Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could The Canucks Land Mason McTavish?

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

In hour one, Mike Halford & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports including the possibility of the Canucks trading for Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish (3:00), plus they talk the Blue Jays historic home winning streak coming to an end with commentator Dan Shulman (26:13). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

All aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha! You're listening to Halford and Brough. I take accountability for where I put the ball. And I can be better. I know I can be better. And so I will be better. And here it comes from a also low driving ball.

And that's off the post. And it's for Veselinovich! So I will be better. Simon's career, he's gone deep, four games in a row. We salute you, our half inflated dark lord. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Vakers. 6.01 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is brough.

No wait, it's Josh Elliott-Wolfe. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Josh, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning.

Haliford and Brown for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, VCs First, and Trusted Choice for Dead Help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step What up, Joshua? I'm chilling. It's it's so early. It is so early every time I do this show. I'm like, ah, yep Ah, there's a 430 in the morning. Yeah, it's dark outside and I'm awake No, no big no, I was telling you guys I'm I'm yeah serious about my water consumption now. I'm a grown man

Yeah, I have real people water bottles Yeah, I did consider I finished a four liter milk jug today, and I considered filling it up and bringing it I'm a little disappointed. I'm just expecting the big water bottle. I'm sorry Ah the high jinx that are ahead for the remainder of the week it is a Wednesday Josh is in the chair with me until Friday. Guest list today. Let's get to that right away. Begins at 6 30. Dan Schulman is going to join the program. Play by play voice of the Blue Jays. Toronto's franchise record home win streak came to an end last night with a 5-4 loss to the New York Yankees in dramatic fashion. Jays are right back at it tonight though in the series finale. The rubber match against the Yankees, chance to win their second straight series out of the break.

We'll talk to Dan about all that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Jonathan Davis, no, not the lead singer of Korn, but rather hockey analyst, NHL analyst from Sirius XM NHL radio, west coast hockey analyst as a matter of fact, covers the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks. This after we had Dan Rosen on the show yesterday to do a bunch of the East Coast recaps to the Rangers and the Devils and the Islanders. Gonna talk to Jonathan Davis about the Kings

and those Anaheim Ducks. What's going on with Mason McTavish? Why is Mason McTavish in the middle of the rumor mill right now? We'll talk to Jonathan Davis at seven o'clock about all that. That's coming up in our two of the program. After Jonathan Davis at 7.30, Brady Henderson is gonna join the program.

Our ESPN Seahawks insider. Seahawks training camp begins this afternoon from the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. It is my favorite athletic center in Renton. We'll talk to Brady at 7.30 about everything you need to know about the Seahawks as they break camp. New quarterback in Sam Darnold, your guy. My guy. Sam Darnold is going to be there. He comes over from the Vikings, Cooper Cup from the Rams, and of course, new offensive coordinator Clint Kubiak comes on board as well. So we'll talk to Brady about all that at 730. Eight o'clock, it's

the Drancer, Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk right here at Sportsnet 650. Drantz has a new piece up at the Athletic, the Canucks playoff roadmap. How does Vancouver get back to the postseason? We'll get answers to that question from Drantz at eight o'clock. So we got a lot to get into on the show, working in reverse on that guest list.

Eight o'clock, it's Thomas Drantz, 730, Brady Henderson, seven o'clock it's Thomas Drantz. 730 Brady Henderson. 7 o'clock Jonathan Davis. 630 Dan Schulman. That scared the hell out of me. That was so scary. Did not see that coming. Did not hear it coming. I should have known but I didn't. 630 Dan Schulman is going to join the program. That's what's happening today. Ben, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online to bccsa.ca Ben Rice, Ben Rice and a tie breaking

home run in the top of the ninth yesterday. That after jazz Chisholm and Cody Bellinger also went yard. The Yankees beat the Blue Jays five four on Tuesday, snapping Toronto's 11 game home win streak in the process. Because we sing when they're winning, we will play the audio when they're losing as well. Here's what it sounded like when Ben Rice broke the hearts of Blue Jays fans. And it is gone into the Yankee pen. Ben Rice turns on one and gives the Yankees the lead here at the top of the nine. It was the first pitch he saw from Jeff Hoffman and he went boom.

And that was the game. Jeff Hoffman pitching his fourth time in five games, too. And he had gotten three saves before that. He had been pretty good. And then, yeah, it was not as good last night. Such is the life of the MLB closer. I'm not going to hang it on Hoffman so much. Those do happen from time to time, especially as you mentioned, you were pitching four and five

and he was basically out there every night in the last two games against the Giants and then the first against the Yankees. The opportunities were there for the Jays to win this ball game, despite the fact that Max Scherzer did not have a fantastic start four runs and five hits and five innings Didn't love his pitch location Where are you on Mac Scherzer right now? I

I think I like the Mac Scherzer experience. It's it's fun every time he pitches I'm like wow Mac Scherzer is pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays This is neat and then he starts pitching and I'm like eyes. He's an old man Mac Scherzer is pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays. This is neat. And then he starts pitching and I'm like, he's an old man. Max Scherzer. Now, it's not the same. The novelty of having him because of his Hall of Fame career is cool. But he seems like the same issues that plagued him right from the start and really the last couple of years.

