TSN Baseball Analyst Steve Phillips answers several questions surrounding the game each week. Dan Bailey Cowboys Jersey . This weeks topics include the Toronto Blue Jays young hurlers going forward, whether or not a pitcher should be up for league MVP, Phil Hughes missing out on a hefty bonus and Derek Jeters last game. 1. Daniel Norris got his first ever MLB start Thursday, marking the third high-profile debut for a Toronto Blue Jays hurler in 2014 after Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez both stepped in to make an immediate impact. How realistic is it for Jays fans to expect these pitchers in the 2015 rotation? I believe that prospects get general managers fired. For every young superstar, there are 20 young studs that never fulfill their potential. I also dona€?t trust young pitchers. I like predictability and young guys are often inconsistent and erratic in their performances. That is particularly true about starting pitchers. It doesna€?t mean that there is not a place for young guys, but one has to be realistic in their expectations. Marcus Stroman is 11-6 with a 3.77 ERA. He made 20 starts within his 23 appearances in the majors. He threw strikes and got swings and misses. He looks to have a bright future, but I dona€?t anticipate he will be more than a number-two starter at best. And this isna€?t going to happen in the short term. The most I would expect out of him for next year is to be a number-four-type starter. Expecting anything more than that is setting ones self up for disappointment. Whatever performance you get beyond that is a gift. Aaron Sanchez has thrived in his role in the bullpen. He can overpower some very good hitters. He throws strikes and gets a ton of swings and misses. With Casey Jansen headed to free agency, there may be a push to insert Sanchez in the closer role. I would recommend against that. It is too much responsibility, too soon for a young pitcher. The league will make some adjustments on Sanchez next season. A lesser role wona€?t cost the Jays games and will take some of the burden of perfection off of him. Daniel Norris got a taste of the big leagues this September, which is a statement from the Jays that he is in their short-term plans. He is just 21 years old and moved through three levels of the minors this year while posting a 12-2 record and 2.53 ERA. Norris is a young lefty starter with lots of promise. He needs to experience everything for the first time as big leaguer. Any expectations beyond that of a number-five starter are overly optimistic. The Jays will have RA Dickey and Mark Buerhle in the rotation next year. Both Dickey and Buerhle are more like number-two starters than the aces they once were. Dustin McGowan and JA Happ are under the Jaysa€? control next year with options on their contracts, but they are number-four starters at best. If the Jays want Norris and Stroman in the rotation, then they really need to sign an ace and cut loose McGowan and Happ because neither of them is an impact starter. I like the Jays young arms, but they will need to protect Sanchez with a veteran closer in the pen and reduce expectations on Stroman and Norris by signing a number-one starter to slot in front of Buerhle and Dickey. I am not sure the Jays have the resources to pay for an ace and closer, but if they do, they will win the AL East and maximize the production of their young guns on the staff. 2. Clayton Kershaw has had an insane season. Hes currently leading the NL in wins (21), strikeouts (239) and boasts an ERA that is .40 runs lower than the next-best MLB pitcher at 1.77. Is he a lock to win the National League MVP Award? How do you feel about pitchers winning MVP when therea€?s already the Cy Young to recognize their achievements? Clayton Kershaw is by far the best pitcher in baseball. He does everything an NL pitcher needs to do to be successful at the highest level. He has great stuff. He can command all of his pitches and throws them at any time in the count for strikes. This makes him unpredictable and keeps the hitters off balance. He fields his position extremely well. Did you happen to see the no-look behind the back snag of a shot hit over the mound on Wednesday night? He can handle the bat, too. In fact, he tripled in Wednesday nighta€?s NL West clincher. He is fulfilling the potential that everyone saw in him when the Sandy Koufax comparisons were so unfairly being thrown around even before he threw a single pitch in the majors. Kershaw is definitely the NL Cy Young Award winner this year beating out Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds and Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals. I have no hesitation about pitchers winning the MVP in addition to the Cy Young Award. If there is a worthy position player, I would opt for the everyday player over the pitcher, but when Kershaw puts up numbers like this, he absolutely put himself in the MVP conversation. For most of the season, the closest competition to Kershaw was Giancarlo Stanton, but the fact that Stanton plays for a Miami Marlins team that is 17.5 games behind the Nationals in the NL East and, unfortunately, had his season cut short by a beaning diminishes his candidacy. Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen has made a late push to repeat as the NL MVP. He is hitting .313/.408/.545 with 25 homers and 78 RBI and has been really good in September (.349/.443/.614.) He is playing his best when the games mean the most. That being said, his season doesna€?t come close to comparing to Kershaws. In 2011, Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers was the AL Cy Young Award winner and MVP. He was 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA with 250 strikeouts in 251 innings pitched. Kershawa€?s numbers compare favorably to those of Verlander, as he is 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA with 239 strikeouts with 198 innings pitched. Clayton Kershaw should become the 11th pitcher in baseball history to win the Cy Young Award and his leaguea€?s MVP award. 3. The Minnesota Twinsa€? Phil Hughes posted the lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio in MLB history this season with an astounding 11.63-to-1, besting seasons from the likes of Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Cliff Lee and Bret Saberhagen. However, he also fell one out shy of a $500,000 bonus that kicked in with 210 inning pitched on the year because a rain delay in his final start left him at 209.2 innings. What should the Twins do about this and whata€?s your take on his achievements this season? I dona€?t know about you, but I am really tired of entitled athletes who feel like they are owed something for nothing or guys who feel like the rules dona€?t apply to them. This Phil Hughes situation is an amazing story as it has continued to unfold. Phil Hughes has every right to be bitter and resentful for missing out on $500,000 by just one-third of an inning. Even when you make $24 million over three years, $500,000 is a lot of money. The Twins cana€?t just pay Hughes the money, as it would set a precedent that MLB would not find acceptable. To the Twins credit, they offered Hughes the opportunity to pitch in relief over the weekend to get at least one more out and reach the 210 innings pitched threshold so he could earn the bonus. Amazingly, Hughes has rejected their offer...thata€?s right! Can you believe it? I owe too much to this organization for the next two years to risk getting hurt for an incentive, Hughes said. My outing got rained out and the last inning of my last start got rained out, so for whatever reason, it wasnt meant to be. Theres a lot bigger problems out there. Im proud of my season. Never in my wildest imagination would I have expected any major league player to take such a mature approach. Heck, I would have taken the Twins up on the offer and pitched in relief. For $500,000 I would lay in a tank of snakes...and I hate snakes. Phil Hughes had a remarkable year. He is a strike-throwing machine. He proved what throwing strikes can do for a pitcher as he had as many wins (16) as he had walks. With his 16-10 record and 3.52 ERA, Hughes proved to be one of the best free agent signings last year. His 1.13 is ninth-best in the AL and is better than Max Scherzer and James Shields. Not putting runners on base and keeping the ball in the ballpark is a good formula for success. It bodes well for Hughes moving forward, as well. He has come into his own and has figured out what he is as a pitcher. He is living up to the potential that the Yankees thought he had. The Twins have their ace. Wouldna€?t it be nice if he were on the Jays? 4. After all of the angst over the foreboding weather the Orioles and Yankees game was played without a drop of rain. In fact, the baseball Gods wanted to be clear what they thought of Derek Jeter and his final game. Not only had it stopped raining but there was a beautiful sunset as the sun broke through the clouds and a rainbow that fell from the sky and ended at Yankee Stadium. Only Jeter. Of course, in his first at-bat Derek Jeter doubled off of the wall to drive in a run. He advanced to third on a great base-running play, reading a throw in the dirt and getting a great jump. He then scored the second run of the game on an error by the Orioles. That is Derek Jeter in a nutshell. He is a great hitter, run producer, base-runner and leader. Jeter would later drive in another run with a fieldera€?s choice. So much has been made of Jetera€?s career over the last couple of weeks. Where does he rank as a Yankee? Where does he rank in the pantheon of baseball greats? So many people want to minimize his accomplishments. Some say he is overrated. How is it possible to minimize 3,642 hits? How can the player with the sixth-most hits in the history of baseball be overrated? Derek Jeter is the second-best shortstop to ever play the game. Most baseball experts and historians cite Rogers Hornsby as the best ever. I am old, but not that old to agree or disagree with them. I never saw Hornsby play, but I will accept their judgment that Jeter is second-best. Here is the more compelling argument: Derek Jeter is the greatest