Awkward back to school photo week

Hey good looking!

Ron Wilson is on the hot seat this season

No question the honeymoon is over for Ron Wilson this season. He has got to produce or he will be gone. A lot of things are working against Wilson. When you look at what happened with Lee Stempniak, you begin to wonder. A former 27-goal scorer with St. Louis, he scored just 25 goals in 123 games with the Leafs. Then when traded to Phoenix, he scores 14 goals in just 18 games. If he continues to score at a similar pace this season, you begin to wonder why Ron Wilson couldn't take advantage of his scoring ability.

1. His track record

Wilson has coached 1255 regular season games in the NHL with a 582-499-101-73 record. That's pretty good but what have you done for us lately? With the Leafs he has been just 64-73-27 with 24th and 29th finishes. Not so good for a coach being paid #1.4 million per season. With the Mighty Ducks it took him four season to get into the playoffs. The Capitals were a playoff team in his first season. He got into the playoffs in his second season with the Sharks. But the Leafs who haven't been in the playoffs for six season there can be no more waiting. But his playoff record is not too impressive just 47-48 with no Stanley Cup and only one appearance in the Finals 13 years ago.

2. Leaf talent and depth

Let's face it the Maple Leafs finished below every team but the Oilers last season and they didn't undergo a major rebuild in the offseason. They added only Kris Versteeg as a top 6 forward so they will be relying on inexperienced players like Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri to turn the team around. Good luck with that one. Certainly the late season trade that brought Dion Phaneuf will help and hopefully Jonas Gustavsson's health issues are behind him. There just isn't a lot of top end talent here. There isn't really going to be much depth on the farm team waiting for a call. Last season the Leafs drained the Marlies of their top talent and by the end of the season, tough guy Andre Deveaux was top goal scorer.

3. His personality

Ron Wilson is prickly and abrasive. So basically he is fine sending out barbs but doesn't like to receive them. His rant with Fan reporter Howard Berger last season was embarrassing. He has no problems calling out players publicly and denies that he has problems getting along with his players. He repeated that denial this summer when Tomas Kaberle's father was quoted in the Czech news stating the coach couldn't see how anyone could get along with Wilson. There is no question that Wilson is not a player's coach. So with the limited talent he has to work with, will be able to get his players to give him a maximum effort in order to make the playoffs. The players understand that a poor start would likely cost the coach his job. There won't be any tears shed if that happens.

Robbery suspects takes coffee break in the middle of getaway

A suspected bank robber apparently opted to forgo his getaway in favour of a cup of java Friday, a move that eventually led to his capture in a Peterborough, Ont., coffee shop.

Police say that at about 10:30 a.m., an older man approached at teller at a TD Bank in the small Ontario city and said he had a weapon.

After getting an undisclosed amount of money the suspect fled in a cab.

While police were investigating at the bank, the cab stopped at a nearby Coffee Time, where the suspect jumped out to grab a coffee.

That's where police caught up to him, just as he was walking out of the restaurant.

Cashier Ella Zhang said employees were told to lock the door as police, jumping out of their cruisers, pulled their guns on the man.

“I was really scared,” she said.

William Gray, 62, is charged with robbery. He is to appear in court Saturday.

Hey this is Peterborough we're talking about. A good union town. When it's break time you stop what you're doing, whether it's replacing a muffler, doing a triple bypass or robbing a bank. But this guy must have one hell of a java addiction. He runs into a Coffee Time when there is probably a Tim Horton's two blocks down the street.

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Bosnian Rambo vs. Nude Jew On Shrooms

Who do you like edžad Kličić, Bosnia’s Rambo or the nude Jew (except for dishwashing gloves) on shrooms with two .357s?

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Sign of the day

They are even fighting in the stands of the U.S. Open

You gotta love New Yorkers! The would fight over a lawn bowling match.

NASA satellite view of Hurricane Earl

I want this bug-eyed primate!

Rogers is out to screw the public again

Rogers Communications is as evil of a corporate entity as exists in Canada. Every business decision they make more or less reinforces this view. Despite the fact that I purchase about $250 in services each month from them, they continually come up with schemes to get me to pay more for the same services. Restructure plans with penalties to coerce you to move to a more expensive plan is my favourite.

