[MUSIC] >> Fan Morning Show Sports at five, nine of the fan, Ben and his friend Johnny. It's fine, not a big deal. It was supposed to be day to day at the outset. It's gonna be two weeks this Thursday, since Mitch Marner has played a game. Hasn't even stepped onto the ice in a practice mode. Apparently, he's been doing some individual work. >> Yeah. >> We're all the dog drinking coffee in the burning house. >> Yeah, it's fine. >> It's fine. >> Everything's meaningless, like I said, universe is expanding. Eventually, life will cease to exist in the universe as a whole. On that note, time now for our insider. Brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online. And in the showroom, visit Don Valley, Northlexus.com. Sam, Mookie, real kipper, and born. Good morning, sir. >> Morning fellas, that's a very uplifting thing to hear first thing in the morning. >> Yeah. >> How are you guys? >> I'm better than that, that comment would indicate, honestly, I'm feeling much better than that. That's not indicative of how I'm feeling on a Tuesday morning where Leaf's hockey is returning. Although Joey Votto not in the Blue Jays grapefruit league lineup today, I don't know if he's gonna pinch hit today. >> This is my life, man. >> This is my life. >> We're gonna ask you about Joey Votto later, Arity. >> And that's good. >> Yeah, why? >> But you have Joey Votto thoughts, you have like real anger towards him because of the 2018 comments. >> Yeah. >> Will you ever forgive him? >> No. >> So there's nothing he can do, there's nothing he can do. >> It's definitely not a cheesy handwritten letter posted on Twitter, so he doesn't get cut by a Blue Jays team for sure. Definitely not that. >> You think the Blue Jays were gonna keep a guy that I told you where he's going? >> You think he's gonna, he's not gonna be a major leaguer for the Blue Jays unless he wrote a handwritten apology? >> Where was this last year? >> Where was this two years ago? >> I mean, where was it? >> Why is he groveling? >> How about? >> Do you talk? >> Do you talk? >> I'm groveling. >> He went all over the country talking about how he was sorry. >> He did a 10 minute interview with Jamie Campbell after he said the meanest things about the country you grew up in. >> What would you like? >> Thank you. >> Okay, no, hold on, hold on. What would you like him to do? >> No, just tell me. >> Just tell me what said originally. >> Okay. >> I never said that. >> I never said I hate my country. >> Okay. >> I never said, I don't give a rat to ask about my favorite baseball team and my country's baseball team. I never said those things. >> Okay. >> I wouldn't say those things. >> He said those things. So like, again, there is nothing he can do. It's over. You will not be placated by Joey Votto no matter what he does. >> No. >> What if he, like, literally, he's like, I'm going to go minimalist, all my possessions selling them, all my career earnings, everything I have in the bank, going right to Canada baseball. We're going to be, it's going to be the Joey Votto, a Canada baseball sponsored presented by Joey Votto, and I will be the presenting sponsor of Canada Baseball for the next 100 years. That wouldn't do it for you. >> No, we're talking. >> All right. >> But we're getting there. But no, I'm still not out of the way. >> All right. >> I don't need to add anymore because I had that literal exact same conversation with him today. Except you took a harder line than me even somehow, but I agree with you with everything you just said. >> I don't know. It all runs me the wrong way. >> Agreed. >> It just all seems so insincere. So we can, let's move on to the leaves. I don't want to go in circles. >> I don't know. >> Yeah. >> What's in circles. >> Something else that makes you happy. >> Unhappy. >> Because he wrote it, because he wrote it and took a picture of it. >> I know. >> Mr. Cool. >> Okay. >> I'm with you, bud. >> I've heard the notes have a character handwriting, bro. >> I will say I did not even try. I waited until someone transcribed it. And then I just read that. >> I saw Adam not scared. >> Yep, that's exactly who I had. Did it as well. Good job by him. That was good journalism. I needed that because I certainly wasn't squinting to read all that handwriting. >> All right. Okay, leaves. >> Yes, leaves. >> Hey, what an incredible point they picked up on Saturday against the hurricanes. Really good team was really good, and they almost won. So good for them. >> I think the Keynes played their worst game of the year and still won. >> Yeah, you're not used to seeing the Carolina Hurricanes like allow what like five breakaways in the first 40 minutes of the hockey game. Anyways. >> They played themselves the least. >> They had to pop the whole game, turn it over and blew it in the last minute. >> That's what they did, they played themselves. >> Eddie. >> That was weird. In the comments after the game, we're weird. And we just spent a segment talking about it with Jason Buchola. But yeah, third game without Mitch Marner, it's going to be game number four and then game number five tomorrow. Is there anything you've learned about this team playing without Mitch Marner? >> That their special teams are dreadful without them. I think their power plate just misses them so bad as ability to pass. He's the only guy that passes, putting Bertuzzi on the top unit instead of Domi who can do the Marner impression is head scratching to me. But yeah, their penalty kill wasn't great with them, but boy, it ain't great without them and their power play really struggles. I want to see more from Matthews as a line driver, but he's also playing with Bertuzzi who can't really receive a pass at times in Holmberg and they're moving McMahon up there. I want to see him drive a line, but at some point, it's got to get played with a bit of skill. But yeah, I think the biggest takeaway, like I said, off the top is special teams. They really miss them on special teams and defensively. >> Yeah, they do, right? We say it all the time. Selky winger, he definitely helps the kill. He obviously is much more important on the power play. That's not saying he's not a good penalty killer. You mentioned not liking Bertuzzi on the top unit. Is that to you, and I see the argument you're making there are putting Domian similar, albeit lesser skill set to Marner, but to me, having little grin up top and then Tavares and Bertuzzi on that unit means they maybe want to have a little more and you have to without Marner, a little more direct power play, getting pucks to net, banging them home. And honestly, I'm not saying that that's how this team should always build their power