Yankee ever. He played the most games of any Yankee and has the most hits. He is second in runs scored. Sure, there are past Yankees who have hit more home runs and driven in more runs. But here is the clincher: Derek Jeter could have played in any generation of baseball and produced his stats. I dona€?t believe that Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle could have thrived in this era of baseball. Everywhere you go today, someone has a smartphone or a camera. Ruth and Mantlea€?s off-field life would have been the subject of every New York tabloid. Their lifestyles would have been exposed. They would be answering so many questions about their off-field behavior. The NY Post may have had to change the Page 6 gossip column to Page 3 for Ruth or Page 7 for Mantle as they would have appeared in it so frequently. This would have crushed their production on the field. Plus, we have to remember that Jeter played into and through the steroid era of baseball and he did it without cheating. Skeptics criticize Jetera€?s numbers and lack of MVP awards without any acknowledgement as to how other playera€?s numbers were inflated due to PEDs. In fact, nine AL MVP trophies were handed to players who have ties to PEDs in their careers. Also consider that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio played most, if not all, of their careers without competing against some of the best players in the game because of segregation. Their performance and stats were enhanced because of that. The old Yankee Stadium was called the House That Ruth Built. The new Yankee Stadium is the House That Jeter Built. If not for Jetera€?s great run of success, including seven World Series appearances and five World Series championships, the new stadium would not have been built or look at all like it does. Jeter impacted the business of New York Yankee baseball. The more the Yankees won, the more money they made. The more money they made, the more they spent on better players, which helped them win more games. The more they made, the more they had to pay in revenue-sharing with other teams. The more they spent, the more they had to pay in luxury taxes, which subsidized other teams, as well. Derek Jetera€?s retirement is not just a big deal for the Yankees. It is a big deal for the business of baseball overall. There are big shoes to fill. Thank goodness that we have Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Clayton Kershaw, Yasiel Puig, Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg headed to the playoffs this year. Either individually or collectively, someone needs to step up and become the new face and voice of baseball. That someone will be playing this October. I cana€?t wait to watch. Thank you Derek Jeter for two decades of excellence both on and off the field. May you be successful in whatever comes next. Bob Lilly Youth Jersey . The Oakland Athletics outfielder simply trusted his own strength. Cespedes became the first repeat winner of the All-Star skills contest in 15 years, powering his way past Cincinnatis Todd Frazier 9-1 in the final round Monday night. Sean Lee Cowboys Jersey . -- Fed up and frustrated at the lack of effort and energy, Sacramento Kings coach Michael Malone shook up his lineup hoping to find some kind of spark.METAIRIE, La. -- Roland "Champ" Bailey, who turns 36 next month, figures theres no use trying to fool anyone -- least of all himself -- about his age. As of now, hes the oldest every-down player on New Orleans roster; place kicker Shayne Graham is his only elder teammate. "If you put me on any team, Im always going to be the old guy," Bailey said. "Its just something Ive got to get used to." Preferring to avoid comparisons to the player he was several years ago, Baily is focusing on what he can do in 2014. Thats when the Saints relatively young and partly overhauled secondary will need his leadership, veteran savvy, and still formidable play-making skills. "One thing I dont want to do is look back or look too far ahead. Im taking care of whats in front of me. Thats getting in shape and getting to know my guys," Bailey said. "My first thing is to lead by example, show how hard I can work and try to lead that way. And all these guys -- I know I have a lot of experience and Im not going to shy away from telling them things I think they need to hear and making sure Im there for them when they have questions." Now entering his 16th NFL season, Bailey has been named to 12 Pro Bowls. His 52 career interceptions are the most among active players. He was among the more high-profile free-agent additions New Orleans made this off-season, along with safety Jairus Byrd. Unlike Bailey, Byrd is in the prime of his career, entering his sixth season with three Pro Bowls and 22 interceptions and 11 forced fumbles already to his name. Also unlike Bailey, Byrd was not available to participate in voluntary off-season practices this week because of back surgery. Coach Sean Payton said Byrds procedure to address a nagging problem with a disc should not sideline the safety beyond the start of training