Leafs and Raptors Moves

- I'm perfectly happy that the Leafs bought out Darcy Tucker. As I have said before I want this team to be terrible next year so they can have a great shot at John Tavares. The Leafs have been stuck as a decent but not good enough team for the past 15 years and it got them nowhere. I can remember the St. Louis Blues string of 30 something consecutive playoff runs and how utterly useless a record it was because they never won a Cup and could never get any better because they were always drafting in the low 20's.

The Leafs were headed in that direction and have correctly decided to actually stink and rebuild instead of continually striving for bronze. Watching Mats go will kill me but letting him is the right thing to do.

- The thing about the Raptors picking up Jermaine O'Neal for the 17th pick, TJ Ford and the corpse of Rasho Nesterovic is that Ford didn't have a huge trade value because of his history of back injury and you have to trade salary for salary in the NBA. So to trade a flawed Ford they had to get a flawed O'Neal in return. It also has the benefit of making it clear that Jose Calderon is the teams point guard, which is what I wanted all along. Jermaine O'Neal can absolutely play when he's healthy, the problem is he just isn't healthy all the time anymore. He gives the Raps the defense they need inside, shot blocking and rebounding they really lacked and another legitimate scoring option. It also gives a potential 20-10 sidekick to Chris Bosh. He wasn't too motivated in Indiana because things were such a mess there (you try being a leader on a team with Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson) but I think a change of scenery, especially to a place with a rabid fan base (small but rabid granted) will energize him.

The best case scenario for the Raps is that he plays 65 games a year and is healthy going into the playoffs. And he better be healthy because at over $20 million a year he eats up more than a third of the teams cap space. Worst case scenario is that he misses half the season and the playoffs. But even that isn't that bad because the Raps then have a huge expiring contract to use as trade bait next year going into what could be the best free agent class of all time in '10.

Peru Pictures

Below are some of the pictures Ms. Skeelo and I took on our vacation in Peru. The pictures are mostly of the Lares Trek we hiked and Machu Picchu. Others are of Lima and Cusco.

Baseball Quickies.

- At what point do John Gibbons and JP get fired? Gibbons looks hopeless of late and hasn't got a clue how to turn this Blue Jay team around. Granted part of the problem is what JP has given him to work with but he is a piss poor manager and needs to go.

As for JP, you could argue that he should have been given some slack for the injury problems the Jays had last year but the slack is gone. He is assembled an overpaid, aging roster (did you know the Jays position players are the third oldest in the league? That blew me away) with little hope of improvement/avoiding injury. The pitching staff is good but malcontent AJ Burnett is an utter joke. He was jerk when they signed him so why would they have expected him to stop being a jerk once he got paid more?

**Update** Well I guess I got my answer about Gibby getting fired. Bringing in Cito for the rest of the year though? That's just throwing up the white flag on this season and trying to make the fans feel good. What a joke.

- I knew Tampa would be good this year (I predicted they would win 85 games) but I sure as hell didn't think they would be on pace to win 96 games at the 72 game mark. They may slip a bit but there is no reason why they can't win 90 games. Their lineup is great but it is their pitching that has been the surprise. I didn't think their starting rotation would be as deep as it has been.

- I can't believe how bad the Mariners are. I honestly thought they would be good this year but I was expecting Sexson to have a big contract year and Beltre to stop being a stiff (anyone else think he's about 45 years old and lied about his age?), two big mistakes.

- The Tigers have very quietly moved back within 4 games of .500 and are only 7 back of the White Sox. I think the Tigers are going to go on a huge tear in the second half and still win this division by 5 games. Their pitching is coming around now that the weather is warm and they can still win the World Series.

- The NL West is a bit baffling to me. Arizona is not playing as well as I thought they would but they should easily win the division. But I still say they are a scary playoff team because they have a great short starting rotation for the playoffs. I can't believe how bad the Rockies are. They are not going to go on a run again this year, their pitching just isn't good enough.

- The Cubs are for real and are going to run away with the Central. They will win it by at least 15 games when overachieving St. Louis drops to earth. The Cubbies have a great rotation and powerful lineup, even with Soriano out for a month. Their only real question is will their bullpen hold up with Kerry Wood as the closer. If it does they are going to the World Series.

All Hail The Celtics

If it is at all possible to have a six game sweep in the NBA Finals it happened last night. The only two games the Lakers won the Celtics were god awful in and they still nearly blew both games.

All playoffs long I was waiting for Gasol (who I don't like at all) and Odom (who I like a lot and was pulling for) to shit the bed and they certainly did this series. Not even Kobe could make up for the play of those two guys. Kobe just looked confused the past few games as if he wasn't sure who to pass the ball to. Which was entirely fair given nobody on the Lakers could hit an open jumper.

Not that Kobe escapes blame here. He should have been better, especially defensively on Pierce. But he also knew he was the only viable scoring threat his team had so he had to conserve energy on the defensive end. But enough with the Jordan comparisons. Jordan never would have blown a 24 point lead on his home court in the Finals and never would have allowed his team to get waxed by 39 in a decisive game. He also never would have admitted his team "wet the bed" in a press conference. He would have just given his team the "I'm going to kill you if you come within 30 feet of me" look and won the next two games.

The real breakthrough in this series was for Paul Pierce who was fantastic. He was involved in every big play and even defended Kobe well. He was the best player on a team whose best player was supposed to be Kevin Garnett. Garnett can thank Pierce for winning this thing because KG looked bad in this series and if they lost his reputation as a lousy playoff performer would have been impossible to shake.

Finally as I said before the best news of the Finals is that Boston, the best basketball town in the world, is once again relevant and excited about their team.

Tiger vs. Rocco

I was actually really pulling hard for Rocco yesterday because he just has so much fun when he plays and he was the most consistent guy all week. And for some stupid reason I actually thought Tiger was going to miss the putt on 18. So today we go to an 18 hole playoff that Tiger is going to win by at least threes strokes.

The USGA has got to move away from an 18 hole playoff because it is completely anticlimactic to do it the next day. They should move to a four hole playoff on Sunday when all players are still pumped and in a bit of a groove. But most importantly fans are still at the course and jacked to see the playoff. A lot of people will be back at work today and the playoff won't have anywhere near the same feel as the weekend did.

The only good thing about the playoff being today is I won't get to watch it. I say that because I almost had to mute my TV this weekend. Yes Tiger is coming off knee surgery but if he couldn't physically play he wouldn't of. The announcers, especially Jimmy Roberts and Johnny Miller, have absolutely no control over their man crushes on Tiger and it is downright embarrassing. Miller in particular drives me nuts. He is the best announcer in golf when he is talking about anybody but Tiger but lacks any objectivity with Tiger. They all made it sound like Tiger was fighting the Nazis single-handed with his bare hands yesterday. NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL players play with a hell of a lot more painful injuries than Tiger did yesterday so I was sick of hearing it. To his credit Tiger tried to deflect most of the talk about his knee.

The other thing I had to turn away from was the commercials with Earl Woods talking about Tiger and how he would never meet anyone as mentally tough as him. What a joke that was. Sorry, but Tiger is a golfer. It's not like he is a POW that is tortured at the threat of death in Kabul or Baghdad. That could be the dumbest commercial Nike has ever run. And as I have said before, If Earl is such a great Dad how come you never anything about his first three kids?

Mini US Open Preview

For the past few years anyone with a brain in their head who follows golf would have said Tiger was pretty much a lock to win this year's US Open because it is being played at Torrey Pines, a course he absolutely owns.

That was before he had knee surgery though. I do think he is fully capable of winning it in his first start since knee surgery I am just not convinced he will. I am actually going to go with Phil Mickelson who also has performed great at this course and played it often growing up. I honestly don't see it being anyone other than Tiger or Phil.

Back From Vacation

Ms. Skeelo and I are back from our trip and pictures of Machu Picchu, Llamas and Alpacas will show up over the next few days.

In the meantime:

- I'm not sure I like the Leafs signing of Ron Wilson as their new coach. He is an arrogant jackass and won't do well with young kids that the Leafs need to play. But the bigger problem for me is the fact that he coached a very underachieving Sharks team the last few years and had the audacity to tell fans of San Jose that they should be jumping for joy over the Sharks success the last few years. Ridiculous. He'll be great with the press though.

As for him being good buddies with Brian Burke and the conspiracy theory surrounding that I don't think there is much of one. Burke will be the next GM of the Leafs regardless and Burke has never hired Wilson before for any team he has run.

- I was back to watch Game 2 of the Lakers-Celtics and the officiating was absolutely horrendous. How in the hell does one team get a 38-10 free throw advantage in the Finals? It was just absurd to watch. And the Lakers still almost won.

I still think the Lakers will win this series even though Pau Gasol has turned into pumpkin and is playing terrible. Now Kobe can just say "Screw the rest of these guys, I will do this myself" and go do it himself. I say they win all three in LA then win game 7.

Either way Boston is passionate about the Celtics basketball again and that is a great thing for the league.