(upbeat music) - Fan, morning shows, sports net, 590, the fan, Ben and his friend, Gunning. It's a good Friday. - Boy, is it. - Good morning on a good Friday, Brent. - And good morning to you, Ben. Great Friday, you might even say, like, I know. It's good, like it's good Friday. - I'm happy to all those who observe, but just in general as well, pretty great Friday. - And not the traffic has ever an issue for us at five in the morning, but today. Oh, I felt like I was, remember when Kramer, he was adopting the highway, and he made the lanes come first and once? Yeah, that's kind of what it felt like on the road today, because yeah, even when you're not being slowed down by cars, it's not as fun to have a bunch of cars around you. - Today, it was miles of open spaces. - It was how you feel the road should be every morning. You often turn in here and you're like, "What are all these people doing?" - What are they doing? - You know, a lot of farmers. - Going to their jobs and working. - Right, people, like normal people with normal jobs work at this time. - Well, I guess so. - Yeah, like all around the car. - I guess that's why we're on the air. - That's right. Why are all should we be talking? 'Cause people are in their cars. - Except for today. - Except for today. But like, you have to be here, 'cause Blue Jays. - Yeah, yeah. - I mean, obviously, why wouldn't you want to know? - Okay, you want to talk about that in a lot of ways? - No, I'm just saying, like, that's why we're here. Like, factually, let me put it this way. If just the Leafs played last night in ye old playing out the string season here, I don't know that we would be as all hands-on deck today. - Possibly not. - Possibly not. - Yeah, I thought like, hey, you know what? In visioning the way today's show was going to go, the order of operations. And it's not always, hey, what's the most pressing sports story of the day that we start the show with? Sometimes it's like, hey, chronological. Well, it makes the most sense. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, well, let's see how the games play out. And then we'll see what's more important. Yeah, there's really no discussion from my end here. Like, awesome Matthews didn't score number 60. And, you know, they won the game and they responded nicely. But I think the Washington Capitals are who we thought they were. - Yeah, I was gonna save this for Leafs, but because we're talking about the order we decided to do things, this was a quote uttered from Sheldon Keefe in the postgame last night. It's Connor's time in reference to Connor Timmons. And that kind of tells you everything you need to know about the importance. - It's getting absolutely walked in the blue line, yeah. - But it's his time, it's his time right now. So yeah, that puts it all in perspective. The, God, the traffic this morning, it was so nice. You go Kramer with the extra wide lanes. I go one further, I'm like, now I wanna be clear. It was of like sound mind to drive a motor vehicle coming in this morning, but it's like, I always felt like Homer Simpson like driving in the bed. I'm like, this is so comfy. I'm all nuzzled in, it's nuggled in. Oh, it's wonderful. I even had the heat like cranked up extra high in the car this morning. - You got a very fancy car. You have like auto drive function. It feels like you have like one of those self driving cars. - It's not a self driving car, but it's like, I don't even know if it's like a smart cruise basically. So I can set a cruise, but it's like, if I get close to a car in front of me, it eases off. - My wife's car has that. - I don't get to drive that car. - It's very nice, I gotta say. The only problem is, is that it only works on days like today when there's literally no one on the road. - You know, I have a car with that thing, and it has also the lane detection, so that it'll keep you in the lane. But it doesn't want you to use it, like it doesn't want you to overly rely on it. So like if you, if it doesn't sense you touching the steering wheel for a while, it's like, hey, buddy, this is no free rides here. - My car also, I feel like, now again, there's a lot of things in the world that don't totally understand how they work. I just, sometimes I'll get this beef where it's like, hey, pay attention. And I'm like, I'm just tired, leave me alone, okay? - How do you know? - I get like, tracks my eyes or something. I don't really think that's how it works. 'Cause I have a car is fancy. - I have been sitting there with like 10 and two. Just to be clear, like you're making it seem like I like drive like a Rolls Royce or something. It's like a mid-tier sedan. Like there's nothing like over it like. - I drive like a hundred year old onto Civic. So to me, it is a Rolls Royce. - It's like in 10 years I will be driving that exact same car that you have now. Also, this irked me this morning. We're all good vibes, but one thing did irked me this morning, so you know me, I have to get it in. We don't have assigned parking here, but I do. I have decided there's like a spot that's open every day. It's right next to the door. I have to do as minimal walking as humanly possible. And of all days, there was a car parked in that spot today. And I just, how dare you, who do you think you are? Whoever in this building, who's definitely not listening. 'Cause I assume they came here to you. - I think that's Tony Staffieri's spot. - I gotta be honest, I saw the car and he'd be very frugal if that was it. I just like, that's what I'd say about that. Not saying he can't be the Dave Ramsey guy. I don't know, but yeah. I don't think so. - I kinda feel like this is gonna be the tone of today. It's gonna be a free-flowing conversation. - I'm good for it. - Touch your topics potentially. - Yeah. - All right. But let's start with the Toronto Blue Jays, who, boy, there was a sliding doors moment after the first three innings with the Blue Jays, were getting perfect gamed by a good pitcher, but like Zach Afflin ain't no elite pitcher. And yeah, you can see he doesn't throw up or nineties, but they were getting not only perfect gamed, but like they were getting carved up, a bunch of strikeouts that you were like, I was thinking, and I didn't, it wasn't showing up on my Twitter timeline, but I'm sure you wouldn't have had to search too far and see the people that are like, here we go, same old Jays. And thank goodness we avoided that as the bats came to life. And it was very much proof of concept with the new approach, eight to win over the Tampa Bay Rays. - Oh, it's funny like how narratives work, and it's both sides of it, right? Like it's burrios, given up Homer to the first batter he faces. It's Vladi hitting the ball as hard as humanly possible, but with a