camp. "Its something that didnt need to be done, but both he and ourselves felt like it would be something that would prevent any issues in the fall," Payton said. "Our guess would be that well be real cautious ... and then hell start up training camp with no problem." Bailey, who last season missed 11 games with a left foot injjury, said he feels good now, and backed it up with his performance on the field. Michael Irvin Jersey. During 11-on-11 drills, Bailey made a leaping breakup of Luke McCowns pass intended for Andy Tanner along the sideline. Later, Bailey tipped McCowns slant pass intended for Kenny Stills, resulting in an interception by linebacker Kyle Knox. "He looks fantastic," defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan said. "You look out there and you think hes one of those young guys running around. But hes bringing excitement to our defence and knowledge and its awesome to add a great player like him." Quarterback Drew Brees recalled throwing an interception that Bailey returned for a 25-yard touchdown in 2005, when Brees was with San Diego and Bailey with Denver. The Broncos came back to win that game in large part because of Baileys play, and Brees said Baileys play-making was why game plans included "no-throw zones," whenever Denver was the opponent. "Certain routes, certain areas of the field, you just knew: Dont even think about it. Its not worth it," Brees recalled. The Saints hope Bailey will still come up with such plays while mentoring younger cornerbacks including 2010 first-round pick Patrick Robinson, who missed most of last season with a knee injury; rookie Stanley Jean-Baptiste, a second round pick; and third-year cornerback Corey White. Even Keenan Lewis, the Saints top cornerback, could benefit from Baileys presence. "Theres so much value in having a guy like that," Brees said. "Not only what he can teach our young guys, but just hes still and extremely productive player. ... He wouldnt have chosen the New Orleans Saints if he didnt think we had a legitimate shot here -- and that he could help us." Notes: In addition to Byrd, those missing practice included DT John Jenkins, DE Tyrunn Walker, WR Joseph Morgan and WR Brandin Cooks. Cooks was excused to finish the school year at Oregon State. Payton declined to address the conditions of Jenkins, Walker or Morgan, though Morgan wore a sleeve his left knee, which he injured last training camp, putting him out for the season.wholesale stitched jerseys wholesale jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys china ' ' 'TSN Baseball Analyst Steve Phillips answers several questions surrounding the game each week. Dan Bailey Cowboys Jersey . This weeks topics include the Toronto Blue Jays young hurlers going forward, whether or not a pitcher should be up for league MVP, Phil Hughes missing out on a hefty bonus and Derek Jeters last game. 1. Daniel Norris got his first ever MLB start Thursday, marking the third high-profile debut for a Toronto Blue Jays hurler in 2014 after Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez both stepped in to make an immediate impact. How realistic is it for Jays fans to expect these pitchers in the 2015 rotation? I believe that prospects get general managers fired. For every young superstar, there are 20 young studs that never fulfill their potential. I also dona€?t trust young pitchers. I like predictability and young guys are often inconsistent and erratic in their performances. That is particularly true about starting pitchers. It doesna€?t mean that there is not a place for young guys, but one has to be realistic in their expectations. Marcus Stroman is 11-6 with a 3.77 ERA. He made 20 starts within his 23 appearances in the majors. He threw strikes and got swings and misses. He looks to have a bright future, but I dona€?t anticipate he will be more than a number-two starter at best. And this isna€?t going to happen in the short term. The most I would expect out of him for next year is to be a number-four-type starter. Expecting anything more than that is setting ones self up for disappointment. Whatever performance you get beyond that is a gift. Aaron Sanchez has thrived in his role in the bullpen. He can overpower some very good hitters. He throws strikes and gets a ton of swings and misses. With Casey Jansen headed to free agency, there may be a push to insert Sanchez in the closer role. I would recommend against that. It is too much responsibility, too soon for a young pitcher. The league will make some adjustments on Sanchez next season. A lesser role wona€?t cost the Jays games and will take some of the burden of perfection off of him. Daniel Norris got a taste of the big leagues this September, which is a statement from the Jays that he is in their short-term plans. He is just 21 years old and moved through three levels of the minors this year while posting a 12-2 record and 2.53 ERA. Norris is a young lefty starter with lots of promise. He needs to experience everything for the first time as big leaguer. Any expectations beyond that of a number-five starter are overly optimistic. The