They're not getting any better. And he's complaining. Complaining is not the right word, but I don't have another one. It's too early to come up with a better word. But complaining about the same sort of like pains and aches that he's having and the inability to hit the spots that he wants to hit. I'm almost like that might be your reality now as a 40 year old man. Like this is just kind of how you're like you hurt all the time

and your body can't do the things that it used to do. That being said, the Jays had enough opportunities to make up for Scherzer's sort of start. I think it was in the sixth when they made their rally, they could have had more runs out of that. Bichette leads off the seventh with a double. They weren't able to cash in on that. Schneider gets a walk in the eighth. They're not able to cash in on that.

And then Vlade got a lead off single in the ninth after they were down five, four following the Rice home run. The opportunities were there Josh, you just couldn't capitalize on them. Yeah, and so there was also a bases loaded moment where Vladdy came up earlier in the game too and he did not, he got out and the rally kind of ended there. So the, I think the focus when the Jays lose and it's kind of been overshadowed by the Jays not losing a lot they've been winning a lot of games has been Vladie jr. and I do think it's fair to be frustrated with Vladie especially this month like month

of July he has one home run he has four RBI and I dug into the numbers look at this I know I came prepared he loves loves doing the morning show on Why does digging into numbers? So among? 251 qualified batters okay across Major League Baseball, okay, Vlad E is the 26th lowest in average launch angle Haha 7.5 degrees okay, which is also the lowest on the blue Jays. Yeah for reference Cal Raleigh. He hits a lot of home runs He does he is the highest in the major leagues at 25.6

And on top of this the annoying part about that is that Vlad E hits the ball really hard He's he's top 20. I saw that stat on broadcast and exit Velo. Yeah, and so Theoretically, he should be able to like, hey, you fixed that launch angle a bit. You should be able to hit a lot of home runs. You should be able to hit for power more often. But this kind of been a theme throughout his career when he's not hitting for power is his, he can hit the ball really hard,

but his launch angle is often the issue. And I don't know how to fix that. I'm not a hitting coach, but that is the issue. Yeah, cause it's interesting, right? Because we talked about this prior to the issue. Yeah. And I don't I don't know how to fix that. I'm not a hitting coach, but that is the issue. Yeah, because it's interesting, right, because we talked about this prior to the show. And as I, you know, reference someone else on a rival network, Keegan Matheson from TSM last night threw it out there. He's like, you know, we'll say the quiet part out loud. They're doing this basically without Vladdy doing Vladdy things.

And the numbers are really pedestrian. And now, look, it does feel like Cherry picking to bring this up after their one loss after 11 consecutive home wins. And even last night, a very scrappy performance to claw their way back from a couple of deficits and make that a game going into the ninth. I think the issue here is that,

and this is one thing you can look at and you talk about exit velocity and swing launch or whatever. I mean, the Yankees put up their runs yesterday on the strength of going yard three times. And the Jays, which has kind of become their MO now, scratched and clawed and did old school, good old fashioned baseball, moved runners along,

drove in guys in scoring position. But it was absent of the long ball, right? It was a lot of what they've kinda been the bread and butter this year. And you just wonder that when you're paying a guy half a billion dollars, at what point he's gonna morph into the guy who comes up in these moments, which they have now, late July,

huge series against the divisional rival, and it's the Yankees to boot. How great would it have been if he could have had one of those moments last night where he just kind of takes the game over with a singular swing of the bat, and it's not happening this year. But he went three for five.

Yeah. I know, that's the thing. Like, it's like, you're paying a guy half a billion dollars, he goes, he bats 600 in a big game, it's like, great. It's a hard conversation, sorry, not to K.O., but it's a hard conversation to have because the team's having a ton of success. They're three games up on the Yankees in the division. And you love the brand of baseball that they're playing.

In a way, you could say, well, he's just doing what everyone else is doing, right? At the same time, I look further down the road, especially the postseason. It's like, when you have these sort of singular moments, it's the who can do things that other guys can't kind of conversation. That's where he that's why he's been paid so much money. Right. And, you know, ripping, you know, bloop singles and, you know,

knocking one to start an inning and getting on base. It's great. And he's playing the game and he's hitting. It's just those singular moments that have like. And again, we're going like, oh, Tony judged those kind of guys with their power and their ability to take over games with one swing that's what he went out of Vladdy. Yeah and there are times where like he could hit a bloop single and that's great again when the bases were loaded if he had you know just put one to right field got a couple runs in that would have been great but in a moment like the ninth inning last night where he's leading off your down

one getting a single just isn't enough for where you're at and obviously you can look at the the guys behind him and be like, he got on base with nobody out and you should figure out a way to get them home. But I do agree that, hey, if you're getting paid 500 mil, you should be more than just a guy that gets on base. You should be a guy that hits home runs, drives in runs, comes up in clutch time,

and he hasn't really been doing that, especially this month. He's got time left to figure it out, but it has not been a thing he's done well so far. He needs to be more like Ben Rice, right? Step up in the top. That's what I've always said. That was it. Okay. We got a bunch of things we want to bank through here in the intro segment. There was some NHL news yesterday and it happened just south of us in Seattle. Capo Caco, remember him? He avoided arbitration with the Seattle Kraken agreeing to a three-year extension with the Kraken. Average annual value of $4.525 million for a guy that I'm going to be dead honest,

I did not realize he had such an effective stretch with the Seattle Kraken after being acquired from the New York Rangers. Now, the numbers aren't going to jump off the page. It was a career high 44 points, but do consider that in his 49 games with the Kraken, he was a 30 point guy. And if you extrapolate that out over an 82 game season, it was a notable uptick in offense for a guy that,

let's be honest, being the second overall pick in his draft class has been a disappointment since he broke into the NHL. It always felt like there were roadblocks in New York. It does not feel like those roadblocks are in Seattle, but it also feels like he went to an inferior team and was given more opportunities and thereby started scoring. Any big takeaways on Kako resigning? I'm not a you know what?