play, but they've had so little of that in games that matter is just, I actually like the, I'm not saying it's the perfect look. I'm not saying it's the best one available to them now, but I like them trying this out of having a little bit of a, a kind of greaseier, more straight to the point power play. >> Yeah, it's a good point, Gunnar, and one I hadn't really thought of, but, you know, if they're completely changing the way that they've done the power play all season, then I guess that, that, that tracks, but to me, it's a huge pivot. And I like the fact that they just took Riley off of it. I thought on Saturday night was one of the stupidest things I've ever watched, having the two, the two defense men out there, including. >> What is it? 1994? >> No, but the way that they did it, it wasn't like you had cavalry to McCabe's doing one time or is they had Morgan Riley playing wing. They had him play in the half wall where it's like his, we always talk about his indecision and his lack of like shooting. Well, that is even more so it's shown on the, on the wing there. So I didn't know what they were doing there. I do like Lilligren is at the top. I think he moves it a little quicker than Riley does, but yeah, they're just going to completely change their philosophy if they're putting Bertuzzi out there as well. And I just, who's going to pass like nobody passes like the Tavares won't pass in that unit. Bertuzzi is a okay pastor, but he's obviously not in that role. >> No. >> You know, >> It's got to be me, Lander. >> Yeah, he wants to fire it, but it's got to be him. Yeah, you're right. >> And he fires it all the time and Matthews is just fires it. So I don't know. It's a, it's a weird, it's a weird unit and it's clear that they are missing maybe their, their best or second best player and they, they're just searching until he gets back. >> For sure. When he does come back and let's say that's, you know, sometimes soon ish, do you think how much room is there for experimentation? Like I bandied out the idea of, if you do want to have a little bit more of a direct power play or sorry, a net front power play, why not? And I'm not saying run this out there game one of the playoffs, but why not try it at some point in the regular season going full five forwards, having Marner be the true kind of quarterback guy. All the way out on that. >> We did, we do that last year. >> We tried it. Yeah. >> For Tuesday wasn't horrible. >> That was horrible. I know, you need, listen, and my sensibility is here, we're still, but still, it's hot. Okay. You need a D man out there like nobody does five forward. Remember, Marner was going to play D, remember? >> Yeah, and it was awful. >> It was, it was terrible. >> He sure I remember. >> I remember playing it this year and it's just so stupid. How about forward? We ever considered after Marner? No, I needed a fence at the top, whether it be Lillegrine, whether it be Riley, whether it be, I guess that's the only two options. The reason that they went out and signed Klingberg was because they were worried about this exact thing that's now rearing its ugly head. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. To me, it's no five forwards ever. Thank you. That is my final thoughts on that. >> Yeah, we're not that far removed from this power belly looking at its absolute best this season, right? And it was without Morgan Riley on the scene. He's also been part of some great power play units, right? He's been on the power play for the majority of the season where it's been a top five one. It rose up the ranks to, I think they're still second in the NHL in percentage of the season. They were really good last year with him. And I just mentioned the stats at the end of last season during the regular season were really good on the power play. And that did carry over into the lightning series where they clicked at like almost 29% in that lightning series. I mean, the penalty kill has been rancid, it just feels like that one's a tougher one to quantify and a tougher fix and it's like it's just never shown the ability to be good. Like, it really does feel like it's desperate times for the power play that that should be almost the number one priority here with these final 16 games. >> Absolutely agree Ben, couldn't agree more that this is, you know, in a team that has nothing to play for down the stretch here, I guess one of the seven points up on Tampa. So, if they really get cold and they start losing some games, maybe they could fall down a lot. >> Game in hand too, I think. >> But I don't really see that happening there, they have a pretty light schedule coming up. They're playing the Metro a few times. Like, I think they play the caps, they play the, they play the fliers tonight clearly. I know they have admitted on Saturday night, which is exciting, but if I'm Sheldon Keefe, that's like my sort of thing I'm looking towards being like, hey boys, can we get this up to certain percentage by this point? Can we try to get this back up here? Because listen, I am absolutely, this is going to kill them in the playoffs. I just know it. I got absolutely, I saw, do you see Luke Fox's piece yesterday? >> Yes, finally somebody quantified it because it felt that way, but yeah, that their percentage drops by 8% in the postseason makes total sense. >> Yeah, and it's, you know, a lot of Leaf fans will tell you that the number one reason that they haven't gotten past a lot of these first rounds is because of special teams and because of these big situations where their power play goes to absolute sleep, and you ask yourself, why does this power play go to sleep? You have your best players on the ice in a situation where they have one more man. That's the definition of it. And then you look at who the stars are, and then you start talking about ghosts. So I don't know, boys, I just, last year it was good. Like you said, 29% in the first round, and they absolutely won around. I'm worried about the power play, just as worried about the penalty kill. But outside of that, I think it'll be okay, but those two things really, really concern me. >> Yeah, and then gold ending, you're not going to be doing dumb stuff against the panthers or the Bruins. Let me know how power plays in that series. So you should be fine. >> No, no, certainly not, man. It's so weird. >> Especially when they call 100 penalties in the first game of the playoffs that they always do, and then they stop calling them completely in the second round, I love that part. >> Oh, it's so fun. I enjoy it the most. I actually think your favorite part about that is my whining via text to you. I think that's your favorite