Jays will have RA Dickey and Mark Buerhle in the rotation next year. Both Dickey and Buerhle are more like number-two starters than the aces they once were. Dustin McGowan and JA Happ are under the Jaysa€? control next year with options on their contracts, but they are number-four starters at best. If the Jays want Norris and Stroman in the rotation, then they really need to sign an ace and cut loose McGowan and Happ because neither of them is an impact starter. I like the Jays young arms, but they will need to protect Sanchez with a veteran closer in the pen and reduce expectations on Stroman and Norris by signing a number-one starter to slot in front of Buerhle and Dickey. I am not sure the Jays have the resources to pay for an ace and closer, but if they do, they will win the AL East and maximize the production of their young guns on the staff. 2. Clayton Kershaw has had an insane season. Hes currently leading the NL in wins (21), strikeouts (239) and boasts an ERA that is .40 runs lower than the next-best MLB pitcher at 1.77. Is he a lock to win the National League MVP Award? How do you feel about pitchers winning MVP when therea€?s already the Cy Young to recognize their achievements? Clayton Kershaw is by far the best pitcher in baseball. He does everything an NL pitcher needs to do to be successful at the highest level. He has great stuff. He can command all of his pitches and throws them at any time in the count for strikes. This makes him unpredictable and keeps the hitters off balance. He fields his position extremely well. Did you happen to see the no-look behind the back snag of a shot hit over the mound on Wednesday night? He can handle the bat, too. In fact, he tripled in Wednesday nighta€?s NL West clincher. He is fulfilling the potential that everyone saw in him when the Sandy Koufax comparisons were so unfairly being thrown around even before he threw a single pitch in the majors. Kershaw is definitely the NL Cy Young Award winner this year beating out Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds and Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals. I have no hesitation about pitchers winning the MVP in addition to the Cy Young Award. If there is a worthy position player, I would opt for the everyday player over the pitcher, but when Kershaw puts up numbers like this, he absolutely put himself in the MVP conversation. For most of the season, the closest competition to Kershaw was Giancarlo Stanton, but the fact that Stanton plays for a Miami Marlins team that is 17.5 games behind the Nationals in the NL East and, unfortunately, had his season cut short by a beaning diminishes his candidacy. Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen has made a late push to repeat as the NL MVP. He is hitting .313/.408/.545 with 25 homers and 78 RBI and has been really good in September (.349/.443/.614.) He is playing his best when the games mean the most. That being said, his season doesna€?t come close to comparing to Kershaws. In 2011, Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers was the AL Cy Young Award winner and MVP. He was 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA with 250 strikeouts in 251 innings pitched. Kershawa€?s numbers compare favorably to those of Verlander, as he is 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA with 239 strikeouts with 198 innings pitched. Clayton Kershaw should become the 11th pitcher in baseball history to win the Cy Young Award and his leaguea€?s MVP award. 3. The Minnesota Twinsa€? Phil Hughes posted the lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio in MLB history this season with an astounding 11.63-to-1, besting seasons from the likes of Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Cliff Lee and Bret Saberhagen. However, he also fell one out shy of a $500,000 bonus that kicked in with 210 inning pitched on the year because a rain delay in his final start left him at 209.2 innings. What should the Twins do about this and whata€?s your take on his achievements this season? I dona€?t know about you, but I am really tired of entitled athletes who feel like they are owed something for nothing or guys who feel like the rules dona€?t apply to them. This Phil Hughes situation is an amazing story as it has continued to unfold. Phil Hughes has every right to be bitter and resentful for missing out on $500,000 by just one-third of an inning. Even when you make $24 million over three years, $500,000 is a lot of money. The Twins cana€?t just pay Hughes the money, as it would set a precedent that MLB would not find acceptable. To the Twins credit, they offered Hughes the opportunity to pitch in relief over the weekend to get at least one more out and reach the 210 innings pitched threshold so he could earn the bonus. Amazingly, Hughes has rejected their offer...thata€?s right! Can you believe it? I owe too much to this organization for the next two years to risk getting hurt for an incentive, Hughes said. My outing got rained out and the last inning of my last start got rained out, so for whatever reason, it wasnt meant