TSN Baseball Analyst Steve Phillips answers several questions surrounding the game each week. [url=http://www.cheapravenshoodiesjerseys.com/jonathan-ogden-hoodie/]Jon athan Ogden Hoodie[/url] . This weeks topics include the Toronto Blue Jays young hurlers going forward, whether or not a pitcher should

TSN Baseball Analyst Steve Phillips answers several questions surrounding the game each week. Jonathan Ogden Hoodie . 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. Authentic Ravens Hoodies . 1-9 on TSN. With more than 65 hours of exclusive live coverage, TSN delivers all the action beginning with Draw 1 on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2 p. Wholesale Ravens Hoodies . Pretty good hitting, too. Dan Haren pitched six innings and sparked the go-ahead rally with a single, leading Los Angeles to another win over the skidding Atlanta Braves, 4-2 on Tuesday night. http://www.cheapravenshoodiesjerseys.com/kenny-young-hoodie/ . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Matt Carpenter had a career-high five hits for St. Louis on Wednesday night. The last of them was arguably the most important. Carpenter delivered a go-ahead double in the 11th inning, and the Cardinals added two more runs on a single by Allen Craig, sending them to a 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals and ending a frustrating three-game losing streak. "Sometimes it takes an emotional victory like this to kind of jumpstart a team," said Carpenter, who also reached base on a walk. "Maybe this one will be the one for us." The Royals rallied with two runs in the ninth, and the game remained tied until the 11th, when Peter Bourjos worked a one-out walk off Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera (1-2). Carpenter then rapped his double to centre field, drawing a roar from a crowd comprised mostly of Cardinals fans. Craig added his single off Tim Collins later in the inning, and Pat Neshek breezed through the bottom half to end the Royals six-game winning streak against National League clubs. Sam Freeman (1-0) earned the win with a perfect 10th inning. "It was just one of those gut-check games," Craig said. "Were not going to stop competing." Carpenter became the first Cardinal to record five hits in a game since Ryan Ludwick on Sept. 4, 2009. He had a part in his clubs first three runs, driving in Mark Ellis in the second inning and scoring on Matt Hollidays groundout in the seventh After St. Louis dropped the first two games of the four-game, two-city set at Busch Stadium, the NL champs rebounded to win for the eighth straight time at Kauffman Stadium. The Cardinals persevered after Adam Wainwright blew a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning. He struck out Eric Hosmer to start it, but the ball squirted away from catcher Yadier Molina, allowing Hosmer to reach first base. Billy Butler followed with a crisp single up the middle. Trevor Rosenthal, who took the loss Tuesday night, entered in relief and walked Alex Gordon on a full count to load the bases. Salvador Perez followwed with a broken-bat groundout to score a run, and Lorenzo Cains single up the middle knotted the game 2-all. Cheap Ravens Hoodies. "You lose the lead and a start like that from Waino, theres a lot of teams that will roll over in that situation," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, "but the guys stepped up." The ninth-inning rally still soured a dazzling outing by Wainwright, who was trying to become the NLs first nine-game winner. The two-time All-Star did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, stranded three runners on third base and struck out eight while walking just two. "Wainwright pitched a great game. Hes an unbelievable pitcher," Cain said. "When we tied the game, I thought we had them. We tried to spoil it for him at the end." Wainwright wasnt the only Cardinal to get on track, though. Molina had hits in his first two at-bats, snapping an 0-for-16 streak. Ellis ended an 0-for-8 stretch with his single in the second that led to the games first run. Jason Vargas kept Kansas City in it most of the night. After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, he went on strand 10 in a season-high eight innings. The left-hander allowed nine hits and walked two while allowing two runs or fewer for the fifth time in six starts. "Carpenter was pretty hot," Vargas said. "It was just one of those games where youve got to grind, make pitches and kind of think your way through things." NOTES: Vargas threw a season-high 117 pitches. ... Royals RHP Greg Holland pitched a scoreless 10th, his 11th straight appearance without allowing a run. ... LHP Bruce Chen (bulging disc) said he will need at least two more rehab starts before rejoining the Royals. He allowed eight hits in three innings for Double-A Northwest Arkansas on Tuesday night. ... Cardinals 2B Kolten Wong was out of the lineup with a sore right shoulder. He pinch hit for Ellis in the 10th inning and remained in the game. ... RHP Michael Wacha starts for St. Louis in Thursdays series finale. RHP Yordano Ventura is on the mound for Kansas City. Cheap Diamondbacks Jerseys Cheap Braves Jerseys Cheap Orioles Jerseys Cheap Red Sox Jerseys Cheap Cubs Jerseys Cheap White Sox Jerseys Cheap Reds Jerseys Cheap Indians Jerseys Cheap Rockies Jerseys Cheap Tigers Jerseys Cheap Astros Jerseys Cheap Royals Jerseys Cheap Angels Jerseys Cheap Dodgers Jerseys Cheap Marlins Jerseys ' ' '