[MUSIC] >> Fan Morning Joe Sports at 5.9 in the fan band and his brain gunning. Not often do we have live sports happening at 7 in the morning. >> 6 in the morning is when you should watch a mirror tour golf. >> It's always golf fun, clearly. >> That's true. >> Generally, we don't check in on the DP world tour at this time. >> Just be for yourself. >> I mean, do you have it on the television here? I never see it. >> No, because my TV doesn't work. I've bequeathed you the good TV, because I know that you, I know you need to watch this. >> Yeah, listen, there's a lot going on. Not so much on the scoreboard, it's score on the spot on the third inning, but. >> Hyunjin Ryu is exchanging gifts, shaking hands. >> So I didn't see babies. >> I didn't see that. >> I'm not going to rule it out. >> I just didn't actively see it, he was exchanging gifts. >> Yeah. >> He was signing baseballs. >> Yeah, he was giving Dave Roberts a big hug and they were having a laugh. >> He looked so happy. >> Ken Griffey Jr. is there, but- >> As a photographer, as a working member of the media. >> Doing the Randy Johnson thing, which I didn't know Ken Griffey Jr. had in his bag. >> Two things on that. >> Uh-huh. >> I did just tell you this, but now I'm going to tell everybody else. >> Guys, I understand, we all have passions, you know, like I, one day, everyone tells me I'll retire. I think I'll just scream about the Leafs on air until I die one day, and then that's how it'll end. But, you know, maybe I'll retire. Everyone's like, you have a passion, sure. I like to play golf, okay? You know, he bumped out a photographer. Like they have a set number of photographer spots. Do you think they created an extra one for Ken Griffey Jr.? >> Like a Korean photographer who- >> Yeah, for sure. >> First like for- >> Sure. >> This is a huge moment in the history of Korean sport and Korean baseball. >> Right. If Ken Griffey Jr. wants to be there and take some pictures, it's like you could just let him walk around. He's Ken Griffey Jr. I think he knows how to be around a baseball. I mean, the other part of this as well is Randy Johnson, you're too tall to be doing this. You're just in everybody's way. >> Yeah. >> But mostly, just, I don't know, let the photographers do their thing. >> You've had your time in the sun, Ken Griffey, and I can't believe I'm saying a bad thing about you because it kind of pains me. It's a good thing Jason Rose on some of my boss anymore, he'd be very upset about this. But yeah, that was my- >> I thought you were gonna be, and don't get me wrong, this isn't my take, but I thought you were gonna say, like, wow, kind of proven how little there is to taking photographs. >> Well, oh, oh, have you- >> I thought you were saying that- >> No, I'm gonna go the other way, it's like these guys are taking pictures, it's like, if you say so. You ever seen one? >> Yeah. >> Have you ever, have you ever, because I feel like if Ken Griffey Jr., or pick your guy Kevin Durant's done this in NFL games, because he's a big like commander's fan or whatever, I feel like if they took a like- >> Yeah, this doesn't even exist anymore, but sports illustrated cover quality shot, I feel like we'd hear about it and it happened. So I'm going kind of the other way, but they're not really being photographers, they're more like cosplaying in the act of photography. >> It's a great photography. >> Yeah, that's right. Like, is that for their personal collection? >> Of course it is. What do you, do you think he's selling that to Getty Images? >> I thought Randy Johnson was, but yeah, I mean- >> Okay, maybe, I should not, if I am sorry, Randy Johnson, if you have- >> If you're guessing, I don't know if you know for sure. >> I don't, I don't, I'm gonna presume not, though. My presumption. By the way, there is now a run on the board. >> I don't know. >> With an RBI single right field. >> Spoiler, it's just taping this. Pahadra is up one nothing. All right, so Austin Matthews didn't score, yet again, yesterday. The pace is, wait for it, now 67. >> Wait, no, ooh, yeah, he needs to not score for a while or start ripping off goals immediately. It cannot stay there. >> Well, I will not allow, I didn't think about that. >> Yeah. >> Why not? >> Yeah, what's wrong with you? Why would you not think about that? >> It's the opposite of a magic dumber, of course, the tragic, so mad that you said that to me. >> All right, but he is on pace for 67 goals. So who knows? The hat trick might be right around the corner, might happen tonight and we're back to the 70 pace and boy, he's back into the heart trophy conversation. It feels like he's on the periphery, like might not even be one of those nominees, right? Like the top three dudes, when it's all said and it might be Kucharov and Cannon and McDavid right now. >> That would be your top three right now. Don't think he's cracking that top four, right? It's going to take a 70 goal season to even crack the top three at this point. How will you feel about his season as a whole? Because now like everybody scores 60, and maybe we'll see some more players score 60 again this season. How will you feel if he finishes in the low 60s, which is, he's going to finish with a career high goal and goals, the 60 goal season, he scored exactly 60. So I think barring something unforeseen, he's at 55 right now with 15 games to go. You would think he's got at least six more. >> Yes, I would. >> In him. How do you feel if he finishes at 61? >> Good. It's good year. >> Shake his hand. Tell him to go score as close to 60 as he can in hopefully a long playoff run. I understand that the goal post have shifted. I understand that him scoring 62 years ago felt like something unearthly that we had never seen because we hadn't seen it in over a decade. But then two guys eclipsed it last year. There's more scoring in the NHL. He still is leading in goals by a good clip. He's going to win the rocket Richard by a pretty healthy margin. I think you shake him, shake his hand and tell him he had a great year. You tell him he wasn't the heart trophy winner. You tell him there have been better seasons from him because he's won a heart and because he has been better. But I don't think you can like the idea of a 60 goal season being a disappointment or that he left food on the table or anything along those lines like we can't live in that world. And let's be also honest, he could go score 85 goals in a regular season and it will not matter a lick if he has a series like he had against the Panthers. >> Well, that's that's it because I do wonder if we're going to talk about the power play needing to get off to or get back on track before the end of the regular season to carry that over into the postseason, does