I'm not going to have any big Kakao takes. I will say like I have an issue with with the crack and it's an elite talent issue and I don't know if like Kakao Kakao might help. He's a good player. But I my my issue with Seattle has been that they just don't have anyone that's legitimately like a game breaker. And I do think the only way you can get that is if you commit to being bad and it kind of feels like since their inception, the Kraken have committed to being mid. And I, so I guess when I, my, my Kako extension takeaway is that like, Hey, he's a, he's a fine signing, but outside of that, like I just,

I'm not inspired by anything, the crack and do. I always wonder in an, we're going to talk about like alternate universes and alternate realities, not in a general sense, but in the Canucks sense. We asked the listening audience yesterday for a bunch of, give us your Canucks, Mount Rushmore's and bar debates and you know, alternate realities where things could have happened. I always did wonder if the timing had been different, if Kako ever could

have been involved in the eventual JT Miller trade that went down in January. Now Kako got traded earlier from the Rangers to the Seattle Kraken, which was the second of the three major moves that they made last season. Trububa was one of them, then Kako, and then of course the JT Miller trade. Because the Rangers at one point were ripe for an overhaul before they started moving pieces out. Now, I'm not sure any of it would have ever fit. I think the Canucks did ultimately want a center coming back in return, and that's why Hedl came back.

But I always wonder if that would have been an ideal buy low candidate in large part because he's still relatively young. And avoiding Arb with a deal that pays you 4.5 million annually. I always wonder if that would have been an ideal by-law candidate in large part because he's still relatively young and Avoiding our with a deal that pays you four point five million annually not bad value for a guy that I do wonder if there's Not just a little bit more there But a lot more there because he was so roadblocked in New York and it just wasn't working Right no matter who the head coach was no matter who his line mates were just felt like He needed a fresh start somewhere and lo behold, he gets it in Seattle. OK, continue to move on here.

We played some Ranko Veselinovich audio in the intro. And you might be thinking, why? Why on earth would you do that? Terrible news for the Vancouver Whitecaps yesterday. Their captain, since Ryan Gould has been out with an injury, Ranko Veselinovich is going to miss the remainder of the MLS regular season after the club announced yesterday that he tore his ACL in their last match in San Diego. Now, after that match over the weekend, K-Man was working the show on Monday with

Jamie Dodd, and we had no idea the severity of the injury. All I knew was it was enough to knock him out of that San Diego match really early. He kind of tried to walk it off and then run it off and go back in. And he was unable to. And I remember saying at the time, if this injury is significant, it is a, not a borderline death blow, possibly an actual death blow for the Vancouver whitecaps to give you an idea of what this man means to that team. He was filling in as the captain

when Ryan Gould went out with his injury. No player has started more matches, played in more matches, played more minutes. He was part of the duo at center back with Tristan Blackman that many regarded as the best in MLS. They've been fantastic this year as a center back duo. And there's no easy replacement for him. I feel awful for the Whitecaps in a year

that has had so much up and down to it. The great play on the pitch, the numerous injuries. Getting to the CONCACAF Cup Final, getting blown out in the CONCACAF Cup Final. The looming specter of the club sale. Just feels like every day there's another major development with this team. On the injury front, they have suffered

a lot of them now, Josh. Ryan Gould hasn't played in months. Sam Adekube's lost for the year with the tour in Achilles. Now Veselinovich is out for the year with a tour in ACL. They're still missing Ali Ahmed. Very, very tumultuous season. Despite all this, they're still second place in the West, but this is a hammer blow for them.

And I don't know how they're gonna deal with this moving forward. Is there, so you know better than me, is there a world where they survive this? Like how, how much death do they have? This one hurts. This one hurts because Veselnil Andamich plays all the time, right?

If you just look at the, the only player that has been on the pitch more for the Vancouver Whitecaps in turn of minutes this year is their keeper, Yohei Takayoka. And that's because he at the the only player that has been on the pitch more for the Vancouver Whitecaps in turn of minutes this year is their keeper. You'll hate Takayoka. And that's because he never leaves the net. He plays all the time. Veselonovich is right there. They can survive it in the sense that it won't crater them entirely, but it's a it's a hammer blow, a death blow to any aspirations they had

to be a like a title contender. And I'm fairly confident saying that because one, they just don't have the depth behind them. They have Bjorn Utvik, who's been admirable filling in, but they got a great name. He does have a great name. He wears a rugby. Oh yes, Utvik. He wears a rugby scrum cap, which is fun as well.

