CarterHud

             In a monster deal, the New York Yankees have acquired RF Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins. In return, they sent 2B Starlin Castro, RHP Jorge Guzman and SS Jose Devers

             Stanton is, well, Stanton. The reigning NL MVP hit an outstanding 59 homers in 2017, with 132 RBIs, crushing the competition. The Yankees do have to take on $265 million of his 10 year, $295 million deal, but it\’s worth it. Plus, they didn\’t give up any big prospects.

            Stanton, 28, hit .281 with 59 homers and 132 RBIs in 692 Plate Appearances in 2017. In his MLB career, all for the Marlins, Stanton has a batting average of .268, 267 homers and 672 RBIs in 4120 Plate Appearances.

            As rebuilders, the Marlins need to unload money. They traded $300 million in Stanton and Dee Gordon in just one week. They didn\’t get the prospects they\’d like, but they got a solid 2B in Castro to replace Gordon. Castro can be flipped, and they could get good value for him.

            Castro, 27, hit .300, 16 homers, and 63 RBIs in 473 Plate Appearances in 2017. In his MLB career for the Yankees and Chicago Cubs, Castro has a batting average of .282, with 99 homers, 496 RBIs and 81 stolen bases in 4847 Plate Appearances.

            Guzman, 21, had a 2.30 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 88 strikeouts in 66.2 innings in A ball last year. In his minor league career for the Yankees and Houston Astros organization, Guzman has an ERA of 3.67, plus a WHIP of 1.28. He has struck out 171 strikeouts in 162 innings. He can pitch 100 miles an hour.

             Devers, 17, played his first professional season in 2017. He hit .245, with one homer, 16 RBIs and 16 stolen bases in 216 Plate Appearances. His cousin, Rafeal, is an up-and-coming 3B for the Boston Red Sox.

              I think the Yankees win this deal. The Marlins would have gotten more from the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, but Stanton said no (he has a full no-trade clause).

             The Vancouver Canucks have acquired center Nic Dowd from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for defenseman Jordan Subban.

             The Canucks need a center. Especially with top center Bo Horvat out for six weeks. Dowd\’s faceoff percentage is over 50 percent, which is good. Subban wasn\’t developing, so they dealt him.

             Dowd, 27, has scored one point, an assist, in 16 games this season. In his NHL career, all for the Kings, Dowd has scored six goals and 17 assists for 23 points in 91 games.

             Subban\’s brother, P.K., is a Norris winner who is famous for his slap-shot, good charity work and others. The Kings must have seen some flashes of his older brother, and traded for Jordan.

             Subban, 22, has never played in the NHL. In the AHL for the Utica Comets this year, Subban has scored five points, all assists, in 16 games.

             I think the Canucks win this deal. Subban hasn\’t proven that he can play at the NHL level, which Dowd has. That\’s why they win.

               Shohei Ohtani has made a decision. The Japanese Babe Ruth announced today he has signed with the Los Angeles Angels.

               Ohtani, 23, has become very famous in the last month. He\’s hit homers 500 feet, and can throw 100 MPH. He\’ll start for the Angels, and play DH. Also, he comes very cheap. In fact, the Angels were third in international signing bonus pool money out of the seven remaining teams in the hunt (Mariners and Rangers were 1st and 2nd). They paid him about $2.1 million.

               This signing will finally give Mike Trout, the best player on the planet, a star to play along. For the Angels, Ohtani will be a big part in their rotation with Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney and Tyler Skaggs often injured.

                  The Seattle Mariners have acquired 2B Dee Gordon and $1 million in international signing bonus pool money from the Miami Marlins in exchange for RHPs Nick Neidert and Robert Dugger, plus INF Chris Torres. Gordon will be moved to CF.

                  Gordon is one of the premier speed players in the MLB, probably the second fastest player next to Billy Hamilton. He has never played CF, but was once sent by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013 to practice the position, when Andre Eithier and Matt Kemp injured for the NLDS (Skip Schumaker played instead). He doesn\’t hit much homers, but it\’s a fair trade-off for the speed. He said he was surprised when Seattle asked him to play CF, but with Robinson Cano at 2B, he said he is fine with the switch.

                  Also, the Mariners are one of seven teams remaining in the Shohei Ohtani race. Acquiring the money for his signing bonus helps a lot.

                Gordon, 29, had a .308 batting average, two homers, 33 RBIs and 60 (!) stolen bases in 695 Plate Appearances for the Marlins in 2017. In his seven year MLB career for the Marlins and Dodgers, Gordon has a .293 batting average, 11 homers, 161 RBIs and 278 stolen bases in 3013 Plate Appearances.

               The Marlins are at the beginning stages of a huge rebuild. NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton can be traded any day now. They got some solid prospects from a weak Mariners system. Neidert was the Mariners 2nd prospect, and Torres was number seven. Dugger wasn\’t on the list.

               Neidert, 20, had a 3.45 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 122 strikeouts in 127.2 innings in 2017.

               Torres, 20, had a .238 batting average, six homers, 23 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in 232 Plate Appearances this past year.

               Dugger, 22, had a 2.75 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 116 strikeouts in 117.2 innings in 2017. I think he\’s an underrated prospect in their system, based on his stats.

              I think this is an even trade. It\’s close, considering Gordon is a big-time player, but writing this article, I definitely see some promise in these prospects, especially the pitchers.

               On Monday, December 4th, the New York Islanders visit BB&T Center for a game against the Florida Panthers. It will be the first match-up between the two in 2017-18. This isn\’t a regular thing, so don\’t expect more, but it\’s a special opportunity. I\’m joined by Puck Under the Sun (from ThePuckUndertheSun.com).

               Me: Here is the Islanders projected lineup:

              Anders Lee – John Tavares – Josh Bailey
              Andrew Ladd – Mathew Barzal – Jordan Eberle
              Brock Nelson – Alan Quine – Josh Ho-Sang
              Jason Chimera – Anthony Beauvillier – Cal Clutterbuck

                           Nick Leddy – Johnny Boychuk
                           Calvin de Haan – Adam Pelech
                           Thomas Hockey – Ryan Pulock

                                         Jaroslav Halak
                                         Thomas Greiss

         The only lineup changes are that Hickey comes into the lineup for Dennis Seidenberg, and Halak will start over Greiss, who started in the 6-5 loss against Ottawa on Friday. Seidenberg and Scott Mayfield are the two scratches, and Casey Cizikas was placed on IR today, but it should be a short stint. This is probably the ideal lineup, maybe with Mayfield in over Hickey, but it\’s probably the best. Cizikas would be in over Beauvillier, though Quine should be the one sitting. Greiss is probably still the starter, but he can\’t start every game, and Halak needs to play.

                                       Puck Under the Sun:
           Here is the Cats projected lineup:

           Jonathan Huberdeau – Aleksander Barkov – Nick Bjugstad
           Jamie McGinn – Vincent Trocheck – Denis Malgin
           Connor Brickley – Jared McCann – Radim Vrbata
           Michael Haley – Derek MacKenzie – Colton Sceviour

                         Keith Yandle – Aaron Ekblad
                         Michael Matheson – Mark Pysyk
                         Ian McCoshen – Alex Petrovic

                                         Roberto Luongo
                                         James Reimer

  Henrik Haapala, Dryden Hunt and MacKenzie Weegar are your scratches. Evgenii Dadonov remains on IR, he\’ll miss a fifth consecutive game.

 I think it’s going to be a fun game these two teams play together with a lot of emotion this will be a close game and a hard fought one
      

                                          Me:

   This game is also the first time Panthers assistant coach Jack Capuano will play the Islanders. Capuano was the Isles\’ head coach from 2010 to 2017, with a 227-192-64 record, with one playoff series win, which came against the Panthers, believe-it-or-not. Capuano said \”We have to go out and try to play 60 minutes of hockey against a really good team\”.

    That is the end of the preview. If you like it, and want more previews, share it with your friends and retweet it on Twitter, it\’ll be there @Carterhudblog. If this post gets 50 pageviews, I\’ll make another one of these for the Isles game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. If it gets 50 during the game, you might see one on Thursday for the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Also, don\’t forget to follow Puck Under the Sun on Twitter @sun_puck, and check out his blog here.