Blue Jays look to the future in locking up Ricky Romero Blue Jays left-hander Ricky Romero was at his Los Angeles home Saturday morning visiting his parents, but this wasn’t just a chance to catch up on baseball stories and home cooking.
Romero, who credits parents Sandra and Ricardo with setting him on the path to a major-league career, shared a proud moment by gathering the family around
the home phone when the Jays called to announce his rich new contract extension.
Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay has cleared waivers and could be on the move according to an online report. Overbay was not in the starting lineup Thursday vs. the Red Sox as Adam Lind was scheduled to play first base.
Foxsports.com reported Thursday that a major league source confirmed the 33-year-old wasn't claimed by any teams. The report states that he would be a perfect fit in Tampa Bay where the Rays are hitting a just .215 in their last 19 games.
Clarke MacArthur signs with TORONTO Leafs finally got their man. The new top line talent that will lead them back into the Stanley Cup race...... step over Phil Kessel
Leafs Should Pursue Paul Kariya The free agent market has dwindled to a handful of good players left and should dwindle even further with the expected signings this week of:
Ilya Kovalchuk - New Jersey Lee Stempniak - Phoenix
It's left a few good players around still looking for work with about 3 weeks until the opening of training camp.
Jose Theodore and Antti Niemi are goalies still waiting to be signed.
"The rumor - what I read anyway - is that Boston is looking to move this player," he said. "We have some options presented to us over the weekend, trade wise, that do not involve this player (Savard) that we are looking at."
Fair enough. If Burke says it, I believe it. The guy is a legendary straight shooter.
Maple Leafs Overview After months of speculation, Burke looks like he is finally done. Here is an overview of the Leafs roster, strong points, weak points, and areas of improvement.
Offense: Scoring, at least on paper, is the weakest part of the Leafs roster. In terms of forwards, they have two proven commodities. They have Kessel, who can be relied on for 30 plus goals, and Versteeg, who can be relied upon for 20 goals. Beyond that, they have question marks. The most glaring question mark is obviously at center, where they do not have anyone who has broken 50 points. The best bet is Tyler Bozak, the undrafted center played the final games last year with Kessel, and developed pretty good chemistry with the star sniper.
Plain and simple the Tomas Kaberle debacle, which should have played out in a trade of Kaberle, was just that, a debacle.
Kaberle was not moved and now the Leafs in earnest have to make an offer to extend the blueliner and do what they can to keep him. Its all about optics. To keep Kaberle only to see him walk for nothing next July would be the absolute worst and a major setback in Burke's grand plan. And the bitter taste of seeing Mats Sundin in a Canucks uniform is still fresh in our minds and in our mouths
Where do the Leafs go from here? So, in case you haven’t noticed, Tomas Kaberle is still a Toronto Maple Leaf and the team remains inexplicably thin at forward.
If the season started today, the team’s top three centres would be Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri — who has played one National Hockey League game — and Mikael Grabovski, who may or may not be capable of standing up on skates for more than 20 seconds at a time.
Leafs lose "prized" prospect Billy Sweatt, a 21-year-old prospect from Colorado College, officially became an unrestricted free agent when he failed to reach a contract agreement with GM Brian Burke and the Maple Leafs.
Toronto acquired Sweatt’s rights from Chicago in the offseason trade that sent Kris Versteeg to the Leafs
An introspective Brian Burke has admitted he could have traded Tomas Kaberle by Sunday night and could have acquired a “top six” forward for the veteran defenceman.
But he wasn’t about to make a deal he couldn’t live with.
“The whole thing ended up being easier than I thought it would be,” said Burke, who expected to have to make a tough decision on dealing Kaberle at the end of his no-trade availability.
“But we didn’t get any offer that made it difficult to consider. We said, back at the draft, this is not an auction. We’re not going to move him for the best offer. It has to make sense for us.
“We could have come up with a top six forward. There were some out there, believe me. We could have overpaid. There were some bad contracts out there. We could have made a bad deal. We didn’t want to do that.”
It is not the end of the world for the Maple Leafs but it is hardly nirvana either.
He will be back with the Maple Leafs for a 12th season, back where he maintained he always wanted to play. Back with the team that has repeatedly tried to get rid of him.