to be. Theres a lot bigger problems out there. Im proud of my season. Never in my wildest imagination would I have expected any major league player to take such a mature approach. Heck, I would have taken the Twins up on the offer and pitched in relief. For $500,000 I would lay in a tank of snakes...and I hate snakes. Phil Hughes had a remarkable year. He is a strike-throwing machine. He proved what throwing strikes can do for a pitcher as he had as many wins (16) as he had walks. With his 16-10 record and 3.52 ERA, Hughes proved to be one of the best free agent signings last year. His 1.13 is ninth-best in the AL and is better than Max Scherzer and James Shields. Not putting runners on base and keeping the ball in the ballpark is a good formula for success. It bodes well for Hughes moving forward, as well. He has come into his own and has figured out what he is as a pitcher. He is living up to the potential that the Yankees thought he had. The Twins have their ace. Wouldna€?t it be nice if he were on the Jays? 4. After all of the angst over the foreboding weather the Orioles and Yankees game was played without a drop of rain. In fact, the baseball Gods wanted to be clear what they thought of Derek Jeter and his final game. Not only had it stopped raining but there was a beautiful sunset as the sun broke through the clouds and a rainbow that fell from the sky and ended at Yankee Stadium. Only Jeter. Of course, in his first at-bat Derek Jeter doubled off of the wall to drive in a run. He advanced to third on a great base-running play, reading a throw in the dirt and getting a great jump. He then scored the second run of the game on an error by the Orioles. That is Derek Jeter in a nutshell. He is a great hitter, run producer, base-runner and leader. Jeter would later drive in another run with a fieldera€?s choice. So much has been made of Jetera€?s career over the last couple of weeks. Where does he rank as a Yankee? Where does he rank in the pantheon of baseball greats? So many people want to minimize his accomplishments. Some say he is overrated. How is it possible to minimize 3,642 hits? How can the player with the sixth-most hits in the history of baseball be overrated? Derek Jeter is the second-best shortstop to ever play the game. Most baseball experts and historians cite Rogers Hornsby as the best ever. I am old, but not that old to agree or disagree with them. I never saw Hornsby play, but I will accept their judgment that Jeter is second-best. Here is the more compelling argument: Derek Jeter is the greatest Yankee ever. He played the most games of any Yankee and has the most hits. He is second in runs scored. Sure, there are past Yankees who have hit more home runs and driven in more runs. But here is the clincher: Derek Jeter could have played in any generation of baseball and produced his stats. I dona€?t believe that Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle could have thrived in this era of baseball. Everywhere you go today, someone has a smartphone or a camera. Ruth and Mantlea€?s off-field life would have been the subject of every New York tabloid. Their lifestyles would have been exposed. They would be answering so many questions about their off-field behavior. The NY Post may have had to change the Page 6 gossip column to Page 3 for Ruth or Page 7 for Mantle as they would have appeared in it so frequently. This would have crushed their production on the field. Plus, we have to remember that Jeter played into and through the steroid era of baseball and he did it without cheating. Skeptics criticize Jetera€?s numbers and lack of MVP awards without any acknowledgement as to how other playera€?s numbers were inflated due to PEDs. In fact, nine AL MVP trophies were handed to players who have ties to PEDs in their careers. Also consider that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio played most, if not all, of their careers without competing against some of the best players in the game because of segregation. Their performance and stats were enhanced because of that. The old Yankee Stadium was called the House That Ruth Built. The new Yankee Stadium is the House That Jeter Built. If not for Jetera€?s great run of success, including seven World Series appearances and five World Series championships, the new stadium would not have been built or look at all like it does. Jeter impacted the business of New York Yankee baseball. The more the Yankees won, the more money they made. The more money they made, the more they spent on better players, which helped them win more games. The more they made, the more they had to pay in revenue-sharing with other teams. The more they spent, the more they had to pay in luxury taxes, which subsidized other teams, as well. Derek Jetera€?s retirement is not just a big deal for the Yankees. It is a big deal for the business of baseball overall. There are big shoes to fill. Thank goodness that we have Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Clayton Kershaw, Yasiel Puig, Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg headed to the playoffs