he not to be need to be close to the peak of his powers to have the postseason he so he wants so much considering the way he bowed out in those five games against the Panthers where he put up zero goals. And does that paint the picture a little bit that this guy he was spectacular in the Tampa series scoring five goals in the six games against the Lightning? But he was conspicuously absent as were the rest of the core four dudes during those five games against the Panthers. But he was the number one guy we talked about. We talked about the lack of focus for two minute stretches during games in that postseason run. And I guess if you're Damian Cox, you talked about Ilya Sampson out being able to compete in that series because he got hurt and we definitely talked about, yeah, Nick cousins and the math and eyes and yada yada yada, but it was awesome Matthews had no goals in the five game series against the Florida Panthers and there's a couple overtime games in there. Boy, they could have used a goal from him. >> Yeah, that is what we're always going to talk about. >> Awesome. Matthew's have 40 goals. I don't know. He's can't this year. He's already surpassed it by like 15 like so that's not happening, but it wouldn't matter. A lick. We'd criticize him for it. We'd ask for more during the regular season, but there are certain guys on this team who I don't know, like, do you, are you going to see anything from Austin Matthews down the stretch that's going to make you feel differently heading into the playoffs? Like he's a different guy. >> Now we couldn't have felt worse about Austin Matthews going into the postseason last year and look at the series he had against the Lightning. >> That's exactly the point I'm making. So there are guys on this team who I think they're formed for lack of a better term. And just because it's soccer term, I don't like it, but they're form heading into the playoffs matters like a Tyler Bertuzzi, him going at a good clip. Can he flip the switch? Maybe, but having that emotional guy being able to do this matters. Max Domi, same exact thing, but with the core four guys, like, I'm not really worried about how they're going even Tavares to a certain extent. I don't think his play yesterday dictates or predicates his play the next day. I think that's one of the beautiful things about Tavares is that he's a pro and it all rolls off his back, yada, yada, yada. So I think it'd be there will be people who are disappointed because 70 was out there. There's a chance he could touch it. But if you are somebody who is disappointed by that, just remember the cold dark winter that was Leafs hockey before this came along. And the idea that there's a guy who has 55 goals with tons of games to play and we're sitting here saying, "Is there a world that could be a disappointing season?" I know you're not saying that, but there will be a level of disappointment. I can't lie. For you. For me, well, part of that is because I said, you know, you're just going to do it. I gave it a more than 50% shot and I'm not coming off that take because he's on pace for 67 again, 67 for Austin Matthews. It'll be a bummer if we go into the final five games of the season, it's over. He's not going to hit 70. And I guess the only way that that happens is if he's only at 60 or 61 at that point. I don't, but I don't want, I shouldn't say I don't want to be nice to have something to push for, I suppose, but you remember those games when he was sitting on 59. Yeah. And the game stopped. They were no longer playing hockey. They were playing Get Austin Matthews his 60th goal. I didn't play him in game 82. Right. And so I think that the team, we were just remember it. They only had eyes for him. And you know, generally speaking, it's not a bad idea to give Austin Matthews the puck, but you can't telegraph things so, so crystal clear for the other team. And I think that's the thing I worry about almost a little bit is that if that, if everything's locked up, they're home and cooled. Nobody else has, nobody else is going to have milestones to push for. Like Kneelander's already got career highs and everything. Mitch Barners not going to be his 100 point guy. It's like, yeah, maybe there are some other players who have some round numbers they can hit, but nothing that actually Tyler Bratuzzi has an outside shot at 20 goals this season. But that's like, it'd be nice if he gets 20 goals, but that doesn't define him one way or, or another. I mean, it does. It's an interesting narrative considering the start that he was off and like how many conversations we had about him being totally snakebit and now, I mean, 21 is his career high in any season outside of the weirdo one where he's became a 30 goal scorer because he did it one time shooting 16.7% with the red wings in the weirdo 21, 22 season. But yeah, 21 outside of that in an 82 game season, that's his career highs at 14 right now. It would be quite, I think, for Tyler Bratuzzi to get to 20 goals considering where he started. It'd be great for him. He's heading into free agency. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but it's not a hundred point season or a new career high in goals. And the thing I, again, worry is maybe too strong of a term, but I don't want him sitting on 67 goals with four games to play and they are just fill, not even four with two games to play and he needs three goals or something along those lines and them just filtering everything through him. That builds bad habits. And I don't know that you can go the other way and say, Oh, look at all. Look at the great habits they built. This is for sure going to carry over. I do think it works the other way though, where if you do get out of the rhythm and you do get out of your habits, that stuff can bleed into playoffs. So that's, that would be my concern about this. I don't want to overstate. I don't think it's going to nuke them or tank them, but I'd honestly given my druthers, I'd rather him just be at 65 with two games left. And it's like, Hey, good job. You scored 65 goals. That's very glass half full of you. Well done. Speaking of blood, first time ever, although Ryan Reeves, I don't think he was bleeding. Quite that. I thought the hands, maybe I thought the hand got a little nicked up. The eye was the worst part of that. Greasy. Yeah, he was very much looking like a boxer coming out of the penalty box. And then departing that game after is good tilt against Nick Deloria, who clearly got the better of him in that fight. They agreed to it clearly before the game. That's what Ryan Reeves does. There's a few players in his weight class and it was good to see those guys go. He understands his job. He didn't return to that game. I'm not