Lohensports

 Woosh, we were flying pretty high after the Jays swept the Nationals only to come crashing back down to earth with the Jays getting swept by the Mets. The biggest story of the weekend, or Monday morning, is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a 14 year $500m extension to stay with the Jays. Lots to react to so lets get into it.  Vlad Extension  If you've ready my previous Jays posts, you know that I was calling not extending Vlad a win for the offseason. Now that's flipped on its head with the Jays and Vlad agreeing to a 14 year $500m contract, with no deferrals or opt outs. Baring a trade, Vlad will be in Toronto until 2040, a year that doesn't even sound real. My thoughts on this have been said again and again, I don't think a first baseman with only 2 elite seasons and 4 just pretty good seasons is worth $500m, but I understand why the Jays had to do it. The Jays would have been slammed had they let Vlad walk for nothing, it probably would've set the franchise back by ...

No post yesterday, I'm sorry guys I was really busy at work. Today I considered doing my usual Friday thing where I don't post anything, but with the market taking a fat beating I could use a good distraction! Tough and weird season for the Raptors. After a brutal start against the toughest schedule in the league, the Raptors decided to tank the second half of the year against the easiest schedule. Because of that, the record may suggest that this team is a bottom feeder, but I am here to tell you now that next season will be taken seriously and next season will be a good and fun one for the Raptors.  Contributions from Young Players How can you not start with this! You can go back to my report cards post for a more in depth look at all of these guys, but there's a lot to be excited about next season when the Raptors unleash what looks like bench mob 2.0. Jamal Shead has been a joy to watch and he has a bit of a Kyle Lowry type of edge to his game, the perfect guy to be lea...

 Maybe it's just the early season excitement with nice weather around the corner, but I am really feeling the Jays this week! It helps that basketball is in it's get to the playoffs already stage with the Raptors in particular being a chore to watch right now. Baseball is a hard sport to talk about at a high frequency because even after 6 games, none of this is super indicative of what's to come. That being said, 6 games is all I've got to work with so take every single thing in this article with a grain of salt. Once game 162 hits it'll be fun to go back to this and see how silly the early season overreactions were. HIMenez Time will tell if Gimenez can keep this up, I can't stress enough that 6 games means basically nothing in a baseball season, but from what we've seen so far what a win for the Jays! When they announced the signing, like most casual fans, I was a hater. I was mad that they were going in again on a defense first poor offensive player just ...

Short one today, decent amount going on at work combined with a slow period of ideas. I seriously can't wait for the NBA playoffs to start, I will be flying with all the content that should be generated from that. Anyway, there's some small stories that I don't think I have a full article's worth of content from but I still want to get my thoughts out. This might be a bit of a hodgepodge but I think I'll still have fun and isn't that all that matters? Juiced Bats The story of the first weekend in baseball so far! If you haven't seen, there's been a lot of chatter, particularly around the Yankees, about a new design in the baseball bat that supposedly increases power. The bat fits within the weight and size constraints set out by the MLB only it takes wood from the handle and tip and moves it towards the "sweet spot" on the bat. Now, I am skeptical about things like this, how could the first major innovation on the bat come after 150 years? So f...

 Baseball is back and maybe it's just the excitement of spring but I am into it this year! Before I get into the rollercoaster weekend for the Jays, quick shout out to the Raptors rookies who continue to prove that they're too good to tank. There's something to be said when they're going up against other team's second round and undrafted players and showing us they're way better. This front office and coaching staff knows how to find and develop guys. Anyway, Jays! Depending on which day you spoke to a Jays fan the Jays either completely stink or are winning the world series, gotta love the early season overreactions. Today I'm going to do just that! My Takes are All Wrong In this tiny 4 game sample size that we get to look at, I have been proven wrong on a ton of my takes! When I first saw the opening day lineup the Jays had Bo Bichette hitting leadoff. My big take all weekend was that Bo isn't a leadoff hitter, he's a great hitter but he rarely tak...

Not Mentioned: Garrett Temple: A (good vet, great interviews on the Raptors Show Podcast) Orlando Robinson: B+ (A reasonable 3rd string center)  AJ Lawson: A (Never misses a shot when RJ passes him the ball, from Brampton) Jarred Rhoden: B- (not memorable, can defend a little I guess) Ulrich Chomche: INC (barely played NBA minutes, youngest player in the league that's pretty cool) Jamison Battle: B+ 6.3/2.2/0.8 on 43/40/88 The Raptors are back to finding useful players as undrafted free agents with Jamison Battle. I've said multiple times this year that Battle is simply one of the best shooters in the league and I will say it again here. If Battle has a slightly open look, I am confident that he's going to knock that thing down, more so than anyone else on the team. While I wouldn't call it a strength, Battle has shown that he can do a little bit off the dribble when guys close out hard, typically driving at a slow deliberate pace to create space for a floater. He's...

 Ah I love a nice long saga I can drag out, plus this one is fun. Before we get into some more Raptors grades, there were some fun games on last night! The Raptors smoked the Nets in what many were calling a must lose game for the reverse standings. Every win brings us closer to not having to care about tanking anymore! As of right now the Raptors are 5.5 games back of the Heat for the playin, they're 3 games up on the 6ers and Nets, the only teams they can potentially go below at this point, meaning they seem pretty locked in to the 7th best odds. People will cry and complain about this but the last time the Raptors had the 7th best odds they jumped to 4th and picked Scottie, so calm down. With 11 games left, I see them pulling out the "tank" stuff maybe 3-4 more times before they fully feel comfortable being locked in and just let the guys play. Just quickly on the game itself, Mogbo showed me a couple little hook shots last night that I was bashing him in his grade for...