But they've kind of resigned him to being the guy you put in in case of emergency. And now he's gonna be thrust upon to be a full-fledged starter. Also, they were looking at adding center-back depth when Veselinovich was healthy. They were tied to a young Canadian defender who appeared at the Gold Cup for Canada. And also with full-luke defusural, there were a lot of rumblings out there that they were making a bid to try and bring them over to MLS. That didn't happen. They might be able to find a stopgap signing because the transfer window opens on Thursday for MLS and it goes all the way through to the middle of August.

But even with that, you'll be getting a plug and play guy. It'll be like, you know, someone that can come in and kind of fill the job, but won't have the chemistry and the familiarity and like the role that he has on the team and in the room. He's been there for over 200 matches. He's one of the most longest serving whitecaps of all time. If you were to put together an all time whitecaps team, he would definitely be in the mix for a spot

because he's been here for so long and he's so durable and so consistent. But that's it for him for the year. Out with a torn ACL. Again, you wanna talk about a season that's been filled with so many highs and so many lows. This news comes right before four white caps are going to

play at the MLS All-Star game tonight, right? Blackman's there, White's there, Takayoka, and Sebastian Berhalter, who we had on the show yesterday. So tough one for the white caps there as Ranko Veselinovich is done for the year with a torn ACL. Now, moving on to a topic that we'll probably touch back on throughout the show today. Mason McTavish.

You may have noticed if you were surfing the internet yesterday that Mason McTavish was all over the place as it pertained to the Vancouver Canucks and quite frankly, a few other NHL teams as well. Speaking of Frank Lee, let's play the audio now. This is last week from Frank Cera Valley talking about exactly what's going on with Mason McTavish and why he's been the subject of some trade rumors out of Anaheim. Any talk of Mason McTavish getting moved? He's one name to watch for me, I think, moving forward. I think it's been a tough go for McTavish in Anaheim. I view McTavish just from a,

I don't know if mental standpoint, but body language standpoint is the right way to say it. I view him as sort of a bit of a depressed asset in the sense that I think a really solid player that has been beaten down by a lot of losses in Anaheim, that I view him as similar to Trevor Ziegres. I think a change of scenery would be good for him. I think there's a lot of teams that are interested.

I think some teams have tried to work on what an offer sheet might look like for Mason McTavish as it seems like that's one of those situations that's going to be a struggle much in the same way that getting that Ziegres contract was for Anaheim. But I, no one can really put together something on paper that they think is going to dissuade Anaheim from turning down, they're not matching that offer sheet just because the ducks have so much cap space. It's really hard to offer sheet a team that has a ton of space. So keep an eye on Mason McTavish though.

I think he's gonna be an interesting name to watch moving forward. So Josh, I don't know if you notice this or not, but yesterday in relation to this, Ben Kuzma, the province also had a fairly lengthy piece talking about the prospect of Vancouver acquiring Mason McTavish. We might be onto something here

in these dog days of summer. I mean, I do think of all the names that have come up that are like realistic possibilities, not that it might not be super realistic, but it does feel kind of realistic. Mason McTavish has been the most intriguing name to me. Now the thing that Frank mentions that kind of makes it an issue is,

A, the ducks have a lot of cap space, and B, he is 22 years old and why would the ducks want to move him? And I get that. I mean, we talk about body language all the time here in Vancouver. And I get it can be frustrating if you're the ducks, if someone is frustrated with losing and is showing it

and maybe isn't helping enough like Mason McTavish, you might expect him to, but that being said, I just don't see how trading him gets the ducks closer to their ultimate goal as opposed to keeping him and hoping he can be the answer, one of the answers in your top six. Do you have, or do you think there's any merit to continuing the conversation based on the fact that Verbeek did not draft McTavish it helps verbeek

Did also also didn't draft Trevor Zegris, and I do wonder I just want to I just wonder if In the sort of rebuild of the franchise and trying to take the step forward there's a bit of a clean slate mentality where trying to take the step forward, there's a bit of a clean slate mentality where perhaps he's not enamored with the guys that he inherited from the draft. Maybe it's McTavish and Zegras. And he thinks, if I can't win with these guys,

if I firmly believe I'm not gonna be able to win with these guys, maybe I can sell as high as humanly possible, especially on a guy like McTavish. Cause the return would be pretty massive, right? I think McTavish, the name, the identity, I'm gonna be dead honest, what he did with the World Junior team,

I think that still resonates big time with a lot of people, even though it was a few years ago. I wonder if there is something here that a team that's got enough assets can jump on. I also wonder, and you know, especially with regards to the ducks, if they don't necessarily see this as a step back, but something along the lines of, can we maximize value for this asset?

Now, here's the thing. Verbeek has spoken regularly and openly about, you know, the confidence he has that he's gonna get a deal with McTavish down. This could end up being one of those conversations that you have in the summer where an RFA is gone unsigned for a while and twists in the wind. The thing I don't know, and the piece that we'll try

and get to later, especially when we talk to Jonathan Davis, is what McTavish feels about all this. If he is maybe holding up the proceedings because he doesn't necessarily want to lock into Anaheim long-term. I mean, let's be honest, the first few years of his career in Anaheim haven't been spectacular. There's been more losing than winning. There's been some ugly hockey at times.