I hope their latest scheme blows up in their corporate faces. Back in May the Jays (a Rogers asset) announced that they had bought back the 25 games destined for TSN so that all 162 Jays games “will now be broadcast exclusively by Rogers Sportsnet.” We naturally assumed that meant all games would be on Sportsnet, not shared with a channel that didn’t even exist at the time.

But surprise! We find out in late July that 25 Jays games will be broadcast on a new channel, Sportsnet One, including 17 games in September. Sportsnet One is currently available for free until October at which time it will cost me more even though I was already paying a lot of money. Free? I thought I was already paying for this coverage. But if you are not a Rogers Cable subscriber Sportsnet One is not available at all. A bit of payback no doubt for the TSN2 launch which initially didn’t include Rogers subscribers. So for many Jays fans there are virtually no Jays games on TV this month.

Each time Rogers pulls one of these “let’s see how I can more of their money” scheme I pull out my bill and see what service I’m prepared to live without. Maybe soon I may learn to live without Rogers altogether.

Auto Insurance Reforms: Money is the mother's milk for fraud

While talking about the abuses in Ontario’s auto insurance system Finance Minister Dwight Duncan was quoted, “Money is the mother's milk for fraud. You tell me a better way to stop fraud than cutting the money off.”

The cost of assessments in the auto insurance system has been growing at an incredible rate of over 50% per year for the past five years. Treatment costs have been growing at 20% per year over the same period. Last year insurance companies forked out over $900 million to pay for assessments and over $1.1 billion in treatment. These figures are all publicly available. But the number of people hurt in car accidents is roughly just 60,000 and most have very minor injuries. That means that health care providers are billing about $30,000 for each person hurt in the accident. For the 6 million or so vehicle owners this adds up to well over $300 per car just to pay for health care. This covers just the health care costs and not the other benefits. Meanwhile in the rest of the world, people get by just fine with a fraction of this amount of treatment. Wait, that’s not the end of it. It takes people in Ontario much longer to recover from car accidents.

Without any rationing of health care in the auto insurance system, services are supply driven. As a consumer and accident victim you just follow the direction of your health care provider. You trust their judgment. So providers will continue to provide you with services to the limits of your coverage which up to now have been quite high. When it comes to insurance many people don’t seem to understand the relationship between the cost of their claims and the premiums they pay. As more and more people (through their heath care providers) submit exaggerated claims, the rest of us pay the price through higher premiums. Insurance companies will make a profit irrespective of the cost of claims. Like any busy the cost of doing business is passed on to the consumer along with a profit margin.

Duncan’s approach has been to reduce coverage to more reasonable levels to control some of the abuse in the system. Insurance payments are on top of what is available through OHIP so you don’t need as much coverage in most cases as has been provided. You can also sue an at-fault driver for health care in excess of the coverage limits.

So will cutting off some of the money curb abuse? If it does we have a chance for some rate relief. There are millions of drivers who never have accidents and are stuck paying high premiums so that a group of providers can have a very nice standard of living. These providers will not give that up willingly.

More futile Middle East peace talks

Here we go again. Middle East talks are on again after a hiatus of almost 2 years. Oh yes and the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians have committed to a 12-month time frame. It seems I’ve heard this all before. Back in early 2008, President Bush promised a peace settlement in 12 months. We know how that ended.

I personally don’t believe there will ever be peace. The parties have had opportunities and let them slip by too many times. But the main reasons are that neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have much or any mandate to make peace or make any concessions that might lead to peace. Netanyahu was forced to cobble together a coalition of right wing and religious parties following the last Israeli election. His coalition partners are not advocates for mutual coexistence with the Palestinians or a peace settlement. Some firmly believe that Israel should be gobbling more Palestinian land for Jewish settlers. As for Abbas, well any settlement he reaches will not be honoured by Hamas or their Iranian sponsors. In fact Hamas does not recognize Abbas’ authority at all. So what’s the point of meeting?

