BrockLanders

the time has come

Pretty surprising news. I think he'll be more of an adviser in practice, the GM title here won't give him the final say in decisions. The guy most responsible for the Leafs moves over the past year (outside of the draft) has been Assistant GM Kyle Dubas. Analytics kid, Theo comparisons, he's a rock star in the city already. But Dubas is only 28, so I understand why they won't give him the GM title just yet. I think Lamoriello has a different type of credibility, which may be useful at times depending on which team or executive they're dealing with. Hoping Lou is being brought in the mentor him for a couple of seasons before Dubas officially takes the title.

Man, Soler took strike 3 right down the middle. Breaking ball, but still...

Miguel Cabrera-esque contact ability imo.

Best player in the world to not make the all-star game or Cameron's top 50 trade value list.

Hendricks has struck out every batter since Schwarber whispered wisdom in his ear.

Schwarber visits mound, strikeout on the next pitch. Elite game manager imo.

Schwarber's hit tool is ridiculous.

DJ LeMahieu, All-Star starter.

Edmonton added: - A new starting goalie in Cam Talbot, a guy who has put up elite save percentage numbers in his limited opportunities so far - The best FA defenseman in Andrej Sekera - An elite coach in Todd McClellan, who consistently had San Jose at the top of possession stats for many years - The best prospect since Mario Lemieux Consider that Crosby scored 102 points in his rookie season and McDavid is generally considered the superior prospect. McDavid will probably be an elite player from the moment he steps on the ice. Playmaking savants like McDavid tend to elevate the play of those around them as well. He is the rising tide that lifts all boats.

I feel like the situations in Detroit and Toronto are so different that it's unlikely the burying of young players would even be possible. Detroit has never had a true rebuilding season in my entire life, they've just had so much talent consistently. It's certainly easier to choose veterans over youth when you have reasonable options on both sides. With the Leafs, there's no infrastructure of talent to block their prospects. Next year is a write-off, but the 16-17 season will likely have all their star prospects on the roster simply because they'll be far and away the best options. As for Wings prospects not developing well, I don't have much of an opinion there as I haven't been that familiar with their system. I think Tatar has certainly improved a lot since I first saw him in the league, but I would defer to Wings fans on those accounts. It will be interesting to see how quickly Wings prospects move now under Blashill. Was it really Babcock not trusting them or was it an organizational philosophy? How quickly guys like Mantha, Larkin and Svechnikov progress will be very telling.

Bryant now leads the team in fWAR with 3.2. He passed Rizzo last night, despite having 44 less PA's. Kris Bryant is really [expletive] good.

Small piece on Ryan Kellogg by Sickels this morning. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/7/5/8894537/an-unsubstantiated-prediction-regarding-chicago-cubs-ryan-kellogg Not much there, but I'll take the positive thoughts.

Edmonton will make the playoffs this year imo. As will Columbus.

They've been one of the smartest organizations for over a year now, ever since they hired Shanahan. He hired analytics prodigy Kyle Dubas as AGM and the franchise went from having no advanced stats presence to the largest analytical department in the league. Shanahan also hired Mark Hunter, who had a ridiculously successful track record drafting and developing stars with the London Knights. As a Leafs fan, it feels very much like the first couple of years under Theo. Still a long way to go, but it's just a huge change for the organization to be continually making smart moves in a proper rebuilding effort. The farm system has gone from bottom 5 to top 10 in two drafts as they continue to target as many skilled forwards as possible (much as the Cubs target the best bat available). They also use free agency like the Cubs did, picking up undervalued veterans on short deals with the intention of flipping them at the deadline for assets. They did it with Santorelli and Winnik last year, Parenteau is an obvious candidate this season. I am extremely underwhelmed with the Kessel return, but I am willing to cut them some slack since essentially every other transaction has been great. I think Kessel's salary and NMC really left the team without many viable suitors. Why they absolutely had to move him, I'm not sure. Obviously either Babcock or Shanahan absolutely wanted him gone. Very disappointing. On the other hand, having an elite sniper in his prime on a rebuilding team doesn't make much sense either.

6 more outs, please no delay

Really got screwed with the rain delay considering how efficient Hendricks had been.

I greatly enjoyed Leake's puzzled expression after the Miggy bomb.

That was a lot of fun. Didn't expect Hammel to be sent, then expected him to be out. Nice.

addison error on the first plate appearance, probably not optimal

According to War-on-Ice's methodology, scoring chances in the series are exactly even at 94-94. Just as a hockey fan, so far this has been one of the best Finals I can remember.

During the regular season, a .920 save % is about average. Playoffs are all about small sample sizes but historically, to beat the Hawks the opposing team has to have their goalie turn in a .940 save % and their team has to have a corsi of 55+. Hockey stats are a lot like defensive metrics in baseball though. I like how instead of taking five seconds to actually look up the average save percentage, you just made up a number that was horribly wrong. http://espn.go.com/nhl/statistics/team/_/stat/scoring/sort/savePct/seasontype/2 NHL League average was .915 this season. I don't think David is going to be all misled by that .005 over-estimation. http://www.hockey-reference.com/leagues/stats.html That's a [expletive] huge gap. There's a smaller difference between Corey Crawford (.917 career) and Henrik Lundqvist (.921 career).

During the regular season, a .920 save % is about average. Playoffs are all about small sample sizes but historically, to beat the Hawks the opposing team has to have their goalie turn in a .940 save % and their team has to have a corsi of 55+. Hockey stats are a lot like defensive metrics in baseball though. I like how instead of taking five seconds to actually look up the average save percentage, you just made up a number that was horribly wrong. http://espn.go.com/nhl/statistics/team/_/stat/scoring/sort/savePct/seasontype/2

Shouldn't we save Grimm for a close game?

Well, I guess this helps our pythag lol