Oliver Bonk is a right shot defenceman the Maple Leafs may select at 28th overall

There are few things in hockey more exciting than the lead-up to the draft as your favourite team gets to select the next generation of players that could one day join the group. Whether it’s a team hoping to get out of the basement or a contender hoping to find a hidden gem to help elevate the club, speculation on who will get selected where is always one that will get people talking.
The Leafs are no different, even if they only have three picks to work with when they head to Nashville later this month. While it remains to be seen whether they will stick with what they got, add more picks, or take some away, they are certainly plenty of intriguing options for them to consider when they are on the clock.
It is the first-round pick acquired in the Rasmus Sandin trade that is bound to get the most attention from Leafs fans in the coming weeks. After all, finding a player of equal or greater value than what they took away in the Sandin deal is integral to the transaction being a success. Luckily for them, there is no shortage of quality players for them to look at (heck, they even draft …

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Author: Michael Mazzei / The Leafs Nation

Alek Manoah records just one out as the Astros pound the Blue Jays 11-4

There goes the winning streak.

Fresh off of a sweep of the New York Mets in Queens over the weekend, the Blue Jays returned home to kick off a four-game series with the defending World Series champions and things went sideways in a hurry. The Astros tagged Alek Manoah for six runs in the first inning and proceeded to cruise to an 11-4 win.
Let’s hope Kevin Gausman’s start tomorrow goes better than his last one against the Astros!
Things worth mentioning…

The Blue Jays came into Monday with a bullpen that had been taxed during a tight series with the Mets so the hope was that Manoah would be able to provide some length. That didn’t happen, as the big righty managed to record just one out in the first inning before getting yanked. Manoah’s final line was six earned runs on seven hits and one walk over one-third of an inning pitched. The legendary Glen Sparkman now has company among the list of Blue Jays who have allowed six earned runs in an appearance while making only one out.
After Manoah came out, the Blue Jays had to use six relievers to get through the rest of the game …

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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

16 things on new Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving’s summer checklist

There really isn’t going to be much of a honeymoon phase with the Leafs and Brad Treliving. There will be an introductory press conference and then likely an expectation that we start seeing some decisions coming out of his office by next week at the latest.
At this point the state of the Auston Matthews and to a somewhat lesser extent William Nylander contracts need to be resolved, and that is certainly on the list and is a process that will need to start early. So we’ll double back to that, but while the Matthews contract is the most significant thing to consider this summer it doesn’t necessarily come up first on the timeline of things that need to be taken of and doesn’t have a hard deadline in June. Here’s the full list of things on the go (and this list is somewhat dependent on what Brad Treliving will be able to do as far as the draft for the Leafs.)
1. Kalle Loponen and Josh Pillar (due today)
Okay, so this is far from the priority for the Leafs or for Brad Treliving, but June 1st is expiration date for Loponen and Pillar’s time on the Leafs reserve list and they are free to go wherever now.
Pi …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Blue Jays break out of losing streak with historic 20-1 win over the Rays at the Trop

There are many different ways to break out of a slump. You could beat up on an inferior team, scratch and claw for a tough road win against a division leader, or you could simply obliterate the Rays 20-1 on their home turf. That’s right, the MLB-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

Toronto chose the third option behind a quality start from Jose Berrios and a welcome offensive outburst, something that fans have been yearning for over the past couple of weeks. All nine starting batters recorded a hit and six of them had multi-hit games. This is what Toronto’s offence is capable of.
It’s the first time they’ve scored 10+ runs at Tropicana Field since August 31, 2010, when they won 13-5 (Ricky Romero was the winning pitcher of record and Jose Bautista hit home run #43 during this game). Furthermore, it’s the most runs scored at Tropicana Field since June 25, 2002, a 20-11 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Interestingly enough, that game was a matter of weeks after Buck Martinez was fired as manager of the Blue Jays, and Pete Walker was the winning pitcher in that game.

#BlueJays win, 20-1.
• 4th-most runs in club history• 2nd-most hits (27) in club history
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) May 24, 2023

Blue Jays Nation’s Player of the Game: George Springer
As one of the older guys on the roster and the lineup’s leadoff hitter, Springer sets the tone …

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Author: Evan Stack / Blue Jays Nation

Blue Jays Rehab Recap: Mitch White struggles, a prospect hurls a gem, and more!

Over the past few days in the minor leagues, there have been a few pitchers with rehab assignments.

In this article, we’ll look at how big leaguers Adam Cimber and Mitch White did, along with CJ Van Eyk, who is returning from Tommy John surgery.
Let’s start with Cimber.
Adam Cimber’s first rehab appearance:

As you likely know, the 32-year-old submarine pitcher made his first rehab appearance on May 11th. He finished with a line of 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K. Recovering from a rhomboid injury, it’s likely that Cimber was limited to 20 pitches, as he only threw 17 before getting the hook.
He threw 10 four-seam fastballs, averaging 86.3 mph and touching 87.3. Interestingly, this was actually 1.7 mph more than his yearly average in 2023. He also thre five slider, averaging 73.6 mph (0.7 mph below his yearly average).
Cimber also generated a single whiff on the fastball, finishing with a 13 whiff% on eight total swings. He got Ricardo Rosario to fly out to centre field (94.8 mph exit velocity). Before walking the next batter on nine pitches, and striking out the last batter he faced.
Overall, it was a fine appearance for Cimber. It’s likely that he’ll make a few more appearances on his rehab assignment, but I’d expect it to be with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.
Mitch White’s fourth rehab appearance:
Sadly, Mitch White didn’t have the greatest outing in his fourth app …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Two dingers from Danny Jansen, seven shutout innings from José Berríos lead Blue Jays to 7-0 spanking of White Sox

There were good vibes all around tonight, as a dominant outing from Jose Berrios complemented a career night at the plate for Danny Jansen in a 7-0 Blue Jays win over the White Sox.