As for the outstanding issues, there is nothing new here. No break through on any issue is conceivable. Their differences are:

· Control over Jerusalem, both sides want the city as its capital

· Access to fresh water from the Jordan

· Drawing up borders

· What happens to existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank

· The right of Palestinians to return to land in Israel they owned before 1948

· Recognition of the sovereignty of both states

The radicals control the agenda in the Middle East and they never show up at the table to negotiate. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was bang on when he declared today that peace talks were doomed. Negotiate is just not in their lexicon.

New York jumper survives 40 story fall

New York, New York, the city so nice they named it twice. With all it's skyscrapers and subway lines you have quite a choice when it comes to ending it all. Do you jump off a tall building or in front of a subway train? Well Todd Magill chose a skyscraper but lived to tell about it. Seems he happened to have landed on somebody's parked sports car.



Todd jumped 40 floors to what probably should have been certain death, only to wind up with only a broken leg, collapsed lung and shattered ankle. Oh, and he totaled Guy McCormack's 2008 red Dodge Charger (above).

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Paris Hilton undermines her own defense

So after Paris Hilton got busted with some blow in her purse, she claims the other contents of the purse was hers but not the purse and the cocaine. A pretty lame defense in a drug bust. Well, things got a little lamer. Seems Paris earlier this summer sent out a Twitter feed showing everyone the new purse she bought. It looks the same as the one that she got busted with. Oops.

Salma Hayek is 44 today (talking about her age)

In the 1995 film Desperado



Discussing her breasts with David Letterman



Salma earlier this week in L.A.

Smoking 2-year old quits

The tubby Indonesian toddler who caused a sensation last spring by enthusiastically puffing on cigarettes in a widely viewed video has quit smoking, according to media reports.

Two-year-old Ardi Rizal of South Sumatra, who reportedly smoked 40 cigarettes a day, has broken his nicotine addiction through a 30-day rehabilitation program, the Jakarta Globe reported.

According to earlier reports, the child was placed in state custody after the video below emerged and the boy’s parents said he would cry and throw tantrums if he went too long without smoking a cigarette.


Smoking Baby Hooked on Cigarettes - Watch more Funny Videos

I understand the kid is also prohibited from watching Mad Men until he turns 18.

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I want one of these otters

Is this a ghetto version of Red Rover?

And now a word from Rodney King...

Parents sue school for not warning student that electrocution is dangerous

The family of a teenager whose heart stopped after clamping electrical cord to his nipples is suing the school and the teacher, saying the boy suffered brain damage.



Last March, Kyle Dubois, 18, put an alligator clamp on one of his nipples, with a classmate placing the clamp on his other nipple, while a third classmate plugged the cord into the wall. For three seconds, Dubois endured the electrical shock, dropping him to the floor and stopping his heart. The teacher, Thomas Kelley, said he was talking with another student when Dubois shocked himself.

"I was talking up my fantasy baseball team with one student and the next thing I know there was a commotion," Kelley said. "I look and I hear an ‘Ouch.' I look and there's Kyle going to the ground." Dubois parents say Kelley failed to warn the class about the dangers of playing with the electrical cords.



In the lawsuit, Dubois is described as suffering from "short-term memory loss" and "brain damage." The suit also alleges Kelley frequently left his students alone "for up to 20 minutes at a time." Kelley resigned from his job in April.

What's next? Signs in the bathroom warning students they might drown if they stick their heads in the toilet. Eating cafeteria food might make you put on weight? Not studying for your exams might affect your grades? Having unprotected sex behind the portables could lead to pregnancy?

Cheerleader sues wrong company, will end up with nothing

A cheerleader who thought she had won $11 million in a defamation judgment against a gossip website may have the result nullified because her lawyers sued the wrong company.

National Football League cheerleader Sarah Jones, who is also a teacher, meant to sue TheDirty.com after comments on the site in December suggested she had an affair with a player and also contracted two venereal diseases. The site is run by Scottsdale-based Dirty World LLC.

But due to a clerical error the complaint named the offending website as TheDirt.com - which is owned by Los Angeles-based Dirty World Entertainment Recordings. US District Court judge William O. Bertelsman on Wednesday ordered Los Angeles-based Dirty World Entertainment Recordings to pay $1.12 million in compensatory damages and $11.2 million in punitive damages for failing to respond to the lawsuit filed in February.