launch angle of negative 13 degrees on a middle, middle pitch at his first step out of the game. And you're thinking, oh, no, I, especially me again, I look at this mostly through the lens of how can I be right to take my victory laps. And I just said here, I'm like, the launch angle is the biggest single thing I'm buying about Vlad. And then he hits the ball directly to hell, I think is how far the negative launch angle was on that ball. And then the next, well, not the next time, but later on in the game, very, very different story. - What are the, like imagine though, like in the upside down, that would have been the best launch angle ever. - That's true. - That's true, but we don't play baseball there. I mean, they do, but like different timelines and stuff. - Exactly, it's good Friday people. - Oh, you're right, it's a great Friday. - Anyways, so that's all in the rear view mirror. - If you brought the upside down to this, don't look at me like this is no, I'm not. - Not, you're supposed to be the mature one here, you're supposed to keep us on the rails. You're supposed to be that thing in my car that beeps at me being like, hey, dumb, dumb, maybe wake up. - Not today. - So yeah, we can forget about those first three innings. They were irrelevant because you're right to even mention the burrios part of it too, because last we saw him on an opening day. Yeah, there was a similar early result, but that all we got was early results 'cause he was out of the game after one out. Instead, gives up the home run to Yandy Diaz, who is like, he turned himself into an MVP candidate like, full stop, but against the Blue Jays, he's, I don't know, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, show him-- - A monster, whatever you want. - Roll the hole into one. So not a surprise that, and the pitch that he hit was like, it was a two-seamer in on his hands, like no problem, flipped that over the wall in the left field. Anyways, Blue Jays not only score a bunch of runs, they score eight of them. Not only do they hit three home runs, and I think they shied of Edie had it, they only did that 14 times a season ago, 19 times they hit three or more home runs in a game last season, 14 multi-homer innings. They do both of those things in the first game of the season, but secondarily to that, they take seven walks, and the process looked a lot different. I tweeted, Mike Petriello had a breakdown of the pitches that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was swinging at, and the pitches he was taking. And this seemed like a guy that was keyholing to a very high degree. You mentioned the hard ground out to the right side of the infield, but yeah, I had the same thought. I was like, it's great that you're swinging at that pitch. What you want to do is pull that in the air, not ground it to the right side. Anyways, at least the swing decision was good. Blue Jays offense, like up and down the line up, did, and it's just one game, and we also have to go back to game one of last season where they got a horrible start from Alec Manoa, but the offense bailed them out, and we're like, oh, this is gonna be a team that's going to overcome, it's pitching through its offense. Turned out not to be the case at all, also, it should be stated. If you're a big believer in Vlad needs to get off to a hot start here, which it's like better to get off to a hot start than a cold start, he had a near 900 OPS in April last year, didn't exactly portend good things for him. - No, I think the thing that, I think if you're somebody who's banging the drum that it's important for him to get off to a good start, you have to be a believer and a buyer in this new approach, because I think that this goes back to the very beginning of Vladi as a major leaguer. The whole thing with him coming up was how selective he was, how he would force you to throw you his pitch, and then I forget exactly how the stat was worded, but we've all heard of Bandit about a million times that through his first three months or whatever, it was a baseball, no person in the history of the game had been pitched harder and more selectively than Vladi. And that changes your approach. It just has to, if you're being pitched in a manner like that, you'd have to be, you'd have to be 10, he would have to be 10 times greater than what we thought he was going to be to not be affected by that. So if you are a believer, and I think seeing it yesterday, you have to believe there's at least a chance of it, that this new approach is a real thing, then he needs to see results early, and it can't just be hard contact at somebody, or, oh, the Babip luck is all over the place. Oh, it needs to be actual results, like, I don't know, 450 dead over the batter's eye to a spot I've never seen someone hit a ball at that park in. - I did some googling. I was like, you're beautiful up to Google. - What is the longest home run that's ever been hit? - They don't have a red chair there? - They don't. So Alex Rodriguez, according to the records, has the longest home run ever hit a Tropicana field. It was like 475, and I watched the video on it. And it's to left center field, so it's not a direct, you can't tell me that it's, like, discernibly further than where Vlad hit that ball. - No, he gnashed that thing. - That's, yeah, like, not all home runs are, are created equally, literally, like, even according to the Statcast information, which John Chiner, like me, it was a dubious of 450, but even with the, like, okay, 450 at a minimum, sorry, 450, at a minimum, that's 100 feet further than Kevin Beggio's home run, which is also very impressive. - Yeah, it's nuts. - And they camp for the same? I start, like, I don't know if we need to go back into the digging up or changing major league baseball rules, but hardly seems fair that those camp for the same. - They should put a clown mouth in the upper deck, and that one's worth five points if you hit it in there. I mean, you're right, like, it is funny how this works, but I mean, all goals are created equally hockey. I mean, I guess baskets aren't, 'cause they literally have a line where there work more, used to not be the way. I don't know, maybe you're a trendsetter in all this. I don't think that's gonna happen, but it is funny. It's just the way things work, but I totally get the point you're making about you don't want it to be, or you don't wanna overstate what the start of a season means for any guy because he did it last year, but I really do think that because of the approach, it does kind of change the impetus to the start. - Yeah, yeah, I will say, if this were at home, like if he hit one 450-- - Oh, my God. - And we didn't have to wait until late June to see him hit a home run at Rogers