MESA, Ariz. Black Nike Air Max 2015 . -- No matter what the record says, Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein insists he sees progress as he begins his third season in charge. It hasnt shown at the major league level. "The people that we have in place in this organization -- the coaches, scouts -- I believe are impact, and I believe in the processes that we have in place," Epstein said Thursday. "It takes time to turn our organization around. It takes time to build impact talent and to build requisite depth. But its happening. People in those meetings, the people in this organization, really believe that were on the verge of something special. And we understand that were perceived otherwise, and thats our fault because weve been a last-place club the last couple years. Were not protesting. We need to earn our way into a position where were championship contenders on an annual basis, and we feel like that is certainly moving in the right direction." It hasnt been an easy process, and while success might be on the horizon, it doesnt appear to be at hand. Pitchers and catchers reported on Thursday, and for the Cubs, it doesnt look like much will be different this season. They were relatively quiet in the off-season, although they did hire manager Rick Renteria to replace the fired Dale Sveum and made a run at star Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, but mostly it looks like they are in for more rough times at the major league level as they wait for their top prospects to develop in the minors. Their most recent winning season was when they went 83-78 under Lou Piniella in 2009. With four straight sub-.500 seasons, theyve matched their longest streak since 1984 to 1988. And another losing season would put them on their longest run since they finished below .500 six years in a row from 1978 to 1983. For now, the Cubs continue to sell hope, a promise that better days are coming. They tout their minor league system, and while renovations to Wrigley Field remain on hold, they can point to new facilities in the Dominican Republic along with a spring training home that just opened. As for the Cubs record, it cant get much worse. Theyve dropped 91 or more games each of the past three years and are coming off a two-year run under Sveum that produced a 127-197 record. Theyre hoping Renteria will provide the right atmosphere for young major league players such as shortstop Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo as well as top prospects Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Albert Almora and Kris Bryant. They believe they have three solid starters in Travis Wood, Jeff Samardzija and Edwin Jackson, although Jackson struggled last season and Samardzija is a potential trade chip after he was unable to reach a long-term agreement and took a one-year deal. Jake Arrieta, a candidate to start, might not be ready for the beginning of the season because of tightness in his right shoulder. General manager Jed Hoyer revealed Thursday that Arrieta, acquired from Baltimore last July, experienced some tightness this winter and is being brought along slowly. Hoyer announced Arrietas injury after confirming the Cubs agreed to one-year contracts with starting pitchers Jason Hammel and James McDonald. Both could be candidates to be traded before the deadline if they succeed, considering thats exactly what the Cubs did with Paul Maholm and Scott Feldman the past two seasons. "We know we have some numbers now," Hoyer said. They also have hope that better days are coming. "Theres a real dichotomy between how the organization is perceived from the outside and how we look at it internally and the morale that we have internally," Epstein said. NOTES: Renteria tabbed newcomer Jose Veras as the closer. ... Hoyer basically dismissed the idea of moving Castro to another position even though he and the White Soxs Alexei Ramirez led major league shortstops with 22 errors last season and Baez is in the pipeline. "Castros our shortstop," Hoyer said. "We have all the confidence in the world that hell remain our shortstop and hell keep working hard and keep improving. And he knows theres (room) to improve there." ... Hoyer said reliever Kyuji Fujikawa will soon start throwing off the mound. Hes coming off Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right elbow. ... Epstein said the Cubs will look to draft pitchers going forward, although not necessarily with their first pick. Wholesale Nike Air Max 2016 . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. Nike Roshe One Australia . He made the comment at a media availability Saturday prior to Game 2 of the Boston-Montreal playoff series when a Quebec reporter said there is sentiment in Quebec that the NHL looks more favourably on Seattle than Quebec City when it comes to future expansion.Less than a day after talks broke down between the Canadian Football League and the CFL Players Association for a new collective bargaining agreement, the CFL issued a memo to the media stating that even their own CBA proposal would lead to three of their nine teams losing money. "We want CFL players and fans to have the facts," read the statement, written in a fiction vs. fact format.   "Fiction: The CFL offer would set the salary cap at $5 million and the players want it set at $5.8 million, so they could just saw off the difference a little and get a deal. Fact: The players unions ask is actually much, much bigger. You see, a lot of player compensation does not fall under the cap. Things like benefits, pensions, pre-season and post-season pay, plus any bonus to be paid for ratifying a new agreement. If you look at everything in our offer and everything in their offer, you find that the CFL is offering to increase player compensation by $850,000 per team in the first year of a deal, and the union is asking us to increase player compensation by $2.4 million per team in the first year of a deal. Their ask is not realistic. Under their proposal, six of nine teaams would lose money. Womens Nike Roshe One Flyknit Casual Shoes. " The league also reiterated that it made its best offer to the union, a response to what it calls fiction - that all the CFL has to do is add a little more to its offer to get a deal done. "Its the most we can pay," read the statement. "It was put forward knowing that under the CFLs best offer, three of nine teams would still lose money this year, even with the new TV deal in place." After almost two days of talks at a Toronto airport hotel, the league eventually did increase its financial offer and the union removed any revenue-sharing percentages from its own proposal, but talks between both sides broke down Thursday afternoon. The current CBA expired Thursday at Midnight et. "The players gave up revenue sharing last time because the CFL promised back then to put it back in this round of bargaining," added the league statement under the fiction heading. "Thats not true. That was never agreed to." Theres been no update on if or when the two sides will meet again at the bargaining table, but the league and the union said it wont stop players from reporting when training camps open Sunday. Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys ' ' '