There is no doubt that the Toronto Blue Jays have opened their wallets big time this past offseason and are willing to make a big time move to contend in the American League.
But you have to put everything into perspective. This was still a horrible baseball team last season at 73-89, and will have to win a minimum of 20 extra games to put them in a position to be in a playoff spot.
I know they acquired a whole bunch of talent, but with every single player they acquired, comes a question mark.
The Angels seem to be in a stronger position with the acquisition of star outfielder Josh Hamilton from Texas. The Hamilton-Albert Pujols combination gives the Angels some serious fire power.
The Blue Jays will also have to contend with the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays who will all expect to be in contention as well come year’s end.
The log jammed Western Division in the Canadian Football League continues to get tighter. After Edmonton’s blow out loss to the Montreal Alouettes last night, the Calgary Stampeders can tie the Eskimos with a win against the Toronto Argonauts at 4-3 (Saturday, TSN, 5pm).
The Stampeders acquired offensive lineman Obby Khan this week. Khan was part of the 2011 Eastern Division champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers before announcing his retirement.
In Toronto meanwhile, the Chad Kackert experiment as the Argonauts’ number one running back begins with Cory Boyd off to Edmonton.
The Argonauts management must know something special from Kackert, who has -3 yards rushing this season.
Three game sevens (and possibly a fourth) will dominate my sports viewing this weekend.
In the NHL, there is a game seven in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This will be a battle of Alexander Ovechkin versus Henrik Lundqvist. Despite limited ice time, Ovechkin leads the Capitals in scoring with nine points, but will have to get by Hart Trophy nominee Lundqvist to move on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in his career. The game can be seen on CBC tonight at 5:30pm.
In the NBA, there are two game sevens, both involving the Los Angeles teams. Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers host the Denver Nuggets in game seven of the Western Conference Quarterfinal tonight (TSN2, 8:30pm). Questions are surrounding the health of Lakers star Kobe Bryant who played with the stomach flu in game six on Thursday. Afterwards, he was not happy with Pau Gasol for his lack of effort and had no problem telling him so.
Then tomorrow the Memphis Grizzlies host the Los Angeles Clippers (ABC, 11am) in game seven of another Western Conference Semi-Final. Like the Nuggets, the Grizzlies were once down 3-1 in the series but have clawed their way back to force a game seven. Last night in Los Angeles, the Grizzlies won game six 90-88 on Marc Gasol’s 23 points.
Vladimir Guerrero (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
The Toronto Blue Jays surprised many yesterday by opening their wallets and signing a player very familiar to Canadian baseball fans.
Former Montreal Expo Vladimir Guerrero is coming back to Canada and to play in Toronto.
Guerrero, a native of the Dominican Republic, played with the Expos from 1996-2003 and was a four time all-star over that time, before moving on to play with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles.
Guerrero could be a key component the Blue Jays need. A key bat in the middle of the lineup. Guerrero obviously doesn’t have as much speed as he used to but continues to hit the ball with consistency, something Toronto needs with the early struggles of Jose Bautista. Last year, Guerrero hit .290.
In one of the most dramatic games in Major League Baseball history, the Saint Louis Cardinals have forced a Game 7 of the World Series with a 10-9 victory over the Texas Rangers in Game 6 on Thursday night.
Tonight in St. Louis, the Cardinals twice were down to their final strike, but each time came away with a key clutch hit.
In the ninth inning, with Texas leading 7-5, Cardinals’ third baseman David Freese hit a key two out triple off of Rangers’ closer Neftali Feliz that scored Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman to tie the game at seven.
In the top of the tenth inning, the Rangers went back on top 9-7 as center fielder Josh Hamilton hit a two run home run that also scored Elvis Andrus. For Hamilton, it was only his first postseason home run after hitting 25 in the regular season in 2011 and 32 in 2010.
Then in the bottom of the tenth, the Cardinals had more two out magic. As once again with two strikes, Berkman hit a game-tying single that scored Jon Jay to tie the score at nine.
The Cardinals then won it in the eleventh on a Freese home run.
The Cardinals became the first team in postseason history to score runs in the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh innings of a baseball game. They are also the first team in playoff history to back from two two-run deficits after the ninth inning.
Game six was sloppy defensively by both teams as five errors (three by St. Louis and two by Texas) were committed.
Tomorrow night the tentative starters are Matt Harrison for Texas and Chris Carpenter for St. Louis.
The Texas Rangers had fantastic base running in the ninth inning on Thursday night to tie the World Series with the Saint Louis Cardinals at a game apiece.
Down 1-0 heading into the final inning of the baseball game, second baseman Ian Kinsler led off the inning with a base hit. Unable to get the bunt down early in his at bat, Elvis Andrus saw a strike instead of fouling off a pitch to allow Kinsler to steal second base. Andrus’s decision paid off as he would later single allowing Kinsler to go to third. The throw on the base hit was dropped by Albert Pujols in the infield allowing Andrus to go to second base on an excellent heads up play. Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young put the Rangers up 2-1. But it just wasn’t Andrus’ heads up base running that got him to second on his base hit that was impressive. He was also able to advance to third base on the Hamilton sacrifice that scored Kinsler.
Game two was also a brilliant display of starting pitching as Colby Lewis (one earned run in six and two third innings) and Jaime Garcia (no earned runs in seven innings) were masterful.
