On The Bleachers Central

The Past: The Toronto Maple Leafs are an organization that have been able to truly build their club from the ground up of late, and have been able to develop one of the most successful and competitive early rebuilding rosters of the modern era. They have been able to develop this franchise with an equal balance of three groups of players, which are: successful and prominent draft picks, which have flourished at the NHL level through their early stages, a handful of veterans signed to guide and educate these young players in their transition to the NHL, and keeping some of their core pieces from their 2013 Stanley Cup playoff run, to add some playoff experience for it’s future endeavours. Through the transition of going from what is sometimes referred to as a “basement team”, to becoming a competitive, playoff-bound team for back-to-back seasons, the Maple Leafs management have been able to lock up some of their most important players, playing internal parts to the t...

By: Tyler Walters Dustin Pedroia will make his return to the Red Sox lineup tonight at Fenway Park against the Braves.  The only problem with that is the Sox didn't have room for Dustin on the 25 man roster, until now. Boston pulled the plug on Hanley Ramirez Friday morning and he has been Designated for Assignment.  The club now has seven days to decide if they want to trade Hanley or release him. This comes as quite a shock to the baseball world.  Ramirez is currently in the midst of a slump but had a terrific start to the season. He's batting .254 through 44 games with six home runs and 29 RBIs. The most obvious thing for the Red Sox to do to clear up a roster spot would have to get rid of Blake Swihart.  Swihart was once the top catching prospect in all of baseball but after he was injured playing left field for the Sox in 2016 he hasn't seen much action. He played in six games last year and has only made 33 plate appearances so far this season....

By: Tyler Walters Other than taking first place from the Yankees, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez's comments about the Home Run Derby has been the talk of Boston baseball this week. Both players have put any theories of the two battling it out in D.C. this summer to rest.  For very different reasons though. Betts made head lines this week when he said, "Hell no," to participating in the derby.  According to the Boston Globe  Betts says, "I don't hit home runs in BP.  Can you imagine me going against Aaron Judge?" Aaron Judge has already said that he will not be participating in this year's Home Run Derby but the point still stands with Mookie as he describes himself as "not that kind of hitter." Mookie Betts turns on a 3-2 slider for his Major League-leading 16th home run of the season, a three-run blast to left in the 3rd inning #DirtyWater pic.twitter.com/MSNR8uCONI — TheRenderMLB (@TheRenderMLB2) May 23, 2018 As much as the ...

When it was announced last week that Robinson Cano had been suspended 80 games for using performance-enhancing drugs , the dark cloud that is steroid use  once again loomed over the game of baseball.   Cano, an established superstar and eight-time American League all-star, is just the latest of many MLB players who have been suspended for steroids over the last decade plus. Although  steroid  use has declined since its peak in the late 90s-to-early 2000s, the problem   somehow still exists in the game.   Why is this? How can the MLB still not find a way to stop its players from cheating? A growing opinion blames it on a lack of fear.   "If there's no fear in the game, there's going to be no way of stopping this," said Nick Swisher on FOX. Swisher was a teammate of Cano's on the Yankees from 2009-2012.   And he's right. If players aren't afraid of what will happen to them if they us steroids, why would they stop?    ...

By: Tyler Walters The Boston Red Sox wrapped up their four game set with the Orioles with a win Sunday afternoon. Their was a lot to be happy about this past weekend for Red Sox fans as the bats were great and the pitching was pretty good as well.  The Sox outscored the Orioles 21-12 in the series. Game one was dominated by David Price who through a complete game with only 95 pitches.  And had it not been for Manny Machado hitting a two strike, two out home run in the top of the ninth Price would have completed a shutout. David Price was dealing for the @RedSox tonight. 😤 pic.twitter.com/7eFkdH108i — Stadium (@WatchStadium) May 18, 2018 I'm still not sure what we're going to get out of DP this year.  He's had games like this where it looks like his only competition for the Cy Young Award will be Chris Sale. Then he's had the games like he did against the Yankees where he gave up four runs in the first inning and says that he can't feel his fingers.  ...

By: Conor Duncan          The series at hand between The Washington Capitals and The Tampa Bay Lightning is shaping up to be one of the most interesting series of this playoffs so far. After going two in the hole at home, Tampa has brought themselves back into the series with a 4-2 win in Washington to make the It 2 games to one in Washington’s favor.     Game 3 was absolutely dominated by The Bolts power play. Two of Tampa’s four goals were scored with a man advantage, and both goals came from the Stamkos - Kucherov - Palat line. The bolts were also 100% effective on the penalty kill, shutting down all of Washington’s power play efforts. Special teams was not Tampa’s only strength however, the Imfamous Lightning forecheck came out of hiding Tuesday night, making the game a little more physical and even led to a few scraps.      So what does this mean? By no stretch of the imagination are the Caps out of it. The series is still 2-...

By: Tyler Walters J.D. Martinez is absolutely mashing baseballs in Boston for the Red Sox and I can't get enough of it.  J.D. was the biggest offseason free agent acquisition in the MLB and I feel like he's kind of going under the radar because he's playing with the second best player in baseball (Mookie Betts). It's not that J.D. isn't getting recognition, because he definitely is, it's that he should be the number one story in baseball every day with how great he's playing right now. Martinez is batting .344 with a .631 slugging percentage and a 1.024 OPS in the 40 games he's played this year (173 plate appearances).  He's one of four players in the MLB with at least 100 plate appearances that is batting .330+ with a 1.000+ OPS (Mookie Betts, Manny Machado and Mitch Moreland are the other three). All that stuff is great but make no mistake, J.D. Martinez was brought to Boston to hit home runs.  And he's done that 11 times so far this se...