part about it. The weird thing about the Riley and the power play and everything is playoff mo was a thing. Like he was so good, yes, at five on five, but he was great on the power play in that Tampa series. Like it was a part of it. And it's just, it is so confounding to have a player who we have seen. The only time we've ever seen it, this team have success. He was arguably the best player while they were having that success. And then you just continue to have these kind of questions about him in terms of the blue line, where you add on, how it's all going to shake out. I mean, I know where you're at on Lillegrine there, but I feel awful for Benoit. The guy has been the best soldier all season long. He's been nothing other than a fan favorite. He's the guy who eats it when they make their acquisition of Edmondson and Labushkin at the deadline there. I am thrilled he's getting back in the lineup tonight. I don't know that there's a path to him being one of the six just because he shoots with his left hand, but I really, really hope he's able to kind of be the version of himself he's been, because the guy like him with the minimal track record, you never know what the time off is going to do to him. Yeah, I think Lillegrine's been a lot better since the trade deadline. And that sort of shows, I don't know if you heard Keith talking about this guys, but he said that we wanted to see him after the deadline, like every other year we've brought in a guy to replace him, and it's kind of affected him and all this stuff. And they brought in a guy to play with him in Edmondson who, if I'm being honest, it's just a kind of a better version of Benoit fellas. And I love Benoit. I love what he's brought, but I think you're going to need a lot of guys. If you have any ideas of going deep into the playoffs, you need more than six solid guys and Benoit is clearly a solid guy to me. But you know, I was pretty offended when they sat Benoit in Montreal on Saturday night. No, I know. That's the right term. I felt the exact same way. Boy, that was Babcock-esque, like to set him back to that was that was that was crazy. I hope they gave him. I hope they gave him a nice cold glass of 2% while he was sitting up there in the press box. Very out of character for Sheldon Keefe because he always has like a feeling of the moment, right? Like he'd think about him and Sweden starting to five Swedes and he had all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like he always kind of was like the anti-bounds, but that was I was I was upset that he did that. But I'm starting to see kind of why he did it because Lilligren's improved since the trade deadline. He seems like a little bit of a weight been off of his shoulder that they didn't replace him. And he's cutting a little bit more free. He's on the top power play unit. I've liked him with Edmondson. So maybe it's going to work. I don't know. I don't necessarily want to lean on him, but it feels like that sort of idea may have worked a bit. Maybe. All right. Yeah. It sucks for Benoit, but he's going to get his time in the in the playoffs like I think we can all agree. I agree. They're going to get it. Somebody's going to get nicked up here, right? Yeah. But Edmondson's a better version of Benoit. I've liked Edmondson. He he's a little, you know, I wouldn't exactly say he's going East West that quickly, but you'll go to the front of the net, you'll cross check guys. He gets the puck out. He blocks shots. He gets in the lane. He's a he's a stay at home. He's a stay at home. Defensemen stay at home. Defensemen basically. I I've liked what I've seen from him. So it just really feels like they kind of replaced him Benoit with him. But I think Ben will have his time starting tonight. Yeah, I mean, if it is more of a of a competition and it's it's those two guys battling for one spot, Lillegrine and Benoit is it not an important stretch of games on the power play for for Lillegrine to have successes as the QB on PP one. Boys, I don't think I don't think Lillegrine's battling for anything. I don't. I think he's in. I don't think you're going to go into a playoff series with sit with five right handed left handed defense. I think you're just he is in to me the way they handled the trade deadline that they didn't add another guy to mix. I I don't I don't see them being like we're taking out Lillegrine for Benoit on a playoff series. I I very much feel that Lillegrine is a part of this now because of the way they act at the deadline. You guys think they take him out? No, I have five left handed defense. I don't I don't think it's an absolute impossibility, but I think it would have to be I think it would have to be pretty clearly him being the weak link in the chain for that to happen. I don't think that was starting to happen before the deadline, right? He doesn't. He's point different point. I mean, like you ruled out the possibility of that type of play returning before the end of the season. Absolutely not, buddy. I'm like to come on the morning show here and to talk about how I like and pause. What's going on? Lillegrine is a real departure for me, but I'm just like, you know, maybe that's what they're they maybe they got it right. I don't know, but it maybe stinks still and there's and they're screwed, but I I don't think they brought in Edmondson to mix in and out with, yeah, I think Edmondson's part of this. And if you're I just think Ben wants screwed unless someone gets hurt. Yeah, Keith Keith said as much, right? He said, this is how we built the team. This is the sixth tree wanted. I think was exactly how he put it, which maybe he didn't agree with at the time. And maybe he's coming around more and more on, but like you said, you're going to need all these guys. I think the answer with Timothy Lillegrine is this is what players of his ilk look like. They have stretches where you go, I don't even want this guy is my seven. And they have stretches where you go, huh, this guy can be a second pair guy. Like this is what a young player, I won't say finding his footing because he's almost got 200 games in the NHL, but this is what players like him kind of look like. They have stretches where they look like they can do it and they have stretches that they look like they can't. And that's why you kind of need to have the extra, extra bodies there. You know, the, the other thing I was kind of thinking about is, is domey. You've talked so much about his kind of role and I understand that you want to spread the talent out even more so without Marner, but what would you make a domey get in the odd look on a wing with, with Matthews? And I don't mean for the