Sheldon Keefe’s lineup experiments should be encouraged

I think I’ve stated it here before and I’m sure most of you don’t care, but I’m not a huge Sheldon Keefe guy. That’s not to say that I think he’s a bad coach, in fact, I think he’s an above-average one. I just think the Leafs with their resources have better options available but have been able to seek a lot of comfort in the fact that Sheldon Keefe’s knowledge of how Kyle Dubas wants the players he brings in to be used is something that you won’t find easily with other coaches. That’s the perceived advantage and I accept that.
A couple of my criticisms of Keefe prior to this year is that he very much seems locked into his lineup and is reluctant to make changes and the other is that he doesn’t seem to prepare for when the Leafs plan of attack is blocked. The recent lineup blender and experimentation with the 11 forward and 7 defenseman approach has been very welcomed in my household and can fully appreciate there will be a lot of nights when it doesn’t go so hot, but this appears to be Keefe checking some of the boxes where I felt he was lacking.
Wh …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

It’s report card day after the Leafs gave us a lot of trades to grade

It’s report card day after the Leafs gave us a lot of trades to grade

Here we are with another round of grade that trade. Everyone loves these posts, that’s why every site seems to do them. You can’t get enough. We can’t get enough. Well… I guess we could kinda get enough because, with the volume of trades the Leafs had yesterday, most of the TLN contributors were huddled in balls on the floor, rocking back and forth going “no more, no more.” It’s in that spirit that I’m largely taking over the grading myself today. I got some help with the Sandin deal, but I’m flying solo on the smaller ones. I promise to be nice to Luke Schenn, but we’ll save him for last.
Sandin to Washington for Gustafsson and Boston’s 2023 1st round pick: A
The second you say “first round pick” to me, I instantly like the trade. My brain still operates in a pre-2016 world where the idea of the Leafs accumulating 1st round picks is the goal of the season. Couple that with all the love letters written about this draft class and it’s nice to see Toronto back in the game.

Erik Gustafsson is no slouch either. Those aren’t sheltered 3rd pairing minutes that he’s been playing either, that’s a 20 minute a night defenseman that is doing well and is about to be slid into a role that is far more manageable for him. I’d argue the Leafs got the best asset with the pick, and the best defenseman in the deal with Gustafsson, and the Capitals are largely just banking on Sandin being more usable for them immediately and on par with what they’d get with a late first round pick.
In theory, everyone got what they wanted out of this deal, but from my perspective this is a big win for Toronto as it gives them a lot of flexibility for future moves and they’ve cashed out at the right time on a defenseman …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

International Free Agent tracker: Blue Jays add six Venezuelans and an intriguing Brazilian pitcher

One of the year’s best days is here, as we’ve officially started the International Free Agency period.

As more signings become announced, I’ll create a new section for each player. Let’s start with the big fish of the class.
Enmanuel Bonilla
It was announced on Sunday morning that the Blue Jays have officially signed Enmanuel Bonilla, a top prospect in the 2023 IFA class.

Source: #BlueJays agree to a $4.1 million deal with OF Enmanuel Bonilla, #7 on Top 50 Int’l Prospect list. The team has not confirmed. https://t.co/A3Ar3oTG3N
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) January 15, 2023

Ranking as Blue Jays Nation’s 20th-best prospect, Bonilla has an intriguing hit tool and some of the best power in the class. Moreover, he may have the tools to stick in centre field as he’s rather athletic and has a strong arm, but he could move to a corner outfield, likely right field.
The 16-year-old ranked as MLB Pipeline’s seventh-best available prospect in their Top 50 international ranking for 2023l. Fangraphs ranked him as their 11th-best prospect, while Baseball America ranked him as their fourth-best available prospect.
Per Jesse Sanchez, he signed for $4,100,000, meaning that the Jays have $1,184,000 remaining in bonus pool money.
Update #1:
The signing on Enmanuel Bonilla was to be expected, but below is a list of the first batch of prospects that have officially signed.

Add C Juan Rosas 🇵🇦to the list
— Mitch Bannon (@MitchBannon) January 15, 2023

Sports Illustrated’s Mitch Bannon was the first to tweet this out, and it was officially confirmed by the team on Sunday afternoon.
Andersson Barvosa:
With a lot of these guys, scouting reports are going to be nearly impossible to find. However, I got pretty lucky and found some video, as you can watch below.

Andersson Barvosa from 2021.
Courtesy of Bendecidos Sport on Facebook.#BlueJays pic.twitter.com/h6VuYczqK8
— Brennan …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Examining the Shapiro Era Trades, Part two: The Losses

As a team, you will have your losses here and there. 