But it appears Dirty World Entertainment Recordings was incorrectly named in proceedings. Jones' attorneys should actually have been suing Dirty World LLC. TheDirty.com founder Hooman Karamian was named in the complaint but said neither he nor his company was was ever served in the case.

Don't be blaming me for promoting a stereotype. Blame the dumb blonde cheerleader and her dumb as dirt lawyer. Was the lawyer a cheerleader in high school? Funny how the company doesn't respond to the lawsuit. I guess Perry Mason didn't bother to check out why. That must have been some party when they got the $12 million damage award.

Signs of economic recovery week

Sign of the day

Discovery Channel gunman demanded an end to human breeding

A man who railed against the Discovery Channel's environmental programming for years burst into the company's headquarters with at least one explosive device strapped to his body Wednesday and took three people hostage at gunpoint before police shot him to death, officials said.

The hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — were unhurt after the four-hour standoff. Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said tactical officers moved in after officers monitoring the gunman on building security cameras saw him pull out a handgun and point it at a hostage.

An explosive device on the gunman's body detonated when police shot him, Manger said. Police were trying to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks the gunman had also contained explosives.

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing said authorities had identified James J. Lee as the likely suspect. Police had not released the gunman's identity.

His website: http://www.savetheplanetprotest.com/ lists his demands including stopping humans from breeding to save wildlife. Sad but true. The list of demands apparently dates to 2008, when James Jay Lee was arrested for disorderly conduct while protesting at the Discovery Communications building.

Doctor found dead in boyfriend’s chimney

Dr Jacquelyn Kotarac died of asphyxiation when she tried to sneak into her ex-lover’s home via his chimney, at Bakersfield, California.

William Moodie, 58, had refused to let her in via the front door.

He had then, to avoid confrontation, left the house without her knowing.

Meanwhile, using a ladder, the 49-year-old climbed onto the roof. She took off the chimney cover. She stepped into the chimney flue.

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Man replaces ex-girlfriend with custom-made sex doll

A sex-starved businessman was so hung up on his ex-girlfriend after she dumped him that he paid $18,000 to recreate her as a life-sized sex doll.

The 50-year-old man put together a collection of photos of his ex and told Italian adult toymaker Diego Bortolin: "I want it just like her but with bigger boobs", Italy's Il Messaggero newspaper said.

Mr Bortolin, who hasn't named the man, creates extremely realistic sex dolls at the factory behind his shop, named "Temptations" in English, in Treviso, Italy.

"She was a smiling blonde girl but he wanted bigger boobs and a curvier backside," Mr Bortolin said. "Our normal dolls are very realistic and everything works just like the real thing.

Mr Bortolin said he usually charges around $US5000 for the dolls, but that this particular project was more expensive "because we had to replicate everything, right down to the shape of her nails and teeth".

The doll weighs 58kg and is about 1.6m tall. Mr Bortolin said the doll is fully flexible and can take on any movement or position a human can.

"She is now the perfect girlfriend as far as I can see," Mr Bortolin said.

With that kind of money you would think the guy would spring for a whore once in a while. $50,000 would buy a lot of prostitutes, unless you're Elliot Spitzer. I hear the doll has now also left him.

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Russians hold annual sex doll race

More than 500 people rode inflatable sex dolls down river rapids at the eighth annual instalment of a bizarre but popular Russian race. The competitors - and their odd props - spent three minutes hurtling down the Vuoksa River's Losevo Rapids in the Bubble Baba Challenge.

The word "baba" is Russian for "peasant woman," but is also a crude term with sexual connotations. Men and women both took part in the challenge - with a separate heat for women-only racers.

The race was won by St. Petersburg man Vladislav Pavlenko who rode his doll, dubbed "Vanilla Pelotki," to the finish in two minutes and 47 seconds. The event was dreamed up by organiser Dmitry Bulawinov who conceived the idea as a joke at a party where the men got drunk and the women failed to show up.

The event was first held in 2003. Participants must be over 16 years old and are tested for alcohol. The competition's charter allows the replacement of the rubber doll with an inflatable animal or a rubber penis of an equivalent size.