entirety of a game, but if you want to kind of keep domy, I won't even say engage, but you want to get the best version of Matthews. You want to utilize Domy's skillset. Like what would you make of just trying to, to mix in the odd, much like how they will kind of load up the, the, the top line at occasion at the end of a period or after a penalty kill or something like that. Would you like to see Domy kind of get a little, not run, but you know, a chance here or there with Matthews to see if there's anything there, well, you have to experiment with Marner out of the lineup. Yeah, I wouldn't mind it. I, I think, you know, Matthews would like it, you know, just having a guy that can pass it to him, which is so he can hit one timers and, you know, do the things that he loves to do offensively. So I think he would like it, but I think it's pretty clear here of the, what they're trying to do. I think they're trying to figure out if Matthews can drive his own line, which to me, it's seven years into this baby. We should probably figure that out by now, but I, I really do think they're trying to figure this out because if you go into a playoff series against Boston and you can spread Matthews, Marner and knee lander on three separate lines, that's something that they could maybe do and maybe really give themselves an advantage and it feels like they're kind of trying to do that with Matthews here and see if he can be like undeniable, which hasn't happened so far. Okay. With the, with two guys that, you know, with a Bertuzzi type and who they got playing with him tonight is at Homburg going back up there. Who is it? Yeah. It is the homie. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Homburg going back up there tonight. It'll probably be replaced by the team's best player Bobby McMahon at some point throughout the game. So, um, yeah, I, I'm, I, I think Domi to me is just a guy that he is what he is. You can give him a shift or two up here, but I don't think he's going to be able to hand, like you said, the shift or two, I don't mind, but I don't think he's going to be able to handle the, you know, playing 19 to 20 minutes with, with, uh, with Matthews. I think that's going to go south, but yeah, sure, throw him a bone here and there, but I'd like Domi's role on this team feels like they've kind of found the perfect role for him. He's not asked to do too much defense heavy lifting, which he absolutely cannot do, but they've seen to put him in a situation to succeed and I'd really like them recently. Ben wants to ask you a golf question. I asked you all my questions yesterday, but hold on before that, uh, I'm just looking at the OHL standings right now doesn't look likely, but there's a chance your beloved attack could meet your soon to be beloved Easton Cowan in the first round of the OHL playoffs. Are you going to be okay? Yeah. Um, the only thing that matters in the tack land right now, boys, is they are on 29 wins for the season. They have a series this weekend. They play the London, sorry, they play Guelph on Thursday night and then they play Saturday afternoon and on sound, I think they have 29 wins, like I said, and they need to get to 30. If they get to 30 wins, that'll be 30 wins for 14 straight seasons. The London Knights are the only other CHL team to ever do that. It's a model of consistency. The whole organization really models it. Yeah, you're right. You're up. You're right. So what are you talking about? Shut up. And then they, uh, so yeah, it's a huge, it's a huge feather in the cap for the organization. 14 straight 30 win seasons, a model of consistency, not, you know, playing with that big budget down in London, just getting players up to own sound model of consistency, baby. So let's go. Nothing. I'm going on Thursday night after the show. I'm not out there to watch and try to get it. And you know, I'll probably miss the first period or so, but I'm ripping out there. I got to see them get their 30th win. It's a huge order. It's a huge thing for the organization. Everyone. It really matters. So be aware of the bear. I'm passionate. Yeah. I know. Cause you were in the building in 2011. Game seven of the old HL finals against the Mississauga, St. Michael's majors, maybe one of the most exciting hockey games I've ever seen. Maybe the best day of my life. Maybe the worst day of Roger was life. Yeah. It was fine. Honestly, he was fine. All right. Um, players was awesome. What an awesome finish. And as Scotty comes back from five back in the final round, uh, with a Sunday 64 hard lip out for windum Clark, I went into that thing thinking, man, I do miss the live guys and I finished the week saying, actually I didn't. How did you feel about the no live guys for the most significant non major on the PGA tour? Miss drum. Miss drum for sure. I thought about wrong quite a bit. Uh, I think ROM is just like in that, I don't think anybody's on live is in the class of shell, clearly, sheffler. That's a hot take by me. But you know, in the windum Clark Zander shop, no hockey player as good as Wayne Gretzky. And so all those, all those guys underneath there, I don't think any live guy really are in that class. So I wasn't thinking about them, but John Ron, for sure, I was thinking about, you weren't at all thinking about John, not really. Okay. That's crazy. I, I, I thought about them a bit, but you know what I was thinking about? The electrifying finish. It wasn't like, yeah, that's what I mean, John Ron was like, that's what I mean. You're like, this would be so much better with a John Rom. Okay. Maybe John Ron throws a minus 21 out there, but yeah, it's not like, you know, it's a major champions behind him, some name brands. And then the big chokers, Andrew Shoffley, like I thought there was more, more than enough star power, not just at the tippy top. They're fine. They're like, this is when everyone was so bent that it's ruined golf and there's like three bad tournaments. That was good enough. Everyone's like, golf is dead. It sucks. It's like, Oh no, there's tons of great players. It's fine. He helps. Fine. It was good enough. It's good enough. So I, man, I, I loved that tournament. I was just glued to my television on Sunday and Saturday, just the best. And yeah, I just, I think we're about to see a tiger run from Scotty here. Did you actually get it? He's going to win a lot of tournaments here. Speaking of tiger, did you see who he allegedly might have played golf or will be playing golf with soon? Did you see this? Is this a, was it a Saudi man? Yes, it was. I have no idea what to make of that, but it's just every time I think it's like, Oh, okay, I can exhale. All