putting the car before the horse here. Maybe Ryan Reeves is fine. Maybe he gets back in the lineup. But clearly this is a guy, even in our most optimistic projections and talking about the three year deal and making more than a million bucks per. It was, well, this is more a regular season thing anyways, right? Like the idea that Ryan Reeves is going to be a must have during a postseason series where there's basically no fighting that that is not what he did with Nick Deloria yesterday. That stuff's not taking place during the postseason. Is it possible if Ryan Reeves needs to miss a couple of games, maybe needs a, needs a reset on injured reserve that that's the end of Ryan Reeves this season. And if it is, did he serve his purpose? How do we view the first season of Ryan Reeves? Maybe to this point, if it's not in fact over this season. Well, I think I don't, I don't think a single person has changed their mind on this from the jump. I think if you were someone who looked at the deal and said, okay, I'm happy to have them. But the three years that feels like a bit much, you probably still feel that exact way. If you were somebody who looked at this and said, ah, why do we need a tr, like a guy who's just out there to fight and he's not going to, Oh, what, he's the team DJ. If you felt that way, then you feel like he has served no purpose. I really think his season is such a Rorschach test. I think there have been times where you've needed them. I mean, times where he nuked the team. Can you look at it as a rousing success? No, I don't think you can, but I think if we're going to talk about this team having some pushback and more togetherness and, you know, I'm not saying they're the Broad Street bullies of the 70s, but I think we all have to agree that this version of the Leafs, they're not better than last year's team, but they certainly feel like they stick up for one another more and they got more noses and scrums and I'm not going to give all of that to Ryan Reeves, but I'm not going to take away him adding a little bit to that as well. So I really look at it kind of as a Rorschach test, whatever you thought of at the beginning of this thing, you still feel now, well, how did I feel? I felt like I was going to have times that didn't like it. There were times I did. Guess what? Love it. Every time he's fighting and I love that he's found a role on this team. If that's it for him, and again, I'm not trying to do this either, but can't you see that scenario though? Uh, I still think there's going to be enough games that don't matter at the tail end of the year. That's what we're talking about. Him playing in games that don't matter. Well, but he, okay, that, that lightning leaf series last year got scrappy, got nasty. Austin Matthews and Stephen Stamkos, they, I know they rolled around on the ground. We call it a hockey fight because their gloves came off, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that there's a sense where or a time where it makes sense to pop Reeves in for a game. This team is dressed kind of Clifford in the playoffs in the past, okay? Like they clearly, and again, different guy, well, not well, but you know, I mean, we said to think about NASA Academy that he'll learn his lesson. Maybe Brian Reeves will have learned Kyle Clifford's lesson, but I, I'm not completely ruling it out because of the teams you're going to play a Florida, a Boston. If those things do get nasty, I think you could see a world where you put him in the lineup for a game. And guess what? All that does is you're using math. He's more using knee land or more using, maybe, maybe not Tavares is the guy you want to use more, but you're using your better players more often. Bobby McMahon, you know? Yeah. I think the nightmare scenario is the one that presented itself the first couple of seasons where it's like the guy can't even step on the ice without getting scored upon. And that it didn't feel sustainable, but it just kept happening to get game after game after game and eventually cooled off. And, you know, that fourth line has had some moments this season and also didn't sink you capwise, right? They didn't use all the cap space that they had at the deadline. Well, that's a, that's a different discussion, but yeah, well, I mean, it's just the idea of this team being in, you know, nothing's all in, but it's Matthew's hair and you got to take advantage and push all in the idea of and again, they didn't use all their cap space. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not like he was the reason why they couldn't. I understand what you're saying. Yeah. They, they could have. There were many different things they could have done to free up cap space and they didn't and on deals that they did make before the deadline, yeah, his more than a million bucks didn't hurt him. I know there's two more years of it, but you can vary a million of it in the AHL. It's perfectly fine. Do you know who should be the happiest person that Ryan Reese is in the lineup last night? Who's that? Simone Bemwa. I don't know that he would have had to fight Nick to Laurier, but he might have had to fight Garnet Hathaway. If that didn't happen, like that's the funny sliding doors part of all this is if, and I don't think they would have done this, Ryan Reese is on the team for this exact reason. But if they just don't dress Reeves last night, it's not like Nick to Laurier is going up to Max Domie and being like, you're the guy who likes to fight most here now. Let's go. There's a little bit of a weight class discrepancy there. I don't think that would, how that would have gone. So I think the guy who should be happiest about this was the milk band, Simone Bemwa, because it feels like he would have been the guy who drew the short stick if, if Riva wasn't in the lineup. What did you think it Benoit's a reinsertion in the lineup because Ili Labushkin's dealing with an illness and I guess he's not going to play again tonight. There was a moment where Simone Bemwa's leading the, he was going end to end, Karen the puck. He did catch up to, I forget who the Flyers player was who took the puck off William Kneelander's stick and almost had yet another breakaway after Kneelander's last man back. But yeah, he's, he was one of the Leafs best defensemen when he was summarily removed from the, the top six. And then reinserted yesterday. What'd you think of this game? Yeah, I thought it was a guy who, you know, he, he looked a little fresher than some of the other players we've seen, but you know, he also showed a touch signs for us. I thought he was able to get back on the bike eventually. I'm happy you got back in the lineup. I think that to bring it back to the towards conversation