Blue Jays Nation’s Player of the Game: Danny Jansen
Jansen was a popular pick to have a breakout season in 2023, and he unfortunately hadn’t tapped into that potential through the first 20 games or so. He hit his first home run this past weekend, and with his performance tonight, he might be turning a corner that features his unquestioned power.
Jansen had one of the better nights of his career, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs. His first dinger was a 3-run shot in the second inning to open the scoring against Mike Clevinger. That home run marks the second consecutive night that the Blue Jays have gotten a 3-run homer from the 8th spot in their batting order. Jansen homered again in the 6th inning off of Chicago reliever Tanner Banks, this one a solo shot extending Toronto’s lead to 7-0.

Danny Jansen doubles up with his second homer of the game.
He’s suddenly red hot. #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/OaVZEr4Fsr
— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) April 26, 2023

Tonight was Jansen’s 5th career multi-home run game, which ranks him 3rd among Blue Jays catchers all-time behind JP Arencibia and Ernie Whitt. I think I speak for all Blue Jays fans when I say that a Jansen hot streak would …

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Author: Evan Stack / Blue Jays Nation

Knies and the playoffs, GM opening panic, and an ideal draft lottery outcome: Leaflets

Knies and the playoffs, GM opening panic, and an ideal draft lottery outcome: Leaflets

I don’t think there is a time of the year that I am truly more excited about hockey than the few day window between the regular season and the postseason. I’m so happy the season has come to a close and the playoffs still are a reason for hope and excitement. As soon as the puck drops I’ll stop pooping until the Leafs’ fate is decided.
In this small window of fun reflection and looking forward, I’ve got my weekly stray thoughts. Let’s get to them.
Fitting Knies into the Leafs playoff lineup
To say that Leafs fans are excited about Matthew Knies is an understatement. He’s quickly shown that he has the skill set to be a part of an NHL lineup, it’s just a matter of getting him into some practices between now and Tuesday to see if he truly belongs in the Leafs Game One lineup.
If the philosophy is to take a gamble on the upside from the beginning, the Leafs will probably go with Knies. That doesn’t seem like a decision that most NHL coaches would make. There’s a lot more risk aversion than that as well as there needs to be some conside …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Expansion drafts are fun, 34 team leagues decidedly less so

There are a lot of fun things that go along with expansion. You get to wait for the team name, the logo, the jersey, there’s all the speculation that goes into the expansion draft and some fun roster fallout (or decidedly less fun if you briefly have Jared McCann on your roster and then lose him in favour of keeping Justin Holl.) Yeah, expansion has a lot of fun elements to it and expanding to 32 teams wasn’t the worst thing for the NHL. It gave the league a nice even divisional/conference balance and now half the league makes the playoffs and the other half doesn’t. Expanding to 32 teams was the next best thing to shrinking the league back down to 21 teams, 24 if you want a bit more of that conference/division symmetry.
Of course, the NHL apparently can’t leave well enough alone and looks be considering expansion again.

👀 🤐.@espn @NHL @NHLNetwork @TSNHockey @DKSportsbook #HockeyTwitter https://t.co/g8aLnSVQgJ
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) March 5, 2023

At least we’ll assume that’s what the eyeballs from Kevin Weekes means. It’s great that he was able to take enough time to tag his favourite sportsbook but was too busy to add any context to the retweet.
Fortunately, plenty of others have been trying to add context to it and the NHL’s taken the first step towards expansion by denying that it is happening and that’s why it’s time to weigh in on this nonsense because in addition to the alluded to Houston and Atlanta locations above, people are taking the opportunity to talk about Quebec City and the most relevant of locations to a Leafs site, a second team being placed in Toronto.
We’ll save the Toronto thing for last and start with the painful suggestion of the NHL trying Atlanta for the third time. Much like how the NHL has a hard time letting go of the Phoenix market given its size and the success of sports leagues there, …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Raptors fans rip Scott Foster after awful calls in Raptors-Nuggets

Raptors fans rip Scott Foster after awful calls in Raptors-Nuggets

There remains no more sure way to ruin a great basketball game in the NBA than by having Scott Foster officiate it. The Toronto Raptors were reminded of this unfortunate NBA truth during what was a fantastic back-and-forth game between themselves and the Denver Nuggets. After largely holding MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic in check on […]
Raptors fans rip Scott Foster after awful calls in Raptors-Nuggets – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

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Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ

Toronto scores runs for Drew Hutchison (2023 edition), the prospects shine, and more as the Blue Jays pummel the Tigers 18-5

For a quick second there, I thought we were teleported back to late July when the Jays thrashed the Boston Red Sox 28-5.

While the score only finished 18-5 and there was only one home run from our player of the game, the Jays decimated the Tigers. This included a thirteen-run fourth inning.
Due to it only being a radio broadcast, there were no highlights I was able to clip from this afternoon’s game. I did, however, have time to make a sick meme, which you can see in the header. Let’s look at the player of the game.
Blue Jays Nation’s player of the game: Vinny Capra
There were a few position players that could have gotten the player of the game award (and they’ll be explored in “Things worth mentioning”, but today, it belongs to Vinny Capra.
Capra hit the only Blue Jays run of the game but also drove in seven runs, going 2-4. Coming into this game, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had the most Blue Jays RBIs with five, but Capra overtook that within just a game.
Last season with the Buffalo Bisons, he slashed .283/.378/.403 with five homers, and an even 13.1 BB% and K% in 222 plate appearances. Interestingly, his homer numbers actually declined from the 2021 season, when he hit 10 homers in just 282 plate appearances.
The 26-year-old super-utility player also appe …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation