TSN Baseball Analyst Steve Phillips answers several questions surrounding the game each week. Zapatillas New Balance Baratas . This weeks topics include a vote of confidence for the Jays brass, a second life for PED offenders, the lasting effects of chewing tobacco and what the majors can learn from the little leagues. 1) Reports surfaced over the last week that Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos and manager John Gibbons were both expected back for the 2015 season. What does the vote of confidence mean for both and, more importantly, for a team that has twice fallen out of a playoff spot this season? It is good news for the Jays and their fans that ownership has given both Alex Anthopoulos and John Gibbons a vote of confidence that they will return next season. Change is not always the answer. It is oftentimes the easy way out for ownership. They figure they will make a change and the fans will back off of them waiting for some new grand plan or direction. But more often than not, the firing of general managers particularly, set the organization back a number of years. Anthopoulos knows what he is doing. He knows where his teams strengths and weaknesses are. Gibbons is respected by his players and other managers. He is a good baseball man. Sure, neither of them is perfect but they are good men who give an honest days effort and represent the organization well. Ownerships support of these two is also a bit of an admission that the clubs shortcomings are in many ways their bosses fault. The Jays are close. They are much closer to a playoff team than they have been in years. They are starting pitcher or two short of being a true contender. A key trade or two at the deadline might have made the difference this season but Anthopoulos had no budget to make that happen. The Jays are in a window where they have affordable power in their line-up. They wont have it forever. Power costs big money in the free agent market for both bats and pitchers. They cant let this time go to waste. There are certain times in an organizations history that they need to go for it. This is one of those times for the Jays. Ownership has made it clear they believe in Anthopoulos and Gibbons. Now they need to make it clear they believe in the players. 2) Nelson Cruz enters Thursday leading the majors in home runs while Melky Cabrera sits second in the MLB in hits. What do these achievements mean for the once-suspended stars and their value heading into the open market this off-season? Nelson Cruz is having a career year. So is Melky Cabrera. What a difference a year can make. Cruz was suspended from the Rangers this time last year for using PEDs acquired from Biogenesis. Cabrera is coming to the conclusion of the two-year $16 million deal he signed with the Jays after his own 50 game suspension for testing positive for PEDs. Good for them. They have both bounced back from the embarrassment of getting snagged in MLBs Joint Drug Policy. They are taking full advantage of their second chances. Are they clean now? I dont know. I assume they are because they havent had another positive test. But you know what happens when you ass-u-me. So I am not totally willing to say they are clean. The element of doubt that I have will not be shared by every general manager around the game. Some may feel like I do, but as long as there is one who is willing to invest in the numbers they produce they will get all the money in the world. I suspect that both Cruz and Cabrera will get multi-year, multi-million dollar deals. They will be substantially compensated and completely unaffected by their previous wrongdoings. The evidence seems pretty clear that sooner or later if you produce you will get paid. Just look at Jhonny Peraltas contract that he got from the Cardinals last offseason. I am all for second chances. Heaven knows I have gotten them. I am thrilled when people take advantage of them. Maybe I should take some PEDs, turn myself in and then cash in on my own big contract. Sounds like a plan. 3) Curt Schilling has been treated for mouth cancer and attributed his disease to his use of chewing tobacco. MLB prohibits visible use of smokeless tobacco but with Schillings admission and Tony Gwynns death from oral cancer earlier in the year, is it time for the League to take a stronger stand? Every package of smokeless chewing tobacco and advertisement includes one of the following warnings: WARNING: This product can cause mouth cancer. WARNING: This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss. WARNING: This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. WARNING: Smokeless tobacco is addictive. Yet Curt Schilling and Tony Gwynn kept chewing. So do dozens of other major league ball players. Major League Baseball rules prohibit teams from providing any tobacco products to players. Many stadiums are nonsmoking facilities. Players cannot have tobacco tins in their uniform pockets or do televised interviews while using smokeless tobacco. Violators are subject to fines. Despite all of these attempts to make it more difficult on players they still have a never-ending supply of smokeless tobacco and continue to use it at a reduced but alarming rate. Smokeless tobacco is banned in the minor leagues. Players, coaches and managers face fines and suspensions if they are caught using it. The reason it is not banned in the major leagues is because the Major League Baseball Players Association is unwilling to agree to it. Players want this to remain a matter of choice. They support education but they refuse to approve an across-the-board ban. There is netting in hockey arenas now behind the goals because a woman died when there wasnt netting. Base coaches wear helmets now in professional ball and in most amateur leagues because a first base coach of the Tulsa Drillers, Scott Coolbaugh, was struck in the head by a liner and died. There are so many things that we know we should do, but it takes a death to make it happen. Pitchers in baseball should wear protective headgear but it wont become mandatory until someone dies. Netting should be extended down the baselines in baseball stadiums to protect the fans from getting hit by line drives. It wont happen unless someone dies from getting hit. We had our tragic death from smokeless tobacco (Gwynn). We had our real scare for ones health (Schilling). Why isnt it enough? The Players Association needs to protect its constituents from themselves. I dont care that tobacco is legal. It kills. The Office of the Commissioner cannot unilaterally ban smokeless tobacco. It has to be negotiated as a topic in collective bargaining. I hope and pray that we dont need to lose more lives to get the players to agree to a complete and total ban. 4) So, this past week five million people tuned in to watch Mone Davis, a thirteen year old girl, pitch for the Pennsylvania team against Las Vegas in the Little League World Series. It was the highest rated baseball game on ESPN since 2007. Thirty-four thousand fans showed up to watch which was 9,000 more than the Phillies had at Citizens Bank Park on the same night. Let that sink in. She is a woman among boys. She is a rock star. Everywhere she went in Williamsport people wanted to see her and get her autograph. In fact someone sold her autograph online for $500. Mone is money. But why? From all accounts she is not only a wonderful athlete but a great kid too. Certainly there is part of the story that is a bit of a side-show: a girl beating boys at their own game. It never happens this way. She is a one-of-a kind. The reason so many people watched though is not exclusively because of the uniqueness of Mone but more because they got to know her. ESPN let us in behind the scenes and gave us a true sense as to who Mone really is as a person? We connected with her and her story. There are some that think the stat I gave you above is an embarrassment to baseball. We should be mortified that it took a little girl to drive ratings for baseball in a way that major leaguers couldnt. Those people think that fans have lost interest in the game and wont watch unless there is a side-show. I disagree. I believe that the Mone Davis story is a story of hope for a young girl but also for the industry. It proved that people are interested in baseball and will watch the games when the players are interesting to them. It reinforces what I have thought all along, that, if baseball markets its players, fans will connect and become interested in the game again. Fans young and old want to know the same things about major leaguers that we learn about little leaguers: Who is your favorite player? What is your favorite meal? What is your favorite hobby? Who would they like to meet? Who is your favorite non-baseball athlete? What is your favorite movie? Baseball has a hole to dig itself out of there is no question. But the last few weeks have provided us a pathway to get there. Football has had players arrested for smoking marijuana and domestic abuse. The NFL has an epidemic of DUIs from owners to players. The door is open for baseball to make up ground with better marketing of players and a few other changes. The best news of the week was that Commissioner-elect Rob Manfred was in Williamsport, PA at the Little League World Series. It was a brilliant move. Baseball needs to get a younger fan base and the guy in charge showed he understands it. There is a lot of hope for the game we love. New Balance Baratas Outlet . Chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel also accused Pistorius of tailoring his testimony to fit the evidence at the scene. Pistorius denied the accusations. Nel alleged that the Olympic runner changed his aim with his 9 mm pistol to ensure that he hit Steenkamp as she fell back against a magazine rack in a toilet cubicle. New Balance Outlet España . According to a report from CSN Bay Area, the 49ers are bracing for 6-8 game suspension for their outside linebacker. http://www.newbalancebaratas.es/ ... as usual. Even with the salary cap being set lower than many general managers expected and hoped for at $69 million and whats considered a shallow pool of top-end players available, this unrestricted-free-agent period figures to follow the familiar script of teams bidding up prices to keep up with each other.SEATTLE -- Russell Wilsons first appearance at home since hoisting the Lombardi Trophy looked very similar to Seattles Super Bowl domination, even in a limited performance. Wilson threw for 121 yards and ran for two touchdowns, leading Seattle to scores on all four of his possessions as the Seahawks beat the San Diego Chargers 41-14 on Friday night. "I definitely believe we can be that explosive," Wilson said. "It starts first of all with the offensive line and how well theyre doing ... but then you think about our receivers and we have so many talented receivers." Wilson did a little of everything. He was pressured on the first snap of the game and avoided it to complete a pass. He scrambled when the pressure created clear running lanes. He threw sharp passes to open receivers and he operated Seattles offence with an efficiency missing in its preseason opener at Denver. Wilson completed 11 of 13 passes, and connected on his first eight attempts. He ran for another 31 yards as Seattle finished the first half with 260 yards of offence, 255 of those with Wilson at quarterback. Wilson was the first act. Terrelle Pryor and B.J. Daniels added their own chapters on a night Seattles quarterbacks combined for four touchdowns rushing. Pryor got an extended look in the competition to back up Wilson and showed why Seattle is so enticed. Pryor was 1 of 4 passing, but ran away from San Diegos defence on a 44-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. Daniels added a 6-yard TD run. Marshawn Lynch made his preseason debut for all of two plays before giving way to backups Robert Turbin and Christine Michael. Lynch held out of the first week of training camp and did not touch the ball in his two snaps. Seattle did get some of its other stars involved, including Percy Harvin, who had four receptions for 31 yards after catching five passes all of last season. Turbin finished with 81 yards on 12 carries. He showed open-field speed cutting back on the defence and racing for 47 yards on one carry, and displayed power bulling in for a 1-yard touchdown. "The offence as a whole probably made some mistakes but I think overall we did well," Turbin said. Comprar New Balance Rebajas. "It was continuing to get better and continuing to be disciplined as a runner. Its not always going to be daylight. Sometimes you have to create some." San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers played just one series before handing off to Kellen Clemens. San Diego kept most of its starting offence on the field with Clemens, but the Chargers could manage only 42 yards against Seattles defensive starters, 37 of those coming on the one drive Rivers led. "There are some run-game things Im still working through, some checks, that I know are going to come out today. Still some things that we can improve on in the pass game, me specifically," Clemens said. Just when it seemed Wilsons night should be done, he took one more series as the Seahawks worked on their hurry-up offence. Harvin said that wasnt the plan. Seattles starters were supposed to be done early in the second quarter. The result: Wilson took Seattle 67 yards in under 4 minutes, capping the drive with a 5-yard touchdown scramble. "We told Coach we were in a rhythm and wanted to stay in there," Harvin said. The drive provided the only moment of apprehension for Seattle when Doug Baldwin was knocked out of the back of the end zone on a big hit from San Diego safety Darrell Stuckey. Baldwin was slow to get up, but was laughing on the sideline when Wilson scrambled for the TD and a 24-0 Seattle lead. Seattle also cleaned up its penalty problems from the preseason opener, when it was flagged 13 times, and was better on third down. The Seahawks were called for three penalties in the first half and were 5 of 6 on third downs. "That was about as much as we could hope for," Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. NOTES: Seattle DE Michael Bennett did not play because of a tight hamstring. ... San Diego DT Sean Lissemore left in the first quarter with an ankle injury, but walked off the field without help. S Jahleel Addae also left with a hamstring injury. ... Seattle K Steven Hauschka made both his attempts including a 55-yarder in the third quarter. ' ' '