Posts

Showing posts from February, 2025

Blue Jays Grades by Position Pt. 2

 Picking up where we left off yesterday because this is a fun one! I also want to quickly note that this is my 100th post on this blog! It doesn't really mean anything other than being a round number, but I am glad I was able to stick to this long enough to pump out 100 of these. There's not many readers on here, and that's by design as I'm mostly just doing this for myself, but to those of you who are reading, thank you! I have had a great time getting my sports opinions out there, especially when exciting stuff is happening. With that being said, lets continue our position grades! Second Base: B- Andres Jimenez, Davis Schneider, Utility Guys This one is a bit difficult to grade because I had to decide whether or not to grade the position in the context of the team or in a vacuum. Andres Jimenez was one of the additions of the offseason and his glove is elite. He's coming off 3 straight Gold Glove seasons including 2022 where he was an All-Star and a good hitter. S...

Blue Jays Grades by Position Pt 1

 Wow spring training has begun already? Summer is right around the corner and I love it! The Jays made some moves this offseason, there was once a time where the Jays were the #1 team in my heart, now they've taken a bit of a backburner but I still do follow along casually. I can already envision in the summer me watching a ton of games just to have something to write about here when the dog days roll around. With that in mind, why not start here and give a quick grade for each position group on the team? I feel like since I am such a casual, this is going to be the perfect thing to look back on to laugh about how much of an idiot I am, which will be fun! I think I am going to break this one into multiple parts, mostly because it's taken me a while to write as much as I did today and I am realizing I can't spend all day on these when I have a job, lol. Let's get into it: Outfield: B George Springer, Anthony Santander, Daulton Varsho, Myles Straw This outfield is definit...

The RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram Fit

Ok this one is very important to me. I have a big problem with NBA fan culture as it stands today, and I am guilty of participating in the discourse that I hate. When the Raptors were in talks to trade for Brandon Ingram, the thought was we'd be sending RJ Barrett the other way. Most people in my circle of NBA friends were dead against this. RJ is cheaper, younger, scores almost as effectively, although differently, and is already growing with our young core. I agreed with this take, especially because RJ Barrett has grown to become my favorite Raptor. When the trade was announced, Brandon Ingram for Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown and a Pacers first round pick, I and a lot of fans changed their tune and were excited for all of 30 seconds. Immediately after the excitement died down, the #1 question in my group chat was what are we going to trade RJ for now? This drives me up the wall, leading up to the trade we don't want to trade RJ for BI, it's not worth it, once the trade is a...

7 Straight 3s

 Needed a short one today with work of course being annoyingly busy so I thought I'd go over the Raptors beating the Suns last night. I am BIG time in the minority, but I am having so much fun watching the Raptors try really hard to win these games and I am really enjoying the tank stans panicking every time they pull one off. Last night was incredible though and I had to get into it.  7 Threes The Raptors outplayed the Suns the entire game last night. The Suns play the laziest basketball you'll ever see. They have nobody interested in playing any kind of defense at all. They start Nick Richards who grabs rebounds and finishes dunks but mostly spends the entire game looking disengaged, especially on defense where the Raptors just had a free lane to the rim all night. KD, Booker and Beal can all score but they each took turns creating for themselves and rarely got the team going. It genuinely looks like they don't care about the team anymore, a sad franchise. Anyway, despite...

Canada Wins the 4 Nations Tournament

 LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Ok disclaimer at the beginning again, I am a casual hockey fan and my takes are those of a casual hockey fan. This is a theme that you will see peppered throughout this so if you want to get mad at my casual hockey fan takes, please feel free to argue with me. That was amazing, the NHL is so smart for this tournament. It actually sucked a basketball fan like myself right back into hockey again which I never thought would be possible. I've got a lot of thoughts on what I witnessed last night and I am very excited to have a platform to get them out. Jordan Binnington I have to start here. All week long, the casuals like myself were absolutely bashing this guy. I was at lunch on Monday with some friends and the topic of our conversation was how "ass" our goalie is. For the round robin portion of the tournament, Binnington did allow a cheap goal or two in each of the games. It was actually what sunk Canada in a 2-1 loss agains...

Quick Random Thoughts Thursday

 OK I am really busy at work today and heading out after work to watch this 4 Nations game so I wanted to pump out a quick one with some random thoughts on events of today.  Wemby Out for the Year Man this one really sucks. One of the most exciting young players of all time is now out for the rest of the season with a blood clot issue in his shoulder. Obviously blood clots are a very serious issue and Victor's health is the most important thing here. I've seen on a positive note that this exact issue impacted now Raptor Brandon Ingram early in his career as well and he was able to come back and not see any effects from it again. Ultimately, Wemby has the chance to become an all time great and I just really hope this doesn't impact him beyond this season. The Spurs were my favorite team to cheer for to make the playin tournament this year and it looks like those hopes are all but dead. Get well soon Wemby!! 4 Nations Game Ok onto some positive news, Canada is about to show t...

Choosing A Raptor for Each All Star Event

 Ok a little idea I had while the Raptors are still on a long all star break. I wanted to pick a Raptor for each all star event. Since the only Raptor present in the festivities was Gradey Dick in the rising stars game, I am going to leave him out for the purposes of this exercise. Sorry Gradey, you got the real accolade instead of the Lohensports one. Otherwise I will be selecting a Raptor for each of: Rising Stars, Skills Challenge, Slam Dunk Contest, 3 Point Contest, All Star. I will only be choosing 1 Raptor for each category. I can't wait! Rising Star: Jamal Shead Honorable mentions: Ja'Kobe Walter, Jonathan Mogbo, Jamison Battle  This was a tough one since the Raptors rotation for most of the season included the 4 rookies mentioned above and our actual rising star Gradey Dick. I think especially as the season has gone on, Shead has emerged as the best rookie in the bunch so far. Starting off the season playing with his hair on fire, Shead took a while to adjust to the pa...