done. Tiger's playing golf with the, with the head of the piff. Great. I just, I just don't get why anybody took such a hard stance. It's like, obviously the money was going to win. It's insane. It's just like everyone, like I see every Sunday morning, my whole Twitter blowing up about soccer and F one. It's like no one's clutching at pearls, but the blood money in that, like of course the blood money was going to win tiger, tiger getting money. You are like, duh, I just like, that's why the stupidest thing ever was the stance Rory had. It's like, dude, what are you doing? You're clearly going to have to look like you backtrack. That's why I never take a hard stance on, on blood money because you're going to, they're going to have to backtrack. I thought you meant anything. I was like rewind to the start of this interview talking about Joy Votto, like it's just, these professional athlete guys who have the ability to get all these millions of dollars. And they're like, I won't take that money. And then as soon as it cools down, they're like, I'll take the money. It's just, they don't want to be part of the first wave. They want to survive the start of it. And then they all take it. And I feel like next year on live, we'll be watching the shamrocks with Rory leading the way and they'll be crushing it. I don't, I won't be watching. I don't think that's going to happen. Well, unless I'm in an airport, I will say the only, the only lift was in an airport. Yeah. No, but I don't, I don't think, I think it is more likely, this is a bigger conversation. Maybe Ben will have to come on the golf show so we can all have this together. Yeah, I think that it is more likely that Liv gets re-instituted into the PGA tour and it kind of goes away a little bit than it is Rory is captaining a live team. That is my opinion. I don't get to be right about a lot of stuff, but from the start, I said that they're going to just reintegrate and guys are going to get to play tournaments and they're going to, it's, it's, that's what's going to happen. And boy, I took some heat from a gunner for that one. Yeah. My, my take was not that that was never going to happen. My take was that it shouldn't and the blood money was bad. Just for the record. That was my, and guess what, I'm still right about that one. The blood money. Still bad. Maybe. Tiger teeing it up. Well, that's it. Like maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe they've reached their end game goal and that like tomorrow will be like, yeah, Liv's disbanded. Like we, we did it. We got to play golf a tiger and that's, that's the honestly stranger things, stranger things have happened that around the tiger being enough to make this all go away. How much would the Saudi pay to play around with Tiger Woods? Like I feel like it's in the billion dollar range. Yeah. I mean, they've blown that much so far at least. So yeah. What I want to know is that guy, Yasser going back to like Muhammad bin Salman and being like, so we finally got to play golf a tiger. They're like, how much did it cost? It's like, well, if you count everything, it's like, why did you just give him that money? They've done it a little. Which I, they did. You're right. Well, boys, back to watching Anthony Edwards dunk on a loop. All right. It's pretty, that was pretty electric. Yes, it was. Oh my God. He's got, I still think you to the one on you to and the answer arena was better, but that was a pretty good. That is you, you are Anthony Edwards, Joey Votto, that guy is, is how I looked at that beginning of this interview. Yeah. Joey Votto is, you know, right, wiping his face away with his cajillion dollars. He has, you know, what I say about to be in the pockets of Canada baseball, because that's the only thing that will make it. Still won't. Yeah. Said it's still up. All right. See you, buddy. Love you, boys. See, yeah. Sam McKee, Real Kipper and Born in the golf show, which is back this weekend. He was our insider, brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online. And then the showroom visit at Don Valley, North Lexus.com. And we have another Toronto FC giveaway for our listeners today. This time for the Saturday's matchup against Atlanta United FC. It's 730, a BMO field to enter for a chance to win these tickets. Thanks to today's code word, Lorenzo to 59590. Again, today's code word is Lorenzo texted into 59590 right now to enter for your chance to win tickets to Saturday's game. If you don't win with us, you can secure your tickets to Saturday's match at ticketmaster.ca. More details at sportsnet.ca/590. When we come back, and Nan Burke, the fan morning show continues, Ben Annus, Brent Gunning, Chris Bassett co-hosting, talking baseball with Chris Rose talking about this Blue Jays team chances of winning a World Series this season. They made the playoffs last year, despite only winning 89 games. It doesn't take better 99 or a hundred wins to make the playoffs anymore. Um, and the Blue Jays certainly have a good enough pitching staff to get there. Can the offense be better than a season ago? We're about to find out in a week from Thursday. All right. Ben Ann Burke of MLB Network. How's it going? How about Dan? Ben, great to be with you guys as always, as always just walking me through the Joy Vado situation, which I was unaware of the handwritten note, but I'll tell you, nothing better than the handwritten note. Right? Cause that seems genuine. So let it go. I said, well, anyone said either of your handwritten notes, and I'm not talking like a post-it note. Like come see me after the show. I'm talking a true handwritten note. I love it. Old school. You know what? Back to my days at Humber College, going to the wonderful radio broadcasting school there. And I had a few teachers who tried to hammer this home and like, you know, the more personal you make. If you're able to meet somebody in the industry, like have a cup of coffee with them, you follow up with an email. That's nice. But I did have a couple teachers who were like, if you go handwritten note, they'll never forget. So yeah, there is something to that, Adnan. Yeah. Just a thought. Just thought for the day. Ben, you know, I was big on the handwritten note. I am, it was legible, but barely. Like I'm not used to reading cursive, right? Like it's, honestly, I, when you said, when was the last time you received a handwritten note? When was the last time I wrote, in cursive? It's been at least a decade. And obviously Joey Votto does this quite often. I don't know. The paper itself was weird too. It's not lined, but it had like a border anyways. And I'm about that. Okay, and I know you're just coming, you're