we had at the beginning of the show today, it's like in a world of accountability and your play is the thing that dictates it. It feels completely unjust that that's the guy who came out of the lineup and I can't even argue with it like when you just lay out the facts, but that was a guy who did everything you've asked all season long. He's the guy who took the fights when Revo wasn't in the lineup and he had to go fight tough guys, even though that's not his job. So I, I look at it is thrilled that Benoit got back in happy he's back in tonight because I think that's a guy. I mean, man, you think you're going to need Joe Wall in the playoffs. You're definitely going to need Simone Benoit. There's no world where even, even if all six guys stay healthy, there's no world where you're liking all six of them for a playoff series, let alone a run. So yeah, happy got back in, happy is playing again, maybe I'm going to like their first round matchup. I don't think I'm going to go as far as to confirm that. Yeah. Yeah, there's just no scenario barring I suppose some incredible run and some incredible floundering by the Bruins and the Panthers where they end up as the top seed in the Atlantic division, which is not likely to happen. They're not going to like either playing the Panthers or the Bruins. Now, for different reasons and now that Bruins won again yesterday, they are three points clear of the Panthers atop the Atlantic division with the Panthers with two games in hand. Are you of a certain way? Because it is very much out of town scoreboard watching season, right? And the Eastern Conference is getting very, very interesting at the very bottom and leaves are playing a couple of teams and back-to-back games that are trying to cement their spots in the postseason field. But do you feel a certain way when you see the Bruins put up two points or when you see the Panthers put up two points and do you feel one way towards one and a different one against the other? No, because they're terrifying for different reasons. I'm not ruling out the possibility of Boston having the right guy in net and them having the terrifying goalie. But that is the thing that scares me the most about the cats is just Babrovsky. I saw that animal last year. I've seen exactly how that goes, Boston's goal attending has been up in the air. They've both been great. But anytime you have a question mark as to who you're going to play, it's entirely possible you play the wrong hand. And we saw that happen last year with Jim Montgomery. But I think the team, Boston scares me more than the team, Florida. I think that would surprise a lot of people they like, I think most, but yeah, I think that Brad Marchon is such a singular pest and Kachuk is that guy too, but Marchon has done it against this team so often you see it this year. He can't be anything other than the center of attention. They just have so many kind of leaf killers to brush is always scoring against you. The other thing I look out with the with the cats is that I think with them kind of having Kachuk rolling, they have the line spread out, but there's no one kind of match up line you'd need to match up against with the cats. And I think that actually kind of bodes better for a team like the Leafs. So I don't, again, to your point, there's no, oh, give me this. This team, this is clearly the better matchup. No, Snitemere on Elm Street, no matter which way you look at it. The other thing is, is like, we're going to get some semblance of an answer to this. I don't know how much the second to last came of the season matters, April 16th, but the one on April 1st in Toronto against the Panthers, that's still early enough in the season that is going to matter plenty for both teams. That one is going to be pretty telling one way or another in terms of message sending and all that. I see, I view this core, and I know awesome Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, those guys were around for the Bruin seven game series losses, free the lightning being the team that was their bugga boo in the postseason and, you know, pre Montreal, Canadian series, free Columbus, Bluejack in series, but I knew that is like a different era entirely. And I just we've seen proof of concept very recently with the Panthers in that five game series and boy at their best, they just, they look like the best team in the NHL. So I don't, I don't put the, the, the Bruins bugga, but despite like what we saw a couple of weeks ago in those two regular season games and the 82 aggregate score, I got view, I mean, more recently, we've seen them look like they're not in the same postseason class as the Panthers. So that would be like, given my brother, Gerard, like there's no good answer here, but yeah, the way I just naturally feel watching the out of town scoreboard, it feels like I'm rooting for the Panthers and against the Bruins. And that seems stupid because yeah, I also saw what happened in those two games, despite the fact that Jake became had a good time cross checking Brad March on in the back. God, that was so cathartic. I saw I know everyone else in the world saw the mic up clip of the Bruins going around of Brad March on just screaming the F word for seemingly two and a half minutes, which I want to be clear. I have no problem with, I thought it was great content. But yeah, seeing Jake McCabe just smoke him right across the chops with that cross check. Mm hmm. It was a, it was like chicken soup for the soul again. You see that. Yeah. But you're right. We'll, we'll see a couple more games during the regular season against the Panthers. All right. When we come back, Blue Jays lose a couple of relievers to injury and Jose Barreos officially named the opening day starter. We'll talk to Kevin Barker, a Blair and Barker live from Dunedin next as the fan morning show continues. Ben and his Brent Gunning Sports at 590 the fan. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL, the JD Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bad morning show sports at 590 the fan man and his Brent Gunning, we shouldn't talk too much because last time we had Kevin Barker on, we didn't leave enough time. No, we didn't. We're like blowing through breaks. Big mistake. All right. So let's just let him go. It's Kevin Barker, Blair and Barker from Dunedin. How's it going, Kevin? Yeah, it's good. Hey, look, I heard your guy's traffic update, but I'm going to be honest with you. The next couple of days I'll have down here in Dunedin is my spring training mentally to prepare myself to actually deal with the traffic. I don't know what it will take or what kind of checklist or who I need to talk to. I'm sure there's khakis running around here where they can mentally help me get through what I'm going to have to go through to deal with that. And then I'll stay hot. They're shutting down one of the lanes pretty soon and that lane is right beside the Roger Center. Yeah. Good stuff. You know, where I was. Yeah. The Roger Center. So yeah, it's a, it's a, you know, it's exciting to hear, you know, the lanes are in the trucks and that's the case. It's over boys. That's basically what I'm trying to tell you. I think we got to like expense a jet pack for you or something like just like not have to deal with the traffic or you can, you can set up shop like we should get you one of the, the rooms in the, in the Roger Center Hotel. Yeah. There's the restaurant there. The sports net grill. You'd be fed. I don't know. I think we're making some inroads here, Kevin. Yeah. I have a family. My family. They can come with you. Probably like that. Yeah. Okay. Appreciate you guys thinking. We're trying here. You know, there's three of us. They're not just one of me. Yeah. I don't think like a 600 square foot like a hotel room wouldn't, wouldn't be enough for the three guys. I don't know. Nope. Because that's how you get, that's how you get divorced. Yeah. Yeah. Works. Yes. That much. Move on. Move on. All right. Moving on. All right. Not, not great news out of Blue Jays land yesterday with, with the Jordan Romano, Eric Swanson injury stuff, or although I don't know, do they want us calling those injuries because there's no structural damage. It's inflammation. Like what do you make of one, the, the, the actual physical ailments they're dealing with and to like how concerned, how concerning would that be to, to lose your closer and your set up man, maybe for a couple of weeks, maybe a prolonged period of time. Yeah. Concerned. Like any time you start talking about swelling around the elbow and you talk about forearm and it's a, you know, the Swanson thing, you can sort of understand, you could probably see that coming. Like, you know, the, the spring training that he's had with his family has not been the easiest one. I'm sure he's tried to rush some things, you know, to get back into it quicker and, and, you know, overcompensate for certain things, trying to rush it, trying to, you know, help his team because then they, that's the feel around here. Every time you walk around one of these guys, it's very urgent. Like they understand they got to get off to a good start. They understand that the American League east is better managed. You got to see the organs just stay like that. It's just boy, it's not going to be easy. So they understand that they need sort of all hands on deck. And when you see Romano who was looking great, man, it was coming out hot and it was free and easy. And, you know, when you throw that hard and you have a crossfire action and mean you're not, you know, 100% mechanically sound and you throw the sliders and boy, that thing was breaking like it's never broke before. And when you see that spring training and then you start talking about elbow issues and then with Swanson again, like I mentioned, and forearm things, yeah, the guys got to step up. Right. It's what's Jack Green God. And, you know, he's been working on a breaking ball. Sounds like he's canned at it. No good. He ain't doing a whole lot. So he's back to the slider, you know, he's changed grip on the slider. He's trying to throw a little bit harder, more quadrants with the fastball. I'm sure he's going to get more run later in games. I, you know, I know that sort of what they were wanting to do is when Romano wasn't available, they had more options and Jack Green was one of those. So, you know, hopefully those two guys aren't out long and that just means if you're next in line, you got to step it up Jimmy Garcia says the world, you know, a couple of left, he's probably going to get a little bit more run Trevor Richards, you might see a little bit in the eighth anyone they have to like there's some guys that need to step up. And I've said this on our show the last couple of days, just runs it back around the offense. Like the, we can sit here and talk about what they need to do. They don't, they don't need to do anything. They have to like at least the first five guys that seems like Dalton Borsch is hitting clean up or hitting fifth, excuse me, especially against righties. I mean, he's doing some things, he feels very confident. I talked to him a couple of times like he's talking world series, like it's, he's got a lot of confidence. Everything he's been doing in the off season is seems to be working and you know, that chopping wood thing. So it just sort of comes back around to that and especially what they don't have right now in their rotation and trying to fill in the blanks there. They got some injuries and key spots and they don't have injuries in the lineup. That's just, you know, when one thing's not working, the other thing's got to work a lot. And hopefully fingers crossed if you're a J fan, you're looking smack dab at that five run a game thing with that lineup. And if they can do that, they'll win more games than they'll lose and they have to. They, I mean, they, they can't get off to a slow start. It's just, they don't have enough horsepower to, to make up for it. So consistently do what you can do and if they do that, you probably will see them get off the decent start. Yeah. And like you said about the horsepower thing, like you could talk about that for the team, but you can also talk about it for the org, right? Like there's not some big save the day trade coming. If things don't get off or they go, all right, we got to start moving pieces to get another body in here. Like I don't think that's, that's happening for, for this group. You know, you mentioned the, the offense there, such a bugaboo with this team. I mean, last year, but the year before as well was hitting with runners in scoring position. You know, I was reading some stuff from Turner earlier in camp talking about how, you know, he understands that there is, you know, there's numbers to this, but it is a skill. What do you think it does getting a guy like Turner in there? I mean, if Votto ends up being a part of this, I mean, the runners in scoring position, we talk about it so much we could talk about Varshow or Springer. But I think forget any one player in particular, that's the thing that's going to be the difference for this team is can they finally be just league average at that? Yeah. The other thing that I think is, it's putting dudes in spots that should be there and not put like a, no offense to Dalton Varshow, but it was a lot to ask and they understand that. I mean, I've had conversations and I was yelling and screaming this last spring training of, you