SB Nation User Blog: JohnnyG

Dear God Help Us, Brad Arnsberg gone, Cito here next year

JohnnyG — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:47:32 -0000

Dear God Help Us, Brad Arnsberg gone, Cito here next year

The TORONTO BLUE JAYS announce that CITO GASTON has signed a four-year consulting agreement to begin in 2011 after choosing to retire from managing following the 2010 season. Gaston's staff in 2010 will consist of BRIAN BUTTERFIELD, Third Base Coach, NICK LEYVA, Bench Coach, DWAYNE MURPHY, Hitting Coach, BRUCE WALTON, Pitching Coach, RICK LANGFORD, Bullpen Coach and OMAR MALAVE, First Base Coach. GENE TENACE has chosen to retire from baseball & BRAD ARNSBERG has accepted the position of Pitching Coach with the Houston Astros.

Tlusty recalled from Marlies. Stalberg and MacDonald sent down

JohnnyG — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:27:59 -0000

Tlusty recalled from Marlies. Stalberg and MacDonald sent down

jonas640

Would the CBC ever drop the Leafs from the National Broadcast? I doubt it, and I have numbers on my side.

JohnnyG — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:48:46 -0000

Editor's Note: JohnnyG was riled up about the latest iteration of "maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs should get dropped from Hockey Night in Canada". So riled up in fact that he put together the cold hard numbers that should forever put this familiar hobbyhorse to rest. Imagine if the Leafs were good!

Recently there was an article in the Toronto Sun written by Rob Longley that surmised after speaking with Scott Moore (Executive Director of CBC Sports) via e-mail that the Leafs could possible be dropped from the HNIC national broadcast. I put up a fanshot on the article here. He deduces (with some sort of logic that I cannot comprehend) that the Leafs may be dropped due to falling ratings and then quickly backs that up with ratings numbers that show that they are the most watched sports show in Canada. This train of logic makes about as much sense as a Drunken Don Cherry Rant.

Well the article got me into a bit of a fight with a co-worker. I explained that I highly doubted that it was anything more then lip service given that the CBC will likely run the games that gives them the highest ratings. They argued that I could not possibly know that. I pointed out that it in fact happened multiple times in 2008-2009 that Toronto actually had a Saturday off. I am sure most of the members of this site can remember those Saturdays last December; we were all kinds of lost and bored on Saturday night.

In any case, I started out to find out proof of my assertion and with the help of blindfolded tank driver I was able to find a site that contained Rankings for Canadian Television. All of the ratings and viewership numbers were taken from www.bbm.ca individual links here, in the national archive.

A couple of notes before you look at the data. There are 27 Saturdays in the regular season in 2008-2009, 26 if you deduct the day off for the all-star game. In total there was 3 Saturdays in which the Leafs did not play (4 if you include the all-star game). Secondly I was going to include the 2nd HNIC game of the night in the calculation for a reference but unfortunately out of the 26 weeks they only made the top 30 lists 6 times, and anything outside of the top 30 was not recorded in the archives.

Full data table and summary notes after the jump.