getting up to speed on the most recent Joey Votto apology, but you're well versed in the 2018 comments that made such a fear up here about not caring about Canada baseball at all or the Blue Jays and yada, yada, yada. And then the in subsequent days went on this, this media tour in this country to try and apologize for that and did a one on one with Jamie Campbell. Where are you? Where are you? Proud Canadian Adnan Burke on Joey Votto, one of the either the best or the second best Canadian position player to ever play in Major League Baseball. Where are you on his Canadianness? Not that he's leading the witness at all. Well I remember it was funny years ago when I was on the Sports Center in a commercial break. You know, we were in every enjoy bottom. So I got to at least, you know, as you guys know, you quickly established really don't ask any questions. You just got to say hello, make sure you can hear you. So I go, hey, Joey, Todd, you just want to make sure you can hear me. He's like, hey, Adnan, how are you? I mean, name check. We were so surprised. It could be him. He took her deep or something. It could be some in the score one time. You know, no, it was good. I mean, I'm like, so obviously I don't feel like I'm Canadian. So I got to throw some stuff at you and he didn't quite roll his eyes, but he gave kind of a, yeah, okay, I feel, you know, I want to go to part of the Tim Horton stuff. I was like, I don't know, I just don't want to get in my head. I was like, it's not that he was an Canadian, but maybe every single time he spoke to Canadian stuff came up. So like, okay, I get it. I didn't think too much of it. And then when I saw a 28-year-old said like, okay, maybe he's one of these guys who just really gets tired of talking about cattle at the time. Like it's, I get it. It doesn't mean he's not patriotic. It just means that it maybe becomes tiresome or it hit a, you know, reason on a bad day, whatever it was. I think it's amusing now the way he's done it because it's like, all right, I'm playing for the Blue Jays. I don't want this to come up over and over. Let's just meet this head on. I totally get the cynics saying, oh, so now when you want to prolong your career, you're going to tell us how much you love, Canada, baseball, the Jays, and all the rest of it. Otherwise, you really don't care that much. But I think he's always made us home in the obvious he's made us help, but go. To me, he's always been supportive of Canada, it's not like he's distanced himself from it. So I will give him a pass. I think if he wants to meet head on, his mom has given him grief with it as well. I'm willing to accept and move on personally. Yeah. I mean, at a certain point, I've said it multiple times today. What else do you want from the guy? Like, OK, if you're just going to be offended and you're never going to wrap your arms around him ever because of the 2018 comments and you're forgetting about the two world baseball classics that he's played in and you're forgetting about him choosing the Blue Jays with which to try and finish his major league career signing the minor league deal and the non-roster invitee stuff where he could have done it with 28 other franchises. If you're just going to ignore that, then I guess there's no convincing you. Like, what else if you're open to the idea of him making amends? I mean, what else is he supposed to do? Yeah. I mean, listen, some guys are very keen. Larry Walker famous would wear like a Canada shirt underneath his jersey. When I met Larry Walker at the Hall of Fame induction a couple of years ago, immediately when I said, "Oh, Richard, look, he's proud to tell you he's famous." His dad, his brothers are still in Canada, like he often makes his own back home in BC as well. And you guys are just more outspoken than others, but I'm with you on Joey. I'm like, I just think in general, you know, he's not only a pom-pom kind of guy. Like, I don't think he's the guy like losing his mind over Canada, like the WBC, I don't picture him on his couch. Like, "Oh my God, is Canada going to win the Briar this year?" Like, you know, he's not locked in on certain events, but it doesn't mean he's a less Canadian. As I said, he still always comes home to Canada. And so I'm with you. Like, what board do you want the guy to do? And by the way, the fact that that first step that the Blue Jays uniform, it goes deep. Like, that was fantastic. Now, of course, the role that's called about in a dugout, but it's just the image of bottle and a cheese uniform, like, "Hey, we can all dream you can have this sort of storybook ending to a season." How cool would that be? That would be cool. Not in the lineup, though, today. At least the starting lineup for the Blue Jays is that they get set to play the Orioles at one o'clock in Greatford League action from Dunedin today. So I think also part of his animosity towards maybe Canada baseball in that moment, and in general, if there is any, is because he wasn't drafted by his hometown team. Like, he's the second round guy. He's in our backyard, and like, the Blue Jays didn't select him. But anyways, it's besides the point. The Yankees, they didn't select the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, Blake Snell. Apparently, according to Bob Nightingale, they had an offer on the table for $150 million bucks. That sounds like a five-year deal. Instead, he signs the $62 million two-year deal in San Francisco with the Giants, with an opt-out. After the first year, this is the off-season of failure for Scott Morris. There's just no two ways around it, and he'll be back on the horse next year with Juan Soto. But, yeah, Blake Snell's coming off a Cy Young Award the second of his career. The idea that he's like, "Oh, well, I need a pillow deal to re-enter the market next year. How's it going to be any better than it was a season ago?" Yeah, I'm with you, Ben. It's shocking, especially because when you look at his history, he historically has not had good back-to-back seasons. He is a classic example of a guy who won the 2-2-5 year. He had this year, and this year it'll balloon up to four. I guess the second year it does protect him, so if his history follows soup, and he follows up in an outstanding season with an average season, he still has the second year of which to bounce back and then enter the market again. Or, as you point out, if he does put it together back-to-back, he can opt-out and get another big deal, but I'm still shocked that that Yankees that he would turn down. Like, Bob Nightingale's got pretty good sources, so if he says it, I'll believe it, but I'm like, "I keep a lease now," it turned out $150 