Frank Seravalli reporting the Leafs will lose Jared McCann to the Kraken

Jared McCann we hardly knew ye. And believe me, we really wanted to get to know you, but alas you are meant for better things and by that I mean completely escaping the gong show that is the Maple Leafs organization.

His stay was short-lived in Toronto. The #SeaKraken will be selecting Jared McCann from the #Leafs.
The end result: Toronto traded prospect Filip Hallander and a 7th round pick to Pittsburgh to essentially protect their roster from Seattle.@DFOHockey
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 21, 2021

If you are looking for any attempt at thoughtful analysis here, I’m going to let you down. This situation comes off as incredibly stupid. The Leafs gave up a solid, near NHL ready prospect in Filip Hallander, plus a 7th round pick (the Leafs have been giving all draft picks away like candy) to bring in Jared McCann a few days ago. That was immediately followed by the failure to protect him in the expansion draft, largely creating a situation where the Kraken would be choosing between McCann and Kerfoot.
For the record, McCann is cheaper, younger, better defensively, better offensively, taller, and probably smells better than Alexander Kerfoot too. Basically, McCann was put …

Read More

Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Toronto Raptors: Yuta Watanabe signing an NBA deal speaks to his fit long-term

Toronto Raptors: Yuta Watanabe signing an NBA deal speaks to his fit long-term

Coming into the season, no one really knew what to make of Toronto Raptors two-way player Yuta Watanabe. He could defend some yes, but what position was he best served at? Furthermore, was he going to evolve his offensive game? Watanabe didn’t get off to the greatest start, but he soon found a foothold in […]
Toronto Raptors: Yuta Watanabe signing an NBA deal speaks to his fit long-term – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Read More

Author: Kahfeel Buchanan / Raptors HQ

Leafs waive five players

We knew this was coming. In fact, I wrote earlier today about how it was coming. That being said, we are now playing the waiting game to see if any of them are claimed.

Kenny Agostino, Travis Boyd, Adam Brooks, Martin Marincin and Calle Rosen have been placed on waivers by Toronto.
Aaron Dell, notably, was not. So the #leafs are still carrying three goalies on the active roster.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) January 11, 2021

Let’s start with who wasn’t waived, and that was Aaron Dell. Not waiving Dell was absolutely necessary at this time, given that both New Jersey and Washington could use a goaltender, and let’s face it, Dell could be a starter in Edmonton as well, so he was going to get a ton of interest. Hopefully teams figure out their goaltending situations soon, and Dell can safely be moved to the Taxi Squad in the near future, giving the Leafs a bit more flexibility with their players.
Boyd and Brooks are both slated for the Leafs main roster or Taxi Squad, and the fact that they are waived pretty much guarantees that it is the taxi squad where they are landing. There is some risk …

Read More

Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

What do the Leafs have in prospect Filip Hallander?

We all knew changes were coming and Kyle Dubas wasted little time getting to work reshaping the Leafs roster. On Tuesday, he made his first move of the offseason and shipped Kasperi Kapanen back to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Leafs and Penguins exchanged multiple pieces in the deal but the key components of the trade were Kapanen for Pittsburgh, and the Penguins 2020 first round pick along with Swedish prospect Filip Hallander for Toronto. We’ll have to wait and see what the Leafs decide to do with that pick. Do they use it in another trade to add help on the blue line or do they keep the pick and add to their prospect pool with the 15th selection in what many analysts have referred to as a deep draft?
While we aren’t sure what will become of that draft pick in the coming weeks, months, or even years, Filip Hallander is more of a known quantity even at just 20 years of age. He’s a player that the Leafs have kept close tabs on going all the way back to before he was selected by Pittsburgh in the second round of the 2018 draft. 
Dubas …

Read More

Author: Nick Richard / The Leafs Nation

The Red Sox just got a whole bunch worse

We all knew Mookie Betts was going to get traded, it was just a matter of when and where to.

