dump seem quite silly, the Lightning are a team that have way to many big contracts and it screws them in the long run, hopefully the trade works out best for both teams but I could easily see the Lightning regretting this trade in the future. Changing topics once again, the Hawaii Warriors were destroyed by the 5th ranked Florida Gators 56-10 and the scary thing is that Tim Tebow wasn't his usual ridiculous self, the team dominated in every aspect and if it wasn't for Inoke Funaki touchdown the quarterback situation would of been horrendous, the Warriors used three different quarterbacks and with the exception of Funaki the quarterbacks were terrible, the running backs weren't top notch either, the team didn't amass 100 yards on the ground as a whole. The Gators offense was great, the backs were doing the primary scoring and doing that a lot of it, there was a punt return touchdown and a incterception return for a score, the team was a complete mess without June Jones or Colt Brennan, it didn't resemble anything of the past team that played in the Sugar Bowls॥ it's going to be a very long season for the Warriors. My second favorite team Texas Tech dominated Eastern Washington with Graham Harrell completing 43 passes and throwing for 536 yards as the Red Raiders destroyed Eastern Washington 49-24, if this is any indication of Texas Tech's season then its going to be a very successful one, I am sure that the Red Raiders can challenge for a top 10 spot. thanks for reading Liam

KHL/NHL Agreement Is Great, Some Teams.. Not Quite

Alexander Radulov is the latest casualty of the Kontinental Hockey League, as Radulov signed a deal that will see him suiting up with Ufa, the strange thing involving Radulov's deal is that it happened a day after the National Hockey League reached a deal with the KHL which the the Russian League agreed not to lure big name players away from the NHL with huge money offers, like the signings of David Vyborny, Jaromir Jagr and Ray Emery, all of the deals were worth more money then any of those players ever would of gotten in the NHL if they decided to play there this year. The KHL can still make offers to NHL players, but a part of the agreement was that they would be making fair offers to players instead of a huge amount to lure someone, the offers would be more competitive then overwhelming. I don't think we will be seeing another offer to Evgeni Malkin for 100 billion dollars, the two leagues have apparently a new found respect which is a good thing. Its complicated.

Anyways, back to the Radulov story, apparently Radulov wasn't a happy camper playing for Nashville and the team team took too long giving him a contract offer so he decided to go to Russia despite having one year left on his entry level contract, he said that the offer from the Russian team would earn him more money, while playing at home and having better conditions, If I was Radulov I would of taken the same deal, I wouldn't want to play in Nashville. Nashville shouldn't be a hockey team in my opinion, their fan base isn't as nearly as strong as it should be and there ownership situation is an absolute mess.

The team really missed out when it decided not to sell the team to Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie and opted instead to sell part of the team to venture capitalist William Del Biaggio and the rest to minority owners, Del Biaggio officially filed for bankruptcy and now the Predators ownership is once again in limbo. The funny thing is that tickets in Hamilton (where Balsillie was going to move the team too) were selling through the charts even though the team never moved their, just through rumors and a tentative agreement got the people going hockey crazy, imagine if their was a team in Hamilton now, do you think that Radulov would still be in the National Hockey League.. I do.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the idea of the National Hockey League expanding to new places, but teams like Nashville, Florida and dare I say Columbus look like huge mistakes when moving them to places like Hamilton which would sell out every game regardless of their record, a team in Hamilton could go 0-82 and still outsell any of those three teams list in ticket sales and merchandise. Anyways, this post is kind of getting off topic, so I am going to finish it by saying the Russian League and the National Hockey League are both doing the right things and the next team that Gary Bettman and company let into the league better be a viable and successful team with a hockey market, or its going to fail, like the Predators have been doing.

thanks for reading

Liam

The KHL Is Keeping the NHL On Their Feet..

The Continental Hockey League has consumed its second National League Hockey Player in a month, snapping up Jaromir Jagr who signed with Avangrad Omsk yesterday for a deal that was first reported to be worth 35 million dollars over two seasons but was later reported to be worth 5 million dollars annually by Jagr himself. I think this was probably a move that Jagr will regret later on when he is retired, reason's being that how is the Hockey Hall of Fame going to react when they see that a player who has scored almost 700 goals jump the boat and play in Russia?, I think that Jagr has just booked his ticket out of the Hall of Fame.

To expand more thoughts on the KHL (which I did in a previous blog) I think that the league has basically guaranteed that some players that are playing overseas are likely to stay that way and the scary thing is that the league is expanding to other countries, possible teams include teams that are currently playing in the Elitserien and SM-liiga meaning that it could end some already in place leagues that exist. I think that the National Hockey League's overseas talent pool is likely to get smaller because with a league that is already set up where they can make big money and play internationally and get critical acclaim all across Eurasia, I don't know, just think about it, If you were a player born in Russia and you had the opportunity to play in your own country and earn the same salary as in the National Hockey League, that sounds like a pretty good offer in my opinion.

