3 things the Toronto Raptors must do to get farther next year

3 things the Toronto Raptors must do to get farther next year

The Toronto Raptors were one of the most disappointing teams in the league last season, as their 41 wins and play-in tournament exit seemed a far cry from the 48-win team that earned the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference on the back of good vibes and a tireless defense. Just one year later, […]
3 things the Toronto Raptors must do to get farther next year – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

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Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ

Despite trading their first pick, the Blue Jays 2020 draft class is trending well

Fun fact, we’re a month and change away from the 2023 MLB Draft.

Over the past three drafts, the Blue Jays have done a great job finding good players, and the COVID shortened 2020 draft is no better example of that.
In a series of three articles, we’ll look at every player drafted in the past three draft classes.. Let’s start with the 2020 draft class.
5th overall pick: Austin Martin
It was quite a surprise to many when Austin Martin fell to the Blue Jays in the 2020 draft. In fact, looking at mock drafts at the time, most had him going second or third in the draft.
Unfortunately for Martin, he hasn’t quite lived up to his draft position. The Blue Jays aggressively promoted the then 22-year-old to Double-A, where he slashed .281/.424/.383 with two homers in 250 plate appearances with the Fisher Cats.
However, he and Simeon Woods Richardson were packaged to the Minnesota Twins for starter José Berríos. With the Twins Double-A team in 2021, he slashed .252/.399/.381 with three homers in 168 plate appearances for a 120 wRC+.
In 2022, he repeated the level but significantly regressed. In 406 plate appearances, the then 23-year-old slashed .241/.367/.315 with two homers for an 89 wRC+. It’s also worth noting that Martin stole 34 bases in 39 attempts, but his professional career hasn’t fared too well so far.
Martin has missed all of the 2023 season due to a UCL sprain (something that has plagued the 2020 Blue Jays draft class) …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Does a pricier William Nylander still fit into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ plans?

It seems like only yesterday we were all arguing about whether Nylander’s $6.9M contract was an overpayment. The first year as he returned to the lineup midseason it seemed a little rough, but in the end, the $6.9M cap hit was just as nice as you’d expect it to be, even if it did mean he was costing the Leafs more than David Pastrnak was costing the Bruins.
Now here we are, with just one year left on Nylander’s deal before he hits free agency and there is a need to come to terms with what Nylander is going to cost and whether that cost can fit into the Leafs cap situation moving forward as his deal will coincide not only with Auston Matthews’ but come up at a time when the Leafs may need to replace TJ Brodie and hopefully have to deal with pay increases for Nick Robertson and Timothy Liljegren because they’ve been just that amazing.
Immediately following that there will be the contracts for Mitch Marner and John Tavares that need to be sorted out. I will go out on a limb and say that John Tavares isn’t going to cost $11M on his next deal, but his reduction isn’t likely …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Analyzing Mitch White’s first start on his rehab assignment

We’re just about a month into the regular season, yet we’ve barely heard anything about Mitch White. What gives?

Well, dear viewer, Mitch White made his season debut on Wednesday evening for the Dunedin Blue Jays, and had an okay game. Let’s look at how he did.
A positive to take away from this game is that he appeared to be lifted due to his pitch count, as he only had 46 pitches. That means that he’s likely in good health after his first in-game outing in 2023.
Moreover, his line of 3.1, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 2 K was pretty solid. Dunedin doesn’t stream home games, but it appeared that an infielder made an error which led to the run.
White’s fastball averaged 92.5 mph, which is down from last year’s average of 93.7 mph. However, this shouldn’t be too surprising considering it was his first game of 2023 season. What’s more interesting is the fact that the average spin rate on the fastball dropped from 2277 RPMs in 2022 to 2175 RPMs in Wednesday’s start. However, it’s a one game sample size after a long layoff, so I wouldn’t look too hard into it yet.

Mitch White’s Player Breakdown (from Baseball Savant) from yesterday’s game. pic.twitter.com/6uHXFoLwQ1
— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) April 27, 2023

What’s more concerning is the lack of whiffs that he generated. He threw 19 fastballs, …

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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

Off-season departures: Colin Blackwell out for the season, Petr Mrazek’s best month of the season

We’re finally into the final stretch of the NHL’s regular season as March has come and gone, and with that, it’s time to check in on six former Maple Leafs that left the team last off-season and see how they’re doing with their new clubs as of late.

1. Jack Campbell – EDM – 31 years old – G
March 2023 stats: 3 GP – 2-1-0 – 4.58 GAA – .864 SV% – 0 SO
2022-23 stats: 34 GP – 19-9-4 – 3.59 GAA – .882 SV% – 0 SO
Contract: 5 years x $5M
If it wasn’t already clear that Edmonton’s starting goalie is Stuart Skinner, it’s clear now.
Jack Campbell has had a season to forget in his first year with his new team. It seems like Campbell was never able to find his game at all this season and struggled to keep the puck out of his net almost every single time he was between the pipes.
After signing a massive five-year, $25M deal in free agency last off-season, the Oilers were hoping that Campbell was the answer to their goaltending problems. However, that has not been the case this season and he has lost his starting role to Stuart Skinner multiple times.
He was only able to play in three games last month posting a positive record of 2-1-0, but it’s not the …

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Author: Joseph Zita / The Leafs Nation

Raptors news: Scottie Barnes injury update, Nick Nurse talks Precious Achiuwa

Raptors news: Scottie Barnes injury update, Nick Nurse talks Precious Achiuwa

The Toronto Raptors were staying relatively healthy following a very tough burst of injuries earlier in the season, but Scottie Barnes suffered a knock in their most recent contest that set off alarm bells. With Toronto currently in a heated battle for a play-in spot, every victory is going to be important. Barnes left their […]
Raptors news: Scottie Barnes injury update, Nick Nurse talks Precious Achiuwa – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

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Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ

3 trade deadline moves Jakob Poeltl has clearly outperformed

3 trade deadline moves Jakob Poeltl has clearly outperformed

The Toronto Raptors were met with a wave of quizzical looks when they traded away multiple draft picks, including a very lightly protected first-round pick, to re-acquire big man Jakob Poeltl. While he would help fix the team’s lack of rim protection, he would do nothing to repair the team’s lackluster 3-point percentage. After a […]
3 trade deadline moves Jakob Poeltl has clearly outperformed – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

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Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ

Leafs Rumours: Toronto looked into Erik Karlsson before the trade deadline

If you thought you were done with weekly rumours updates on this site after the trade deadline… you’ll eventually be right. For now, we have a bit of a rumour of something that could have been but wasn’t at the deadline. It’s via Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts citing that the Leafs were in on both Mattias Ekholm and Erik Karlsson.
Elliotte’s report is that the Leafs inquired about both players, but it couldn’t make cap sense for them. Ekholm ultimately went to Edmonton and Nashville only retained 4% of the contract in the process, and Erik Karlsson will finish his Norris calibre season in San Jose. That’s where it gets interesting.
Things won’t change for the Sharks after the season ends. They are still needing assets to rebuild and that’s their priority. Things won’t change for Karlsson too much either. He might not have a career year in the remaining four years of his contract, but he is still a premier offensive defenseman and one of the league’s best right-shot defensemen. His contract will take him until he’s 36 and he has a bit more of an injury history than say Mark Giordano, so there might be a steeper dropoff (there often is with elite skaters when age catches up to them), but he potentially still has a lot to offer, although with an $11.5M …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

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