Center? - Yeah. - Maybe he'd be singing a different tune. - No, that's fair, and that part can't be overstated. Not just 'cause of him, because of the park as a whole. Like it just played in a way that was unexpected last year, and yeah, you'd need to see some balls going out from him, but just in general. - Here are the numbers from last April and March for Vladi. - 885, OPS, and he hit five home runs in the month of April and a couple of days of March there. And I mean, to combine that with the stat cast stuff that he had all season long at the launch angle, we did think it was 2021. Like take yourself back, it was a year ago, but yeah, who didn't think it was 2021 for Vladi? The way he got off to his start last season, George Springer hits a bomb as well. It's a huge year for him, obviously. Like more important for Springer, because I think at the very, I think last year is about the basement of Vladimir Guerrero Jr's career. I don't know if he's ever gonna have a year worse than last year. George Springer's a different deal, like very much. Vladimir Guerrero Jr's not, there's no reason why he should be declining right now, right? Like it's the argument I made about Alejandro Kirk and Dalton Varsho, Kirk's 25, Varsho's 27. There's no reason for those guys to be trending in negative directions like they did a season ago. There's no reason for Vladi to be getting worse. Now, is he the 2021 guy? Maybe not, but he's, I don't think he's a league average hitter. - No. - For George Springer, yeah, the age timeline would lead you down the thought process of okay, maybe he is. So it was good to see him to get off to a good start. Kevin Bijio hits a home run, like I said, to right field. - Imagine how proud John Schneider was in that moment. He's like, "Look at him go." - This is a guy that, last time he was, not handed the second base job, but it was what seems to be the case here, a strict platoon between he and Santiago Espinol, a slow start for him, and he was out of the running. He didn't, he was not part of that platoon by the all-star break, because Santiago Espinol wasn't an all-star, so a big, big start for him as well. - Yeah, it's so funny, like, different guys, you need to see different things from, right? For Vladi, we sit here and talk about the pitches he did swing at. I'm just happy, Kevin Bijio swung the bat. Like, I was just encouraged to see that in and of itself. He's not going to attempt to have a thousand on base and a zero batting average this year. I was very, very encouraged to see that. And again, I think for a guy like that, it is so easy for a player of that ilk, of that kind of archetype to be staring at a big old blank in that column, deep, deep, deep into the season. And it shouldn't wear on him. If Kevin Bijio didn't hit a single bomb for the team this year, that wouldn't be the reason why you'd feel one type of way or another about his season, but it's just important for him to have it, but you're right, of the three guys who went deep yesterday, most important to see it from Springer, because it is, he feels like the biggest question mark. If Kevin Bijio doesn't pan out, well, okay, I don't know how much, not that they're expecting him to not pan out, but it's not like this is a core tenant. This isn't a free agent. They went out and gave, you know, a hundred million dollars to Springer is going to be in this lineup a ton. He's going to play. And if he can be lead off guy, upper third of the lineup, George Springer, that's a very different thing than a guy who's playing corner outfield for you and hitting six at some point in time. Maybe he gets there because the rest of the team is improving to a point, but to start the year, you need him in that upper third of your lineup and you need him to do a damage. >> For my money, though, the biggest hit of the ball game was the Alejandro Kirk two out, two run single. >> Yes. >> Took the game from 3-1, which you're feeling good about, but not great. Like a lot of 3-1 leads that you had to grind through some high leverage innings at the back end of the bullpen, takes it from a 3-1 game to a 5-1 game. >> Well, and especially this team right now with Ramano. >> Yeah, well, and then Kim Keermeyer falls that up with another two-out hit, but I mean, yes. The hitting with runners in scoring position numbers as a whole for this team were weird, and they did bounce back in the second half, but if you're looking at prime candidates for regression in that area, and number, we didn't talk about like the two worst hitters, everyday hitters on this Blue Jays team in 2023, in hitting with runners in scoring position, a guy that actually surprised me because his season as a whole was so good, Brandon Bell was the worst. I guess I actually tied for the worst. >> That is surprising. >> 208, he and Alejandro Kirk both hit 208 with runners in scoring position. Matt Chapman hit 215, and Dalton Vartio hit 218 with runners in scoring position. Nice start for Kirk to get off to a one-for-one start with runners in scoring position. Blue Jays is a whole three for nine, and to the point about the high leverage bullpen innings. Like Blue Jays had a good bullpen a season ago, but I remember the narrative building at the end of the season that's like, not all innings are created equal, and wouldn't it be nice to like, get some more Bowdoin Francis, couple innings. >> Yup, not stress. >> Outings, yeah. To save some of your bullets? >> You live life out there. You listening to this? Have you ever lived life where you're stressed out to no ends and time where it's not as stressful? Which one of those is more enjoyable for you? >> Yeah, although you say you like lived off the stress. >> It's like, this is like a way bigger topic, but yeah, I do think there's like, I was reading some stuff, it's like cortisol, it's like the stress hormone in the body, and I do think I have like a craving for it. >> Yeah, it's not good, though. >> It's very much not good. I know, but this is what happens. >> It'll kill you. >> When you'll actually play offs every single year, this is what happens. But yeah, I think you, you, as much as stress, you need it at certain times throughout your season to understand the pecking order, and you want to have your bullpen set and all that. It's very nice to not have to worry about it on the first day of the season, especially when you don't have a set closer or anything along those lines. >> Yeah, and we did see Yimi Garcia getting up in the sixth inning of that ball game to maybe come out and put out the fire. And I mean, we can talk about Jose Barrios that himself out of the jam. >> That was exactly where I wanted to go with it. As big as it was for them to come through in the sixth inning and give them the