The strange case of the puppy killer

On Monday, this graphic video of an unknown girl throwing puppies into a river appeared online, much to the consternation of internet-using animal-lovers everywhere. There is some evidence that she is in Serbia and police are trying to track her down. PETA has offered a $2,000 reward. Then director Michael Bay offered a $50,000 reward. People have been posting death threats.


Warning: This is a graphic video! Don't watch it if you don't think you can handle animal abuse.



Then this was posted on the Internet.




UPDATE: Police in Bosnia say they believe they have located a young woman shown in a video throwing puppies into a river. The girl is a juvenile and her parents will soon be questioned, police said. Under recently adopted animal protection law, people can be fined up to $6,400 for cruel treatment of animals.

This is why you don't wear diamonds to a football practice

Don't you hate when you're going about your day and, suddenly, you realize that your $50,000 earring fell out of your ear at work? It's the worst! So you can imagine how Miami Dolphins defensive end Kendall Langford must have felt on Tuesday when he realized that his 2.5 carat diamond earring had fallen out of his ear during practice.

But his teammates came to the rescue on their hands and knees and with rakes.

Now who the hell wheres a 2.5 carat earring for a football practice? I mean besides Langford.

Signs of economic recovery week

Hump Day Hottie

January Jones

Best places to sleep

Sign of the day

FanExpo generates long lines - Does Toronto have that many nerds?

This past weekend over 60,000 nerds paid at least $30 for a one-day pass to attend FanExpo and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. FanExpo is a basically a pop culture convention. The lineups were horrendous but then you got to meet Stan Lee, the creator of the Spiderman comics, William Shatner for all the Star Trekkies, Adam West and Burt Ward from the Batman series, Earnet Borgnine, David Cronenberg, Peter Mayhew (who played Chewbacca), the list just goes on and on. You could have seen a giant Darth Vader made entirely out of Lego. How about Batmobile from the 1960s Batman TV series. which some guy spent seven years reconstructing.

May the force be with you.



Peter Mayhew who is the original Chewbacca.


A rebuilt Batmobile - very low mileage



Darth Vader made out of lego.

One Hit Wonder

Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff (1971)

The Maple Leaf lineup is all but set now

The offseason remake of the Maple Leaf roster is more or less complete now with the signing of Christian Hanson. That gives the Leafs 50 players under a pro contract if all junior-aged players are returned to their Junior team with the exception of Nazem Kadri who is expected to make the team. The collective agreement limits teams to signing 50 players to pro contracts.

A few weeks ago 2009 draft pick Jerry D’Amigo quit college after one season to try out for the Leafs. He is not expected to make the team and I also haven’t counted him as one of the 50 pro players so if he is assigned to the Marlies then Burke will have to make another move to reduce his player count. D’Amigo is still junior age and his playing rights are owned by the Kitchener Rangers. So the Leafs have the option to send him to Kitchener for the season.

When you look at the list of players who have a lock on a lineup position, you realize there really aren’t many spots up for grabs. The team is likely to carry 2 goalies, 7 defensemen and 14 forwards. Here are the players pretty much guaranteed a spot:

Goalies (2) – Giguere, Gustafsson

Defensemen (6) – Phaneuf, Komisarek, Beauchemin, Kaberle,

Schenn, Lebda

Forwards (11) – Armstrong, Bozak, Brown, Grabovski, Kadri, Kessel, Kulemin, MacArthur, John Mitchell, Orr, Versteeg

That leaves Gunnarsson, Finger, and Aulie competing for one spot. Up front you have Caputi, Hanson, D’Amigo, Irwin, Dale Mitchell, and Rosehill fighting for 3 spots with Sjostrom starting the season on injury reserve.

On paper the goaltending and defense look to be NHL calibre but not the forwards. However only Orr and Grabovski are older than 25 so this is a young lineup which has not yet reached its potential.

I’m sure some fans are hoping that the Leafs can surprise NHL opponents in the same way the Blue Jays competed this year in the American League East. But will it be enough to make the playoffs and avoid handing Boston another lottery pick? We shall soon see.

I want this dog!