million out there, because that's kind of the deal that we had heard. Like, most of the offers were $6.00 for $150.00, I don't know, $1.00 for $6.00 for $180.00, and I'm like $30.00 million a year is a lot for Blake Snell, but the $150.00, I mean, like it or not, it seemed palatable at least going into free agency, but as you said, everything blew up, and it was just been shockingly, you know, team-friendly deals and low markets and opt-outs all the rest of it, so it's definitely surprising. Now, for San Francisco, it's been a good off-season. Jung Hoo Lee, I think, $130 million a lot, but he's a good on-base guy, and he's got more power than I think, but he's definitely could be a catalyst for their offense. Solairs got popped. They have not had a 30-home run hitter since Barry Bonds in '04. Think about that. That's crazy. So the fact that, you know, Solairs, a guy who's going to bang 30 home runs, $3-year, $42 million contract, that's a good bill of the bat lineup, he gets Snell, who not only has pitched well in that division, but he's pitched well against the Dodgers. So you're not going to catch L.A., but you do need a guy who's going to be good ahead and Snell has been that guy, and his pedigree speaks for itself. And you had Chapman, who we all know was subpar offensively, but tremendous defensively. So it's been an interesting oxygen for the Giants, right, and only they can't send anybody. They try to sign a judge, they try to sign a career, they try to sign a challenger, but I'm intrigued by what they've been able to do, and in that division, the Padres, they've got seats now, the DBACs are reigning world series finalists, and San Eddie Rodriguez. So aside from the Rockies, it's a really compelling division whenever it feels like chasing the Dodgers. Ultimately for Snell, listen, you get 30 plus million a year, I guess it feels good, but I'm surprised you turned it on the 150 from the Yankees, and from New York's perspective, I mean, everyone's were following it here where I live, they're 105% luxury tax, meaning $30 million for one year to Snell would be like $62 million. So the whole fight, everyone was like, well, with Garrett Cole potentially out for the season, who knows, shine Snell, give him a one year 30 mil, I'm like, hey, that's one year 60 mil. And the answer is, you're the Yankees, if you've got one sort of potentially only one season, you've got to win this year. So I'm pretty shocked it did not land Snell Montgomery still out there. So we'll see. Yeah, the Montgomery of it all, I suppose maybe that's what allowed them to pull the offer back. It's it is odd to me that they would they would do that, especially considering, you know, it didn't they didn't get better news on Garrett Cole. I mean, I suppose they avoided the worst, but he's still going to miss miss some time. And you know, you laid out the case there that there were teams that had interest, but you know, we were talking about this earlier today in other sports where there are hard caps or at least soft ones, not luxury taxes. There are teams that sign flawed players to multi year deals all the time. What do you think it is about Major League Baseball, where it feels like once we get out of the kind of, you know, not veteran minimum, but very low stakes deals, it seems like teams need to be so certain before they're ready to pull the trigger. I mean, your sports net fan ad then you understand like the Eagles, they'll sign a flawed guy. If it's going to help them right here right now, it doesn't it's just odd to me that baseball team seems so, I don't know, happier content to take such a long pragmatic view of things. Pragmatic is a perfect word for it. I do think you have to look at the situation, specifically nuts and bolts. And here's the big elephant in the room, it's a local TV deals. So for years, there's a lot of local TV money coming into all these markets, the regional sports networks. If those of them fall in the States, you know, ballet tends to go and belly up and having to get up a deal and diamond sports can evolve, et cetera. A lot of these teams are counting on a lot of money from local television with all the cord cutting that's impacted what they can do. So that's why, you know, a team like the twins hasn't done anything, you know, the powers rarely sign anybody that is rezymics, they're ace, but you saw like eight teams basically do nothing. But the Orioles 101 games and adversely nothing in the off season, aside from an outstanding tree of the call from Burns, but in terms of free agency, very, very quiet, you know, even the Yankees, it was a major trade in terms of getting stowed up as far as money spent. It was what it once was because they're up against a luxury tax. So I do think without getting into the notion of the finance, I do think that the TV money not being there and the uncertainty around it has definitely impacted these teams. But there's no question, you know, I saw a headline tonight, some of the players union like those guys are upset and hang on, we thought these guys would get big money and get paid and sets all short term higher AAB like it's, it's pretty stunning now. We look at the potential deals that we were hearing for the likes of Bellinger and Snell and Chapman, it was actually been a reality. It's surprising to see the least. Now, again, these guys will make good money for a year or two and they battle themselves, but it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting the five 150 and the six or 180 all the rest of it and that has not materialized. Yeah, I do look at all of those players, the Boris clients this year as kind of a unique circumstance that they all have like unique flaws and that I wouldn't outlay the money that I thought they were going to get. I thought that we're going to be a ton of mistakes this off season. I was kind of, you know, those were all smart deals by the teams that ended up ponying up for those individual players. I don't know. Are you of the same opinion? Like there's, I know you work for MLB network, so we don't want to talk about collusion, but like it's interesting that Scott Boris is a guy that, yeah, I'm sure his relationship with all 30 teams, you know, that you could see some animosity towards him and maybe that impacts the deals that were made or do you just view this like I do, that it was just kind of a unique class of free agents that there was no obvious guy like there will be next year when Juan Soto, I still think gets as half billion dollars. Yeah, I think it's always going to be like the top guy, Ben's going to get taken care of like her. Tony's still got his seven hundred million dollars, which