On Saturday, we looked at the 19 trades since the Mark Shapiro era started that was considered a win by voters on Twitter. Today, we’ll look at the “losses”
Just a few notes before we begin:
Yes, Shapiro doesn’t make the trades, but they likely run through him. Not just that, but when Mark Shapiro was brought in, so too was Ross Atkins. Hence why I call it the “Shapiro era”.
Secondly, I don’t think most of these were actual losses. So I’ll give my reasoning and context as to why I thought otherwise. Let’s start with the first ever trade of the Shapkins era.
The Liam Hendriks trade:
Fun fact, this is the only trade in any of these articles for which Ross Atkins wasn’t the General Manager.
The Jays traded reliever Liam Hendriks for Jesse Chavez. In 2015, Hendrik had a 2.92 ERA and 2.14 FIP in 64.2 innings pitched. With the Jays in 2016, Chavez had a 4.57 ERA and 4.82 FIP in 41.1 innings pitched. He was later traded to the Dodgers in exchange for Mike Boslinger. On paper, it definitely looks like the Jays lost this trade, but let’s look at the context.
Context:
When we think of Liam Hendriks, we think of one of the best closers in the MLB to this day (and a standup guy). This wasn’t always the case, however. While his ERA and FIP sparkled in 2015, it was by far his best up to that point. Between 2011-2018, Hendriks had a 4.72 ERA and 3.91 FIP in 406.1 innings pitched.
In his first three seasons in Oakland, he had a 4.01 ERA and 3.24 FIP. Fun fa …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

A nihilist’s season preview for the Leafs

A nihilist’s season preview for the Leafs

Here we are at the Leafs first game of the season. In many ways, this feels like it should be a meaningful day, but frankly, it hits just about the same as the start of the preseason. I’ll tune in. I write about the Leafs, so I should probably watch them play, but I don’t know if there is much excitement that comes from committing to a season that is about 20 games too long and will ultimately get us to the same place, the Leafs will finish somewhere in the top three in their division, and somehow 4th or 5th in the league, and then something will finally be put on the line as we see if the Leafs are now 19 years removed from a second round appearance or if the mocking of the Leafs needs to revert to the standard 1967 reminder that admittedly I’m far more comfortable with.
That’s not to say that there aren’t storylines to care about with the regular season. Whether Kyle Dubas was active enough for you or not in the offseason, the fact that he’s given Toronto two new goaltenders to hastily develop misinformed opinions on is a bit of a blessing. Last year the g …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

3 must-watch Toronto Raptors as Media Day frenzy approaches

3 must-watch Toronto Raptors as Media Day frenzy approaches

Media Day is almost here, meaning that the Toronto Raptors are just a few days away from kicking off what is expected to be a very pivotal 2022 preseason. Fresh off 48 victories in a season that surprised many, Toronto is gearing up for a more serious push towards championship glory. With an All-Star point […]
3 must-watch Toronto Raptors as Media Day frenzy approaches – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

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Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ

Notes and quotes from Day 1 of Maple Leafs development camp

Development camp is finally here! For the first time in three years, the Toronto Maple Leafs are hosting their development camp in the regularly slotted time frame in July with both CHL and NCAA prospects in attendance, in addition to a few others from the professional ranks.
The Leafs Nation’s Nick Barden is attending development camp, so be sure to check out his recap from Day 1.
The Leafs had multiple availabilities on a busy Day 1 of dev camp, including the head of the player development department, Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser, as well as Toronto’s first picks in the 2021 and 2022 drafts in Matt Knies and Fraser Minten.
Without further delay, let’s dive into things.
Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser
On her promotion to Assistant General Manager
“Nothing changes in the day-to-day of what I’ve been doing here the last year and a half. It’s obviously a huge honour to be working here with the Leafs. I love what I do every single day, it’s been great.”
It’s not a surprise to see that despite the promotion to Assistant General Manager, Hayley Wickenheiser’s role remains essentially the same with the Maple Leafs. The promotions of Wickenheiser, Ryan Hardy, and Darryl Metcalf were less about assigning new tasks and more about re-organizing the titles in the organization.
On Matt Knies’ decision to go back to the NCAA
“Physically, [Matt Knies] is a big boy. He’s got all the tools. There’s a lot of respect that goes to the players to understand where they are at this point in time in their career and what t …

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Author: Kyle Cushman / The Leafs Nation

2022 MLB Draft day primer: How does the draft work and who are the Blue Jays linked too?

It’s finally here. Tonight at 7:00 PM eastern time, the 2022 MLB draft officially kicks under way.

As far as I can tell, tonight will cover the first two rounds, which includes the Blue Jays compensatory #77 and #78 picks.
The MLB draft is a rather confusing process compared to other North American sports, so I’ll explain it to the best of my capabilities.
How does the draft work:
In this section, we’ll look at what type of player is available as well as how the bonus pool works.
Who’s eligible:
The MLB draft has 20 rounds, but the Blue Jays will be able to draft 22 players due to those compensatory picks. The team got those picks when they extended a qualifying offer to both Robbie Ray and Marcus Semien at the end of the 2021 season. Since the two players signed elsewhere, the Jays got those two picks.
If you’re drafted by an NHL or NBA team, you essentially don’t have a choice in the matter but to play for that team. Yeah, you get weird instances like when Eric Lindros declined to play for the Quebec Nordiques or when Steve Francis refused to play for the Vancouver Grizzlies. However, most of the time once you apply to be drafted, you can’t be drafted again.
This isn’t the case with the MLB draft. The draft has a litany of pathways, such as being a recently graduated high school player, a third year university player or a junior college/community college pla …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

The Randal Grichuk trade has looked good so far

It’s my belief the Jays did a good bit of business here, and that the trade that brought Raimel Tapia to the Jays is already a win.

In fact, I’d argue that the 28-year-old Tapia is far too over-hated and has had a better season than Randal Grichuk. This is because once you dig into why Tapia struggled at the start of the season, you can see that he’s a darn good fourth outfielder.
Not just that, but the Jays have a chance to cut payroll next season while getting a pretty darn good prospect in return. Let’s look at each one of these things, starting with the MLB player they got in return.
Ramiel Tapia:
At face value, Tapia’s.264/.290/.374 slash line with 4 homeruns isn’t great. Especially when you factor in his Fangraphs WAR of -0.4, but let’s dig deeper into the numbers.
Batting Statistics:
Let’s take you back to April 13th when Teoscar Hernandez injured his oblique. This injury devastated the Jays for multiple reasons. For starters, Teoscar has been one of the better hitters (I’d argue the best) over the past two seasons.
The second reason is due to the lack of depth in the outfield, and due to the injury, Tapia played a little more than the team probably wanted.
Between the start of the season and Hernandez’s return (May 7th), Tapia posted pretty awful numbers. He slashed .222/.237/.289 in 95 p …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Everything you need to know about the Maple Leafs development camp

It’s finally here! The Toronto Maple Leafs development camp is set to begin on Sunday and run through next Friday, and the team has announced the roster after much anticipation.

A look at our 2022 Development Camp roster & schedule.#LeafsForever
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) July 14, 2022

For starters, the Leafs are holding camp a week after nearly every other team has opened them up to inviting just about any undrafted prospect they want, which we’ll get to in a second. First, here are all of the Leafs affiliated prospects attending camp:

Player
Acquired
Luke Cavallin
AHL contract
Orrin Centazzo
AHL contract
Max Ellis
UDFA NHL signing
John Fusco
2020 7th round pick
Matt Knies
2021 2nd round pick
Dennis Hildeby
2022 4th round pick
Braeden Kressler
UDFA NHL signing
Mikey Koster
2019 5th round pick
Brandon Lisowsky
2022 7th round pick
Veeti Miettinen
2020 6th round pick
Joe Miller
2020 6th round pick
Tommy Miller
AHL contract
Fraser Minten
2022 2nd round pick
Nick Moldenhauer
2022 3rd round pick
Keith Petruzzelli
AHL contract
Marshall Rifai
AHL contract
Axel Rindell
2020 6th round pick
Wyatt Schingoethe
2020 7th round pick
Graham Slaggert
AHL contract
Ryan Tverberg
2020 7th round pick
William Villeneuve
2020 4th round pick
Ty Voit
2021 5th round pick
The following are invites out of the CHL, meaning the Maple Leafs can sign them to an entry-level contract if they are impressed by what they see at camp, something they did last year for Braeden Kressler:

Player
Team

First Year Draft Eligible

Sam Alfano
Peterborough
2022
Rayan Bettahar
Swift Current
2022
Marco Costantini
Hamilton
2020
Pano Fimis
Niagara
2022
Avery Hayes
Hamilton
2021
Beau Jelsma
Barrie
2022
Kasper Larsen
Mississauga
2021
Sean McGurn
London
2020
Marcus Nguyen
Portland
2022
Michael Renwick
Windsor
2020
Grayden Siepmann
Calgary
2022
Noah Van Vliet
Hamilton
2022
Mathew Ward
Swift Current
2022
The rest of the invites are players bound for the NCAA, meaning if they were to sign, they would have to forego their collegiate eligibility. It is very rare to see these players sign in camp, although Trevor Moore was an example a few years back:

Player
2021-22 Team

First Year Draft Eligible

Mathieu De St. Phalle
Wisconsin (NCAA)
2018
Tyler Duke
USNTDP
2022
Rastislav Elias
Green Bay (USHL)
2022
Dylan Jackson
Northeastern (NCAA)
2019
Ty Jackson
Northeastern (NCAA)
2019
Ryan McAllister
Brooks (AJHL)
2020
Duncan Ramsay
Kimball Academy (USHS)
2022
T.J. Semptimphelter
Northeastern (NCAA)
2020
Jeremy Wilmer
Tri-City (USHL)
2021
The only European-based prospect attending the development camp is Dennis Hildeby, interesting given Roni Hirvonen, Topi Niemela, and Artur Akhtyamov have all been in Toro …

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Author: Kyle Cushman / The Leafs Nation