TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers several questions each week. Discount Air Jordan . This week, topics cover the Blue Jays sudden success, Anthony Goses role with the Blue Jays, keeping confidence in tough times and scouts who keep the MLB alive. 1) Why are the Toronto Blue Jays winning so much of late when they scuffled last season with virtually the same roster? Is it purely the return to health of key players (Reyes, Bautista, Janssen)? Is it John Gibbons assigning personal catchers, managing the pen, managing team attitude? How do you explain the difference? Or is this just a short blip for a team that will eventually crash back to earth? So will the real Blue Jays please stand up? What are we to believe? Are the Jays the team that terribly disappointed us last year or are they this years surprising first place club? How is it possible that effectively the same team could have been so bad last year yet so good this year? All very legitimate questions for sure. There are clearly three major differences from 2013 to 2014. Firstly, the offense is hitting on all cylinders. The Jays are leading the AL in runs scored so far this season. They have the most home runs and the best OPS. They are slugging the ball like the team they were constructed to be. Clearly health is a major factor the turnaround from last year to this year as well. A healthy Jose Reyes at the top of the lineup establishes the offences as aggressive. His speed provides more fastball for the hitters behind him in the lineup and they are capitalizing on those opportunities. Jose Batisista looks like the same guy from 2010-11 who hit for average and power and was a run producer. He is showing no ill effects of past injuries. Edwin Encarnacion has literally been Mickey Mantle in the month of May as he tied Mantles AL record for most homers in a month with 16. Melky Cabrera is slugging like the Melky Cabrera who used steroids in the past. Oops did I say that out loud? I dont think he is using again. It was just a joke. The second major turnaround from last year to this year is in starting pitching. In 2013, the Jays starters ranked 14th in the league with a 4.81 ERA. They struggled, often leaving the club in an early hole which was nearly impossible to dig out of, as it affected the quality of the at bats that the hitters delivered. This season the Jays starters are ranked fifth in the AL with a 3.83 ERA. They are almost a whole run per game better. This is a huge difference. The starters have a win-loss record of 26-13 where as they only won 46 games all season a year ago. This is proving that with such a vaunted offense, if the starters can keep it close, the Jays have a chance to win. The third major improvement for the Jays has been their defence. They have committed the second fewest errors in the AL so far this season. A year ago, they committed the fourth-most errors. This means that the pitching staff doesnt have to get nearly as many extra outs. One thing to beware of is the schedule. The Jays are 32-23 so far. But they have only played 13 games against teams with a record over .500. In those games they are 7-6. I believe Toronto can sustain their success because they have a winning formula: Good starting pitching with a solid defence and a powerful offence. They have some vulnerability in the rotation as Mark Buehrle just cant continue at this pace and the back end has been a bit inconsistent. They really need to add another starter. The bullpen hasnt been nearly as consistent as a year ago which means they may need to address that at some point as well. They certainly have some flaws but quite honestly, so does everyone else in the AL East. They can win this division! 2) Anthony Gose has thrived in centre field with the Toronto Blue Jays since Colby Rasmus went down with injury. With the team in first place and riding a hot streak, whats the best way to get him in the lineup when Rasmus returns? Or does Gose just go back to the bench (or the minors) and wait for his next chance? It is time to figure out what Anthony Gose can become. The Jays need to figure out if he is part of the problem or solution by the seasons end. Goses speed can energize a team when they are struggling to score. He could bolster his teammates on day games after night games when everyone else feels a bit sluggish. He has a chance to be a valuable asset. Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus are both free agents at the end of the year. The Jays need to know if they have a low-cost alternative for one of their outfield spots for next year. The only way to figure that out is to let the young man play at the major league level and get some at bats. Colby Rasmus gives up too many at bats. He loses focus or concentration and strikes out far too much. Yes, Rasmus has more power than Gose but Goses speed adds an element to the Jays offence that can be tough for the opposition to deal with. I think Colby Rasmus needs competition. He needs to fight and produce for playing time. There is a way to manage the outfield with Rasmus and Gose splitting time in CF and giving occasional days off to Cabrera and Batista. John Gibbons can keep everyone hungry and everyone sharp. When I was Mets general manager I made a trade with the Dodgers for Roger Cedeno, a speedy outfielder, who had not proven himself at the major league level. I was able to keep him in the majors and paired him up with Rickey Henderson. Hendersons knowledge and experience rubbed off on Cedeno and we developed a player with discipline at the plate and blazing speed on the bases. Gose needs to be in Jose Reyes hip pocket and learn as much as possible. The Jays need to win now and develop for the future as well. 3) Earlier in the week, Jeff Samardzija finally picked up his first win of the season. He had gone 16 starts without a win, despite having one of the lowest ERAs in the majors this season. You were an executive with the Mets when Anthony Young lost 27 straight decisions (both as a starter and as a reliever) in the early 90s, despite being a decent pitcher. How does the team best manage a players psyche when they go through stretches like this? And how much of that kind of mental health massaging actually goes on in the Big Leagues? So many of todays young baseball executives are administrators. They have a mathematical or statistical background. They are number crunchers. Paul Depodesta, who was Billy Beanes assistant in Oakland (the Jonah Hill character in Moneyball) and later the GM for the Los Angeles Dodgers once said that if he couldnt quantify something about a player then it didnt matter. But what he missed was that it is people who play the game not robots. The way a player feels affects how he plays. I have a psychology degree. It doesnt give me the ability to read peoples minds but it certainly added to my understanding of what makes people tick. Plus as a player, my mind is what held me back from being a big leaguer. I experienced how the mental part of the game can impact a players performance. I could run. I was strong. I had a good arm. I made myself into a more than adequate defender. I was a good teammate. But I was a "try-er." When things went wrong I pushed harder and worked more. I took extra batting practice almost every day of my professional career. I told myself, "No one will ever out-work me. If I dont get to the big leagues it wont be because I didnt put enough effort in to it." I realize now that I tried too hard. I worked too much. If I took nine good swings in batting practice but a bad one on my 10th swing I held on to the bad swing. I beat myself up over it. If I struck out I didnt feel the pain of one strike out, I carried the weight of the fifty before it as well. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around. Players with the most confidence ever and least confidence never can reach the major leagues, but the players with the right balance of confidence, humility, concentration, intensity, etc. are the ones who best sustain success. I am living a life of recovery now and one of the tools of the program is the Serenity Prayer. It reads like this: God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;the Courage to change the things I can; and the Wisdom to know the difference. One of the toughest lessons for players to accept is that they dont control the outcome of everything in the game. They can only control what they can control. You would be shocked by the fine line that baseball players walk between confidence and complete and utter fear of failure, even among the very best players. I asked New York Mets star third baseman David Wright in spring training if he ever thought when he signed to play ball out of high school if he would have this kind of career. He said he didnt and then added that he questions himself all of the time if he can still do it. When he has a bad day he battles those (voices) that make him wonder if he might not be good anymore. If he has those thoughts, I clearly had no chance with the way I thought. When players struggle like Anthony Young and Jeff Jeff Samardzija they can feel helpless and hopeless. They wonder what they can possibly do differently. They start to feel like they need to be perfect. Striving for perfection is dangerous. When a pitcher isnt getting run support he feels like he needs to miss bats and pitch a shutout. When pitchers try too hard they often compound their problems. The same for batters. It is not a matter of trying harder to perform better in baseball. It takes concentration and intensity. Unfortunately, "trying" to generate intensity often leads to tension. Tension leads to overthinking and over trying which leads to more struggles. It is a vicious circle that can start all over again. The key to overcoming struggles is to maintain ones composure and confidence. Players truly need to understand that they dont have to be perfect. Remember, this is a game where hitters fail 70% of the time and are deemed extremely successful. Coping with failure is the attribute that separates the men from the boys in the major leagues. It was my downfall. Failure devoured me. I actually felt physical pain when I was struggling. I obsessed about it, it ate me up. Remarkably, Anthony Young and Jeff Samardzija had the ability to not get paralyzed by their failure because within the failure they were able to see some success. They learned that a loss didnt mean they were a loser. They didnt let their performance or their job become their identity. The ability to own their role in the result and not take on the entire responsibility of the result was critical. My experience is that when people share their personal struggles around failure it helps the person going through a tough time. That is what sponsors do in recovery and coaches do in baseball. I am still so amazed by athletes that can cope with failure. I know the challenge it can be. I still have to battle the negative thoughts that come with failure. I am better at it than I have ever been