breathing room, it was just as big for Barrios to get out of that. I mean, we see it all the time, the way that can nuke momentum in a baseball game where you're laughing, you're rolling, and then all of a sudden, it's just a long inning the other way. You're looking at a one run ball game, a two run ball game potentially. That was nails for him to battle. And I know he didn't have to battle so much earlier on in the game, it was the lead off homer. And then he kind of settled down to a certain extent, but to even reset after giving up a homer to the first batter you faced when the last time you did this, you only got one out. I think that is just, I don't want to overstate what it means, a mental toughness, but that was a really, really big performance and he didn't have to be great throughout the six innings, but there were the huge hinge points in the game. And guess what? He was great there. And that's why I've always been very bullish on Barrios, is that he can, he has shown me the ability to kind of battle in those spots. And I think that is why not to go back to last post season, but that's why it's so frustrating to take him out in that spot 'cause he's a gamer, like he is. - Yeah. - And we've seen him to your point, like the bad vibes have built on themselves two years ago, right? That was the thing, it was like, oh, give up a bomb. And that's all right, the game's still in play here, but then the one run, two run inning, turns into a six run inning and you're out of the game and you're fighting an uphill battle and you can't come back. So it was very encouraging, like you said, to bounce back after the lead off home run, considering his last opening day start and then to get out of that jam. - Wonder, oh, I was just gonna say on the opening homer, it's like, what do you think he more told himself? Like on one hand, you're sitting there, you go, not again. But on the other hand, if you just look at pitch location and I know he doesn't have like the little box we get on TV, so he knows how good a pitch though. - He knows how, if a hitter hits that pitch, you just have to tip your cap, you can't do anything better than that, especially in that spot early on in a game, you just, if he's going to expand the zone in that regard and swing at that pitch, generally speaking, you're laughing. So, yeah. - Yeah. - No, he had to be happy with the process. One more thing on the bullpen before I move on to something defensive. Yeah, so that was, it turned into some innings where you didn't have to use your highest leverage relievers. But to my point about, it's weird to have a bullpen lose its closer and it's set up, man, but to have enough reliable arms that that really, I was not, I was not stressing out too much going into the first couple of weeks of the season or the first month where you're probably going to be without Jordan Romano and Eric Swanson because of the depth of talent. Blue Jays were pitching a bunch of low leverage innings. They're low leverage dudes that pitch in the game, they're all good. Like Trevor Richards at times the season ago was a high leverage guy. Nate Pearson, okay, I said what you will about the results in the major leagues. He throws 100 and boy, his location was all over the place but guys are swinging at it. Like there's obviously some deception there and Tim Maza were the most underrated relievers in the game right now. Those are guys that they used in a six run baseball game. Like those are not their high leverage relievers but those guys are all good. No, you're right. The fact that those are the guys you go to and you know, it's not quite mop up duty but we're trending there in a six run game on opening day. I suppose the, like let's pretend it was leverage. The only guy you don't feel amazing about or I'm amazing, maybe too strong but really good is Pearson. Like I'm Pearson is the guy where, okay, let's see how this goes. I mean, Pearson, I almost have the Nate Pearson test that I have for watching Leaf School Tenders where it's like three pitches in. I'm pretty confident in how this is trending. So he's the only guy there but I don't know, like does he have the highest ceiling of any performance of those guys? Like not to take away the remarkable consistency that Maza's given you but what do we always talk about is Villo, Villo, Villo. He's the guy who has it in spades there. So the fact that that is the guy I would think you trust the least there. You haven't even got to Garcia. Garcia is a weird one though for me because depending on how I almost feel like I am reactive to him in terms of I don't start the season in a position one way or another. It's like, if you tell me that it's going to be a very up and down year where you're not going to trust him in spots, I will believe that. But if he would have come out in, let's say Barrios needed help getting out of that jam and he gets that. I say, all right, Garcia is off and running. Like he is the most bullpen pitcher of the bullpen arms on this team where it's just, yeah, he's very volatile. You love good months from him. You love bad months from him. So it's funny that we say this talking about the depth that I'm actually, I won't go as far as I'm happy. I didn't see Garcia yesterday, but it's much more comfortable with this than it would have been Garcia in a, let's say he had to get out of a jam or all of a sudden it's a one run game on opening day. Then I think we're having a very, very different conversation today. - Yeah, all these bullpen takes are subject to review because they're bullpen. - Obviously. - Yeah, and who knows? All the names that I feel comfortable about coming out of the Blue Jays bullpen now could have a different feeling today, honestly. - Yeah. - As they play game two of this four game series, Chris Bassett on the hill against Aaron Savali. All right, I've got a couple more things from this game. Isaiah Connerfileffa does not have a base hit. He's not going to have a lot of base hits. He's not going to do a whole lot with the bat. You're going to stand there? - Yep. - He's going to try and like put the bat on the ball a couple of times. - No concept in the game. - Yeah, he's going to root for that 650 OPS. - Abner double day was like, man, he's swinging. I like that guy. - He's going to play good defense at third base. It's a former Gold Glove award winner. But we're used to watching Matt Chapman there. - Yep. - And Matt Chapman, say what you will, and I've said plenty about the final five months of his regular season a year ago is awful to watch. - It'd be hard to have a job talking sports in this market and have not have taken some swipes at Matt Chapman. - It was awful. - But man, I should have checked this out. But I would hazard to guess that