this year. Either individually or collectively, someone needs to step up and become the new face and voice of baseball. That someone will be playing this October. I cana€?t wait to watch. Thank you Derek Jeter for two decades of excellence both on and off the field. May you be successful in whatever comes next. Bob Lilly Youth Jersey . The Oakland Athletics outfielder simply trusted his own strength. Cespedes became the first repeat winner of the All-Star skills contest in 15 years, powering his way past Cincinnatis Todd Frazier 9-1 in the final round Monday night. Sean Lee Cowboys Jersey . -- Fed up and frustrated at the lack of effort and energy, Sacramento Kings coach Michael Malone shook up his lineup hoping to find some kind of spark.METAIRIE, La. -- Roland "Champ" Bailey, who turns 36 next month, figures theres no use trying to fool anyone -- least of all himself -- about his age. As of now, hes the oldest every-down player on New Orleans roster; place kicker Shayne Graham is his only elder teammate. "If you put me on any team, Im always going to be the old guy," Bailey said. "Its just something Ive got to get used to." Preferring to avoid comparisons to the player he was several years ago, Baily is focusing on what he can do in 2014. Thats when the Saints relatively young and partly overhauled secondary will need his leadership, veteran savvy, and still formidable play-making skills. "One thing I dont want to do is look back or look too far ahead. Im taking care of whats in front of me. Thats getting in shape and getting to know my guys," Bailey said. "My first thing is to lead by example, show how hard I can work and try to lead that way. And all these guys -- I know I have a lot of experience and Im not going to shy away from telling them things I think they need to hear and making sure Im there for them when they have questions." Now entering his 16th NFL season, Bailey has been named to 12 Pro Bowls. His 52 career interceptions are the most among active players. He was among the more high-profile free-agent additions New Orleans made this off-season, along with safety Jairus Byrd. Unlike Bailey, Byrd is in the prime of his career, entering his sixth season with three Pro Bowls and 22 interceptions and 11 forced fumbles already to his name. Also unlike Bailey, Byrd was not available to participate in voluntary off-season practices this week because of back surgery. Coach Sean Payton said Byrds procedure to address a nagging problem with a disc should not sideline the safety beyond the start of training camp. "Its something that didnt need to be done, but both he and ourselves felt like it would be something that would prevent any issues in the fall," Payton said. "Our guess would be that well be real cautious ... and then hell start up training camp with no problem." Bailey, who last season missed 11 games with a left foot injjury, said he feels good now, and backed it up with his performance on the field. Michael Irvin Jersey. During 11-on-11 drills, Bailey made a leaping breakup of Luke McCowns pass intended for Andy Tanner along the sideline. Later, Bailey tipped McCowns slant pass intended for Kenny Stills, resulting in an interception by linebacker Kyle Knox. "He looks fantastic," defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan said. "You look out there and you think hes one of those young guys running around. But hes bringing excitement to our defence and knowledge and its awesome to add a great player like him." Quarterback Drew Brees recalled throwing an interception that Bailey returned for a 25-yard touchdown in 2005, when Brees was with San Diego and Bailey with Denver. The Broncos came back to win that game in large part because of Baileys play, and Brees said Baileys play-making was why game plans included "no-throw zones," whenever Denver was the opponent. "Certain routes, certain areas of the field, you just knew: Dont even think about it. Its not worth it," Brees recalled. The Saints hope Bailey will still come up with such plays while mentoring younger cornerbacks including 2010 first-round pick Patrick Robinson, who missed most of last season with a knee injury; rookie Stanley Jean-Baptiste, a second round pick; and third-year cornerback Corey White. Even Keenan Lewis, the Saints top cornerback, could benefit from Baileys presence. "Theres so much value in having a guy like that," Brees said. "Not only what he can teach our young guys, but just hes still and extremely productive player. ... He wouldnt have chosen the New Orleans Saints if he didnt think we had a legitimate shot here -- and that he could help us." Notes: In addition to Byrd, those missing practice included DT John Jenkins, DE Tyrunn Walker, WR Joseph Morgan and WR Brandin Cooks. Cooks was excused to finish the school year at Oregon State. Payton declined to address the conditions of Jenkins, Walker or Morgan, though Morgan wore a sleeve his left knee, which he injured last training camp, putting him out for the season.wholesale stitched jerseys wholesale jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys china ' ' '
