Welcome to another entertaining edition of Coco & Dugas. If you're not satisfied after your first read the second one's on us. This week we dive into Alex Anthopoulos and if he should be trusted to trade Roy Halladay, the CFL possibly becoming less Canadian, Toronto winning the 2015 Pan Am Games bid, Fedor's TKO win over Brett Rogers and Kessel in blue and white.

If there's another topic that you yourself wish to rant about feel free to do so. You're also welcome to tell us how wrong or right we are on our thoughts and opinions. If you harp on Dugas make sure you're nice, he's sensitive.

1) Do you trust Alex Anthopoulos with the trading of Roy Halladay and would you trade him within the division?
Dugas: I do, he seems to be passionate about his efforts and to be intelligent about the game. If we assume he can't do it before he tries he will never have a fair chance here in Toronto. If he can stick to his guns and get what he wants done he should do an alright job. I would try not to deal him within the division, but it's smart to state you would as he can use the Sox and Yankees trading chips to drive up the price.
Coco: I don't have complete trust but I do trust him more than I did J.P. Ricciardi. Knowing that he wont be able to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox payroll wise he's setup a pretty good long term plan of developing within which I think is the right move. However I just can't get it out of my head that Anthopoulos was working under Ricciardi so it'll be interesting to see if he learned from J.P.'s mistakes and what his first couple of transactions will be.

2) What are your thoughts on the CFL considering lowering their Canadian Content Rule from 7 to 4?
Dugas: I think it is an attempt to compete on a larger scale but no matter how hard they were to try, they will never even rival the NFL's shadow, so they should push the Canadian pride angle and raise it not lower it.
Coco: I think it's a great idea. They'll never reach the heights of the NFL and they realize that and I don't see this type of rule change negatively effecting the growth of football in Canada either. What other pro sports league has a nationalistic rule like this in place? I've always said that the CFL would be better off as an NFL Jr. league where NFL teams can send their draft picks to develop and adjust to playing with men like the AHL in hockey.

3) What's your take on Toronto winning the 2015 Pan American Games, good or bad for the City of Toronto?
Dugas: I like it, I am always a big fan of supporting Canadian Athletics in any way possible. It's a way to put our name out on the map and gives us extra drive to do well. Hopefully we can put on a good show!
Coco: I'm not a big fan. It should help with amateur sports in this part of the country for the short term, but when it comes to the long term you have to ask yourself: If they bid for the Olympics again and loose again how many of the facilities built for the Pan American games will still be standing after 2015? The city is already in a tonne of debit and I think it would have been smarter to just focus on building some state-of-the-art training facilities in the area rather than bid for a games that no one in this country really seems to care about.

4) How impressed, or unimpressed, were you with Fedor Emilienenko's TKO win over Brett Rogers and, despite Dana White, do you consider him to be the best MMA fighter in the world today?
Dugas: Very impressed. He seemingly did as he pleased against a much bigger Heavy Weight which is one of the questions alot of people have with Fedor. Despite Rogers catching him with a good throw to what looked like a broken nose Fedor still pushed forward immediately to back Rogers off. Hes a beast and is the best fighter right now.
Coco: I was quite impressed. Rogers is a big dude and hardly a push over with his heavy hands and it seemed like the cut on Emilieneko's nose woke him up and made him realize that. I love Dana White and what he's done for the sport over the past few years but he's just blowing hot air whenever he talks about Fedor. He definitely is the best MMA fighter in the world today.

5) It's only been a handful, but what's your reaction to Phil Kessel's first couple of games as a Toronto Maple Leaf so far?
Dugas: Phil has been a pleasant surprise. I expected coming off of a shoulder injury that he may start slow and pick it up. But its been evident since his first shift that he makes things happen on the ice. He seemed to push the puck a little bit but there is hardly ever a shift where you don't notice him on the ice. It's been awhile since I have seen that in blue and white and its fun to watch.
Coco: I've been pretty surprised as well. The combination of him coming off surgery and also adapting to playing for a new team I was expecting some growing pains to start but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. We've seen what he can do playing with guys like Blake, Stajan and Mitchell, I can't wait to see him when he's surrounded by legit first line talent in the next season or two.



Take off,
Coco