"I Love Trade Deadlines. I Like The Whooshing Sound They Make As They Fly By."

We assume that's J.P Ricciardi's take on it at least. Another trade deadline past, another year of no deals. Does J.P Ricciardi have something against the trade deadline? Maybe it was on a trade deadline many years ago that Ricciardi first had his heart broken, or perhaps it was on one fateful deadline day that his faithful dog Sparky ran away to join the circus.

Who knows. We certainly don't. What we do know is that the Jays are in trouble. They've chosen an inopportune time to swoon, as the Yankees and Red Sox continue to surge ahead. The Jays deficit currently stands at six games behind the aforementioned Yankees for first in the division. That's a tall order for a team that considers it a huge achievement if they can string three wins together.

The Yankees made a move though (of course the Yankees made a move), picking up Bobby "I Won the Home Run Derby Last Year, Honest" Abreu and pitcher, Cory "Former Blue Jay" Lidle. They also spanked A.J Burnett around last night, winning 5-1.

The Jays are struggling, and these are the games the Jays have to win. Every game against Boston and New York is huge now, and they can't afford to waste them.

In other news, and you can file this under "There's Something in Detroit's Water", the Red Wings have signed Dominik Hasek. Again. They didn't learn their lesson the second time?

Apparently he's going to get the starters job, which bodes poorly for this franchise. And let's not forget that this is the same team that was thinking of handing Eddie Belfour a contract.

So what, at the beginning of the off-season did the GM sit down and say, "Ok guys, let's go out there and sign the oldest, fragilest goalie we can find!" because that certainly seems to be the game plan.

And what exactly was wrong with Manny Legace? He had, by all accounts, a very solid season. So what the team goofed in the first round, you're going to lay all the blame on Legace?

63 Years is skeptical, to say the least.

Also, Raptors GM Brian Colangelo has fufilled his promise of completely overhauling the roster. He just forgot to mention the part about him building the team to compete for the Euro League title.

Toronto hasn't seen this many European immigrants since they were giving away free land out west.

The Raptors will be better this season, it won't take much to top last year's effort, but we have yet to be convinced that this is a team that will make the playoffs.

Until then,

Jason