Well, if you can’t leak em join em eh JP. Man, Ken Rosenthal over at Fox Sports must be pissed! I can’t wait to see JP’s first coverage of an Adam Dunn game. The Good news for JP is that when is reporting information he can lie at will. We all know that it isn’t a lie if the teller knows the truth. JP should start baseballbuzz.com. Word from JP on his joining ESPN as a baseball analyst is that it’s part of a 5 year, I mean 6 year, I mean 7 year, ooops 8 year plan.

The good news is that JP hasn’t lost his humble ways:

“I look forward to sharing my perspective of the game, which has many layers and has been built over the years through my various roles,” Ricciardi said in a statement.”

Confirmation that JP’s favorite words remain, I, me and my.

Apparently JP’s best buddy is Matt Millen.

The globe and mail had the story first, at least that I saw and you can see their report here.

Last night’s game with the Ducks was a breakout for many Maple Leaf players. Hagman and Kaberle come to mind as obvious choices. Clearly the monster allowed the Buds to relax a little enroute to 11 power plays. It is not going to be easy if they have to rely on 11 powerplays every night to win a game. I am pretty sure that the Maple Leafs out of the first period were just under 10 minutes in time with the man advantage.

So with a few guys appearing, at least for night to get their game on, there is one guy who just clearly is out of it. His play, for lack of a better word, sucks. That would be none other than whipping boy Jason Blake. Forget for a small second the amount of cash he is earning. Forget the number of years he is playing and just look at the stats through the first several games. Through 9 games he has 1 goal, 2 assists, he is a -7 with 6 penalty minutes and 31 shots on net. At this pace he should be thanking everyone alive if he gets close to 20 goals this year let alone the 25 he had last year. It has become more and more apparent that the guy simply can’t play. He looked totally lost and disinterested throughout the entire game last night. Talk about a guy destined to play for the Marlies right now. I can’t for the life of me understand why Burke hasn’t followed through on his promise to bury guys who aren’t performing irrespective of their contract. Here is a guy who makes big bucks for no, not little, no bang. There has to be someone down on the farm who can produce as well as he can with a small percentage of the salary cap hit.

As demoralizing as it can be for a team to have a goalie let in easy shot after easy shot, it has to be equally as troubling to see a guy as untalented as Blake is get 12-16 minutes per game. Hell Luke Schenn has seen his ice time rocked back under 10 minutes and this clown is nearly averaging 15? Schenn’s a rookie. Enough is enough Brian, swallow hard, bite the bullet and bury JFJ’s wonder boy. Perhaps, not likely you can do something with him on re-entry waivers. Blake is totally ineffective offensively. He is a liability defensively. And to top it off he makes a lot of money.

All of those things to me scream of demotion. So far, in this respect Burke has yet to walk the walk. He has said he would do it. We are just waiting for him to do it. Let’s hope that Blake is the first to go, setting an example of the others who are out there floating.

@yyzsportsmedia

Here is what I am told is the latest on who’s who on nhl hockey here in Canada:

1. Al Strachan is allegedly negotiating for a return to hockey night in canada and the satellite hockey hot stove (yes I just threw up in my mouth)
2. Glen Healy is apparently talking to TSN about a return to the network as an analyst.
3. Ray Ferraro is supposedly talking to the CBC about replacing Marc Crawford as an analyst on the west coast games
4. Mike Milbury hasn’t apparently decided on if he will or won’t be back with HNIC.

More as I get it.

TSM

Here are the lineups for the shows at noon:

On Baseball Show:

SCOTT RICHMOND IN STUDIO TODAY

On Leafs Lunch:

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

To say the action at this year’s US Open has been dramatic would be an understatement. With so many upsets and matches decided in the finals sets the tennis has been extremely entertaining to watch. Today will be no exception. The women are into the quarterfinals while the men are finishing up the fourth round. On centre court the comeback continues for Belgium’s Kim Clijsters. She’s returning from a twp year maternity leave and is looking to become only the third mother to win a tennis major. Her opponent will be the eighteenth seeded Na Li of China. Following their match the men’s two seed Andy Murray takes to the court and he’ll up up against the Marin Cilic of Croatia. Murray has cruised so far this tournament with two straights sets wins and one four set-er. In the evening matches Serena Williams takes on the tenth seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy. Williams hasn’t dropped a set yet and with so many top seeded players eliminated Serena is the clear cut favourite to win the women’s title. The final match should be simply electric. The third seeded Rafael Nadal will be up against the thirteen seed Gael Monfils. Nadal plays extremely aggressive and Monfils can run down almost any ball so you should expect many long rallies and well earned points.