A's vs. Guzzlers (Sunday, June 15, 2007)

During a weekend that was mostly overcast and gloomy, the sun finally shon through for the 5pm matinee between the A's and Guzzlers. "Crazy" Will Lowe got the start for the A's, while "Disco" Stu Shonfeld started for the Guzzlers.

The A's didn't waste any time getting runs. In the opening frame, the A's tagged Stu for a few hits. The A's scored twice, but Stu kept his composure and got out of the inning. When it came time for "Crazy" Will to pitch, he was all wired up as usual. "Crazy" Will was looking to redeem himself after a poor showing against the Good Ol' Boys. "Crazy" Will struck out two batters in the bottom half of the inning.

The remainder of the game proceeded like the first inning. The A's never got a big inning or a big play, but constantly applied pressure to the Guzzlers pitching staff. Stu managed to last 4 innings, while "Crazy" Will went the full seven. The final score, 9-0, was representative of the game play. The Guzzlers were never in the game, but they kept losing ground each inning.

I believe everyone on the A's got on base at some point. I, personally, was hitting well, despite only going 1 for 4 at the plate. I hit a couple of hard liners to their fielders, and a fly ball that I just got under. Sadly, my worst hit ball resulted in a base hit. Baseball is funny that way.

A's vs. GOB

This game saw more hits than a Snoop dog concert. A 13-9 loss for the A's, this was certainly not one of the better performances by the team as a whole. To the Good Ol' Boys credit, they came out hitting, and hitting hard. They rocked our ace and chased him out of the game. Crazy Will's drop ball was not dropping, and he paid for it.

Defensively, the A's were not at their sharpest. Although no majors gaffes, the defence did not create any plays to help limit the bleeding caused by the massive amount of runs against. Offensively, the A's held their own. Nine runs is nothing to be ashamed of, but the defence and pitching just didn't cut it against the GOB's.

This was a very important game for the A's. The A's needed to prove that they were indeed a force to be reckoned with in the BMFL. The A's have had the benefit of playing some of the lower seeded teams in the past few games. This game marked the first time the A's played a team above .500 in quite a while. Although we did not win, we were pleased with the offensive production against an elite pitcher such as Andy Dunn. We made several comebacks and our "never-say-die" attitude was a pleasant change from previous seasons. The A's are trying to work out the kinks in order to be a well oiled machine.

The next game is against the Guzzlers.

Standings

A's in 1st!

On Thursday night, the Ottawa A's of Blackburn beat the Rogues 8-0 to solidy their spot as a legitimate contender this year. The A's moved into first place of the Blackburn Men's Fastball League.

This game was my first game back since missing four games in June for attending the School of Accountancy. This was also the first game for Noel Hayes, whom the A's picked up after two members of its team had to quit due to work commitments. The A's also picked up Dave Millette during my absence.

The A's have acquired two quality players, and their line-up looks more dangerous than ever. In fact, the A's lead the BMFL with 7.6 runs per game, but the addition of these two veteran hitters should make the line-up even more dangerous.

In the BMFL, it is well known that politics have paid a huge part in the success and failures of some teams. The A's were never a team that was heavy into "politicking". In fact, when we acquired these two excellent players, the A's were the beneficiaries of excellent timing. We had submitted a request to get two players from the reserve list, and, at that time, there were two players available. The next guy on the list was Scott Parsons, but there was a previous request for his rights. The A's ended up with Dave as he was the next one on the list. The reserve list was then empty. The A's were next in line to acquire the next player on the list.

After going through some busy spells at work up until the end of June, Noel decided that the timing was right to join the league. The A's were fortunate of this excellent timing as we now have one of the best fielding, pitching and hitting teams in the league. The addition of these two quality players is sure to raise some eyebrows, but these transactions were performed without any favours or back-scratching that usually occurs when quality players come into the league.

In theory then, the A's hitting and defence are much improved. The thing that might put the A's over the top is the pitching of ace William Lowe. Will had pitched an excellent game, seldom missing the glove. He had an impressive 10 strikeouts. If the A's expect to do anything in the playoffs, they will need Will to be at the top of his game. He certainly looks like he's on his way.