don't have a cleanup here. Why are you doing that? Like you're putting a dude that, you know, you traded a couple of guys for in a spot who's never done it before and asking to protect and get giant hits with a lot of mechanical issues. Like it just, it didn't make any sense. So, you know, I think they've learned from that having Turner in the cleanup spot, you know, I hate to say that protection thing because if you're a good hitter, you're a good hitter. You should be able to lay off the things consistently that, you know, you're not able to drive or do damage in the big part of the field. So I don't like to say that part of it, but I don't know if you guys have been watching the TV whenever he comes up with a guy at second. The swing doesn't change. It's not like he's hitting a three run homer with a guy on base. You know, like we've been seeing the last couple of years. It's just free and easy, staying in the big part of the field. It's okay to hit a 19 hopper to the center fielder, like it's, you know, you just sort of stay within yourself because you've been there and done it and you can't teach experience. So hopefully that helps out a lot. The Dalton Varshow thing will allow them to be lefty, righty, lefty, righty, lefty. Like they want to do that, right? The Kevin Visio hitting ninth, they seem like that because he takes pitches and, you know, he's made enough adjustments and he can't run into one. You know, Kevin Kuremars trying to drive baseballs in the big part of the field now. So I'm not sure they want him hit ninth because he will have some quicker outs, which, you know, I guess is okay. Their damage is the word here. That's everybody you talk to, every guy, person in the lineup, they talk about one thing. They want to do damage and damage is very individual. Like a lot of these guys can't go to right center if they're right handed. Blady don't like to hit the ball to right field. Why try and do that? Lay up the middle to the pull side, do those things early in counts and if every individual is trying to stay within themselves, hopefully they score more runs. That's what it's about, right? And especially with the entries that they have now, score more runs and they're trying to do that, I think. Yeah, you were early on the Varshow thing last year and him coming out of the gates and clean up. Although I think he had a couple of hits in that first game and then, yeah, things really did fall apart for him and it wasn't too long before he was bumped down the order he took. The majority of his played appearances hitting seventh last year. It's just one order spot going from hitting fourth to hitting fifth, but this is a guy that had a very below average offensive season. Below his also career averages, it must be said. And boy, the home road splits were weird, the weirdest. Him and Blady had the weirdest home road splits. If Dalton Varshow was the same guy at home that he was on the road last year or having a different conversation about his first year as a Bluejay, but yeah, I've read some of the stuff about him feeling like he had to get the ball in the air too much last year and he's got more of a line drive approach this year. How much of that is real? Like how much are you putting stock into the bounce back offensive season for Dalton Varshow? Yeah, again, I think it was expectations. I think it was not fair to him to put him where they tried to put him last year. I mean, they were way overthinking it like it's sometimes you can run all these numbers and put run dudes through the machine and try and predict the future and you just got to take a step back and go worst the guy at is does he look mechanically like he's able to, you know, with two outs and a guy standing at second to get a big hit to stay in the big part of the field and just the experience is not there. It's not his fault. That's the Bluejay's fault. They live. They learn from it and it is a big deal, right? Hitting in the five hole is different than hitting the cleanup spot. When I'm in the cleanup spot, just saying that word out loud is different than hitting the five hole like it just is, right? It's even when you're a player, I tried it when I was young in the big leagues and it's not the easiest thing to do. There's a lot comes with that sort of your chest pokes out a little further because you think you're one of the dudes and you're trying to do things and sometimes when you try too hard, just mechanically again, he's not a great hitter, all right? And they're not asking him to do that. They just want him to be himself and see himself is probably what at least what they're hoping and what he's hoping somewhere around that 25 homer thing and after that, whatever else he does comes with that. So be it. They're not asking for anything other than that. So yeah, I think just knowing that mentally and being prepared in the off season the way he has been with just the mechanical changes and, you know, and also I don't think you can have five varieties in a row. That's what they're trying to stay away from like the first four guys. Okay, that's the best for first four hitters they have on their team. That's okay. After that, it's sort of they would love perfect scenario now don't change this. If he gets off to slow start, they're going to maneuver it around. John, if you, you know, whether you like him or love him, he's not afraid to make changes like he will maneuver that lineup around on the first four guys. He ain't going to mess with that because he's living and dying with that. But after that, he'll make changes that are warranted, Kirk, he looks better like, you know, when Danny Johnson gets back and wears enough stuff on his hands and that right there is another thing, right? You got this billion dollar facility down here and sometimes you forget about what's right in front of you. I got to do stands around top of the plate. What's probably needs to happen? Where enough stuff that protects you by just it's mind boggling that nobody else understood that. And now you've lost one of your better hitters for a little while he's throwing today, which I don't care if he throws, can he hit like when tell us when he's starting to hit, that's the most important part of all this because, you know, that's where ultimately they're going to end up is how much they hit. So yeah, it's look you you be happy they have the first four guys they have because George looked like he can pull the ball again. Bo looks like he's doing whatever Bo does, Vlad, he looks like he's happy and more mechanically repeatable, right? The hands are not moving as much. Do I like lack of separation? Absolutely not. That will mean dog days he's chasing things he probably shouldn't chase, but maybe