Before the ninth inning, it was almost deja vu, as just like game one, pinch hitter Allen Craig hit a crucial two out single when coming in to pinch hit for the starting pitcher. Bun unlike game one, the Cardinals could not hang on to their one run lead in game two.
Starting tomorrow tonight the American League Champion Texas Rangers play the National League Champion Saint Louis Cardinals in the 107th World Series.
The Cardinals have won ten World Series Championships, and their last in 2006 when they defeated the Detroit Tigers in five games. While the Rangers are still looking for their first World Championship after qualifying for their first World Series in franchise history a year ago when they lost in five games to the San Francisco Giants.
One thing I think all baseball fans should expect from the Series is below than average starting pitching than they are used to from watching World Series of the past.
The game one starter for the Rangers is C.J. Wilson, who has a postseason ERA of 8.04. While, the Cardinals’ game four starting pitcher, Kyle Lohse, has a postseason ERA of 7.45.
For the Rangers a big question will be, what Nelson Cruz will show up? The one that was named the ALCS MVP after going 8-for-22 with six home runs and 13 runs batted in or the one that struggled mightily in the ALDS against Tampa Bay by only going 1-for-15 with five strike outs?
If the Detroit Tigers are going to beat the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series they will have to do it without the services of outfielder Delmon Young.
He injured his oblique muscle in game five of the American League Divisional Series against the New York Yankees
The loss of Young (.316, 3 HR, 3 RBIs in ALDS) is huge for Detroit, who will now have to rely on theservices significantly more on first baseman Miguel Cabrera (.344, 30 HR, 105 RBIs in regular season), designated hitter Victor Martinez (.330, 12 HR, 103 RBIs) and veteran Magglio Ordonez who hit a sizzling .455 against the Yankees.
Texas, in my opinion, has the better nucleus of pitching and power. Justin Verlander is the Tigers’ ace, but they lack depth at the position afterwards. I really like what center fielder Josh Hamilton (.298, 25 HR, 94 RBIs), designated hitter Michael Young (.338, 11 HR, 106 RBIs) and third baseman Adrian Beltre (.296, 32 HR, 105 RBIs) bring to the table every night.
If you have read any of my baseball posts on www.anysportanytime.ca, I have been a little critical of Jose Bautista.
I have felt he has decent power, but doesn’t hit with the consistency of some of the other power hitters in Major League Baseball like Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Josh Hamilton.
Well, I am pleased to say the consistency is now here, and in a big way.
The starting right fielder of the Toronto Blue Jays currently leads all of Major League Baseball with an overpowering .360 batting average. He has gone 27 for 75 in the month of April so far, and is the favourite to be the American League Player of the Month. That would make Bautista the player of the month for three of the last four months, as he was also the American League Player of the Month for July and August last year.
This week, the guys talk about the Edmonton Oilers and the fact that they won the first overall pick in the 2011 NHL entry draft. They go over four possible candidates who may be picked by the Oilers.
Then, in the GABBYs – On the good side: The New Jersey Devils go from laughing stock to relatively respectable, the National Hockey League sticks to their guns on suspensions, and Edmonton Oilers Jordan Eberle and Devyn Dubnyk are going to the world championships.
On the bad side: Detroit Pistons Charlie Villanueva acts like a child on the court, Texas Rangers outfieler Josh Hamilton breaks his arm, and the Colombian soccer player who kicked an owl upgrades to kicking someone in the chest. HONORABLE MENTION: Kobe Bryant gets $100,000 fine.
In Quick Hits: Now that the NHL playoffs are underway, who does Kerrzy think can make it all the way?
Check it out:
There’s a lot more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————>
The Texas Rangers were the talk of the American League last year as they surprised many by not only getting by the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners to win the American League West to win the division, but getting by the New York Yankees to win the American League Championship Series in six games as well.
In comes third baseman Adrian Beltre from Boston and catcher Mike Napoli from the Los Angeles Angels (via Toronto) and out goes ace Cliff Lee to Philadelphia, designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero to Baltimore and closer Frank Francisco to Toronto. Beltre became expendable in Boston when they acquired first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and moved Kevin Youkilis to third. On paper Lee would obviously be the most significant loss, but don’t forget, he only joined the Rangers at the trade deadline last year, when Texas had a huge lead in the division.
First off, I would like to congratulate our captain John Short.
He has made the bold prediction for weeks that the Edmonton Eskimos will make the playoffs.
Well, there is only three weeks left in the 2010 CFL’s Regular Season, and the Eskimos, at 5-10 are currently in a playoff spot.
Can they hold off Winnipeg and British Columbia? Time will tell, but if the season was over today, the Eskimos would be punching their ticket for Regina in a Western semi-final showdown with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
It was an historic afternoon of baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday.
Jays’ outfielder/third baseman Jose Bautista hit his Major League leading 50th home run of the 2010 season in the Jays’ 1-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Bautista, who last week, broke George Bell’s club record of 47 home runs in a season, becomes the first Blue Jay to reach the historic plateau.
But does he have enough for AL MVP like numbers? He does have 11 more home runs than Cardinals’ first baseman Albert Pujols who leads the National League.
But I say no, because in my opinion batting average means more than home runs when you’re looking at MVP type candidates in baseball.
Loading ...