mainly because I have given myself a lot of practice. In recovery we talk about "Progress not perfection." It works in baseball too. 4) Next week baseball will hold the First-Year Player Draft. Eligible high school and college kids in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico can be drafted in the forty rounds (plus compensation picks) of the draft. Once drafted the kids will negotiate a contract with the selecting team and when they sign they will enter the minor league system for their organization and start to work their way to the majors. Many fans show up at major league games and have no idea about where the players come from. Baseball develops its own players. It is one of the things that distinguishes it from football and basketball. The NFL and NBA are satisfied in letting the NCAA develop their players. Fans dont understand the investment that baseball makes to acquire and develop its talent. Each organization in baseball spends about $15-$20 million on their minor leagues and scouting department. Those departments are the research and development areas of the operations. The money to pay for that comes directly off of the bottom line of the revenues generated by the major league team. Teams reinvest in themselves every year. If a team calls up four rookies in a season then they are effectively spending about $5 million per player per year. That is a significant investment. The men and women that make up the minor league and scouting departments are the lifeline of every organization. They are the foundation upon which the organization is built. Without them there would be no need for a business operations department, accounting department, ticket department or marketing department. There would be no stadiums or ground crews if not for the people who choose and develop the players. For the most part this is a group of no-name faceless baseball lifers who love the game and are committed to their respective organization. They have a keen eye for talent and a knack for getting to know what kids are made of. They rarely get recognition beyond that which they give themselves at a banquet at the Baseball Winter Meetings. Each year a scout or two is recognized for long and meritorious service. As we approach the draft give some thought and thanksgiving for those who have committed their lives to your baseball enjoyment. They love the game like you do and their only hope is that they can pick players who will make you happy. They never get the attention they deserve. I hope one or two read this. Fake Jordan . The question all fans want to know heading into this light heavyweight affair is will Rua display his true potential. Working with UFC welterweight fighter Demian Maias team in Sao Paulo Brazil and having training partners such as fellow UFC stand outs Fabio Maldonado and Daniel Sarafian, the 32-year old feels very well prepared for Friday nights encounter. Cheap Jordan From China . Jacob Jacques, Andrew Ryan and Jonathan Drouin also scored for Halifax (37-18-3), who outshot the Islanders 40-26. Kevin Darveau stopped 25 shots. Bradley Kennedy had the lone goal for Charlottetown (18-33-5), which has nine losses in its last 10 games. https://www.fakejordanwholesale.com/ . Ferrer, the two-time defending champion in Buenos Aires, is aiming to win his 21st ATP tournament. Ferrer will next face fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, the fourth seed, who defeated Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (7), 6-3 in another quarterfinal match.Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Wayne Simmonds, Scott Laughton and Jakub Voracek each posted a goal and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers thumped the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1, on Saturday. Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier each scored while Steve Mason made 25 saves for the Flyers, who have won the first two games of a four-game homestand. Eric Staal had the lone goal of the game for the Hurricanes, who have lost five straight. Anton Khudobin allowed all five goals on 23 shots in the loss. Final Score: Ottawa 3, Boston 2 (SO) Boston, MA (SportsNetwork.com) - Bobby Ryan scored the shootout winner in the Ottawa Senators 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins Saturday. New Senators coach Dave Cameron earned his first win with goals from Mika Zibanejad and David Legwand, along with 29 saves by Robin Lehner. Ottawa has won two of its last three games. Tuukka Rask also made 29 saves, including two in overtime, but it wasnt enough for the Bruins, who have lost five out of their last six. Craig Cunningham scored his first NHL goal, and Loui Eriksson tallied the other Boston goal. Final Score: NY Islanders 3, Chicago 2 Uniondale, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Kyle Okposo and Lubomir Visnovsky tallied 51 seconds apart midway through the third period and the New York Islanders brought the Chicago Blackhawks win streak to an end thanks to a 3-2 final at Nassau Coliseum. Cal Clutterbuck added a second-period strike for the Islanders, who put the brakes on a three-game skid. Jaroslav Halak turned aside 23 shots for the win. Dan Carcillo and Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks, who had won eight in a row since Nov. 26 to reach the top of the Central Division. Scott Darling took the loss despite making 38 saves. Final Score: Washington 4, Tampa Bay 2 Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - Nicklas Backstrom notched his first career hat trick to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots, Eric Fehr scored an empty-net goal and Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson each supplied two assists for the Capitals, who have won four of their last five games. Tyler Johnson and Matt Carle each scored late in the third period and Ben Bishop made 24 saves for Tampa Bay, which has dropped three of its last four. Final Score: Columbus 4, Pittsburgh 3 (SO) Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Ryan Johansen was credited with the game winner in the shootout, and Columbus recovered from a Pittsburgh rally late in regulation to post a 4-3 victory at Nationwide Arena. Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner and Jack Johnson scored for the Blue Jackets, who extended their season-high win streak to six games. Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves, then turned away Brandon Sutter in the games final segment to lock up the win. Kris Letang tallied twice, including the tying marker with less than 11 seconds to play for the Penguins, who also received a goal from Blake Comeau. Thomas Greiss stopped 24 pucks in 65 minutes of play, but allowed two of three Columbus shooters to best him. Final Score: Anaheim 4, Winnipeg 1 Winnipeg, MB (SportsNetwork.com) - Ryan Getzlaf scored the go-ahead goal during a big second period for the Ducks, and Anaheim posted its seventh straight win, 4-1 over the Winnipeg Jets. Jakob Silfverberg and Nate Thompson also lit the lamp in the second period for the NHL-leading Ducks, who equaled their season-best winning streak. They also ended Winnipegs eight-game points streak (5-0-3) by beating the Jets for the second time at MTS Centre in less than a week. On Sunday, Kyle Palmieris tally with 553 seconds elapsed in overtime lifted Anaheim to victory. Air Jordan Outlet. This time, it was Anaheim capitalizing on the power play and also in short-handed situations. Thompson and Andrew Cogliano scored short-handed, with Coglianos going into an empty net with 1:15 left. Silfverbergs goal came on the man-advantage. Frederik Andersen turned aside 27 shots for Anaheim. Bryan Little scored on the power play for the Jets, who have lost two in a row. Michael Hutchinson made 27 saves. Final Score: Buffalo 4, Florida 3 (OT) Buffalo, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Nikita Zadorov scored his first goal of the season 29 seconds into overtime to send the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Saturday. Brian Giontas third-period goal tied the game for the Sabres and ended a run of three straight Panthers goals. Buffalo also got goals from Cody Hodgson and Marcus Foligno to win its third straight game. Jhonas Enroth made 25 saves in the win. Sean Bergenheim and Jimmy Hayes scored second-period goals to erase a 2-0 deficit for Florida, which lost two of three games on its road trip. Al Montoya made 28 saves for the Panthers but did not stop the only shot he faced in OT. Final Score: Toronto 4, Detroit 1 Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - Jonathan Bernier made 27 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs scored four unanswered goals for a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night. The goals from James van Riemsdyk, Richard Panik, Morgan Rielly and an empty-netter from Nazem Kadri gave the Maple Leafs their first four-game winning streak of the season. It includes back-to-back victories over the Red Wings, who fell to Toronto 2-1 in a shootout on Wednesday. Saturday marked the fifth and final meeting of the season between the Atlantic Division foes. The Maple Leafs won the last three after the Red Wings swept a home-and-home in October. Niklas Kronwall scored and Petr Mrazek gave up three goals on 40 shots in Detroits third straight loss. Final Score: Minnesota 4, Arizona 3 (SO) Glendale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu both scored in the shootout to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday. Parise, Minnesotas first shooter, beat Devan Dubnyk with a wrist shot, but Antoine Vermette answered back for Arizona by firing the puck under the arm of Niklas Backstrom. Koivu skated up the left side, cut across the slot, and roofed the puck over Dubnyk. Tobias Rieders shot was wide to seal the win for the Wild. Parise netted the game-tying goal late in regulation, Nino Niederreiter and Jason Zucker also scored and Backstrom made 26 saves for the Wild, who bounced back from a 2-1 loss to San Jose on Thursday. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Lauri Korpikoski and Vermette all lit the lamp for the Coyotes, who lost their ninth straight home game. Dubnyk made 32 stops in defeat. Final Score: Dallas 4, New Jersey 3 Dallas, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Shawn Horcoff scored the deciding goal late in the second period as the Dallas Stars held off a late New Jersey push for a 4-3 victory on Saturday. Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza each finished with a goal and an assist, Trevor Daley also scored and Antoine Roussel supplied two helpers for the Stars, who entered the game with five losses in their previous six games. Kari Lehtonen stopped 28-of-31 shots in the win. Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Scott Gomez all lit the lamp for New Jersey, which dropped its third straight game. Cory Schneider allowed four goals on 33 shots over the first two periods and Keith Kinkaid made three saves in relief during the third. ' ' '