It's hard to see the light at the tunnel. And we have seen in the modern NHL, the player empowerment and the boldness of, hey, I'm a young guy, I kind of want to call the shots a little bit earlier in my career. I do wonder if that'll be a thing as well. Okay, we got to go to break. When we come back, we're going to dive back into the Jays talk. The play by play voice of those Toronto Blue Jays, Dan Schulman is going to join the program. You're listening to the Halford and 631 on a Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Josh Elliott-Wilfin for the vacationing Jason Brough for the remainder of the week. Three days of morning shows. I'm so excited. He can barely contain his excitement. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80%.

With no more interest, visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. The Blue Jays, their reign of terror at home finally came to an end last night. 11 game franchise record home winning streak in a tight, very dramatic affair last night against the Yankees. We turn our attention now to the Power West Industries hotline. Dan Schulman, play-by-play voice of the Toronto Blue Jays joins us now here on the Haliford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Dan, how are you? I'm doing great.

How are you guys doing? We are good as well. It has been a lot of fun to watch this team over the last while, really the last few months. And yesterday, despite the loss and the disappointment that goes along with it, was also a lot of fun. Even in defeat, Dan, the J's still showed a lot of those characteristics, the scrappy nature, the way that they play ball, despite coming up short, just another sort of embodiment of that ethos that they've had of being able

to scratch and claw and keep their way in ballgames. Yeah. And I think, you know, you used the word fun before you used the word good or win or first place. And I think that's what a lot of people are doing. They're saying, man, this team is fun. Like, and, you know, you know all the names. We've talked about it over and over how one through 26 every, you know, every night it seems they have a different guy contributing. They're going to have to keep getting those kinds of performances, right? Because they're a good team, think playing great but there are good teams on their tail right now but it is really fun you know one night it could

be a David Schneider one night could be a Will Wagner, Ernie Clement, Nathan Lucas, Miles Straw, whatever and the big boys to different degrees are doing what the big boys are are doing but it has been really enjoyable. The buzz around the city and certainly in the ballpark is palpable and a long way to go but they've put themselves in a really nice position right now. We saw Max Scherzer start last night and my take in the first segment of the show here was that it's just always fun when Max Scherzer is pitching for the Blue Jays because it feels surreal that Max Scherzer is pitching for the Blue Jays because it feels surreal that Max Scherzer is pitching for the Blue Jays. How much of an impact has he had not only on the field but on the team as a whole? I think a lot. So he and Chris Bassett were

teammates with the Mets. They were really good buddies and they're even better buddies now and they're always talking, pitching with one another. But you know our cameras you see it like one inning he's talking to Eric Lauer and then he's talking to Addison Barauer and then he's talking to Addison Barger and then he's talking to Miles straw. And then he's talking to Tyler Heideman and you know, that's all good stuff. I mean, he's done everything that a player can do

professionally and he's been everywhere that these players want to get. He's won a couple of world series championships. He's won us, you know, one Cy Young's and the whole thing. So I think he's got a great perspective. He doesn't get too caught up in streaks. It's just keep your head down, win the next game. And I think he's been good on the mound.

I know he gave up four runs in five innings yesterday. I think his stuff looks good. He's hitting 94, 95. I think he just came out and was all fired up yesterday. And it was, he was just unloading fastballs one after another. And I think the Yankees kind of wised up to it, uh, pretty early and, and, and got them, but he's been good and listen, they needed help, right? They had his spot, which was uncertain and then bound Francis's spot, which

wasn't going well at all. So now, you know, you've got him back and he's keeping you in ball games and you've got Eric Lauer doing an amazing job. So those two guys have been critically important to help stabilize the rotation and it looks like he's healthy, which is great the rest of the way. What can you say about the impact

that Addison Barger's made on the team this year? Enormous. So as you can imagine, not only in places like Vancouver and Calgary, but in places all around the US, I'm getting more phone calls to go on radio shows than when the team was in last place last year. Funny how that works.

So, you know, a lot of people want to know what's going on with this baseball team. And, you know, people, you guys see them a lot, right? So I know you guys know, but down in the US, like the first question is always kind of a general, so how are they doing this? You know, and so I talk about the one through 26 nature of the team,

but then the first two guys I single out, um, who are kind of big boys are, are Springer and barger. I mean, George Springer has been phenomenal offensively all season and barger has been an enormous, enormous part of this. If you go back, I think it's like May the seventh or maybe eight somewhere around that they're in Anaheim. They lose the first two games. Hoffman blows the save. I think in each of the first two games, they're down in the third game and somehow they come back to win it.

And then they go to Seattle, which you guys would have obviously played, paid close attention to. And that's when barger went off. That's when he started. I think he had, he might've had two doubles, two homers, six hits or something in the three game series, you know, born in the, in that area in the state of Washington had a ton of family and friends there and all that. They sweep the Mariners and ever since then that's the date of like 43 and 22 or whatever it is in the last 65 games.