Free Agent Frenzy

For the first time in recent memory, I was sober enough to remember my Canada Day. I was in Toronto preparing for a big exam, so I made myself a short leash to try to behave on the day where I celebrate the country that I love. I decided to watch TSN's inaugural Free Agent Frenzy day on television. TSN, with high hopes of ratings like those of "trade deadline day", tries to capitalize on the fact that people enjoy watching how to be a manager. With the popularity of fantasy pools and such, people have flocked to watch programs concerning the management of player personel.

Unfortunately, the show was a flop. I am sure the show received decents "numbers", but the actual content made the show fall flat on its face. There were no signings to report during the initial show. The show was excellent in terms of analysis. They described each Canadian teams needs and wants and who they think they will go after. Overall, as an informed sports fan, this information was useless to me.

Given the fact I am a huge Sens fan, I want to comment on the lack of any action on their part to improve the team given recent signings of key free agents.

The Sens have salary cap problems. The Sens are not like New Jersey last year where they are so close to the max that they have to do some creative tinkering, but close enough that they really have to watch what they do in terms of what to offer their key restricted free agents.

The most interesting restricted free agent is Ray Emery. After a very successful year, he is due to receive a huge raise on his $900,000 salary of last year. The Sens dilemma is that they already have a goalie that is priced as a number one. Martin Gerber makes nearly $4 million per season, but will serve as a backup to Ray Emery, if Ray is signed. With the Sens so close to the cap, they cannot afford to pay someone to sit on the bench for that kind of money.

Restricted free agents rarely get contract offers from other teams. This is due to the compensation a team receives when a restricted free agent is lost to another team. However, this week Thomas Vanek received a large offer from the Oilers, and it may not be surprising to see an offer go to Emery.

If Emery does receive a generous offer, I don't think the Sens will match the contract. I believe they will take the compensation they receive. The compensation could be 3 first rounds picks. You could really help the farm system with those kind of resources. In that case, Gerber becomes the number one goalie by default.

Gerber had turned around his season last year, so he may now be ready to take the number one role. It might be easier to get rid of Emery who has value now versus Gerber who apparently only has a mild interest from teams. In addition, the Sens have Jeff Glass in the farm system and he may be ready to be an NHL backup. Jeff Glass played on Canada's gold-medal winning world junior hockey team. He's big, he's athletic, but most importanly, he's cheap. The best case scenario, in my mind for the Sens, is that someone offers Ray Emery a big contract, Ottawa passes on the right to match the contract, receives compensation, uses Gerber as a number 1 and uses Jeff Glass as a number two.

The Big Hurt

Last night, I went to a Toronto Blue Jays game. My co-worker and I, along with two of his friends, decided to tie one on and start chirping the Washington Nationals. It was a great time as we were creatively trying to come up with insults that wouldn't get us kicked out of the game. Words, such as "fuck" and "gay" will get you kicked out of your seats pretty quickly I am told. I tended to emphasize the promiscuity of their right-fielder's sister.

The Nationals are the worst team in the league and they Jays happend to win; but, the Jays have lost quite a few games this year. Obviously, the guys that I was with decided to put their two cents in. Every guy in the world will always want to try and fix something even if its not broke. In this case, the topic was the Jays and what we would do to help make this team better.

Frank Thomas, aka "The Big Hurt", was one player we thought the Jays definetely didn't need. The guy's batting average is in a piss-poor range of about .220. Granted, his on-base-percentage is in a respectable range as he draws a lot of walks. The reason why we would get him off the team is the fact that his salary is in the $10 million range. This money could be spent a lot better in many other areas of the team.

The Big Hurt is the Jays' designated hitter. His job is to swing the bat. He doesn't have to play any defence whatsoever. You would think that this guy would be able to hit the damn ball into the field every once and awhile. $10 million is a lot of money for a guy just playing half of a game (offence).