Signs of economic recovery week

Another heat alert for Toronto

Yeah that was some furnace out there today. It reached a high of 34C (94F) just shy of the record high for August 30. The normal high for this time of year is just 23C (74F) but it's been that type of summer.

Hard to believe but in 1965 on this same day we hit an all time low of 2C (36F) overnight. I actually remember it. I had come home from summer camp and my parents had bought and moved into a new house while we are up north. We were excited about this beautiful, big white house. But the most amazing part was it had air conditioning. Only problem was the temperatures were so low we couldn't turn it on. It was a huge disappointment at the time.

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Kitten beats my high score

Peggy Lipton is 64 today

In a 1968 episode of The Mod Squad



Peggy Lipton early this year

Roger Clemens pleads not guilty to charge of lying

It was a great day for denials. The Rocketman copped a not guilty plea to the charge of lying to Congress. Didn't hear if happened to have loaned Paris a purse.

Clemens is in all this trouble because of his incredible ego. He could have shit all over Brian McNamee in defending the accusation in the Mitchell Report that he used steroids. Go on 60 Minutes. Talk to Oprah. Buy full page ads in the New York Times. That can't put you in jail for lying to Mike Wallace. But they can't make your life miserable for lying to Congress.

In the end he may get off. McNamee has a checkered past that Clemens' lawyer will drag through the mud and perhaps create enough doubt besides the physical evidence to let Clemens walk. But he will always lose in the court of public opinion just like O.J. Simpson and other disgraced public figures who beat a rap.

Paris Hilton better come up with a better story

So you get nabbed with a little blow. Why stop with the typical denial and some one put in my purse/pocket/glove compartment/nose. Paris Hilton has a new twist to the standard denial. The purse I was carrying wasn't mind and either was the cocaine. Sure other items inside the purse were hers, including asthma medication, credit cards and $1,300 in cash. But the coke couldn't be mine because the purse belonged to anyone else but me.

Umm, Paris you gotta work this one through a bit more.

Signs of economic recovery week

Fashion Disaster - Emmy edition

What were these people thinking?





Though January Jones could be wearing my 85 year old mother's housecoat and elastic stockings and she would still look great.

21-year-old poses as 14-year-old to join peewee football team

Something wasn't right about Chad Jordan.

He was perfectly nice at youth football practice, his coach said. He never made any trouble. But still, "There just was a lot of stuff that wasn't adding up, you know?" said Ray McCloud, coach of the Town 'N Country Packers.

McCloud's instincts were right.

Julious Javone Threatts is 21 years old. He's now behind bars without bail after Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said he used the alias Chad Jordan to pose as a 14-year-old boy, join the Tampa Bay Youth Football League and try to register at a Tampa middle school. Threatts was on probation for burglary charges, authorities later determined.

Threatts, who is 5 feet 11 and 160 pounds, played with the Packers for only the season's first game, on Aug. 21.

Coach McCloud said Threatts told the team that his parents had died in a car accident and he was being raised by an older brother. The coach began to investigate, asking around to see if anyone knew who "Chad" really was. McCloud found Threatt's Facebook page, which lists his mother as Debra Miller. It also says Threatts graduated from Leto High School.

Funny how no one clued in right away that a guy 5'11" might not be 14. They were probably too delirious from the thought of going winning a championship to give it much thought. Funny thing is that although the Packers won that game Threatts played 35-0 with Threatts scoring 2 TDs, you would have thought he would have had a bigger impact. Hmm, maybe he fits in with 14 year olds.

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Signs of economic recovery week

Video of 12' high truck trying to clear 11'8" underpass

I be the rental company wasn't too happy. Hope he has collision coverage.

Mug Shot of the Week

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Brandon Morrow beginning to look like an ace

This is the guy I want at the top of my pitching rotation starting next season. Not only does he have a 97 mph fastball but a very nasty slider. In his last three starts at home against some the the AL's best (New York, Tampa Bay and Detroit) his ERA has been 1.28. Here is a breakdown of those games:

Record: 2-0
Innings: 21.0
Hits: 10
Earned runs: 3
Walks: 5
Strikeouts: 38
WHIP: 0.71

Altough he is 5th in the AL in strikeouts with 174, he leads all pitchers with 10.0 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched.