I am going to be in Arizona on vacation and by a stroke of luck, the Canucks have had their February 13, 2012 game against the Coyotes rescheduled to February 28, 2012.

I know that various people have done trips to Phoenix for Canucks games in the past, and was just curious if anyone here is planning on being at that game? Not exactly sure if I'll be going alone or with my wife and or parents (who are going on the trip as well), but if anyone else is planning on being there, might be cool to connect!

Hi all,

Some of you guys might remember me from this post.  I ended up sticking with the Jays, thanks to the new direction the ownership and management was showing.  But I've still held some attachment to the Cards, and appreciate the comments everyone gave me.

New question for today though, since I've been discussing this with some over at Bluebird Banter.

Would you guys take Jose Bautista for Colby Rasmus, straight up?

As (predominantly) a Jays fan, I would.  This makes me an outlier amongst my Jays brethren.

What is the Cardinals fan perspective?

A random thought I had the other day:

Rumour has it that the Los Angeles Dodgers are just about done with Russell Martin and want to move in a different direction.  If so, he would be a very nice option to pair with J.P. Arencibia.  Martin also has been playing a little bit of 3B recently with the Dodgers, so he could not only be the primary C but a backup for 3B as well.

The other thing that I would like to do is pick up Nick Swisher from the New York Yankees, on the assumption they land one of the premier OF and are thinking about moving him (his OBP would be a very nice addition to the Jays lineup).  Perhaps one way to do that would be to work some sort of sign-and-trade with the Yankees involving Scott Downs (presumably one of their top targets), where we resigned Downs to a contract the Yankees (and Downs obviously) wanted, and then flip him for Swisher.

This would give us the following options when filling out the lineup:

C: Martin, Arencibia, Molina

1B: Swisher, Adam Lind, Arencibia, Martin

3B: Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, Martin

DH: Lind

I like Swisher's OBP and versatility, and Martin's somewhat unrealized potential (we also might see some of the power come back with a move out of Los Angeles.

Thoughts?

It's time for the Jays to trade Jose Bautista.

Why?

This is why.  Everyone who has ever considered the issue of Bautista should read.

In an absolutely brilliant article, the case for trading Jose comes down to this little question right here:

And what keeps haunting me when I think of it all is this question: in two years time which Jays fan lament seems more realistic, "I can’t believe we traded Jose Bautista!" or "I can’t believe we didn’t trade Jose Bautista when his value was at its absolute highest?"

I, like Stoeten at DJF, believe the latter.  And I don't think it's really all that difficult to make that decision.

Should they give Bautista away?  Absolutely not.  But this year is so far beyond Bautista's career norms that it is patently unreasonable to expect him to continue like this.  Could he have taken a drastic leap forward?  Yes.  Or, he could be having a career season, like lots of players have all the time. 

Again, I'm not saying give the guy away.  But if a quality prospect (top 50?) is offered, I think AA has to seriously consider the possibility.  Sell-high, buy-low is the quickest way back to contention.  AA did it brilliantly with Alex Gonzalez for Yunel Escobar, and it's time to try again.

I hinted at this a few times in various comment threads recently, but after FTR went and profiled him, I thought it was time for a fanpost.

Paul Kariya, a native son to our Vancouver Canucks, is coming off a reasonable year with the Blues - far from his glory days, but few Blues played well last year.  He tallied 43 points (including 18 goals) in 75 games last year, in a secondary role with the Blues.  In 2008-2009 he only managed 11 games due to surgery on both hips, so a 75 game season seems like a reasonable bounce-back campaign.  Prior to that, he played every game in the 3 years following the lockout.  His injury history, while not great, has not been that bad since the lockout, and a healthy year last year suggests he could still provide value.

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1. Give up.
2. Believe.

I'm in camp number 2, because there's really no point in being a fan and being in camp number 1.

The series is not over.  This is far from the best we've seen this team play all year - they've just decided to totally lose composure at the worst possible time.  Getting out of Vancouver and getting on the road might be the best possible thing for this team right now.

Hollow?  Perhaps, but it's better than just giving up. 

Do I expect the team to win the series?  I said all along it was going to be a 6 or 7 game series, and I still believe that.  I expected this team to play much better than they have, and I believe they can still do so.  Incredibly, despite the abysmal play we saw in Vancouver, the team was in it in the 3rd period of both games.  Realistically, it should have been completely over before then.

The postmortems for this team, should they be written, will be harsh and deservedly so.  But let's save writing them until it's actually over.  This is what separates the true fans from the bandwagon jumpers.

If the team goes back to playing the very disciplined hockey we saw in Chicago and perhaps get a lucky bounce or two early in the game, this is still anyone's series.

Mark Spector, as we all know, is a brilliant man.

How else can we explain this article (written shortly before the trade deadline), or this article (written shortly thereafter)?

You know, some of the first one makes sense.  "Time for Gillis to roll the dice", says Spector.  I don't necessarily disagree.  If the right deal is there, I'm okay with giving up some of the future for a shot this year.  So what player(s), Mr. Spector, should Gillis be going after?  Well...Spector goes quiet, except for these 2 lines:

So with a Dan Hamhuis on the market, should Gillis be out-bid by the Philadelphia Flyers or Boston Bruins? Or should he be dangling Cory Schneider — we know, Nashville has lots of goalies — Michael Grabner, Steve Bernier, or whomever?

If he can do a trade-and-sign with Hamhuis, is the defenceman worth a first-round pick and a player? The Canucks are within striking range of their first Stanley Cup, and Hamhuis is an elite defenceman.

I have a few problems with that.  The earlier part of the article goes on about how the Canucks aren't as good on paper as the San Jose Sharks or Chicago Blackhawks.  That's fine.  But then the only player he suggests Vancouver go after?  Dan Hamhuis.

As it turns out, Gillis was NOT outbid by the Flyers or Bruins.  And I'm sure if Hamhuis was available for Grabner or especially Bernier and a mid-level pick, he probably does that.  But really, is Dan Hamhuis worth a first round pick AND a player (especially the player which Spector raves about in the earlier part of the article - Cory Schneider?)

And when did Hamhuis become an "elite defenceman"?  Until this week, when he was the biggest name in the "cheaper but solid" defenceman category, I've never heard of him as anything other than a decent top 4 guy.  But to Spector, that's elite.

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via www.ontariohockeyleague.com

He's back!

As reported on the Brampton Battalion website, Cody Hodgson will play tonight at home against Erie.

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