		In Millions
Date	Week	HNIC #1
Oct 6-12	Week 06	1.323	Montreal @ Toronto
Oct 13-19	Week 07	1.31	Toronto @ Pittsburgh
Oct 20-26	Week 08	1.306	Ottawa @ Toronto
Oct27-Nov2	Week 09	1.021	New York Rangers @ Toronto
Nov 3 - 9	Week 10	1.568	Montreal @ Toronto
Nov 10-16	Week 11	1.376	Toronto @ Vancouver
Nov 17-23	Week 12	1.518	Chicago @ Toronto
Nov 24-30	Week 13	1.372	Philadelphia @ Toronto
Dec 1 - 7	Week 14	1.22	Washington @ Toronto
Dec 8-14	Week 15	0.942	NIL
Dec 15-21	Week 16	1.163	Toronto @ Pittsburgh
Dec 22-28	Week 17	0.9	NIL
Dec29 - Jan4	Week 18	0.84	Ottawa @ Toronto *
Jan 5 -11	Week 19	1.136	Toronto @ Philadelphia *
Jan 12-18	Week 20	1.075	NIL
Jan 19-25	Week 21		All Star Game = 1.516
Jan 26 - Feb1	Week 22	1.284	Pittsburgh @ Toronto
Feb 2 - 8	Week 23	1.372	Toronto @ Montreal
Feb 9 -15	Week 24	0.988	Pittsburgh @ Toronto
Feb 16-22	Week 25	1.833	Vancouver @ Toronto
Feb 23 - Mar 1	Week 26	1.141	Toronto @ Ottawa
Mar 2- 8	Week 27	1.428	Edmonton @ Toronto
Mar 9-15	Week 28	1.159	Calgary @ Toronto
Mar 16-22	Week 29	1.274	Toronto @ Montreal
Mar 23-29	Week 30	1.153	Boston @ Toronto
Mar 30 - Apr5	Week 31	1.209	Montreal @ Toronto
Apr 6 - 12	Week 32	1.027	Ottawa @ Toronto

-- On Average the ratings for HNIC Game 1 are in the 1.228 million range. When the Leafs play it is 1.262 Million. When the Leafs do not play it is 0.972 Million. That means on average the CBC loses approx. 289,000 viewers when the Leafs do not play. That is a drop of almost 24%

-- Week 18 - January 3rd Lowest rated game of the season was played with Ottawa and Toronto. This is actually a fairly slow TV week as only 7 programs in all of Canada broke the 1 Mil viewership total during that week. Also worthy of note is that the Leafs game started at 7PM Eastern Time and the World Jr Hockey Team started at 7:30 which raked in 1.855 Mil Viewers. Clearly the Juniors and the Holidays had an effect on numbers

-- Week 25 - February 21st - Highest rated game of the season with 1.833 Million, this was a clear winner for a couple of reasons. 1, Vancouver and Toronto are two of the biggest markets in Canada. 2, It was Hockey Day in Canada. And 3, it was Mats Sundin's return to Toronto. You may remember? He scored the game winning shootout goal.

-- 2 out of the 3 lowest rated games of the year were when the Leafs didn't play which were really only saved by the fact that the world juniors it's a crazy popular event in Canada and it ruined the January 3rd ratings

-- Toronto and Ottawa was a horrible draw last year, this should not be a surprised to anyone that watched the game. The Battle of Ontario has become incredibly stale and boring since the playoff matches. They averaged only 1.0785 Million per game on Saturday

-- Toronto and Montreal as expected was a very good draw on average pulling in 1.3492 Million, I am sure the CBC wishes they could have a dozen of these games each year. (Go Go Crazy Grabbo)

-- The best part about all of this, is that the ratings from the games so far this year hover in the range of 1.6 to 1.75Mil. Which is of course higher then any game we had at all last year. The CBC is doing better with this team so far in the ratings they did vs. almost any single game from last year. That should tell you right away that they will not drop the Leafs.

So what does this all teach us? It tells me that CBC would have to be run by a bunch of Monkey's to drop the Leafs from the National Broadcast. While there is not much Data to go on in the small 3 game sample that we have. There is a clear sign that no Leafs = Less People.

So what do you tell people when they say the CBC favours the Leafs? You say Damn Right and for good reason:

" It's nothing personal, it's just good business".

HNIC Pondering moving Leafs off national broadcast? Not likely.

JohnnyG — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:18:57 -0000

HNIC Pondering moving Leafs off national broadcast? Not likely.

Man you really can tell when they have nothing to write about.
Article suggests that if Leafs continue to struggle they may be moved off the national broadcast. And then backs up that thought with ratings numbers showing that even though they are playing like crap...... they are still the most watched Sports game in Canada.... Bang up job Rob Longley, that is some grade A logic there.

Does anyone think this is anything more then lip service to the other Canadian teams? I don't care how good the match up is between the other teams, if CBC can draw 1.7Mil with the Leafs but only 1Mil with another matchup regardless of quality. Who do you think they are choosing?

Bozak assigned to the Marlies

JohnnyG — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:18:12 -0000

Bozak assigned to the Marlies

Well this makes me sad. I really hoped he would stick around for a few games.

From the Toronto Sun FanFare Editorial Comic. In a letter to the editor this "fan" wrote the...

JohnnyG — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:37:29 -0000

From the Toronto Sun FanFare Editorial Comic. In a letter to the editor this "fan" wrote the following.... See this is why Leaf Fans have a bad name....

I wrote a few months ago that I have never been a Toronto Maple Leafs fan because, in my 26 years, upper management has never tried to build a winner. Only during the early 1990s was it OK to say you were a Leafs fan -- besides pre-1967, when I can only assume they were a good team. But since the signing of general manager Brian Burke, I am slowly becoming a fan. With the addition of Phil Kessel, I am officially buying a ticket for the bandwagon-jumpers rally to plan the Stanley Cup parade. I think it will get really crowded this year so I pre-purchased my ticket for November when Kessel will be allowed to play again. Can't wait to see where the Leafs take this team.

MATT p

EDIT: I found out about this when I came into work this morning and this comic was copied and taped all over my cubicle with phrases like "Better get your tickets" HAHA and "Leafs Suck" written all over everything

One of the biggest obstacles Wilson could face is the media. With the exception of one very public...

JohnnyG — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:58:21 -0000

One of the biggest obstacles Wilson could face is the media. With the exception of one very public verbal tiff with mild-mannered radio reporter Howard Berger last season, Wilson was pretty much given free reign by the NHL's toughest media. Expect each and every one of his decisions to be scrutinized this year and when that happens, Wilson could become defensive. He does have a history of getting a little sarcastic when he is pushed by the media and he'll soon find out that won't play in his favor.

Brophy thinks Wilson had a free ride Last year

Results from "Who would you take?" Questions

JohnnyG — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:46:52 -0000

As I was reading through the recent question thread regarding the AL West I remarked that I thought it was funny that everyone was all over the map with the Oakland team. Well instead of just saying that I decided to added up all of the votes taken thus far in that thread and the previous two threads and post the results here.

As shown I was actually off base with the Oakland statement, And actually it was Texas and Boston that showed a wide range of choices. On the other end of the spectrum it was Seattle, Tampa Bay, KC and Minnesota where only two choices per team emerged.

Note: I totaled the results at 5PM Eastern time so there may be more votes to come in the West thread.

The results after the Jump! I have bolded the winners names if you just want to scan the article quickly.

First up let's look at the AL East. In total there were 14 voters/posters for the question.

Orioles - The winner here is Matt Wieters with 6 out of a possible 14 votes. Adam Jones was close behind with 5 votes and trailing in third was Markakis with 3.

NYY - Teixeria was the far and away winner here picking up 10 of a possible 14 votes. Trailing behind him was a tie behind Hughes and CC both picking 2 apiece.

Boston - From Boston we had a tie. Both Beckett and Victor Martinez picked up 3 votes apiece. Coming up in a tie for 3rd was Bucholz and Papelbon with 2 apiece. Behind them 4 different players picked up a single vote. For Boston there was 8 different players voted for proving to have the widest range of choices out of all teams in the AL

TB - Longoria was the clearcut almost unanimous winner here. 13 of a possible 14 votes. Only Crawford picked up another vote.

Next up was the AL Central, in total 9 voters/poster voted here.

Minnesota - Only two choices emerged for Minnesota as it was always clearly a two player race. Mauer wins out with 6 of a possible 9 points and Morneau picks up 3 with an assist from his nationality.

KC - Grienke picked up 7 out of 9 votes leading the way here. Really no surprise, the only other choice was Soria who picked up 2, both are great pitchers but given the choice I think most would take a starter over a reliever.