even the near worst five months of any everyday player in the major leagues offensively for Matt Chapman is probably better than Isaiah Connor Faleff is like career stat line. And he's a much better defender. So Isaiah Connor Faleff gets a multi-year deal from the Blue Jays to basically play defense. Now all over the place, right? Like part of it is that he's incredibly versatile and you don't lose that much. He can play center field for you, right? All over the diamond, good glove man. The bar for me though is so high defensively and he did a great job of recovering in that sixth inning. But like Jose Barrios could have been out of that inning a batter early. Like that's a play that is very, very makeable, especially for an elite defender, which he is supposed to be. But yeah, good for Jose Barrios to bear down and still get out of the inning. After again, a couple of other defensive weird plays by George Springer in right field. The first one actually kind of weirder than the second one. It was just bad decision to die for the second. The first one was like either he thought it was gone or off the wall and stopped running. - That was very weird. - But yeah, the Isaiah Connor Faleff would think it's gonna be weird for me how this evolves because one, I've seen one of the best defenders of his generation play that position last couple of years and he was at least like, he wasn't what you expected with the bat, but he was capable of a whole lot more. - Well, I was at April. - Yeah, and the signing of Isaiah Connor Faleff was so head scratching in the first place that he, buddy, you better make all the plays. - Well, and I think, I think that people, it kind of goes back to the point you made at the beginning about not all home runs are created equal. Like not all gold glovers are. And Matt Chapman is as elite as it gets. I also think the, we maybe understate what it was because of what it was at the end when he was battling the hand injury. And that affected him defensively almost just as much, well, I won't say just as much, but it affected him a fair amount, not quite to the extent it was at the dish. But yeah, if you are a guy who's brought in to be that, the other thing is that it's gonna, you know, his whipping boy status is too strong of a term, but it's gonna depend on what happens with the other guys on this team. Like if everyone else is hitting and doing what they're supposed to and he's providing okay defense, then that's gonna be something we're gonna focus in on. But if the other guys aren't hitting, it's like that's just going to take all of the gravity in this conversation. So it feels like Connor Foleff almost has like no control over how much we're going to talk about him because I'm with you. He's a good defender. He is a guy who versatility is so important, especially on this team where you have DH is just populated all over the roster. But I also think that it is gonna be very eye opening that yeah, Matt Chapman, he ain't coming back. Matt Chapman, I'm walking through that door. - No, he's not. And it's not just like don't make errors and be like, crumbling defender. You've like, yeah, it's a good play. If you turn two there and get out of the inning, you're supposed to be a great defender. - That's the thing. It's like just have the strongest arm we've ever seen and be able to pick it great. It's not so hard. - Last one for me for now on this game. It's one game again. You don't wanna, I guess have too many wide sweeping takeaways. You also don't wanna jinx things, but I'd be fine with the rays finally, just not being good. - Don't say that. - I'd be so like very fine. - Of course, everyone in the world would. - And I'm even Rob Manfred would be like, I mean, yeah, I'm sick of it too. - And I like how it's positioned as a sellout yesterday, 25,000, 'cause they don't open up the top deck, which is embarrassing. - Okay, it's fine. - Well, let's just forget about the rays for a season. - Can we just have like a non-rays season? - Oh, and don't call it a sellout. - Hey, this is ridiculous to me. It's like, yeah, Oakland might as well call it a sellout. It's like, yeah, we just opened five seats up. - Yeah. - So many people showed up for our ghost team here. Yeah, I'd be fine with it, but I, careful. This is a zombie team. - No, I know, no, no, no, no, no, no. - I know you're not pouring dirt on the map one game, I know, it's just, there's a zombie race. Until, they gotta be like 30 games out in August before I'm not worried about them. - Eventually, you lose like Shane McClanahan, like all the pitchers that they've lost to injury. Eventually, you would think that that would come home to roost. - I've also said that, you know, like three, four, five, six, I don't know, basically since they drop devil from the name, I've been saying that. - Correct. - We all have. - All right, anything else from this game? - Just, we're like guilty, too strong of a term. We were guilty of it yesterday. We're almost going to be guilty of it today, but I'm going to rectify it. Just Boba Shett, the guy who leads the AL and hits all the time. - Yeah, he was two for four. He had two RBI, you know, a whole hum, whatever. - Big deal. - I know, it's just, we can't, we cannot do the thing where because the baseline is so high, we just paper over the incredibly impressive debut that he also had, like it's just. - And then making all the plays at shortstop as well. - Which is going to be important for this team. So, yeah, Bishette, just very good. Good start to the year. - Yeah. - It's just weird to have a guy who we all consider to be the best, most productive player on the team. And because there are so many other guys who, there is so much variance in what we expect from them, we barely talk about him at all. So I just wanted to get that in there, pretty nice debut for Boba Shett as well. I know he didn't hit a homer, so we don't dig it, like, you know, we dig the long ball. - That's correct. No, I think everybody had about as good a debut. I mean, everybody hitting four homeruns, I guess would be about as good a debut as you could have for everybody, but no, nobody underwhelmed outside of, for me, Isaiah kind of fell off. But even Dalton Varsho, good swing decisions, he was getting into good hitters, counts and took a walk. All right, Grammy award-winning band, Corn, will be performing at Budweiser stage on Wednesday, September 25th, along with special guests, Go Jira and Spirit Box. We're giving away tickets in celebration all week long. Dander, all you have to do is listen to the fan morning show for the codeword, then you texted the 59590. Today's codeword is rock. Text rock to 59590 right now for your chance to win. We're giving away another pair of tickets on Monday, but if you don't win with us, you can secure your tickets today at 10 a.m. on ticketmaster.ca. When we come back, Sheldon Keef got the response he was looking for against the Capitals last night. That and more next. The fan morning show continues. Ben Ann is Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590 the fan. - Hey, it's Aylish Forafar. - And I'm Justin Cudford. - Join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night. - It's the fan pregame, 6 p.m. weekdays on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 590 the fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) - Ben, Morning Joe, Sportsnet 590, and Ben Ann is Brent Gunning. You don't need nine defensemen, though you need 10, 11, 12, 45. A lot of defensemen. - Let's get into a third round before we start worrying about more than eight or nine D. How about that? - Leaf bounce back after Tuesday's fiasco against the Devils. They hammered a team that's still in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Capital's 5-1, just embarrassing. - Boy, I wonder if like retroactively the Leafs would have understood the stakes of finishing atop the division was like you get the Washington Capitals in the first round, who they just swept the season series from. And I guess all things change once, you know, we get into the postseason, but my goodness, no Lillegrine, no Riley, no Edmondson, no Marner Matthews, like on death's door. - Apparently. - Yeah, it didn't look that way. No, 10 shots on goal. - I was like, he did look sick. Like he had sick nose. - Oh yes, yeah. - Just like, I don't know, just looks very sick. - He had sick nose? - Yeah. - You could tell the nose was very red, like I don't know. - Yeah, okay. But yeah, no, he had 10 shots on goal. So know all those guys, Mark Giordano, who's 40 years old out in the plane since February, of course his first goal. We'll talk about that in the emotional moment for him after the passing of his father. But yeah, they pounded Washington into sand. Like those were not, those two teams weren't playing the same sport. - They weren't. And I mostly agree with the way you set that up. I'm like, God, look at that. That's a playoff team in 2024, a way to go NHL. I also think, good job, Leafs. You snuff the life out of a team that should have been playing for it. They should have been more motivated. You're as sick as a dog. You have, and again, it's not to say there's nothing to play for. Matthews wants to 60 and you wanna eventually, you know, it'd be nice to lock up a playoff spot. At some point in time. So it's not to say there's nothing to play for. But Washington should have been playing that game like it was due or die. And they were like, ah, you know what? Dying's not so bad. Let's just do that tonight. That was, that was clinical from the Leafs. There was very little pushback from the Capitals or moments in the first period. You heard it from Keith there. But after that, there was no moments of panic really. Joe Walsh knocked out anything that did manage to make its way through after that typical early on. And every guy on the ice ends up a plus, like plus minus far from a perfect stat. That is indicative of something. Like I am a big believer of massive outlier plus minuses. Like I'm sorry, but when you're on the Masters leaderboard is the worst plus minus in the NHL that matters. And when the whole team is a plus, that matters as well. So yeah, it was just, it was clinical. It was easy. That's how Knights are supposed to be occasionally for this Leafs team. And even apparently when they're missing, I know you ran down the Litney, a guys that weren't in the lineup last night, they're down to, again. - And I mentioned Caliarn Croke. - Again, as I said in the first block, Sheldon Keaf uttered the words, it's Connor's time in reference to Connor Timmons, which got him, which kind of, it's like, yeah, I think he, when he first workshoped that phrase, he was thinking it was like 97, not 25. But it's just, that was clinical. That's what you want to see. The geo goal is just a nice little, nice to have cherry on top, awesome for him, awesome for the team to kind of have that to rally around, if you will. - Yeah, he gets a belt. - Yeah, it was clinical. It was clinical. That's what you want. - It was. Even special teams, not power play. They only had one power play opportunity, but penalty kill, I thought, looked pretty clinical as well. - And again, we can sit here and say two things, and they're both true, that it's the capitals. We see that team. - The power play's been really good. They showed the graphics since it was the only the oilers in the last 15 years, they've had a better power play, post all-star break than what the capitals are running out now. It's been over 32% since the all-star break. I know he doesn't move at all. They still have the guy who scores all the goals from the same spot on the power play in Ovechkin. So yeah, I think you can read, there are some things in the game you say, okay, like you look at the Leafs up and down the line up, they beasted Washington in the face off. It's like, I don't think we need to sit here and make a big deal about that, but the penalty kill specifically, I think that one has to hold some water, and I think it was very impressive as well that we're not sitting here about process versus results with the penalty kill. It wasn't like Joe Wall stood on his head on the penalty kill, and that's why we're having this conversation about it looking good. He didn't have to be particularly special at all in that regard. - No, I'm like trying to think of one, like, high danger. - It wasn't on the penalty kill. It was the moment, it was just a complete breakdown. Nick Jensen ended up right in front of him, and he kind of had all the time in space to do like a triple deak somehow between like the bottom of the circle and the top of the crease, and Wall just was very patient, was very big, took away the bottom of the net. That was it, like the tip goal, you know, I'm not, we're not doing the litigate tips, you can still stop it, but okay, that's the one goal, just stopped 23 at 24 shots. It was Joe Wall, much like the team in front of him checked all the boxes last night. - Yeah, Tyler Bertuzzi with another multi goal effort. He's got 18 this season, he's three away from a career high outside of the 30 that he put up in the weirdo COVID season. I listen, we were talking about him and Max Domi when they were off to slow counting stats starts, saying, hey, it's too early to make an evaluation of these guys because their best value will come during the postseason. Turns out we didn't have to wait that long, 'cause like literally, like I said, I largely throw a lot that happened during the COVID season, including individual statistics. Like Austin Matthews was on pace for like 90 goals that season, all right, sir. - Which I guess maybe you can't rule it out, right? 'Cause he's still got a chance at 70 this season. But yeah, there were some absurd goal totals. Tyler Bertuzzi is a 30 goal scorer because he scored 30 in that year where he wasn't allowed to travel across the border. It should also be said when he was playing with the Detroit Red Wings. Outside of that season, his career high is 21. And it's unbelievable considering the conversations we're having about him being snake bit, and he's Sheldon Keith with a nice little quip about him scoring below the goal line yesterday where he couldn't score above it into an empty net. Earlier this season, it is amazing. We're talking about a guy who's gonna score 20 goals this season. - Yeah, and it's a guy peeking at the exact right time. I think the other thing with it is, it's eye test to some extent as well. This isn't Tyler Bertuzzi scoring untyler Bertuzzi goals. This isn't him walking in off the office, off wing and snapping something low blocker. Not that he's completely incapable of that, but we know where he does his damage. Apparently it's behind the net now, but it's all in that goal, mouth area. It's all in being greasy. He's had a lot of that as well. You know, there was the penalties he was taking so much early in the year. And I think that kind of neutered the way he wanted to play a little bit just 'cause you can't ever gain a coach trust. If you're taking as many penalties as he was, I think he's finally found the right balance there. The puck starts to go in. You play a little more freely as well. It's perfect. There's no leaf, you know, not to say that you don't like where Austin Matthews game is at. How can you say that after last night? But it's, I'd argue there is no leaf that's rounding into form better at a more important time this year than Bertuzzi as I guess. Domi would be kind of one beat of that, but it's been perfect what you wanted to see from Bert lately. - Here's my main criticism of anybody employed by the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday. Goldhorn guy, what are you doing? - Yeah. - On the max, Domi, breakaway, like clearly, not off the back bar. Like, the back bar, yeah, it can bounce out quickly. It doesn't make the noise. - No, no, no. - That bar makes, look. - What are we doing? Almost resulted a goal going the other way because everybody saw a play in. - Stop playing, it was weird. That had shades of, you know, like- - What are we doing? - Well, you're gonna, like, you're becoming used to this or like, it'll become more prevalent as your kids play more, more hockey. It's like, that was shades of you're playing in a rink with, or you're playing in an arena with multiple games going on. I remember one time I was in like a high school hockey tournament and a whistle blew, but it was on another sheet. Everyone stopped and I just like ripped clapper. I had enough time to do the Jordan shrug, basically. That's what happened in that game. The guy, the cool judge just wanted in on it. The horn guy, he just- - I did the whole judge. - Did he even, I didn't even know. - No, the light didn't go on. - Because he cleared his day, rang it off the bar. - What are we doing, horn guy? - Yeah. - Get it together, man. - Yeah. - All right. Timothy Lillegrine, surprise scratch before that game, weird. And now he's gonna be out for a while. I was like, when I saw him not in the lineup, I was like, oh, well, he's obviously got the illness that awesome Matthews is dealing with here. - Is this dude been inordinately sick this year? - Yeah, it is the time of year. - I guess it changes seasons. - No, I know. It's just, it seems like for a, like, teams have illnesses whipped through them, but I feel like the difference is that generally speaking, well, take your vitamins for sure. What would the Hulkster say? Like do your homework, eat your vitamins, eat your veggies. We know John Tavares is not been sick. - Ah, interesting. - It's just so much. - Interesting. - Must be sad. But normally when this happens-- - And with bunk kids, by the way, too. - Honestly, he's true. - I'm physically, I'm great. - Thank you, good job, Sam, man. The, but I think the thing that's so weird about this is normally when a team gets sick, they get sick, it rips through like a plague and two to three weeks later, it's over. These guys have been like passing the illness in like three man pods, it feels like. There's been three to five guys sick on this team for seemingly two months now. - They need to have like one of those chickenpox party where it's like, just everybody gets sick. - Yup. - And then, like, guess it now because-- - Big punch bowl, communal cups, whatever it takes. - Yeah, it is weird. But anyways, Lilgren misses the game with an upper body injury. And now Sheldon keeps says he's gonna miss some time. I guess it-- - He loves that one, by the way. - Yeah. - The faggest of injury up there. And it's like, I get it. He's not gonna come out here and give us a two to three weeks. But miss some time, that could mean anything. That could mean a week as we heard with Mitch Marner. That could, that could mean a month. Like, I don't think that's gonna be it for Lilgren. But yeah, that's, it's not nothing that he's gonna be missing some time here. - So that feels like, at the very least, a save execution for TJ Brody. Like this is more of a run for TJ Brody, who's, yeah, and we're talking about 40 year old Marci or Dano getting back in the lineup and played since February. - Wasn't supposed to play last night. - Wasn't supposed to play last night. I think pretty clearly this is a situation that until Lilgren comes back to conversations not being had about taking TJ Brody at the lineup again. - No, I think that, and honestly, for a player like him, I think that's gotta be, I mean, for anybody, it's gotta be comforting. But if you're a guy like Brody, who is such a kind of cerebral player, like you don't wanna be overthinking everything, you just wanna go out there and play hockey to a certain extent. So I think it's really beneficial for him that he's not gonna have to be looking over his shoulder. And I keep joking about it, but this is the clearest runway Connor Timmons has ever and will ever have, is the Toronto Maple Leaf. I mean, he has had such bad injury luck. There has always seemed to be at least one body ahead of him. He is a right shot D on this D core now. If he can't get some burn and run, and I think that's the other funny thing about it, is like trying to evaluate these games. Like we did with the penalty kill, we can't do it. How are we supposed to have a conversation with the power