was more kind of like he's still got in the 50 years, right, which I think had great deferral when I thought it would be 12 for 600. So let's do a hundred million dollars more than I was thinking, you know, yellow moto, I thought originally was going to get eight for 220 or 240, I got 325 million dollars. So the Dodgers definitely blew the doors off of everyone in terms of the guys they wanted. So top end guys still get paid. Like you said, Soto, it's still going to get 500 million dollars or the number is going to be good. So the next year's off season, as you point out, could be robust, not only these guys reentry the market, but also the likes of Corbin Burns and others. So I think, yeah, these guys are kind of flawed, like each point, if you go again case by case, it's easy to say why were owners so skittest or something else going on, but Bellinger had three subpar seasons and one great season. So now it's historically never had two great back-to-back years, has two lights out seasons and the rest of his gear has been fairly mediocre. Montgomery up until a couple of years ago was the number three, number four starter. Yankee Street and Ferris and Vader and also in this last six weeks of the season, he turns into Sandy Colfax is great in the postseason, et cetera. So yeah, I actually think it's happened again, like the 660 OPS from May 1st on, he shouldn't get a hundred million dollars in five years. I wouldn't give it to a manager. So I do think that it was a lot of flawed free agents tonight. I get where, you know, some of the players guys would cover. The one thing I understand from the players, respect that they're frustrated, JD Davis lost his arbitrator, he wanted his arbitrator, excuse me, with a giant for $6.9 million and the Giants ended up releasing him. I mean, he only gets one sixth of that deal, which is 1.15 million, then he just started to deal with the A's for one year, 2.5 million. That to me is a punch in the, you know, what, like, they're like, wait a second. I'm looking at seven with a giant, and I got to go the age for like a half of that. Like that to me would be frustrated. Yeah. And hopefully they were up front with them as like, Hey, if you win this thing, like best of luck, if you win it, though, you're not going to be with us anymore. So maybe you want to throw this arbitration hearing. I don't know if that were the world's first arbitration hearing where the guy is making the case against themselves. I'm really, I'm just, I can't hack it, but no good. I stink. So that was a weird one, uh, Adnan, always a pleasure. Body. Thanks. Thanks so much guys. And by the way, leaf flyers, big one tonight, take it easy on us. Okay. Geez. No, seven straight against the flyers. Take it easy on us. Where that Jersey or yours with pride, Adnan, thank you guys. There's Adnan, Burke, MLB network. And we don't need to talk about exactly what type of jersey it was. If people heard, they know, and if not, they can guess, um, do you have something because I have something I want to say to go ahead, uh, we have enough. We've talked to a lot of our Blue Jays people, um, just for you, uh, I'm going to take the segment off, but I, and not because I don't like the man, I do, but I think you should get Arden in here, the man who cares the least in the world about patriotism and nationalism. Just have one more conversation about how wrong we all are to feel aggrieved by Joey Vy. I didn't say you are. You get so angry anytime someone's not like, he said, sorry, we should all forgive them. No, but like the idea that somebody can't make amends that you can, that you never said a thing that you regretted, of course, people have held it against me. I bet they still do. I'm going to pose the question that you posed to me the opposite. What would it take for you to have been irked by this longer than four seconds? I think the thing that is irking me is that you're, you're chastising all of us for being irked, but you were never irked. Why didn't it bother you? I didn't say I was never irked. But I can tell in your heart of heart, 2018 is a long time ago. Oh my God. Don't forget. He said it. He said it's not bad. And I'm saying it now. People don't forget. Apparently not. I mean, part of it also for me, if I'm being honest, and I think I've said this before on this radio program, is that for me, the Joey Votto of it all is the player. It's not necessarily the Instagram account or the, the, the, it is the past. Well, I couldn't say it doesn't matter. Otherwise, it's just a good baseball player. No, it is the passport 100%. But then like anything outside of that is, it's, listen, working in this industry as long as I have, as long as you have, you do, you get a better sense of who these professional athletes are. And they're just flawed. Like the rest of us, they're just human beings. Yeah. I don't get too wrapped up in that. And I think is cool is that this guy in the climate that exists in the GTA emerged as a Hall of Famer. And I talked to him as a young man breaking into Major League Baseball. He turned himself into the best on base machine of his generation. And like I said, I think a Hall of Famer and the second best Canadian position player in the history of the sport. And I also do like one of my formative memories in the world baseball classic was that lost to the United States. But they took the lead on this incredible home run off of Jake Peevey, who if you will recall in 2013 was the best pitchers in all of Major League Baseball at Roger Center. That was electric. He put on the Canada Baseball uniform. So to me, those actions speak louder than the words that he immediately apologized for. Like I'm more, maybe I'm more willing to see the good in people, which doesn't sound like me. No, it doesn't. But I have a previous history with Joey Votto before the 2018 thing. So I think a lot of people are like, yeah, I didn't really think too much about Joey Votto. And it's like, what? And then they made up their mind about Joey Votto in that moment. Maybe this is Duh. But if that moment happened after he said the stuff and after he apologized, then I feel completely differently about it because he like, and maybe that's completely unfair. Guess what? So is life. What if he's part of like the coaching staff for the next World Baseball Classic because he obviously couldn't play in it last year. He couldn't even play in Major League Baseball during the time of World Baseball Classic. But I think showing that you care about Canada baseball would go a lot longer than a handwritten letter with quill. Yeah, we'll see. Maybe that's to come. Maybe. All right. Good morning. (dramatic music)