Chicago - Mixed results here but youth won out in the end. Gordon Beckham picked up 4 of a possible 9 votes trailing him were Dye, A.Ramirez and Quentin who picked up 2, 2 and 1 vote(s) respectively

Cleveland - Another close one here with Sizemore taking the win on 4 of a possible 8 votes (someone voted for Lee and I couldn't count that since he was traded). Choo pulled into a close second with 3 votes of his own with Laffey pulling the last vote.

Detroit - With Detroit we had another blowout, Cabrera took home 7 of the possible 9 votes. Only Granderson and Verlander were able to pick up any other selections with 1 apiece.

Lastly we have the West which may or may not be still ongoing at the point you are reading this. There have been 9 votes thus far

LAA - Hunter takes the gold here with 4 votes Weaver pulling into second place with 2. Lackey and Napoli and Morales all pick up a single vote apiece.

Texas - All over the map here, however Kinsler edges ahead with 3 out of the 9 votes. Followed closely behind by Hamilton, Cruz, Feliz, Young, Andrus and Holland who each picked up 1 vote apiece. With 7 different players Texas only fell 1 behind Boston for the widest range.

Seattle - Another no doubter, Felix by far and away the winner with 8 out of a possible 9 votes. Only Branyan pulled 1 away.

Oakland - Brett Anderson led the pack with 4 votes with Wallace picking up second with 2 votes, all of Davis, Cahill and Suzuki picked up one apiece.

So in the end that leaves us with the following players.

Pitchers - Beckett, Grienke, Hernandez and Anderson

C - Wieters, Martinez, Mauer

1B - Teixera, Cabrera

2B - Kinsler

SS - Beckham

3B - Longoria

OF - Hunter, Sizemore

Your task, combine these players with the Jays to come up with a new lineup and pitching rotation. Including Bench Spots and Bullpen. Mine are listed below.

1. Sizemore CF 2. Mauer C 3. Longoria 3B 4. Teixera 1B 5. Cabrera DH 6. Hunter RF 7. Lind LF 8. Kinsler 2B 9 Hill SS

Starting 5 - Halladay, Hernandez, Grienke, Beckett and Romero

Bench - Martinez C, Scutaro UTIL, Wells OF, Beckham SS

Bullpen - Anderson + Camp (Long men), Frasor + League + Downs + Rzepczynski (middle) and Cecil for closer (Yes I know I would want him as a Starter too but this is my make believe team and he fits in as closer).

Unfortunately this means that Snider and Wieters get sent down to the Minors for now as we push for the Playoffs!!!1. Well I can dream, go on and list your dream team out of the players

Reporter? I'm Here to Help!

JohnnyG — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:31:31 -0000

Promoted from Fanposts - Brilliant! - Hugo

I shamelessly stole this idea from MF37 over at the Bitter Leaf Fan Blog.... Don't hurt me MF37!

You know, around here we can pick on the Blue Jay reporters a lot. It can be a tough business and it is hard work to stay so negative for such a long time. I tell ya I feel sorry for the guys. Not only to they have to be able to generate page views in the hockey off-season but they have to compete with each other in a cut-throat I'll scoop you before you scoop me business. And in the age of Twitter? Forget about it.

So as I sat around drinking my Pop sitting at my desk while I should be working, I couldn't help but think of those poor writers and especially the new ones trying to break into the industry. I thought to myself it just isn't fair! There must be something I can do!

Fear not Fearless Reporters! JohnnyG is here to help! I have invented this handy dandy flow chart to help guide you along the path of writing for the Jays. Good Luck! And God Speed! With any luck you'll be the next Dick Griffin.

Click on the image for full and clearer view

via usera.imagecave.com

Not all bad financial decisions are from JP

JohnnyG — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:26:30 -0000

Not all bad financial decisions are from JP

When the Mets released Bonilla in January of 2000, instead of picking up the $5.9 million owed to him for that year, they agreed to pay him nearly $1.2 million over the course of 25 years. That’s almost $30 million.

Granted given the power of interest, if they had set aside that amount way back when it all comes out in the wash, but still.