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TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers three questions each week. This week, topics cover the Blue Jays rotation, the futures John Gibbons and Alex Anthopoulos, protecting pitchers and a bonus question on his predictions for the MLB playoffs. 1) With J.A. Happ heading to the DL, the Toronto Blue Jays have announced a starting rotation of R.A. Dickey, Drew Hutchison, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan. Should the Blue Jays feel confident with that group or even this early in the season, should they be looking outside the organization for an upgrade? Or should they have kept a prospect like Aaron Sanchez or Marcus Stroman with the big club? The Blue Jays are starting the season with exact rotation they should be using. Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman both need more development but at some point they may be called upon to help. Certainly there are big questions for three-fifths of the starters but there is definitely upside. RA Dickey is just a year removed from his NL Cy Young Award and is predictable and dependable. I cant believe I am saying that about a knuckleballer but it is true. Mark Buerhle is a more than serviceable innings-eater who gives his team a chance to win start after start. After these two though the questions are significant. Brandon Morrow has suffered injuries in each of the past two seasons after looking like a number one starter at times in 2012. Dustin McGowan is throwing in the mid-nineties and is working on a curve ball to go with his devastating slider, but he has thrown just 46 2/3 innings since 2008 because of recurrent shoulder injuries. Drew Hutchison hasnt pitched in the Major Leagues for the past year and a half due to Tommy John surgery but prior to that he looked like he could be a long-term answer for the rotation. Before the season begins players, front office personnel and fans close their eyes and dream about what could be. I can close my eyes and see RA Dickey commanding his dancing knuckler that will baffle hitter. I can envision Buerhle getting a ton of grounders and working quickly getting the powerhouse offense back in the dugout and scoring a ton of runs. I can picture Brandon Morrow rifling his fastball by the games biggest sluggers and logging a ton of strikeouts. I can imagine McGowan and Hutchison fulfilling the potential that they once had as well. It could happen just that way. But it probably wont. My experience is that the more questions you enter with the more things that will likely go wrong. There is a bunch of unpredictability in this rotation. Depth will be important. It is safe to assume that health will be an issue at some point because it has been an issue in the past. Esmil Rogers and Todd Redmond may make starts if necessary. But Alex Anthopolous is going to have to keep working the phones to look for upgrades. Early in the season other clubs arent typically trading good pitchers but he will need to be ready for when they do become available. So when you close your eyes and dream just hope it is not a nightmare. 2) Is manager John Gibbons on the hot seat with the Blue Jays? If the team is slow out of the gate again this year, will he be replaced? Are his and Alex Anthopouloss future tied together (if one goes, the other follows him out the door)? I dont think John Gibbons is on the hot seat during the season this year. I know there were big expectations last year but the collapse wasnt Gibbons fault. The starting rotation just fell apart on him as Morrow and Josh Johnson got hurt and Ricky Romero imploded. Jose Reyes injury crushed the offense early in the season and more injuries followed. The expectations are less this year than a year ago. It certainly behooves the Jays to get off to a good start so they can start to believe in themselves but Gibbons cant pitch for his team and the staff will be the key. I have never been a believer that managers and general managers are tied at the hip. The manager needs to look at the GM as his boss. Clearly Gibbons was brought back to the Jays because of his relationship with Anthopolous but if Anthopolous thinks a change needs to be made he will have to make it. If ownership gets to a point where they believe the roster is flawed and they decide to make a decision on the general manager it is unlikely Gibbons would survive a change in regime. Anthoplous can possibly survive the firing of Gibbons but I dont believe Gibbons would survive the firing of Anthopolous. As it stands today both the manager and general manager are on firm ground as they should be. They just need to be honest with themselves and their bosses about what the expectations are with the roster they have. The owners can hope to be competitive in the tough AL East but if they expect to win it then both Anthopolous and Gibbons are in trouble. This is a roster for which you can hope but not expect great things. 3) With Reds starter Aroldis Chapman and Rays starter Matt Moore both being hit in the head by comebackers to the mound in spring training, is it time for Major League Baseball and/or the players union to implement mandatory pitcher protection? It seems that pitchers have become more and more vulnerable over the past few seasons. Fortunately, we have avoided major catastrophe but we shouldnt be shocked if a pitcher were to be killed by a hit ball. We have just been lucky so far. I am a firm believer that we should never wait for someone to be killed to make a change. Baseball already did that once. Base coaches wear helmets now because a minor league first base coach was hit in the head by a line drive and killed. If protecting pitchers is being considered then protect them. Lets not wait for a tragedy. It is currently optional for pitchers to wear the new protective headgear that was developed by MLB for this year. The feedback so far is that the hats look funny and are not overly comfortable. MLB needs to keep refining the protective hats to make them functional. This needs to be a priority for the Players Association as well. Protective hats for pitchers need to be made mandatory at the minor league level initially. Let the kids get comfortable with them so by the time they are big leaguers it is commonplace. Once the hat is advanced enough make it mandatory for major league pitchers to wear. There is no clock in baseball but we need to put a clock on this. Every pitch thrown puts a pitcher at risk. Please hurry. 