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.
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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.
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