plowing Connor Timmons is on it. And not to say he's a terrible player for that role. - That's the spot that you would think he would be most effective. - It is, but that only happens when you're down to your eighth or ninth defenseman. And not to say that won't happen, but unless Morgan Riley and Timothy Lilligren, which they were last night or two of the guys out of that lineup, you're not gonna see him in that spot. So it's just so hard to, I think for Timmons, it's gotta be great because it's all kind of gravy. You can go out there and play free and clear. If the power play gets gummed up, no one's putting it on you, but it is a chance to succeed. But it's just, again, it goes back to what we've talked about with this stretch. It's just so hard to have an opinion on the power play with him. - Yeah, it's hard to take much away from that game other than good bounce back with the diminished lineup and good response after you were publicly called out by your head coach and-- - Well, including the named party in that call out. - Sure. - Maras was-- - Yes. - Incredible last night. And I think, you know, not to, I won't pat myself on the pack. I'll pat Jason Bucula 'cause we agree about this. But it's, Tavares at this point in stage in his career as a horses for courses guy. It's not to say he is unplayable against certain teams in the NHL, but the more slow, the more plodding, the more of a kind of stuck in the mud game you wanna play, the better that is for a guy who even when he was 25, skating was not the strong suit of his game. I thought Tavares was great last night. I mean, that stretch pass that he connects on with Neeland or amazing job by Neeland or to corral it in, but-- - No luck receptor. - Yeah, it was great. And to see Tavares have a bounce back like that, I think we are all speak for myself. I certainly expected that. Like, if I thought anybody was gonna have a bounce back game, I figured it'd come from him. And, you know, I just, I much like, well, not much like the Boba Check conversation, but we, he becomes such a topic conversation when he struggles, I wanted to get in here how good he was last night 'cause he was dominant for in his minutes for the least. He was, as was as we mentioned, Austin Matthews. In the end of that game, not that it was like untoward, but it is out there for some long shifts. He's firing it from everywhere. And we still got time here before the end of the regular season, and I'm sure he would like to rack up as many goals as humanly possible. He's sitting on 59 and like getting over the 60 goal barrier would be a nice thing to do. Second time in his career, it's on his mind. Clearly on a lot of people's minds. I guess there was danger though in chasing that thing because that's what it felt like in the final minutes of a game that's done, like game's done. Five won, it's over. Except for my over, which I was very much enjoying. Like, hey, yeah, I have more shots. Yeah, yeah, keep trying that. Yeah, agreed. It didn't pay off. No, it didn't. But yeah, is there a danger in that type of thinking, which I don't think it'll be the last time we see that stuff by the end of the season? There can be, but I think I trust the player. If that, let's just fast forward to Monday night, and it's a tight game against the Panthers. Or it's not. It's a two, you're not seeing that. And I just, I would be floored if you saw that. If that happens, then I think we have a completely different conversation. But until you see it in a game that actually matters, and I don't mean that from just a points perception, but a team that you may have to go through, like you need to have a strong game in that regard. I don't think we're gonna see that. I also don't think that this is a guy who, you know, not to the Matthews is never on the wrong side of the puck, but generally speaking, he's on the right side of the puck. He's not cheating his position to get offense. He'll let it fly, but I don't know. Do we think Oz and Matthews shooting the puck is a bad play? No, we don't. But like that, do you disagree with me? Like the end of that game? Like he was shooting from everywhere, and it just, it did seem like a concerted effort to just throw it on net, see what happens. But I also have no issue with that in a 4-1, 5-1 game at that point against the Capitals. You have taken care of your business. You have had to bounce back. I also think there's an argument even made that maybe you shouldn't even be on the ice in that situation. Well, if that's the argument, then that I will hear. But I think this also goes to the bodies that they have in terms of the sickness. Like you don't wanna, you don't wanna put more on JT in that instance. I think it, well, I mean, wasn't there a whistle and a face off like after he had been on the ice for 60 seconds and like he had like a two-minute shift there. But he still only played 1851 in the game. So you can't-- Absolutely, I only had one power play. Yeah, and do you know how much power play time you had? I don't. Two minutes. Yeah. So to your point, but I also think that you can do this. I do remember the power play. I also think you can off some of the guys, but yeah, he stayed on. You can do this in a game where you've taken care of your business. And again, I don't feel like he was cheating it. Other players-- You eat your vegetables, you can have your dessert. Very much so. If it's Max Domi cheating for offense and trying to get it, I think this is a very different conversation. I also think where Matthews matters in this, that I think if he-- not to say that he won't be trying to, you know, stack the gold total as high as he can by the time the season's done here. But I think the fact that he's on 59, I think he just wants it over with. Like it's like, I need to get over the 60 hurdle and then I can have a little mini reset here. I do think there's some element of wanting to-- and it sounds nuts 'cause it's like, you know, the greatest accomplishment in any goals. Kirk and Avid in this league just wants to get it over with, but I do think there's an element to that with the 60 as well. Yeah, I don't disagree. Do you want to make Ovechka need it as well? Yeah, and I wonder if like 65 is then another threshold. We'll talk to Bruce Boudreau later on in the program 'cause I wonder what it's like to coach a guy who's like on the verge of a milestone. Yeah. But she's-- You wouldn't know. The guy on the other side of the ice. All right, when we come back though, lots of get to, we'll get back into the J's and the Leafs and Joey Votto, who is at the game yesterday in Tampa, bought a ticket in the second deck. That and more next. As the fan morning show continues, Ben and his friend Gunning supports them at 590, the fan.