the jacket will make him happy enough that he overcomes it and he wears that thing close to 40 times. So you're happy about that. We just mentioned Turner experience. You can't teach it like they try and predict the future with a bunch of young dudes and occasionally you just got to say the guy's been around a long time. Let's throw him in a cleanup spot and they're going to fake it. So the first four guys that got taken care of and they'll figure out, I think the rest of the team, but it sounds like everybody talked to and they loved Donnie baseball. That's the other thing I've gotten down here is he seems to talk it the way it's supposed to be talking and staying out of it when he's supposed to stay out of it and they seem to like this. Okay. So that's actually pretty interesting because, you know, in all sports, the idea of, you know, not that the J's have said this, but like the idea of a manager and waiting or a coach in waiting on the bench sometimes creates a bit of an awkward situation. You're saying there's none of that and not, not that I think there would be, but it's just, you know, I think people look on the outside. People are wondering if there's going to be a manager change after the playoffs. I didn't think there was going to be one, but people were wondering that. And when you have a guy who's done the job with his resume, not just as a player, but as manager as well, does that create any, you know, awkwardness at all? Yeah. I don't think so. You know, I think they refined his roles here when it comes to the coaching staff, because they had to do it. Like, again, no offense to Guillermo Martinez, but why would I walk up to Guillermo when I'm struggling and ask him what he did when he was struggling to hit a double in the gap? Oh, he's never done that again. This predicting the future with, you know, some guys that, you know, are more relayed the message than they are experienced. Not Guillermo's fault. He's a great dude, and he's very soft spoken. And that's what you have to be to be a good hitting coach is sometimes you can't overwhelm them with your words. You just got to take a step back and listen. And on top of that, if you're Donnie Baseball, you know, it's, it sounds to me like, you know, Donnie Baseball probably does want to be a manager. I'm not sure it's with the Blue Jays. And I think he is sort of best used for this team in this role, right? It's again, this is not a young lineup. This is a older, well, it's the oldest lineup in the American League East. And again, they need guys that they can walk up to Donnie Baseball and say, how did you do it? Like a Dalton Varshow, that relationship Dalton seems to tell me that Donnie speaks his language. I don't know what that language is, but it seems to be working here in spring. So I think that's the point right is they can both speak the same language. They can both understand when they struggle, what did he do? Maybe it's a little thing. Maybe it's a, you know, a thing in a cage or it's stand at the plate in a different spot or move your hands around something that changes it quick enough that you don't stand that slump longer than you should be staying in it. So yeah, look, these are grown-ups and they understand they better get off to a good start. And John Snyder, again, whatever you feel about him, it's not afraid to make changes. I mean, you can say all these things about taking dudes out of the game when they shouldn't be taking them out and we've seen it, like we've seen him move Bo from the two hole to the seven hole, like he ain't afraid because it's about winning. And they understand that and if it takes Donnie baseball in a different role, so be it, they'll figure it out. I mean, it sells to me like if you had issues with anything, they brought in another, an associate manager, raise your hand if you know what the heck that is. I don't know. But I know that the end of it says manager, I mean, if he's got an issue with any of that, you would think it would be there, right? Because if he gets fired next in line would be the associate manager. So yeah, I think sometimes we read too much into this. It's more about the relationship between the manager, the GM, the manager, the organization. And it seems to me like those things right now are rosy. But again, that can change if they go, I don't know, two and seven in their first nine. I don't do that. So they need to figure it out, get off to a hot stuff. Here's something people don't know about Kevin Barker is beautiful handwriting, like really nice, like very, very legible handwriting, beautiful, beautiful handwriting. And if he wrote the letter that Joey Votto wrote, I would have had a much easier time understanding the words. So Joey Votto didn't play in yesterday's spring game. I don't know if the plan is for him to get into today's game against the Braves on the road. He hit a home run on the only pitch he's he's seen as a blue J and grapefruit league. Where are you on how this bottle thing will work itself out and and how out of nowhere did that that apology on Twitter come from like that? It felt like that that there was no impetus for that. It just happened to occur yesterday. What is the sense around Joey Votto in the last couple of days? Yeah, I think the letter thing, look, I think only Joey can answer that. You know, I think you think he stuck his foot in his mouth. I mean, it sounds to me like he was a little bit jealous about a dude throwing no hitter. I mean, sometimes you do things you don't want to do when you got on up. And I think that's what he did. That's Joey. I love him or hate him like sometimes he does some things and you're like, hey, that's pretty cool. I know it's hard. You know, sometimes some of the things he if you have to read it is a is a little different, but who am I to say that's the wrong way? He felt like that was more endearing to the people that would be reading it more power to him like he if that that makes him feel better and he can move on from it. Everybody makes mistakes. He's a grown up, but owning it, he feels like he apologized for it. Maybe he can move on sleep better at night. Look, I saw him yesterday. I was doing my show. They had batting practice at TD Park. He was in the batting cage. He was walking around. He wasn't limping. He was hitting balls, line drives, right center and left center like I watched him for a few minutes. Will he go to the Braves? Would you? I mean, that's pretty far away from here. If I just twisted my going, I'm a feature all the federal ain't no chance I walk there. Yeah, I mean, he's riding buses in a little bit of traffic. You've heard a little bit of traffic. I mean, it ain't the furthest of places. He's probably not riding a bus either. I mean, he's made like $300 million, so I'm sure he's got a, you know, a souped up car that would get them there a little bit quicker than the bus was. I wouldn't see that happen. I have not asked anybody because there's other things going on at camp and Joey is in the process of figuring out where Joey can be to help the Blue Jays, right? And I just don't think he's there yet. And sometimes it's just better to walk away from Joey not speak about it and let him figure it out on his own. And I think that's where's that. It's okay. Right. He's trying to figure it out with a 40 year old body, which it's okay. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't think it's right now a big deal. It just doesn't seem that way. At least when I watched him walking around, taking batting practice, he was laughing, smiling. So, you know, I think it sounds to me like probably he ain't going to play today. Now, watching being the lineup, I haven't seen the lineup yet, but it seems like he will, you know, probably take the same batting practice and not being any hurry to getting a game. And I don't even know if he needs to be in a game like I don't know how going forward. They will figure out when to bring Joey to the Blue Jays. It sounds like he's coming, but when, how, I know the relationship between John and Joey are really good and they are very, very honest with each other. And it seems seems to me like Joey will walk in the office or pick up the phone until John I'm ready to go. Like I'm able to hit velocity. I'm able to lay off a slider with two strikes. My bat feels quick enough that I can help your team and maybe hit fifth or sixth or seventh occasionally and get the big hit with a guy standing at second. So I think it's more about that than it is all the other things that go around Joey. Yeah. And I think that might at least to start the season happening Buffalo, it's a Linfield first who really Buffalo Union, dude, Hall of Famer, you would go to Buffalo in April. He said he says a lot of things. Okay. So you don't, so you think it's either crack the opening day roster with this team or it's like we don't hear about him in games because it's what extended spring in Dunedin. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think he will go somewhere where it's warmer. Okay. Like that's what I think. If that's Dunedin, if that's New Hampshire, you know, Buffalo in April, you've never played in Buffalo in April. I have. The worst thing in the world, not not in, you know, I talked about the traffic in Toronto. You times that by 3000. I mean, just just preparing yourself for a baseball game in Buffalo is early in the season. Yeah. Unless you've actually done it. I mean, I'm ordering batting gloves that are three times thicker than the normal ones that I wear. It's just mentally preparing yourself. Hey, look, maybe Joey's going home and wanting to do all that things. That's what I said. Again, again, I just don't understand. I, you know, I know he would probably say, well, I'm facing better pitch and yeah, I know all you need to do is get the timing and good stretch and think you can get the head out on velocity. They got velocity in Dunedin. Yeah. I mean, it's a billion dollar facility that he can walk in. I've seen that that he can walk in there and see 190 miles an hour being thrown in him to get his foot down and think he can take a pitch and still think he can get the head out and get it singing. So yeah, look, I sometimes I think you got to read between the lies and he chuckled when he said that. You see his face when he said and new Hampshire like your future, all the fame are you doing that. Listen, if I've made $260 million in my career and, you know, the, you know, nobody actively wants me. I have to reach out to design a minor league contract. I'm not doing that. I'm probably going to sit on my many millions of dollars and just doing the fun things I want to do. You ain't sitting on a park mansion, you know, with a C2 43 now that looks like he's been tossing rocks in there and hitting him in his backyard. No, you wouldn't see me. And I didn't see me. I mean, please call. No. Here's my number. I'd be on my own private island. I mean, that's why you love Joey. You know, I like Joey because it still looks like a hit velocity. That's what I like, Joey, because that's what he's going to have to do. I mean, you're taking 250 of bats because it'll be a blue jay and it's the big hit. And maybe it's the, you sit over there for two days and John want to pinch hit for curky against the tough righty. That's, that's what I want to see. And if you can do that, look, they're, they're, they will take me. If I, if I could show them that I could hit a fastball, which is hot. You can. Because I'm almost 50. Yep. If I could show them that, they would probably take me because they're looking for people. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I wanted. Nope. Uh, Kevin. Always a pleasure buddy. See ya. Yeah. Absolutely. You boys and Joey. Oh, you don't have traffic. No. Come in at three thirty and you leave at nine fifteen. That's right. Nine fifteen. I'll be taking the train Friday. Yeah. You should be taking the train Friday. That's a, that's a good call. All right. See you Kevin. Bye bye. Okay, boys. Kevin Barker, uh, Blair and Barker. And as expected, we went long. All right. Yeah. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Come in. We'll be right back. Come in. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Yeah. Come in. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. So. of wall back in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Moneyline has the Leafs despite being on back into back to back and the Capitals having much more to play for are -143 favourites. The caps plus 120 the total six Brent let's take the over I think that's the thing I'm liking the most caps the value there they're playing well they played last night as well you got the total of six not six and a half that's why you got to pay a bit but give me the total over six at minus 120 that's what I like there I hate a minus bet but that's right yeah Leafs losing back to my games the first time since January I don't see it becoming a three game losing streak and again this is a team we're used to seeing minus like 160 minus 180 Moneyline so I don't mind the Leafs minus 143 Joe wall I don't think we've seen the best of him since he came back I wouldn't mind minus one and a half on the puck line plus 170 for the Maple Leafs in Washington tonight that was the Wakenrake presented by Sports Interaction your homegrown Sportsbook 19 plus bet responsibly when we come back Luke Fox the fan morning show continues Ben and his Brent Gunning Sportsnet 590 the
