CarterHud

     

He might be just 10 games into his NHL career, but New York Islanders\’ winger Joshua Ho-Sang has made an impact on his team, with 6 points (3 goals and 3 assists) in those 10 games. Ho-Sang, 21, was drafted in the first round (28th overall) in the 2014 NHL draft. He played for the Windsor Spitfires and the Niagara IceDogs in the OHL, before playing 48 games for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (the Islanders AHL affiliate) earlier this season. In his 10 games, the Thornhill, Ontario native has made a good impression not just on the organization, but on fans as well with his dynamic skating and stick-handling. When I talked to his Islander teammates, they had some positive things to say about him.
      \”Josh is very skilled, very talented. He\’s playing hard, he\’s being very responsible with what the coaching staff\’s asking him to do,\” captain John Tavares said on Ho-Sang.
      \”He\’s pretty electric. He makes a lot of plays out there, a lot of skill,\” winger Brock Nelson said.

      At his teammate Anders Lee\’s Jam Kancer In the Kan event, I was able to catch up with Joshua. Here\’s what I asked him.

      Me: \”How does it feel to change from being in the AHL trying to impress the Islanders management to suddenly being in the NHL playoff race?\”
      Ho-Sang: \”It\’s pretty crazy. You just need to keep your head on your shoulders, it\’s the biggest thing. You got to try to contribute where you can and fit in right away. You\’re playing with a different team, different system, different coaches, different players. The faster you can adjust, the better you\’ll do.\”

      M: \”How do you feel about this event Anders Lee is doing right now?\”
      HS: \”It\’s obviously really special. I don\’t know if you got the speech at the beginning, but that young man [Fenov Pierre-Louis] who spoke was absolutely extraordinary. He talks about his battle with cancer, and I think that\’s really good for the players to grab some prospective. Obviously as professional athletes, this is our job, so we\’re very focused on the hockey and we take it all to heart. But when you can you can see something like this, you can see boys who have fought through and struggled [with] cancer, and you can see that the way they battle adversity, it\’s pretty easy to grab some inspiration, some courage from them and keep on moving forward.\”

       M: \”Ever since you\’ve been called up from the AHL, people have been giving you grief for wearing #66. Does that bother you at all?\”
       HS: \”No it doesn\’t bother me. I think events like kind of show how important the number 66 is. You get to take a look at a boy who\’s been battling cancer, and you think he cares about the number 66? Not really. I think that at the end of the day there\’s a lot of bigger things going on in the world. I think it\’s important to focus on those things, rather than the number. I understand that Mario Lemieux was an extraordinary player, and for me it\’s just a way to pay tribute. But at the end of the day, I know that it was a big deal when I first came up, but I\’m 10 games in to my NHL career, and in the nicest way people kind of need to get over that, and they need to focus on the bigger picture. It\’s about kids who struggle, kids who don\’t have food at night, kids who are going through cancer situations. People don\’t need to focus on my number, they need to focus on the bigger things in the world.\”

    With a record of 59-103, the Minnesota Twins were last in the AL Central, 35.5 GB of the first place Cleveland Indians. The Twins were also last in the MLB, being the only team to lose 100+ games in 2016. You can tell GM Thad Levine had a lot of work to do in the offseason. Let\’s look at what Levine did.

     Key additions: Cs Jason Castro, Chris Gimenez, RPs Matt Belisle, Craig Breslow, SS Ehire Adrianza, OFs Drew Stubbs, J.B. Shuck, 1B Ben Paulsen, SPs Ryan Vogelsong, Nick Tepesch.
     Key subtractions: 3B Trevor Plouffe, Cs Kurt Suzuki, Juan Centeno, OF Logan Schafer, RPs Tommy Milone, Pat Light.

     Biggest move: When it comes to catchers, the Twins are normally at the bottom of the list in terms of skill. They improved their catching by signing C Jason Castro to a 3 year, $24.5 million deal. Castro is an ok catcher, but at least he\’s better than last year\’s catcher, Kurt Suzuki. He has double digit homers in each of his last 4 seasons, but his career average (.232) is pretty awful.
      X-factor: The 23 year old Miguel Sano is a top 2 hitter for the Twins. He\’s been playing RF a lot in his short MLB career, and hit 25 HRs last season in 437 ABs. With Trevor Plouffe out of town, Sano can move to his natural position of 3B. Maybe that can make him more comfortable, because he\’s an important part of this team.
      Biggest bounce back: An injury kept former elite closer Glen Perkins out for almost the entire 2016 season. He had an ERA of 9.00 in his 2 innings. But it looks like Perkins is out of his closing job. If he performs really well in a set-up role, Perkins can regain that job.
      Biggest breakout: 22 year old prospect Jose Berrios was expected to have a breakout 2016 season, well, despite a 2.51 ERA in 111.1 IP for Rochester (AAA), Berrios had a horrid 8.02 ERA in 58.1 IP for the Twins. If Berrios can get things together in the MLB, he can develop into their ace soon.
      Guaranteed star: In 2016, 2B Brian Dozier set career highs in HRs (42), RBIs (99) and average (.268). He\’s also a steal threat, with 18 of them in 2016. Expect similar numbers in 2017.
      The Twins\’ lineup should look like this.

1. CF: Byron Buxton
2. 1B: Joe Mauer
3. 2B: Brian Dozier
4. 3B: Miguel Sano
5. DH: Kennys Vargas
6. LF: Eddie Rosario
7. SS: Eduardo Escobar
8. RF: Max Kepler
9. C: Jason Castro
       Their rotation will probably be this.

1. Kyle Gibson
2. Phil Hughes
3. Tyler Duffey
4. Jose Berrios
5. Ervin Santana

       SS Jorge Polanco, C John Ryan Murphy and LF Danny Santana will be on the bench.
       Brandon Kintlzer will be their closer, with Glen Perkins and Ryan Pressly setting him up.

       Finally, for my prediction, I think the Minnesota Twins will be horrible in 2017, but contenders in a few years.

    On March 18, 2017, I had the pleasure of attending New York Islanders winger Anders Lee\’s first Jam Kancer In the Kan event. JamKancerIntheKan.com is a site where people put up a fundraising page, then people donate money for pediatric cancer research. Then, those people compete in a Kan Jam tournament (Kan Jam is a Frisbee game where people aim to throw the Frisbee at a garbage can looking can). Thirty-two teams of players and fans competed in an elimination tournament, with Islanders fans Keith Lavitt and his cousin Josh Rosenberg defeating captain John Tavares and defenseman Scott Mayfield in the finals. In all, the event raised over $90,000, and Lee said it turned out better than expectations. \”With how much money we raised and the turnout, you can\’t ask for anything more for sure,\” Lee said via NHL.com
     Lee wasn\’t the only Islander player enjoying the event. Every single Islander was at the event. When I asked Tavares about the event, he said: \”As a teammate, you want to support Anders and obviously it\’s for a great cause, to fight cancer. We all love being here and we love supporting him and the cause he\’s fighting for. It\’s great to be here and we\’re having a lot of fun. It\’s always great to be around your teammates and our great fans.\”
    Tavares and Lee were joined by their line mate Josh Bailey, who had this to say, \”it was something we were all happy to join Anders with and to help towards a good cause. Any time you can give back to the local community, especially kids who are going through a tough time, it\’s always a great thing,\”
    Sixteen year-old Fenov Pierre-Louis, who has been battling Stage 4 Neuroblastoma since he was 9, gave a passionate speech before the event started. Even rookie Joshua Ho-Sang said it was a great speech. \”That young man who spoke was absolutely extraordinary, he talked about his battle with cancer, and it\’s really good for the players to grab some prospective. When you can see boys who have fought through and struggled with cancer, you can see the way they battled adversity. It\’s easy to grab some inspiration and courage from them and keep on moving forward.
    The man who organized this event, Anders Lee, is having a career season for the Islanders. He has career highs in goals (26) and points (42). He has more goals than many players this season, including the league leader in points, Connor McDavid. The St. Paul, Minnesota native was drafted 152 overall (6th round) in the 2009 NHL draft. He was a multi-sport athlete, winning the 2008 Gatorade Minnesota football player of the year award, before attending Notre Dame to play hockey. Now that he\’s found success in the NHL, he\’s now giving back to the community. \”One of our proudest moments is knowing that he\’s learning to give back,\” Lee\’s father, Tom Lee said. Lee was able to get all 24 of his teammates to attend, showing how important he is to his teammates. \”It was a fun event. It just shows how great Anders is as a person,\” rookie Anthony Beauvillier said.
     During the event, I had the pleasure to interview Lee, both about this event, and the team\’s play. Here\’s what I asked him.

     Me: \”How does it feel to organize this event?\”
     Lee: \”It really cool. I\’m really happy that we were able to get this many people to join in and fundraise. It\’s a special day, and [I\’m] really looking forward to the future.\”
    
     M: \”Because you score most of your goals from deflections in front of the net, is that why you chose Kan Jam, a game where you deflect the Frisbee into a can, for your fundraising event?
     L: That\’s a wonderful connection you made, but I didn\’t look at it that way. But it fits into the way I play hockey.\”
 
    M: \”How do you think the team has changed from December to now, going from last place to a playoff battle\”?
     L: \”We\’ve climbed out of a hole that we dug early in the season. We\’ve really come around and been a really good team of late, so it\’s nice to be back in the hunt.\”

     M: \”How do you think Joshua Ho-Sang has impacted the team in his 10 games?\”
     L: \” You can tell by the way he handles the puck, how skilled he is and the vision that he has on the ice. He\’s been a great addition to our team.\”

 

If you\’re a fan of the New York Islanders, you might have noticed their TV voice has changed this season. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Islanders play-by-play announcer Brendan Burke at Islanders winger Anders Lee\’s Jam Kancer in the Kan event. Burke, 32, spent ten years in the minor leagues before being named as the Islanders broadcaster before the 2016-17 season. He was the voice of the ECHL\’s Wheeling Nailers, before calling games for the AHL\’s Peoria Rivermen (the affiliate of the St. Louis Blues, but now are called the Chicago Wolves) for 5 seasons, then the Utica Comets of the AHL (the Vancouver Canucks affiliate) for the other 3. He won the AHL\’s \”most outstanding media member\” in the 2014-15 season. He has also called college football and basketball for FOX sports.

Here are some of the questions I asked him.

    Me: How did you get into broadcasting?
    Burke: \”My Dad was a sportswriter, so I grew up around the sports media world and [I] decided at a young age that I thought being a broadcaster would be a cool job. So, I\’ve worked really hard at it, and here I am.\”

     M: \”Did you find it tough taking over for Howie Rose, who had been the Isles broadcaster for decades?\”
     B: \”Yeah. He was there for 20 years, which is tough to replace somebody like that, and I\’m not trying to replace him, I\’m just trying to make fans happy even though he\’s not here. I got a phone call from him before I went on the air for the first time and he gave me some good advice and said \’don\’t act like you\’re filling in for anybody, this is your job\’. And so I\’ve taken that to heart and I\’ve had a lot of fun here taking over for Howie and he\’s been a great resource for me and has been very encouraging throughout the season.\”

      M: \”How do you think since the firing of Jack Capuano the team has changed.\”
      B: \”I think that certainly when the coach gets fired there\’s always a mood change and I think the guys have responded. It looked like it gave them a little bit of energy and then just a little tweaks both in the defensive zone and with the player personnel. I think a lot of what [interim head coach] Doug Weight\’s success has been is that he\’s really good in relationships and with talking to his players and one on one, and the guys have responded to that. So I think there\’s been some tweaks, X\’s and O\’s but I think a lot of their success has come from Doug Weight, specifically his relationships with the players and the response they have had from that.\”

       M: In the last 10 games, Joshua Ho-Sang has made a big difference to the team. What notes do you have on him?
       B: I think that the crowd gets a little excited every time he touches the puck. I think he gets excited when he touches the puck. He\’s 10 games into his NHL career, and you can see he lights up when he gets the puck and he\’s been electric with it. So I think when you\’re first starting in the NHL, you just want to fit in, you don\’t want to stand out in necessarily a bad way, so you\’re just looking to fit in and I think he\’s done that extremely well. He\’s showed he can play in this league and I think he\’s only going to get better from here on out.\”

       M: \”How do you feel about Anders Lee and this big event that he\’s having?\”
       B: \”This is great. I think that any time there\’s events like this, for the community, and of course raising money for childhood cancer is incredible.  But I think there\’s a difference when this is not the New York Islanders saying \’you need to be here\’, this is Anders Lee wanting to do something and his teammates wanting to help with it, and I think that\’s a big part of it. It\’s great to see the big turnout and it\’s great to see the amount of money raised. It\’s also great to see the first of what hopefully is an annual event that Anders and everybody gets to enjoy for a long time.\”

       Big thank you to Brendan for taking the time to do this interview. Follow him on Twitter @brendanmburke.        

     

With a record of 73-89, the Milwaukee Brewers finished 4th in the NL Central, 30.5 GB (the Chicago Cubs were really good) of the first place Cubs. At the 2016 trade deadline, the Brewers dealt star catcher Jonathan Lucroy to Texas, leaving LF Ryan Braun as the only big star on the team. As rebuilders, GM David Stearns aimed to make some moves in the offseason. Let\’s look at what Stearns did.

         Key additions: 1B Eric Thames, C Jett Bandy, 3B Travis Shaw, RPs Neftali Feliz, Tommy Milone, Joba Chamberlain, 1B Jesus Aguilar, 2B Eric Sogard, SS Ivan Dejesus.
         Key subtractions: 1B Chris Carter, RPs Tyler Thornburg, Blaine Boyer, C Martin Maldonado, 2B Jake Elmore.

         Biggest move: In his major league career, he has 21 HRs in 633 ABs, not so great. He went to Korea, and hit 125 HRs in 1382 ABs. Eric Thames is trying to make his way back to the majors successfully, and signing a 3 year, $15 million deal is a nice prove-it deal for him.
         X-factor: Jimmy Nelson will most likely be their ace in 2017, although his lowest ERA in a season is 4.11, not as good as other aces. If Nelson can have an ERA under 4.00 in 2017, he can really help out the team.
         Biggest bounce back: Many expected Taylor Jungmann to breakout in 2016. Well, he only pitched 26.2 MLB innings, and had an ERA of 7.76 in that time. He was even worse in AAA, with an ERA of 9.87 in 31 IP. He was way better in AA, with an ERA of 2.51 in 75.1 IP. He\’ll compete for a MLB rotation spot with Chase Anderson and Matt Garza, a d 2017 will be a big season for Jungmann to save his career.
         Biggest breakout: In 2016, C Jett Bandy was ok for the Los Angeles Angels, with an average of .234 and 8 HRs in 209 ABs. An offseason trade to the Milwaukee Brewers gives him a starting job for the entire season. Bandy can hit double digit HRs in 400+ ABs in 2017.
         Guaranteed star: After a couple bad seasons, Ryan Braun finally hit 30 HRs. He once hit 41 HRs, and on this weak Brewers team, Braun is definitely their top player.
         The Brewers lineup should look like this.

1. SS: Jonathan Villar
2. 2B: Hernan Perez
3. LF: Ryan Braun
4. 1B: Eric Thames
5. 3B: Travis Shaw
6. RF: Domingo Santana
7. CF: Keon Broxton
8. C: Jett Bandy
9. Pitcher
            Their rotation will probably be this.

1. Jimmy Nelson
2. Wily Peralta
3. Zach Davies
4. Junior Guerra
5. Taylor Jungmann

             2B Scooter Gennett, CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis and C Andrew Susac will be on the bench.
             Corey Knebel will be their closer, with Neftali Feliz and Michael Blazek setting him up.

             Finally, for my prediction, I think the Milwaukee Brewers will once again be at the bottom of the MLB in 2017.