4) With the second and third opening days approaching for Major League Baseball it is time to make predictions. Here is how I see the American League:AL East AL Central AL West 1) Boston Detroit Oakland2) Tampa Bay* Kansas City** LA Angels3) Baltimore Cleveland Texas4) Blue Jays Minnesota Seattle5) New York Yankees Chicago Houston * first Wild Card ** second Wild Card AL CHAMPION: Oakland As defeat Detroit AL AWARDS AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, DetroitAL MVP: Justin Verlander, DetroitAL Rookie of Year: Yordano Ventura, Kansas CityAL Manager of Year: Ned Yost, Kansas City Here are my predictions for the NL:NL East NL Central NL West1) Washington St Louis LA Dodgers 2) Atlanta** Milwaukee SF Giants*3) NY Mets Cincinnati Arizona4) Philadelphia Pittsburgh Colorado5) Miami Chicago San Diego* first Wild Card ** second Wild Card NL CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Dodgers NL AWARDS NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Atlanta BravesNL CY Young: Stephen Strasburg, Washington NationalsNL Rookie of Year: Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates Manager of the Year: Mike Matheny, St Louis Cardinals WORLD SERIES CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Oakland As LET THE GAMES BEGIN…..PLAY BALL!!! 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"The unions executive committee insists a strike vote does not mean were pushing away from the table," the player said. "But we want the league to know were serious about our position. NEW YORK -- Lucas Duda and the New York Mets finally flashed a little power of their own. Duda hit a three-run homer and New York overcame two solo shots by Giancarlo Stanton, beating the Miami Marlins 4-3 on Friday night behind Jonathon Niese. Andrew Brown also went deep for the Mets, outhomered 13-0 by Washington at Citi Field in a four-game sweep that ended Thursday. "I think its certainly something Lucas can feel good about right now," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "Hes a big, strong guy. Everybody expects him to hit homers. I just expect him to drive runs in. And I think that swing tonight might really start him here in the last couple of weeks." Niese (7-7) struck out seven and walked none over 6 1-3 innings, improving to 4-1 in seven starts since returning from a shoulder injury last month. New York won for the third time in 12 September games and upped its mark to 6-10 this season against the Marlins, who have the NLs worst record at 54-92. Making his first major league start of the year, Brad Hand (0-1) gave up the go-ahead homer to Duda in the sixth and fell to 1-10 in 17 career outings. With the Mets trailing 2-1 in the sixth before a quiet crowd of 20,562, Eric Young Jr. hit a leadoff double on an 0-2 pitch. Two outs later, Hand worked carefully to Brown and issued a walk. On a 2-2 count, Duda pulled a hanging breaking ball to right field. Stanton raced back but the drive cleared the shortened fence. "Thats the matchup we wanted: lefty-lefty. Just need to make a good pitch and get out of that," Hand said. "I left a pitch up to him." It was Dudas 13th home run in the majors this season -- the previous 11 were solo shots. He was recalled from the minors Aug. 24 and has been filling in at first base for injured Ike Davis, hoping to show the Mets he still belongs in their plans. "It was just a hanging curveball and luckily I got enough of it and it got out. It was pretty windy out there," said Duda, who began the day batting .190 with four extra-base hits against lefties. Stanton hit his 22nd home run on an 0-2 pitch leading off the seventh. Thhat cut it to 4-3 and gave the slugger nine career multihomer games, three this season.dddddddddddd "Weve got a few weeks left so, keep it up," Stanton said. "It really doesnt matter what I do to finish the season, Ill never get back how terrible Ive been. But to turn it completely around is something I need to do, something I better do." LaTroy Hawkins got three straight outs for his ninth save, ending a quick game that took 2 hours, 30 minutes. He struck out Stanton with a 92 mph fastball and retired Justin Ruggiano on a long fly to the warning track in right-centre. An angry Niese was lifted after a one-out single by Ed Lucas. Scott Atchison retired the next two batters before Vic Black and Pedro Feliciano combined for a scoreless eighth. "I wanted to be in there. But that wasnt the reason I was mad," Niese said. "You set expectations for yourself and when you dont meet them, you get kind of angry. But, other than that, it was a good game and Im glad we got the win." Both cleanup batters homered leading off the second. Stanton hit a screaming rocket deep into the left-centre seats. Brown responded with a long drive into the second deck in left, New Yorks first home run since Justin Turner connected Sunday in Cleveland. The Mets allowed 14 unanswered homers during that stretch. Consecutive doubles by Lucas and Donovan Solano put the Marlins ahead in the fifth. Miami could have scored more, but Hand bunted into an inning-ending double play with runners at the corners. NOTES: Turner (right hamstring) probably will be sidelined until at least the middle of next week. ... New York rookie Travis dArnaud got dinged when Lucas backswing hit the catcher on top of his helmet in the second inning. Collins and trainer Ray Ramirez came out to check on dArnaud, who remained in the game. ... Mets RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka turned 33. Matsuzaka (0-3, 8.00 ERA) is slated to start against RHP Henderson Alvarez (3-4, 4.34) in the opener of Saturdays traditional doubleheader, scheduled to make up a June 7 rainout. Carlos Torres faces Miami RHP Jacob Turner in the nightcap. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '