2008: Zach Puke vs. Gustavo Chacin

So the $1 bet on the line here is, who will get more wins this season, Zach Puke or Gustavo Chacin.

The Good News For Liam... Liam's mancrush Zach Puke is the early odds on favourite considering that Puke is projected as the Pirates' 5th starter for 2008 and Gustavo Chacin has already been put down into the Jays minor league system to begin the season.

The Good News For Ling... Liam's manrush is Zach Puke and Puke is awful. In 2007, Puke started 19 games for the Pirates and went 3-8.

In fact, the Pirates' website is already running a poll to see which dynamic arm could penetrate the team's starting rotation.

• Bryan Bullington
• Sean Burnett
• Phil Dumatrait
• Ty Taubenheim
• John Van Benschoten

That's pretty heady company for Zach Puke... to be considered in competition with for a starting role. In fact, by the Spring Training numbers it would appear that Puke is losing in his battle to keep a starting role to Phil Dumatrait and Ty Taubenheim but Puke is certainly ahead of Bullington and Van Benschoten. Sean Burnett has yet to even start a game in Spring Training so I'm going out on a limb and saying he won't replace Puke in the starting rotation for the big club.

So that means that Puke is struggling to keep his role, but how is Chacin starting the season in the minors going to position him as capable of winning this bet?

Chacin will likely be positioned as the Blue Jays' starting in waiting in Triple A and he will be waiting on one of the Jays pitchers going down and missing a start. With the Glass Princess A.J. Burnett in the Jays rotation, it is pretty safe to say that Chacin will eventually get his shot and get more then a handful of starts.

Call Puke the early favourite but this one is far from over.

This Just In... Jason Blake Is Horrible

So... um... Erin... let me ask you a question.

What's up with your boy Jason Blake?

At the beginning of the season your... wait this is the point where I would use the term mancrush with Bitch... puck-bunny-crush thought that Jason Blake would score 40 goals! 40 goals! After 67 games this season Jason Blake has 40 points! 40 points!

What's sad is he's 4th on the team in scoring.

Jason Blake... 12G 28A for 40 points

Good thing the Leafs have Blake locked up for another 3 or 4 years or whatever.

Jason Blake's goal production by season in his six full NHL seasons...

2007-2008... 12
2006-2007... 40
2005-2006... 28
2003-2004... 22
2002-2003... 25
2001-2002... 8

The 2008 Jason Blake looks an awful lot like the 2002 Jason Blake... crappy.

It Is A Tall Mountain To Climb

Sid The Kid returns tonight against Tampa Bay! Sid's current season stats...

Sidney Crosby... 20G 43A for 63 points (4th in overall NHL scoring, 1st in assists at the time of his injury)

At the time of Crosby's injury he was 1 point ahead of my boy Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin is now well ahead of Crosby and it will be tough for Liam's Crosby to catch up and save that $1 for this season.

Alexander Ovechkin... 52G 38A for 90 points (1st in overall NHL scoring, 1st in goals)

While Crosby has been out his teammate Evgeni Malkin has risen to superstar status, going from All Star late add-on to #2 in NHL scoring with an impressive 88 points.

Maybe Malkin plays better without Crosby?
Maybe the Pens are better off without Crosby?