Fixing the NBA All Star Weekend

 For the first time in a long time I didn't watch any of the NBA All Star weekend live. A lot of it has to do with the NHL rolling out their 4 Nations idea which has resulted in some of the best hockey I've ever seen. While an idea like this clearly gets the players motivated, you simply can't execute it in the NBA with the USA being so clearly dominant. Still though, the NBA needs to change something if they want their All-Star weekend to be entertaining again. As a casual hockey fan, I tuned in this weekend to see a showcase of some of the league's best players playing extremely hard and wearing their emotions on their sleave. If you were a casual NBA fan looking to tune into All Star weekend to get an idea of how basketball is looking this year, I highly doubt you'd be turning on a regular season game next week. The weekend was boring, filled with ads and it's best moments came from a guy not even playing in the NBA. Something needs to change and I have some ...

Shout Out to the 4 Nations Face-Off

 OK let me start off here by saying that I haven't watched basically any hockey this entire season. I don't know who the best players in the league are anymore except for the biggest names and I couldn't tell you who's doing well and who isn't. That being said, when I saw the NHL was doing a mini tournament between 4 countries in lieu of an all-star game, I was intrigued. I watched Canada vs Sweden yesterday in the first game of the round robin portion of the tournament and I came out of the experience hyped to watch more. With that in mind, I am going to talk about this from the perspective of someone who is a total hockey casual. If you want detailed analysis on the game, this is not the place!  The NHL and NBA's all star break is at the same time., this season with both leagues trying something new in an attempt to make the game more interesting. In each sport, the All-Star game itself has traditionally sucked. In the NBA it's usually a 240-225 final scor...

Raptors Beat the 76ers

 Short one today as I am slightly busier at work, but I couldn't resist hopping on to celebrate a win over a Raptors rival, especially when they're down bad to begin with.  Game Recap While the 76ers and Raptors actually have similar records on the season, the 76ers had been decimated by injuries to former MVP Joel Embiid and free agent signing Paul George all season. This game featured both of those guys along with rising star Tyrese Maxey going up against a Raptors team that was missing Jakob Poeltl, RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram. To set the context even further, since the start of last season the Raptors were 4-36 without Jakob Poeltl entering this game, and 0-8 for this season. Simply put, without Jakob Poeltl the Raptors have been a historically terrible team, and they were going up against an MVP center in Joel Embiid. Not only this, the 76ers are fighting for their play-in hopes right now as I mentioned in my article yesterday. Every win they can get is precious and pla...

Post Trade Deadline NBA Tier List

 OK we're back, I was just yelled at for not posting today and so I thought I'd come in hot with a classic tier list after the deadline passed and league changing moves were made. I don't know if I'll have much to say about a lot of these teams but I'll chime in on the teams I feel most strongly about.  Tier 5: Poop for Coop Wizards, Hornets, Raptors, Nets, Pelicans, Jazz, Blazers I expect these teams to take their sweet time getting guys back from injury and liberally give their key players some rest down the stretch.  Man I spent all season trying to talk people out of wanting the Raptors to be in this group. After the Raps traded their vets to land an injured Brandon Ingram, a move setting them up well for next season, they are pretty clearly in the Poop for Coop sweepstakes at this point. Some of these teams have a more promising future than others. I think the Raptors could be in that tier 3 or maybe even tier 2 if all goes well next season. The Pelicans still ...

Short Superbowl Reaction

 Boredom has driven me back to this sports blog! I am figuring out a new groove here where I hop on to write whenever I feel like I have something to say rather than forcing myself on here every day. When the Steelers start again I definitely will be on a reaction wave again, but until then I think I'll stick to just writing when and idea pops up! That being said, I almost skipped the Superbowl reaction because the game was so boring! But it's the game of the year so I suppose I have to say SOMETHING:  Chiefs got Embarrassed No other way to put it. The Eagles dominated the Chiefs from start to finish with no sign of hope at any point throughout that game. Mahomes played the worst game I've ever seen him play in the NFL turning the ball over 3 times and looking panicked while being admittedly under pressure the entire game. There are a couple saving graces that I found fun and exciting about the game. The first being a white cornerback got a pick six on the biggest stage. Wh...

Brandon Ingram is a Raptor!

 Wow I realized I haven't been on here in a while! Whirlwind in Spain involving a robbery and an injury that left me not feeling like writing as much. I haven't reacted to the Luka trade yet either but honestly there's so much content about that and I guarantee I don't have a different opinion from the vast majority of people. Today I thought I'd jump in and give my initial thoughts on my beloved Raptors trading for a star level player in Brandon Ingram! Welcome BI Since Kawhi left after 2019, the Raptors haven't had a true go-to bucket getter. There's been guys with scoring chops, Pascal was great in the post, Scottie has shown flashes and is developing a go to move, FVV and IQ could shoot and RJ can get to the bucket, but nobody on this team was talented at breaking down a defender, taking and making a tough shot since Kawhi Leonard. All of that changes now with Brandon Ingram. BI is not without his flaws as a player. He's injury prone and hasn't p...