I know that the argument has been made that the National Hockey League is the worlds greatest hockey league but if a league that is made up of different countries and a wide array of skilled players that no one has ever seen, that has to be some challenge for the National Hockey League. I think that the National Hockey League has to start seriously thinking about expansion, yeah I know, the KHL could be a huge bust, but what if its not?, I think that looking at a Scandinavian team and maybe a couple of European teams honestly wouldn't be so bad, it could even distract people from the KHL.

Don't even get me wrong, I don't think the KHL is the end of the NHL, not even close, but I think that in the long run if the KHL still exist the National Hockey League seriously needs to think about how they are going to maintain top talent that could opt out to play in their homeland or for bigger money, such as Jagr. I don't know if their is a way to counter balance the problem of players leaving besides offering big money contracts in order to keep players (Evgeni Malkin, good signing though) but I would definitely be worried of keeping some young talent away from the KHL, what if this way five years ago that the KHL was starting to form?, would we still have Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuck that is a question that might be re-opened as the league builds.

Thanks for reading

Liam

T-Dot Report: The Draft, Boris Diaw and Rumors....

The Toronto Raptors would be absolutely crazy, bonkers and nuts not to trade TJ Ford for one of two proposed deals that have recently floated up in rumor land, the first one involves the Phoenix Suns which involves trading Ford to the flaming birds in exchange for Boris Diaw, there are numerous reasons why the deal makes sense for the Raptors because Diaw is a solid player that would get solid minutes in the T-Dot and would be another solid forward, and landing TJ Ford means the Suns have two all-star caliber point guards that would make teams cringe thinking about while one is on the bench they still got to face another great guard.

The other possible trade seems like an absolute steal if it was done, the Raptors would trade Ford, center Rasho Nesterovic and another player to fit the cap in exchange for Indiana Pacers forward/center Jermaine O'Neal, the move would definitely give the Raptors a scary team and would also spell the end of Andrea Bargnani (hopefully) and imagine having Jermaine O'Neal and Chris Bosh down low in the post at the same time, it would be absolutely sick, mix in Jose Calderon, Jason Kapono and Anthony Parker and the line-up would actually post some big W's, the line-up would look like this with the Diaw trade:

PG - Jose Calderon
SG - Anthony Parker/Jason Kapono
SF - Boris Diaw
PF - Chris Bosh
C - Roy Hibbert (dreams, dreams)/Rasho Nesterovic/Andrea Bargnani

and with the Jermaine O'Neal Trade it would look like...

PG - Jose Calderon
SG - Anthony Parker/Courtney Lee (draft possibility)
SF - Jason Kapono
PF - Chris Bosh
C - Jermaine O'Neal

The draft is definitely going to be interesting for the Raptors, they currently possess the 17th overall pick and I would not be surprised one bit if they decided to trade it to acquire a strong center, but if the Raptors decide to keep it I would strongly suggest at looking at Georgetown center Roy Hibbert who apparently is going to be a mid to late first round draft pick, the Raptors are desperate for a center and acquiring one as soon as possible in essential for the Raptors to have a successful basketball team. If the team does end up adding Jermaine O'Neal then adding another shooting guard would be a great move, Anthony Parker is solid but he isn't the long term solution and adding Courtney Lee who played with Kentucky last year would be a pretty good fit, he is a smart guy who has great skills and would be a great selection and I am sure which ever team selects him will be pretty happy with the results that he gives on and off the court, anyways, back to the point, the Raptors need an effective draft because a couple of miserable draft years haven't improved the club, heres recent players that the Raptors drafted..

2007:

Giorgos Printezis (58th) (acquired from San Antonio, in Europe)

2006:

Andrea Bargnani (1st) (will be labeled a bust soon)
PJ Tucker (35th) (released)

2005:

Charlie Villenueva (7th) (showed progress then traded for Ford)
Joey Graham (15th) (definitely not worth a 15th pick)
Roko Ukić (41st) (Yugoslavian set to be a star next year, good pick)
Uros Slokar (58th) (currently in Russia)


2004:

Rafael Araújo (8th) (Huge bust, traded for Kris Humphries)
Albert Miralles (39th) (who?)

Anyways, I think that you get my point, the Raptors have had not any success whatsoever recently drafting by any means which the exception of Roko Ukić who is signed to come over and play with the Raps next year, all of the players drafted there have had sub par years (maybe not Charlie V) or haven't even made the NBA so the importance is lying on the Raptors getting some solid players who are going to make an impact in the future, none of the players drafted above have been a success with the Raptors (again with the exception of Charlie V) so this draft is an important corner stone for the Raptors to step it up and add some wins and knock their talent up another notch.

I am not saying that the Raptors are going to be terrible because their team that they have right now is pretty good but it is missing something that makes it from good to great and its going to be an interesting off-season for Bryan Colangelo's boys, I don't think that any player with the exception of Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, Jason Kapono and Jam Moon. The team is building for the positive and I think that we are almost as good as the Celtics, but we are still missing some pieces, lets hope they can be solved in the off-season and we can become a 50 win team.

thanks for reading

Liam