With the 2018 American League Most Valuable Player set to hit free agency after the 2020 and him and the Red Sox apparently very far apart on contract discussions, it was inevitable Betts would be traded before he could walk for nothing. And, well, before the Red Sox had to pay him anywhere near the $20 million he’s asking for, something they’re clearly not interested in doing.
On Tuesday night, Betts was traded along with David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for young outfielder Alex Verdugo and prospect Brusdar Graterol, who the Dodgers picked up in exchange for pitcher Kenta Maeda.
If you’re a Red Sox fan? This sucks. But we aren’t Red Sox fans, so who cares? From a Blue Jays fan perspective? This is fantastic.
I mean, to be somewhat fair to the Red Sox, Betts has always stated that he wants to test out free agency, so logic suggests getting something for him before we can walk for nothing is the prudent move.
But that isn’t what …

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

Donaldson reflects on his time in Toronto: “At the end it hurt”

It’s a moment that we all knew was coming. Josh Donaldson is returning to Toronto and the night will be filled with fond memories of home-stealing and rain-bringing.
With both teams at opposite ends of the World Series-contention scale, the Blue Jays are hosting Donaldson’s new team, the Atlan Braves, for a three-game series beginning on Tuesday night. Before the game, the 2015 AL MVP was able to say some words about his time in Toronto and what exactly it meant to him.

Josh Donaldson on last summer #BlueJays
“What probably nags at me most is how my career finished here in Toronto. Not being able to play at the time, trying to fight as hard as I could to get back. It wasn’t working out. How everything transpired was something that was tough”
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) August 27, 2019

Looking back at the years he spent in Toronto is bittersweet for the third baseman. Finishing a tenure highlighted by dramatic playoff series victories and individual accomplishments by fizzing out due to injuries and never really getting his footing last year, then getting shipped to Cleveland just as he was getting ready to return to major-league action.
It might be …

Read More

Author: Thomas Williams / Blue Jays Nation

Daily Duce: The post-Stroman trade reaction edition

Daily?????!!!!!
We all knew Marcus Stroman was going to be traded, but this isn’t exactly how we expected it to go down. The Jays pulled the trigger on a deal with, out of left field, the Mets, a few days prior to the trade deadline, resulting in some pretty mixed reviews on the return. There’s a lot being said about this very confusing deal and I’ll do my best to synthesize the interesting and important information.

First and foremost, there’s Marcus Stroman’s reaction to the trade, which wasn’t overly shocking. There was reportedly a loud commotion in the clubhouse between Stroman and Blue Jays coaches and executives after the ace found out he had been dealt to the Mets.
It seems that Stroman’s frustration had to do with being traded to the Mets rather than to a contending team, like his hometown Yankees, which had been his rumoured destination for weeks. Stroman’s father even chimed in to admit he was a little disappointed with the result…
“He was kind of psyched, maybe hoping to go there. I’m not going to tell you that he wasn’t,” the elder Stroman said. “If …

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

On Vlad’s early struggles

The 2019 season is the year of Vlad. Everybody knew the team was going to be bad this year, but the arrival of baseball’s prodigy, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, was going to make it all worth it.

Expectations were massive. FanGraphs’ Steamer projected Vlad to put up a 138 wRC+, which would be 14th best in all of baseball, better than stars like Aaron Judge, Manny Machado, and Paul Goldschmidt. Pretty much all of us expected he would hit the ground running and dominate big league pitching, just like he hit the ground running at every new level he was promoted to in the minors.
That hasn’t happened. Nine games into the Vlad era, he’s slashing an ugly 152/.243/.182 line with 10 strikeouts in 33 at-bats. Since he had three hits in each of his first three games, Vlad has gone just two-for-twenty-one.
Does Vlad need to be sent back down to Triple-A to learn how to hit? Is he a bust?! Is it time to slam the panic button?
No. Vlad is going to be fine.
His early struggles represent the reality that being a good Major League Baseball player is really, really fucking hard. While many players have slid into the …

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation