One Game Away

As you can see I haven’t written much this month. Mainly because I didn’t want to jinx the Rays, but also because I’m quite lazy. Throw in some traveling, some tough days at the office and you end up going two months without posting to your own site. Sorry about that faithful readers. As the cold weather approaches expect more postings.

So with that out of the way lets get to the Rays. To steal a phrase from post game guru Rich Herrera it has indeed been a magical summer. As the months wore on the experts kept anticipating a fall. Sure they were good in May, but wait till the summer starts and they wilt in June. They made it through June, you say? Well surely they’ll fade by the All-Star Break. Seven game losing streak at the break - see I told you they couldn’t hold up - they’ll be done in August. Still in first? Well as we all know September is the months that dashes the hopes and dream of the pretenders.

Does that sound familiar? It certainly does to me. Even hulking Red Sox slugger David Ortiz had to recant his words. In July he told the media, “I’m not saying that they will drop, but if you go by the numbers, that’s normally what happens in baseball. It’s always the guys with more experience and the guys used to being in the same spot at the end of the year that take over” In September he had to admit that they were for real.

Now, Mr. Papi, the number that is most important is one. As in the Rays magic number to clinch the division. Proving people wrong has gotten old for this team. When Scott Kazmir uttered his infamous “What’s possible? Play in October, that’s possible” on February 16th fans of the Rays were treated to the following responses from the commenters on Deadspin:

The only way the rays are gonna play in October is if Selig decides to move the season back a few months to have a few more steroid hearings (DemecoShallInerittheEarth)

There's a better chance for the Kashmir dispute to be settled by October than for Kazmir to be right. (DumpDolan)

The negativity on the various other commenter boards is too inane to repeat here. Throughout the season, even on the local hometown paper’s website supposed fans, whined and moaned about the team. David Price wasn’t called up fast enough, they didn’t make any deals, BJ Upton never smiles so they should trade him, etc, etc.

Even though they kept winning the fans kept complaining online and on the radio? Why wasn’t anyone enjoying this - sure the 15-20,000 fans had fun at the fame, but as soon as it was over the whining continued. Let Kazmir pitch more, take Troy Percival behind the shed and shoot him, for God’s sake why won’t Maddon call a bunt!

On the other side of the spectrum was the team itself. They elevated fun to a new level for a ball club A stark contract to the business-like Yankees dynasty of the late 90’s. After all it’s hard to picture Paul O’Neil bouncing around in the dugout with a Mohawk after another late inning win. They seemed to be a throwback to the old clubs that grandfathers like to talk about, the Gashouse Gang, The A’s of the 70’s and the Bronx Zoo Yankees.

Watching the team throughout the season has led me to realize a few things.

1. Pitching and defense wins games. It’s a cliché, but a valid one. A strengthened bullpen with Dan Wheeler and the resurgent Grant Balfour as well as adding Matt Garza to the rotation allowed the team to vault past the other mediocre teams in the division. The defensive play, led up the middle by Jason Bartlett, Aki! And BJ Upton prevented them from giving extra outs to the Red Sox and Yankees helping to prevent big innings.

Building a team through pitching and defense is also cheaper than building a team around offense. Chicks might dig the long ball, but cost conscious owners don’t dig signing those checks. See the failed Hit Show experiment as to why offense isn’t always the way to go.

2. Chemistry does matter. As I touched on briefly this earlier, but the team does really enjoy playing together. Whether it’s the Mohawks, or boxing robes for Jon Gomes or the scraggily beards in support of Rocco this team is here for more than a paycheck. California Joe is the perfect leader for this group of kids. He let’s them run amok just enough to find out what their limits are, but also knows when to put a firm foot down.

3. There is a definite ace on the team and his name isn’t Scott Kazmir. I like Kazmir, I think he has tremendous ability, but he hasn’t harnessed it yet. Until he can work out of the 5th inning he can’t be the leader of the staff. Matt Garza has the most electric stuff on the staff, but inconsistency is his cross to bear. He could throw a no hitter or not last through the first. Andy Sonnanstine led the teams with wins for most of the season and was invaluable in eating up innings through out the season, but he’s…well…he’s Andy Sonnanstine - Mike Boddicker version 2.0. Ed Jackson is much like Garza and Kazmir - a raw talent who hasn’t learned the art of pitching yet.

That leaves one person. Big Game James. Going into the playoffs he is the undisputed ace of the staff. The game that sealed the deal - game one of the double header against Baltimore. On a day when they needed a pitcher to give them some innings he went out and gave them seven strong. Thirty-two starts and 214 innings averages out to almost 7 innings a start. Compare that to 27 starts and 152 innings for Kazmir. That’s a full inning less that Shields. Going into the playoffs the Rays are going to need to keep the bullpen fresh. If Shields can give them 2-3 starts of 7 innings or more then it saves the bullpen for games when they’re needed (I.E. Kazmir’s starts).

In the next few days the Rays will clinch their first division title. They will celebrate, there will be swimming goggles and champagne. Then the critics will come out and poke little holes in the team and come up with reasons why they won’t advance. Let’s leave that for later. For now enjoy what has transgressed from April to September. From Kazmir’s seemingly ridicules playoff prediction in spring training to the proliferation of 9=8 t-shirts. From 0-14 in the minors to presumptive Rookie of the Year for Evan Longoria. From Class A to the show for David Price. It’s been a wild ride.

More to the TBA than just the majors....

If you type “Michael Taylor” into Google’s search engine the first site that pops up is for Michael Taylor’s Designs a furniture and accessories company. While my girlfriend would probably page around that site, in fact she may already have, that wasn’t the Michael Taylor I was looking for. Nor was the second link - an IMDB site for Michael Taylor (XII) the co-executive producer for Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the old one). The Michael Taylor I was looking for wasn’t even on the first page, nor the second.

It wasn’t until the third page of results that I had a true hit and it was courtesy of jeffcrupper.com. That is the beauty of having minor league baseball in your own town. Michael Taylor, 5th round draft pick for the Philadelphia Phillies, formerly of Stanford University is the newest member of the Wasteland Hall of Fame. As a matter of fact I think he might be the first inductee since I haven’t gotten around to writing about the others yet.

Unless you’re a member of his family, a Phillies scout or a Clearwater Thresher season ticket holder you probably don’t know who Taylor is, and to be honest before Saturday night neither did I. Taylor stands a lofty 6’ 6” and weighs in at 250 lbs. As my friend, Work Mike pointed out he looked like a “man among boys”. Work Mike is also convinced that he helped Taylor achieve his 3-4, 2 RBI night because he “pounded & locked it in” the fist bump before the game. Needless to say Work Mike is an interesting guy.

Taylor, who is working on finishing his degree from Stanford, drove in those two runs in a Thresher win over the Ft Myers Miracle. I hear you saying “What’s a Thresher? How is a Miracle a team?” Your confusion is not surprising we’re talking about the Florida State League, a class A minor league division that features mostly young players in their second or third league of pro ball. This is where the stars play before they are stars. Ryan Howard played 130 games here and hit 23 home runs. Chase Utley hit a pedestrian .257 in his one season in Clearwater. Cole Hamels was here long enough to break his hand in a bar fight down the road from the stadium.

Occasionally a rehabbing major leagurer will roll into town after coming off the DL. Jimmy Rollins was one of the latest to don the sand and red colored jersey of the Threshers. Most of the time the field is covered with fresh faced college kids or recently signed Latino free agents. They’re still learning how to be professional ballplayers, most of them having at best a half of season of rookie ball under their belt. The defense can be spotty, the pitching wild and the hitting suspect.

Despite the proximity to Clearwater‘s pristine white sandy beaches the players aren‘t looking to hang around here too long. They’re trying to beat the odds and crawl their way up the majors. The majority of the players are around 23 or 24 years old, much older than that and it’s probably time to start thinking about a new career. Unless they tear up the league early in the season most of these players are a season or two away from a September call up to the majors.

In the meantime, they spend most of the time learning. Even the players that have spent a few years in major colleges are still adjusting to wooden bats and A+ sliders. Power pitchers are learning that professional hitters can hit 95mph fastballs especially ones down the middle, so maybe its time to learn a second or third pitch.

Taylor is one of those hitters trying to adjust, despite his large frame he moves with an easy athletic grace whether it’s loping out to his position in left or gliding around the bases for a stand up double. His size is his most notable asset, during an inning change he towered the Thresher 3rd baseman Gary Cates who is listed at 5’7 on the Thresher website, but looked like a veritable Mini-Me standing next to left fielder.

The Phillies hope Taylor develops into a hitter with Ryan Howard type power. He still has some work to do, his swing seems a little long at this point, but he is starting to put it together. In May he was named the Topps Minor League Player of the Month for the South Atlantic League after he hit a scorching .363 with 7 home runs while playing for Lakewood. Since his promotion to Clearwater he’s only hit .252 overall, but it appears he’s starting to come around. In the 10 games between July 18th and July 26th he hit .351 with 4 doubles, a home run and 7 RBI’s.

The joy of minor league baseball is going to a game and “discovering” a player like Michael Taylor. By the time you see the players in Tropicana they’ve already been talked about, blogged about, chewed up and spit out by someone. Even when a player like Evan Longoria has a rookie season like he’s having now, it’s almost expected. Anything less would have been a disappointment.

So if you live in a town with a minor league ball team g out and see them. Just because they aren’t making millions yet doesn’t mean they’re not worth seeing. Besides it’s always fun to say, “Hey I knew he was going to be a star back when I saw him in Durham”. Or in Reading or Midland or Ottawa or any of hundreds of other towns across the country.

And remember - when you see Michael Taylor crushing pitches out of Citizen’s Bank Park in Philly, you first heard about him here.

A baseball post?

I had posted awhile back that I wasn’t going to write about the Rays unless they hit a losing streak or the All-Star break. It was nice of them to roll it into one package. The team thundered into the 4 day break with an impressive 7 game losing streak. Everything that could go wrong did. The offense remained dormant, the pitching faltered and the normally reliable defense scuffled a bit.

As quickly as the national media jumped on the bandwagon they jumped off. It took the Rays roughly 5 minutes to blow the 4 game lead they had built over the Red Sox. The “I told you so’s” are lined up and ready to go.

I told you they couldn’t handle the pressure
I told you they were too young to know how to win
I told you their offense wasn’t good enough
I told you their bullpen was smoke and mirrors

Well folks let settle down a bit. No one likes a 7 game losing streak, even a franchise that is accustomed to them like Tampa Bay. However, if there is ever a time for a losing streak it was right before the break. The majority of the team got to take a break. They got to put the bats away and decompress a bit. The bullpen, which has seen a lot of work lately, got to take a few days off.

Having a clean break from the losing streak should be beneficial for the young team. If this had happened in the middle of August the losses would keep piling on, each day more pressure to win, each loss garnering more negative press. Now that they’ve had a chance to shut it down they can start the second half of the season fresh and remain a factor in the American League.

So what do they need to do to run with the big dogs? Quite simply hit the ball. 4,0,1,2,0,4,2,2 - those are the runs scored by the Rays in their last eight games That’s not going to get it done. Neither is 5 for 58 with runners in scoring position. How do they change that? The overriding theory is by bringing in a right handed bat. The names that seem to be garnering the most notoriety on the internets are Matt Holliday and Jason Bay.

While big deadline deals are sexy, especially when you’re a buyer instead of a seller for the first time in franchise history, they don’t necessarily pay off in the end. The biggest deal in 2007, Mark Teixeira to the Braves for a gaggle of prospects propelled them to a fantastic 3rd place finish in the National League East. The teams that made the American League playoffs in 2007 all made minor moves. The eventual champs, the Red Sox, picked up Eric Gagne who’s impact was minimal at best.

From reports it seems the Pirates are asking for the moon for Bay and Xavier Nady. It could cost teams as much as 2 premium prospects to acquire either of them. The Rays could put a package together that would satisfy Pittsburgh needs, but would it be worth it? Assuming David Price is off the table, what would the reaction be in losing Jeff Neimann, Desmond Jennings or Reid Brignac? While Bay is a big name and a big bat his defense in the outfield leaves a lot to be desired.

In Holliday’s case the Coors Field factor has to be a consideration. Ten of his fifteen homeruns this year are at the friendly confines in Denver. His road average is a respectable .301, but is 56 points below what he hits at home. There is also his contract. He is in the first year of a 2 year $23 million contract. That would be a lot of money for the frugal Rays to invest in an outsider.

Most likely the offense will have to come from players already on the team. Carlos Pena, BJ Upton and Carl Crawford are the names that immediately jump out as ones who need to turn it up. Pena seemed to be warming up as he hit .294 with two homeruns in the nine games before the All-Star break. If he can stay healthy and provide the type of offense that justifies his large contract than it will be similar to picking up a new player.

Upton has slumped recently, hitting .190 in the month of July, but has been steady if not spectacular for most of the season. Coach Joe Madden may want to think about moving Upton to the leadoff spot. With his power numbers down and his walk numbers up he may be better suited to hit leadoff. That would leave Aki Iwamura without a spot in the line up, but as anemic as the offense has been it might not be a bad idea to try some players in different spots.

Crawford seems to be a victim of his own success. As the only bright spot for a dismal franchise for many years CC is suffering through his first down year. It was a year that many had high hopes for, including Crawford. He is a notorious streaky hitter and seems to be striking the ball a lot harder in recent games. If he starts getting on and wreaking havoc on the bases it will lead to better pitches for the heart of the order behind him.

There is still a lot of ball to be played this season. One losing streak is not the end of the world for this team, but they must find their offense or they face risk proving the naysayers right.

Skating on into the San Jose Sunset

The light is dimming on the Dan Boyle Era here in the TBA. Rumors began swirling around like storm clouds during the madness that is the beginning of the free agency period. With OK Hockey signing every available forward they could the payroll blew by their self appointed $48 million cap and has come to rest slightly above the NHL mandated $56 million cap. After the binging it was time to begin the purge.

Boyle is cursed with owning the largest contract by a member of the Lightning not named Vinny Lecavalier. The fact that OK Hockey had supposedly signed off on that deal has suddenly become a mute point. He’s also a valuable commodity. Puck moving defensemen are a rare asset in the new NHL. Which is of course why the 31 year old is getting $6.67 million over the next six years.

The rumors grew louder once Brian Campell signed with Chicago. The number one defensive free agent was off the market and several teams were left wanting. The Senators, Flyers, Thrashers and Sharks all became potential dance partners for the Lightning.

As reports surfaced on Thursday that the Lightning had officially asked Boyle to waive his No Trade Clause Ottawa seemed a likely dance partner. They needed a defenseman, they had salary cap room and a player the Bolts would like in return in Andrej Meszaros and Boyle was originally from the Ottawa area. That possibility, however, died at the hands of Ottawa general manager Bryan Murray who stated that the Boyle deal was “too rich for the Senators” according to an article in the Ottawa Citizen.

Atlanta, an interdivision foe, seemed an unlikely destination. Boyle seemed to relish sticking it to his former team (the Florida Panthers) and would probably do the same against the Lightning. Making another deal with Philadelphia seemed to be overkill as the two teams have seemingly made 864 deals in the past 10 years.

That left San Jose. After taking a night to sleep on it TSN reports that Boyle agreed to be traded to the Sharks Saturday morning. In exchange for Boyle and hard-rocking defenseman Brad Lukowich the Lightning would receive Matt Carle, a prospect and a 1st round and 4th round pick. Carle is the centerpiece of the deal, a 23 year old defender in Boyle’s mold. Getting back 2 picks would also give Ryan Malone’s dad something to do as head of Lightning scouting department.

Once this deal is consummated, TSN reports it’s only pending paperwork, the Dan Boyle Era will be officially over. Boyle joined the Lightning in January of 2002, plucked from the Florida Panthers for a 5th round draft pick. He had spent two unhappy seasons in Miami playing for a coach, Mike Keenan, that he “couldn’t stand to look at”.

His arrival in Tampa Bay signaled a changing of the tide in the area. No longer were lumbering statues securing the Lightning blue line. Boyle would be a key component in the build up to the Stanley Cup winning team of 2004. His ability to move the puck out of the defensive zone set the pace for Coach Tortorella’s “Safe is Death” style of play. His 67 goals in a Lightning uniform are a team record for defenseman.

The offense he provided offset any liability he posed on defense. Not everyone needs to be a rugged, hard hitting defense first player. The fact that Boyle could skate the puck up the ice allowed Lecavalier and Marty St Louis to surge forward and get set up in the offensive zone. That’s an element that the Bolts will be missing unless Carle can return to his 2006-07 form that saw him score 11 goals and add 31 assists. Paul Ranger, who would be the de facto number one member of the blue line, is able to move the puck more by passing than carrying it down the ice himself.

It’s always a sad day when a fan-favorite has to move on. The new ownership seems hell-bent on totally renovating the team that was built under the Feaster/Tortorella regime. By the time its done it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Lecavalier as the only remaining link to the Stanley Cup team. The lack of Feaster’s name in any report seem to indicate that the embattled GM is on his way out. With his removal the OK Hockey takeover will be complete. Will it be for the better? That’s still to be determined. At least there will always be the memories of Boyle zooming up the ice with the puck on his stick and his head up surveying his options. Deciding that he had no better options he kicked it into a seemingly higher gear and weave his way to the net. With a quick flick of the wrist the puck would be behind the opposing goaltender.

Mullets, Melrose and Merry Times are Here!

It’s been quite the busy week for the Lightning. New owners, new coaches, new contracts and exciting new talent. The impact of all these changes won’t be determined for at least another 3 months when training camp starts, but it‘s nice to be talking about hockey in June. As an organization there hasn’t been this much of an overhaul since the Art Williams’ days. Not that anyone ever wants to recall those dark days.

One thing has been determined right away. The guys at OK Hockey are going to be hands-on owners. After years of the Davidson Group spending most of the hockey season in Detroit it will be interesting to see how the area reacts to owners that want to dabble in their investment. As early as the trade deadline there were rumors of Oren and Len talking with other teams about players without Jay Feaster’s involvement.

With Barry Melrose replacing John Tortorella and former agent Brian Lawton taking over for Bill Barber as VP of Hockey Operations it must be feeling kind of lonely for Mr. Feaster. New owners have a tendency to want to bring their guys in to run the show and even though they’ve supported him so far it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see Feaster leave the organization within a year.

I’ll spare you the mullet jokes and the hate filled tirade against Melrose. I’m not sure why fans are getting as fired up about this as they are. Would they rather see Mike Keenan in here? He always gets along so well with his player, doesn’t he? The fact that Melrose hasn’t coached in over a decade could be a good thing. He may bring something new to the table. He doesn’t like the trap, wants to out work other teams and acknowledges the importance of a goalie. Sounds like an ok coach to me. It doesn’t seem that long ago that people were bemoaning the fact that the Lightning had hired some guy with no NHL head coach experience. That guy - John Tortorella and that seemed to work out alright.

Melrose will be able to build his team, a team which he said could be quite different from the one that took the ice last season, around young Vincent Lecavalier. Despite the fact he’s been in the NHL for a decade, Vinny is still only 28 so signing him to a nine year deal isn’t that bad of an idea. With his physical conditioning it isn’t a stretch to see him playing into his 40’s. Based on the preliminary numbers being thrown out there by TSN.ca ($8.6 million per year) he’s really only making a little more than a million more than he did last year.

The deal isn’t too bad and it’ll look even better when someone signs Marion Hossa to a similar deal. The same Hossa who has never scored 50 goals and is a year older than young Vinny. Lecavalier, as a center, is inherently more valuable to the team as well. He makes other players around him better whereas a winger such as Hossa needs somebody setting him up. My best guess is that Hossa ends up in New York, especially if Jagr plays in Europe.

Another free agent name getting a lot of play in the TBA blog-o-spheres is Ryan Malone. He’s big (6’4”), he’s a left winger and he’s racked up 20 goals or more in 3 of his 4 seasons in the NHL. The only problem - he’s going to be expensive. A GM would probably have to spend around $5 million a season for several years to lock up his services. Malone will be able to play several suitors off of each other - a scenario that almost always leads to a team spending too much money.

While the team promised to be active in free agency, aggressive is the word they used I believe, I don’t think Malone is a good fit. We’ll explore free agents more after July 1.

In short and with the exception of talking about Steven Stamkos, who I hope everyone has seen by now, that’s what the Bolts have been up to lately. The climb to the top of the division has only begun. They’re out of the cellar.

Don't fear the Mulleted One - Off Season Lightning Notes

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything on this page. I haven’t forgotten about you my loyal reader. Certain factors have kept me from updating this site. Chief among them being laziness of course, but as I’ve mentioned before I don’t get paid for this. I don’t even force you kids to suffer through advertisements. So if I post with Bill Simmons like regularity please forgive me.

Initially this was going to be a post about the Rays and their recent success , but with my uncanny ability to alter the course of events with my posting I figured I would leave that until a losing streak occurs on its accord or the All-Star Break whichever comes first.

Instead let us take a journey through the offseason of my other favorite TBA team – the Lightning. After all, it can’t really get much worse. Even though the NHL is embroiled in the midway point of the regular season it seems like the Lightning’s season has been over for about 6 years now. Not making the playoffs is almost as bad as another lockout. The Bolts haven’t suited up since April 5th which, if you look at the positive, means they haven’t lost in almost two months.

In the meantime, however, they have managed to keep their name in the news. The back page of the news, but any press is good press, right? Let’s start with the positive. With an assist from former captain Dave Andreychuk the Bolts secured the number one pick in June’s draft. Unlike the Buc’s they’re not being cagey about who they’re drafting. Multiple billboards in the TBA are sporting a simple message - Seen Stamkos? – followed by a website (www.seenstamkos.com) which is filled with a few YouTube videos of the tremendously talented center. Who owns the website, well the Tampa Bay Lightning of course. So don’t go swimsuit shopping Drew Doughty you’re not getting drafted by the Bolts.

If Steve Stamkos represents the future of the team then the eminent signing of their first free agent (which can’t be officially completed until July 1st) represents a dip into their recent past. It appears the Lightning and Russian powerhouse Evgeny Artyukhin have put their differences aside and have agreed in principle to a two year deal to bring the bruising forward back to the black and blue. The current brass envisions a crash line of Artyukhin, Chris Gratton and Nick Tarnasky punishing foes next season. It’s an interesting idea and may be the first line in the history of hockey to go through a season without scoring a point.

Interesting doesn’t begin to describe the last few weeks of John Tortorella’s coaching life. During what should have been one of the highlights of his career, coaching Team USA in the World Championships, he managed to possibly talk his way out of his regular paying gig. At the end of April news leaked out that Torts had offered his resignation to Jay Feaster during their end of season meeting. The mild firestorm was stoked by our favorite radio personality, The Big Dog, who mentioned and reiterated, and repeated that the coach cancelled an interview with him the same day the news leaked out.

The Canadian papers fanned the flames a little more by writing that Torts was pretty much done it was just a matter of waiting for the sale to OK hockey to be completed. The kicker to that story was that Oren and the boys already have a replacement lined up. None other than the mulleted one himself – Barry Melrose. This has been greeted by a less than enthusiastic response from the Lightning faithful.

This is not good. Not many coaches survive once the “he’s getting fired” reports start hitting the rounds. All he needs now is the vote of confidence from Feaster and his fate will be sealed. Other than Melrose there are a couple other candidates available now, from in house (Mike Sullivan) to the recently unemployed (Joel Quinville and Ron Wilson). For the past two seasons quiet whispers have circulated in print and throughout the electronic ether that Coach has lost the team. I’m not sure how much of that is true, but it gives the new ownership a convenient out.
Injured players have been an issue for the last few years as well and have also played a prominent role in the off-season. No less than three key players have succumbed to the surgeon’s scalpel so far this spring. Vincent Lecavalier has had his shoulder worked on, Paul Ranger must have thought it was a cool surgery because he had the same one about a week after Vinny.

If that wasn’t enough Jeff Halpern, the post trade deadline points machine, was busy leading his country to glory in the World Championships when Canada’s Rick Nash and Brent Burns decided his knee ligaments needed to be rearranged. After the hit (which was legal) Halpern was left with a MCL sprain and a ruptured ACL. While I’m here I might as well mention that the No Limits Fun Factory (where I work) has had more ACL injuries than any workplace I have ever heard about. No less than 6 people that I personally know at that place have had their knees redone. Well back to the Lightning.

It’s not yet known if the three players will be ready by the time the puck is dropped in Prague next fall, but if they aren’t the Bolts are going to have reach pretty deep into a very shallow pool of minor league talent. So let’s look forward to the next 3 months of off-time and pray to the hockey gods that things look up from here.

The Lightning Win (finally)

Well it looks like the Bolts will have the number one pick overall come June. So by October Steve Stamkos should be skating on the number 2 line. Good for them, it's a nice shining moment for an otherwise dismal season.

It will be interesting to see what kind of team shows up in Brandon for next season's training camp. Stamkos will come with the hype that follows a number one draft pick. Vincent Lecavalier will be coming off major shoulder surgery and possibly wrist surgery. It seems the goalie job will be Mike Smith's to lose and Kari Ramo might be in Springfield.

It doesn't look like the Lightning will be super agressive in the free agent market, possibly their biggest acquistion will be a vetern backup goalie (think Olaf Kolzig). Their self imposed salary cap prevents them from being a bidder for the likes of Marion Hossa. Look for them to find a 5 or 6 d-man and a winger along the lines of Michelle Oullett.

Let me be one of the first to welcome Mr. Stamkos to the TBA -- prepare for the apathy!