The Jays, like many other teams, need pitching. They could have used the money they would have spent on Thomas on trying to get some quality pitchers in the rotation. Even if there aren't many pitchers available on the free-agent market this year, take the money and save it for next year. The Jays surely have some young and upcoming talent that could play and get major league experience in that roster spot. Thomas is holding the team back.

The counter argument would be that $10 million wouldn't buy you a solid rotation. Truth be told, it wouldn't. However, it may be the difference between signing say Tomo Ohka and a quality pitcher. If you can throw a guy a couple of extra million on top of what you pay Ohka, one, you wouldn't have Tomo Ohka, and two, you might have a quality pitcher. I'm not talking Roy Halladay (Cy Young caliber) here. I just think the Jays need a guy that can win 50% of his games. With guys like Halladay already in the rotation, this difference may make this team a playoff team. It would be nice to see a playoff game in Canada again. '92 and '93 had some great memories. At this rate though, it may be awhile before that happens again.

Rita MacNeil at it again...

God, I wish that lady would stop singing. The Sens brilliant run to the Stanley Cup finals is finally over, and, although I am disappointed, I am quite pleased with the Sens run to the cup. The Sens exorcised many of their demons this spring, and it made for an excellent month and a half of hockey as a Sens fan.

First, Alfie was a monster. He led all playoff players in goals scored. He physical and was a force on the ice to be reckoned with. Although he didn't win the cup and Alfie is starting to get old, the nucleus of the Sens lineup is still in tact and I predict they will be a force again next year. They got a taste of what the cup taste likes, but now they will be hungrier than ever.

Speaking of the nucleus of the team, the Sens roster was outplayed by the Ducks. After reading an article by James Duthie, it turns out that the Sens had some ailing players. Up to six Senators had serious injuries ranging from bad groins to separated shoulders. Even if they had of been healthy, I don't know who you would trade off that team. The Sens were one of the most balanced attacks in the NHL, and considering they will be hungrier for a cup next year, I would not be trading this talent away.

With that, I had been a critic of Wade Redden's play. I distinctly suggested that he was overpriced and no longer was needed before the playoffs began. Arguably, he had some weak performances in the regular season as well in the playoffs, but somehow he changed my opinion. I thought Redden had played terrifically against the Buffalo Sabres, and that he was an integral part of why we had so much success against them. It is in that series where I saw his value.

When Joe Corvo was being criticized by mostly everyone in Ottawa earlier in the season, I know that I was one of the few that still believed in his ability to turn things around. For Wade Redden, I believe that he has the capacity to turn things around and the reason for his sluggish play at times was due to a nagging groin injury. I hope that the Sens do not trade away Redden. He'll be able to turn things around. The Sens struggle in the season when he was out of the lineup, so they are better off to keep him.

Next, I want to give management the respect it deserves as well. Melnyk could have easily cleaned house when the Sens were stuggling earlier in the year. Melnyk decided that he would not interfere with the hockey operations and it almost paid off huge dividends. They made it to the cup finals and thats something to be proud of. As for John Muckler, there were two major incidences during the year that are distinct in my mind. First, he believed that the Sens would pull through their early season funk. They did. Second, he believed that the Sens didn't need to make a big splash at the trade deadline. There was huge pressure to acquire Gary Roberts, but Muckler believed that the current team had what it took to make it to the finals. They did.

Although I respect Muckler's faith, I believe that its almost time for him to step aside and let Bryan Murray control the team. I believe that Bryan Murray would make some changes to the lineup. He has a system that he wants in place and he has witnessed who has played hard for him, so he should be able to judge who he should have on his team. Bryan Murray was the guy that drafted Getlaf and Perry in Anaheim, and I believe they were the difference makers in the series. Although I don't like Getlaf personally, I do respect his hockey talents and what he can bring to the ice. For that, Bryan Murray knows what he needs in a hockey player and can help to rebuild the youthful talent that Ottawa used to be so good at accomplishing. Muckler has drafted poorly and he has made some questionable trades in the past. Last year, the best thing for him to do was nothing. He let Bryan Murray control the variables. Bryan Murray should have complete control over the variables.

Wants Stanley back home,
Chad