By Jeremy Visser… Today’s tip of the hat goes to Boston clutch hitter extraordinaire David Ortiz, who hit his first home run of the season in his team’s 8-3 win over the Jays. Congrats — all those standing ovations through your previous 149 homerless at-bats look to have paid off. Here’s hoping you go another 40 games before your next one.

Alright, so I’m a little bitter. Nothing ruins the high of a four-game sweep of the potent White Sox more than a couple losses at Fenway to the second place Red Sox, who jumped all over Brett Cecil in handing him his first career loss tonight. Cecil coughed up six runs in the fifth — Ortiz’s two-run homer and another blast by Jason Bay two batters later did most of the damage — before sitting back and letting the Jays offense score a few meaningless runs in the late innings.

The Jays managed 14 hits, though I can’t help but feel they could’ve done a lot more damage to Boston starter Brad Penny, who seemed to be grooving every other fastball to middle of the plate. A frustrating night all around, to say the least. Making matters worse, the good-for-nothing Orioles were trounced by the Yankees — New York’s eigth straight win.

Check out Jeremy’s blog That’s what I’m saying, guy…

By Dustin Pollack… A few days ago General Manager of the Toronto Raptors, Bryan Colangelo resigned head coach Jay Triano to a three-year deal.

It’s not so much that the Triano deal bothers me it’s that the deal makes me contemplate what it is the Bryan Colangelo has done as General Manager for the Toronto Raptors since coming in 2006.

Now I know many Raptors fans reading this are already against me because you may feel that Colangelo is the best thing to happen to the Raptors since Damon Stoudamire but if you look at the moves and transactions he’s made since he got here you might understand where I’m coming from.

Now I’m not blaming the Raptors failures simply on Colangelo, I’m simply stating what he’s done, compared to what he could have done.

Trading Charlie Villanueva

To be honest, this was Colangelo’s first mistake and it came in June of 2006. As I explain other deals Colangelo made following this one you will understand that future mistakes stemmed from this deal.

In June 2006 Colangelo traded Charlie Villanueva to the Milwaukee Bucks for point guard T.J Ford.

The Raptors originally picked up T.J after he took a year off due to injury and therefore ran an immediate risk for the Raptors.

In the two seasons prior to coming to Toronto T.J averaged 7.1 points per game in 2003/2004 and 12.2 points per game in 2004/2005.

His only season with the Raptors Charlie V averaged 13 points per game and was a legitimate fan favorite.

This trade went on to bite Colangelo a couple years later when T.J fell to injury and Charlie V continued putting up solid numbers in Milwaukee. This past season Villanueva put up an average of over 16 points per game and T.J is no longer a Raptor.

Drafting Andrea Bargnani

The T.J deal went on to bite Colangelo even harder come the 2007 draft. The Raptors got lucky in winning the lottery and snatching the number one pick. However, because the Raptors point guard spot was already filled by T.J Ford the Raptors went onto draft big Italian Andrea Bargnani over young point guard Brandon Roy.

In his first season Roy’s numbers were better then both T.J and Bargnani’s. Roy averaged close to 17 points per game compared to Bargnani’s 11 per game and T.J’s 14.

Even Roy’s rebounding numbers have been better then Bargnani’s over the course of their careers thus far. Roy is averaging 4.6 rebounds per game and Bargnani averaging 4.3.

Roy now plays shooting guard as apposed to point guard, meaning that if  he came to Toronto he would have evolved  into a shooting guard, making room in the starting lineup for Jose Calderon at point guard.

This season Brandon Roy led the Portland Trail Blazers to the postseason averaging close to 23 PPG as T.J and Andrea sat at home watching. Not to mention in two playoff appearances thus far in his career Bargnani is only averaging 8.9 points per game.

Jermaine O’Neal Acquisition

Quite frankly I don’t think this deal needs much explanation. Colangelo traded for O’Neal in the summer of 2008 with hopes that he would be another big man that would finally complement Chris Bosh.

The risk of the deal obviously being that O’Neal has been plagued by severe injuries throughout his career.

O’Neal only averaged 13 points per game and  7 rebounds per game in his 41 games as a Toronto Raptor. On February 13th 2009 O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat along with Jamario Moon in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, which leads me into my next point.

The Marcus Banks Contract

Paul Jay, a writer for CBC.ca explained that the Banks contract could hurt the flexibility of the Raptors in 2010 when big names like Chris Bosh become free agents. Banks will make 9 millions dollars over the next two years and to do what? Banks has averaged just over 6 points per game over the course of his career and will likely provide the Raptors with nothing more then a filled seat on the bench.

Colangelo’s Resume

I understand that when Colangelo first came to Toronto he was considered to be the messiah. But lets face it this messiah we know as Bryan Colangelo has never won a championship and has never led the Raptors past the first round in the playoffs, so I think it’s time we start raising some eyebrows. Especially after the disastrous season we just finished and quite frankly the terrible second half we had the previous season leading into the playoffs.

As I think about what the Raptors need to get back in the winners circle there is only thing that comes to mind:

Onions baby, onions!

Check out Dustin’s blog The D League