And that coincides with barge are really getting hot. He had a great spring, probably should've made the team. Definitely should've made the team got caught in a numbers crunch, got called up, hit in tough luck for a couple of weeks but stayed with his process and eventually the line drives that were hitting gloves found grass or he elevated them a little more and they found seats and he's been huge. You know he's a power hitter, he's a left-handed batter which is very important in the middle of this lineup to split up all those righties. And I think the fact guys that he can play right field and third base has been really really important and maybe a little bit

understated on this team because John Schneider if he wants Lucas in the game, okay well, then you move Barger into third if he wants Schneider at second and Clement to third then you move Barger out to right likeider, John Schneider can do it any way he wants. And he can pinch hit at, when a lefty's on the mound, like say barger doesn't start tonight against free. He's coming in when they go to the bullpen. And he can pinch hit for a left fielder, a right fielder,

a third baseman or a second baseman. You can put them in wherever you want. Wait for the big spot with a couple of men on, okay, get them in early to try to get them an extra bat, okay. And they can figure it out defensively because of his versatility, Clement's versatility, Lucas's versatility. I've got Barger just a half step behind Springer

in terms of really, really big, big reasons why the Blue Jays are having a better year. Okay, well let's go there next. The resurgence of George Springer at the ripe old age of 34. You're getting all these calls and people are asking you like how are they doing it and how is this happening. I guess one of the first answers would be Barger and you know the impact that he's made. The other one I imagine would be Springer.

Yep. Yeah, George is the name I mentioned first and he's at the ripe old age of 35. 35. Yep. Yeah, George is the name I mentioned first and he's at the ripe old age of 35 35 35 and he's gonna be 36 before the regular season over is over Guys don't really do this all that much if you look around at players kind of 35 and over George Springer and Freddie Freeman have been the two most productive players that age there are way less 35 36 year olds who are regulars than I think people would think around the majors. They've rested him and they're stubborn about this. They'll sit him out and I think he's gonna play tonight but I'll bet you anything he rests the game

in the Tiger Series. They are really determined to make sure that he doesn't get worn down and now especially since Anthony Santander went out with the injury, Springer's been the DH like 80% of the time. And he's happy with that. He enjoys it. He thinks it keeps him healthier and more rested and makes him a better hitter, gives him more time to prepare, all that kind of stuff. And quite frankly, they've got better defensive options they can put out there. But what he's done at his age has been remarkable

because last year, when you see a guy in his mid thirties and there's a big decline, you just assume this is the start of the big decline and it's not coming back and it's come back like 200 points in OPS should have been an all star, had an all star first half. And, um, you know, he's a guy you want up in a big spot. Like you, you, you look at him, you say, okay, he's come through before. I believe he can come through again. And they got a few of those guys, Springer, definitely one of them. And I think also the fact that he's playing well, his energy in the clubhouse,

in the dugout, I see it on the road a little bit, like on the bus and on the plane and stuff like that, his energy is unbelievable right now. I mean, he's uncle George, right? To everybody, uh, on the team. And, and, uh, he's a big, big part of his team in many ways right now. We're speaking to Dan Shulman here on the hell for the breath show on sports net six 50 play by play voice of the Toronto blue Jays. So when you're fielding all these calls from all these different media outlets, Dan, how do you go about addressing the Vlad E. Guerrero Jr. conversation?

So you know, he's doing fine, but he's not close to being what you guys and I know he can be because he's been better right than that. So he's off. You can see he's off. I got asked, I think it was on the Calgary station yesterday, do you see any signs of him close to turning a corner? And my answer was no, I don't. Um, I would love to, I'd love to say yes. And John Schneider says yes. And I get why John Schneider says yes, but, but I don't, um, I know he had three hits last night. Two of them were soft singles. And I think if I'm not mistaken, the two big spots he was up in with men on base,

he didn't come through and his numbers with runners and scoring position and all that, they're actually pretty good. And his numbers with runners and scoring position and all that, they're actually pretty good. Like they're, they're not great, but they're not nearly as bad as I think the average fan would think they are. But I don't know what's going on. I haven't seen him like this. Joe Sittle, you guys may have been watching, talked about it

fairly extensively last night and thinks he's a little too passive. Taking first pitch fastballs. And then the next pitch is kind of a borderline slider on the outside corner. And that's the one he's swinging at. And it's almost like he just wants to, you know, he's happy to walk or line a ball to right field for a base hit. And that's all good stuff. But if it doesn't come with the home runs, then you're not getting what you need to get out of Guerrero.

And I don't know what it is. And I feel for him because he's got to be as frustrated as anybody. And we've seen what he can do in 2021 and 2024, especially the last half of last year, when he's right, you know, judges is one and Vlad is in the conversation for the second best hitter in the game when he's right, but he's not close right now. And, you know, there are a hundred, what is it? A hundred and three games in or something like something like that. Um, you know, 400 plate appearances in, I, I,

I'm baffled and I'm not a hitting expert. I'm not a hitting mechanics guy. And I think they have great hitting coaches. You can see that up and down the lineup, how many guys they have helped and how many guys are in a good place right now. But I don't know what it is with Guerrero, but if, you know, they could probably make the playoffs, even if this is how he's going to be the rest of the year, because other guys are going well and they put themselves in a good position in the standings, but for them to be good in the playoffs and have a

chance to make a world series, he's got, he's got to do more. It does feel like he's kind of adopted the team approach of what the J's are doing right now, or it's like, Hey, get on base and play small ball, find a way to get in runs that way, which is great for a lot of players on the team. But yeah, for Vlad, it's, uh, you have higher expectations for, for what he can do and what he can produce. What are, what are fair expectations, I guess, for him the rest of the way? It's a tough question because I don't know if he's going to be right.

Like it, like pretend we're having this conversation February 1st and you say, what do you think a good season for Guerrero is? I would say 330 homers, 100 RBIs. Now I'm using old school numbers, but if you want to use OPS or whatever, I would say the first digit should be a nine. Like he should be 900 and above. Major league average, I think is about 720, if I'm not mistaken. And I think the laddie's about eight 20 again, 90% of players would kill to have

the year Vladimir Guerrero junior is having, but he's always going to be judged by his talent and he's going to be judged by the contract. And that's just the way it is, even though the contract hasn't kicked in yet. So fair expectations, the rest of the the way I think he's got to be better than he's been recently hit a home run what day was it sunday right against the giants last game against the giants hit a home run walked and lined out hard to left field some good signs but then in the two games in the yankee series even though i think he's got four hits But then in the two games in the Yankee series, even though I think he's got four hits, nothing has looked like Vladdy. Like we're not even seeing the Rockets for outs or anything like that.

So I don't know how to answer the question. I'm not trying to dodge it, but I'm, I'm, it's really hard to know. Because this is, this is clearly the biggest mystery on the team. Like there's nothing bigger than this. And I'm not piling on here. Like he's doing fine. He's having a good season. He's a big mystery on the team. Like there's nothing bigger than this. And I'm not piling on here. Like he's doing fine. He's having a good season. He's a big part of this team. And I should say his defense has been really good this year, really good in my opinion, above average first baseman and his base running has been a lot better.

I think he's faster. Like look at that double East memory score from first on the double a couple of nights ago. And he's had fewer of the brain cramps on the on the basis, like not many at all, maybe two or three. So like he's playing good baseball. He just can't quite find it at the plate. And it's, as I said, I think it's the biggest mystery on the team. The other big guy, Bo Bichette, he had, he missed some time with an injury, but has been back for, for a bit now. What have you thought of his play lately? I think he's had a good season. The thing that Beau is doing great is driving in runs. His numbers with runners in scoring position are incredible. He heading into last

night, he was number one of the majors with a 400 average with runners in scoring position. So you look at things like his OPS, and I think he's around 740 or something like that, it's just a little bit above average. But then you look at all the runs he's driven in and the big spots he's come up in and produced. So he's been a very productive player. So by that measure, I think, you know, we don't talk about RBIs as much

because we focus on OPS and stuff like that more. RBIs do matter though. And Bo Bichette has shown, if you look at his entire career, that he is a quote clutch hitter, which I know is a phrase a lot of people don't think exists, but he's got like six years of evidence that he does better in high leverage situations than an average situations. And that matters. I like him in the cleanup spot.

I like him with men on base in front of them. I like the batting order the way it is now. And never in a million years could any of us have guessed that Nathan Lucas would be leading off against righties and Ernie Clement against lefties. But that's where they are. And I like it. I think Springer two, Gladdy three, Bo four,

Barger five, Kirk six is the best lineup they have had this year. I think Bo's had a good season. I think, you know, again, I think there's a little bit more in there, but he's second in the league in doubles and he's driven in 57 runs, so he's having a good year. We're speaking to Dan Schulman here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. We talked about this earlier in the week with regards to the manager, John Schneider, when you talk about there's no clear-cut Cy Young favorite in the rotation, there's no MVP candidate

in the lineup. Sometimes you look at the guy in the dugout and say, well, maybe you're in line for an award. Now, I think the betting markets right now have AJ Hinch in Detroit as the favorite twin manager of the year, which is interesting because they've got a four-game set coming up in Detroit after this Yankees series. But in your mind, how much consideration should John Schneider get for manager of the year which is interesting because they've got a four game set coming up in Detroit after this Yankee series but how in your mind how much consideration should John Schneider get for manager of the year right now? I think you should get some and there are a couple of months

left to play but to me the manager of the year award is kind of funny. You could kind and this works I do college basketball in the winter as you guys know and it kind of works this way for coach of the year in your league too. It kind of should be you know manager of the year in your league too. It kind of should be, uh, you know, manager of the year and in brackets say he who did the most with what we expected was the least at the beginning of the season. It's the overachiever, right? It's the overachieving award. I mean, you go into a season like Dave Roberts is, uh, and they've had, you know, 800 guys injured over there.

Dave Roberts is not going to win manager of the year. It's just not going to work that way when you got bets and Freeman and Ohtani, you know, top three in your order. So I do think John Schneider deserves consideration. I think AJ Hinch should be in the conversation as well. Joe Espada in Houston, I think should be in the conversation because I know Houston's good every year, but they've had an incredible number of injuries, especially on the pitching staff. So, you know, it could come down to, do you make the playoffs or not? Do you win your division

or not? But I definitely think he should be considered when a lot of people's first question about a team is, how are they doing this? Then your manager probably is going to get consideration for manager of the year. Okay. Real quick before you go rubber match tonight, what are you looking forward to? What are you looking towards with the Yankees and the Jays tonight? Well, I love watching Chris Bassett pitch against, you know, really good veteran teams, smart hitters. He was pretty good against them. He pitched the last game of the last series and it was a grind, but Chris Bassett knows how to grind and he got through five and two thirds, gave up three runs

on eight hits. Blue Jays won the game. Can they keep Aaron judge in check one more game they've done it for the first two and then Max Fried for the Yankees coming off a blister issue he's going to start but he hasn't pitched in 11 days will he be rusty will the blister be an issue you'd love to see the blue jays grind him have some of those at bats get get them out of the game, you know, after five, five and a third, not let him get into the seventh inning or anything like that. So they'll have a lot of righties in there. Would love to see David Schneider get in on the fun. He's been good since he's come back hitting lefty.

So maybe look for him to do something. But it's a big game. You know, the one one little side note, I mentioned it last night. You guys may or may not have heard one more win for the blue Jays over the Yankees and they win the season series. And that may be nothing, but that may be everything. That's the first tiebreaker.

There's no such thing as a one game playoff under any conditions anymore. They do not exist anymore. So, you know, if the Blue Jays and the Yankees were to finish tied for top spot in the East, whoever won the season series, wins the division. It's six, what is it? It's six, three blue J's right now. They've got this game tonight and three more in the Yankee stadium at Yankee stadium in September. Uh, wouldn't it be nice if they clinched the tiebreaker

tonight and didn't have to go into that series knowing they had to win one to get it. Those inter divisional games always mean a little bit more. Dan, this is great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Have a good call tonight. We'll do this again soon, hopefully. All right guys. Thanks. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Dan Schulman, play by play voice of the Blue Jays here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I do want to turn our attention back to conversation we had off the bat and the focus of our video contribution to Twitter this morning. You can check it out now sportsnet 650 on X. Are you an X guy? No I

actually hate saying it and I hate myself when I say it. Didn't sound right. It sounds weird, sounds odd. Mason McTavish. So this is a conversation that might be born out of the boredom of summer and the fact that there's not a whole heck of a lot going on. But if you start connecting the dots here and there and everywhere, and we're going to talk to Jonathan Davis, serious XM NHL radio insider, covers the Ducks and the Kings pretty closely about McTavish. His name is out there. He remains unsigned. No one's 100% sure exactly what's going on in Anaheim. The Zegress move raised some eyebrows because it felt like

Verbeek was moving on from some of the stuff that he inherited from Bob Murray as the general manager. Also yesterday Vancouver provinces very own Ben Kuzma wrote about the prospect of the Canucks getting in and acquiring McTavish. Again, is this one of those slow summer stories? Who knows? But here's what Coos wrote.

McTavish has the potential to become a reliable 30 gold producer and tough to play against. However, he has yet to reach contract extension terms, and that sent suitors into a summer tizzy of what it would take to pry him away. Everything from offer sheets to multiple players and draft picks. The Canucks would salivate at the prospect of adding the six foot one, 219 pound McTavish to help solve their riddle in the middle.

But at what cost? Probably a roster player, prime prospect and a pair of high draft picks. So the conversation's like fully out there. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm gonna be dead honest, I don't think anyone has a really good feel for exactly what Anaheim's doing.

They do largely exist off the radar. They're not a team that jumps the front of mind very often. And they did make waves when they finally, after it seemed like months of rumors about it, traded away Zegras. That did feel more telegraphed though, right? Like Zegras had kind of been in trade rumors for a minute and he's 24 years old, a couple of years older.

I don't know. Like if McTavish is legitimately available to me, that's the guy that I go very hard after if I'm the Vancouver Canucks. I'm kind of with you on that. And it does speak to where the Canucks are at in terms of pressure in market to turn things around, the obvious glaring hole down the middle, and the fact that if you were to put together

a package of things, I don't know who the roster player would be, but they do have some prospects available. They do have draft pick capital at their disposal. And here's the thing, I hate throwing around the term desperate, but they are desperate to do something. There's no question about it. And a move like McTavish would be different than say picking up someone in free agency or making a trade for a more veteran player because of the relative young age, those are the kind of players that don't come around

available all that often, right? They come available in the draft, but once they've been selected by a team, they're often locked up for a concealer room on a term. And this could be an opportunity that the Canucks haven't had in the past to get in on a guy that's, you know, it was Frank Sarvali,

we played the audio in the opening segment, might be a bit of a distressed asset. Of course, this could all be a moot point because all it takes is, and I would imagine it's from the duck side of things to kind of relent on where they're at with their contract negotiations. Just say, pay the young man, give him his money,

he's gonna be a cornerstone player for us moving forward. Okay, we gotta go to break. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. From warehouses to washrooms and everywhere in between Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy clean and disinfected for a free quote visit them online at Jan Pro dot CA our one is in the books We're gonna kick off our two coming up next with Jonathan Davis West Coast hockey guru from Sirius XM NHL radio

We did a bunch of East Coast teams yesterday with Dan Rosen from NHL.com, including the Rangers and the Devils and the Islanders. We're going to do Kings and Ducks coming up next and ask a little bit more about Mason McTavish and Anaheim. That's with Jonathan Davis. Coming up on the other side of the break, you're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.