Buff-Community.de » a starting rotation featuring Aaron Sanchez

TORONTO – Apparently, Black Friday knows no borders. Alex Anthopoulos, the Canadian general manager of Major League Baseball’s only Canadian team, spent America’s favourite shopping day putting the finishing touches on a deal with the Oakland Athletics, a trade which set the hot stove ablaze and left the principles involved stunned. Josh Donaldson is a Toronto Blue Jay. Going to the Athletics are Brett Lawrie, pitchers Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin, and shortstop prospect Franklin Barreto. The deal was first reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. Anthopoulos spoke to Donaldson shortly after the deal was finalized, approximately 9:30 p.m. EST. “He was excited,” said Anthopoulos. “I told him he reminded me a little bit of (Jose) Bautista with his swing and, you know, he has the leg lift.” In Donaldson, the Jays get one of the game’s best third basemen, a 28-year-old who’s hit 53 home runs in his first two big league seasons. He’s done so in the regrettable pit that is the Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous monstrosity which gets bigger at night thanks to the marine layer which floats in off of San Francisco Bay and tends to keep fly balls from clearing the outfield fence. He’s posted Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) numbers of 147 in 2013 and 129 last year, good for second best among American League third basemen in both seasons. Donaldson is a solid defender at the hot corner. He may not be to Lawrie’s caliber, but he’s in a different offensive class and that more than offsets whatever Toronto is losing with the glove. Most importantly, Toronto has Donaldson under club control for the next four years. Despite being 28, Donaldson has a little more than two years of big league service time, which means he won’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2018 seasons. When you consider that two third basemen in the same age range as Donaldson, Pablo Sandoval with the Red Sox and Kyle Seager with the Mariners, just signed $100-million contracts, the Jays are getting a player worth at least that much on the cheap. Donaldson is first-time arbitration eligible this winter. Lawrie couldn’t stay healthy, appearing in only 302 of 486 games in his first three full big league seasons for a 62-percent appearance rate. Given big billing when, as a prospect, he was acquired from Milwaukee, in a trade for Shawn Marcum, Lawrie shone defensively but was inconsistent with the bat. His brilliant two month trial run in late 2011, during which he posted a .953 OPS in 43 games, set the bar too high. The general manager bristled when asked if Lawrie fell short of expectations. “No, I don’t think that’s fair at all. I think it’s wrong,” said Anthopoulos. “I think Brett is a very, very good player and he can get even better. He’s a gold glove caliber defender at third. He energizes his teammates. He plays hard. He plays to win.” Graveman, a college draft pick who shot through the farm system after developing a cut fastball, and Nolin, who seemed to get lost in the shuffle after a disastrous one-and-done debut in May, 2013, were expendable because the Jays envision a starting rotation featuring Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Drew Hutchison and Daniel Norris. That Anthopoulos could acquire Donaldson without having to spin off any of aforementioned big arms makes the trade all the more impressive. Franklin Barreto, an 18-year-old shortstop, had worked his way to short season Vancouver, where he posted an .865 OPS in 73 games for the Canadians. He may have a long and successful career but the big league portion isn’t starting this year or next. Consider it the price of doing business. From Oakland’s point of view, general manager Billy Beane may feel he’s plugged a long-term hole created when he moved hotshot Addison Russell to the Cubs in the deadline deal that brought the Athletics Jeff Samardzija. Anthopoulos called Donaldson a “gamer,” which comes on the heels of his effusive praise of free agent signee Russell Martin, who Anthopoulos said “checked off all the boxes.” In the area of intangibles, the Jays have brought in two men who play key positions well above average and who have tasted postseason baseball in each of the last two years. Martin’s been to the playoffs seven times in nine big league seasons. Gone from a clubhouse some on the inside called “dysfunctional” are Lawrie, Adam Lind, Colby Rasmus and Anthony Gose. Make of that what you will. The bullpen and the outfield still need attention. Second base could use some certainty. This team still has holes. But Anthopoulos is spending the offseason being proactive and the savings on Donaldson, related to his actual on-field dollar value, are immeasurable. It’s cash that, arguably, can now be used in other spots. The Blue Jays are a better team today than they were on November 27, just as they improved the moment Martin put pen to paper. With the annual Winter Meetings in San Diego just over a week away, it’s reasonable to expect Anthopoulos’ work has just begun. Wade Baldwin Jersey . Bobrovsky posted a 2-0-1 record with a 1.58 goals-against average and .950 save percentage to help the Blue Jackets (35-26-6) gain five of a possible six points last week. He capped the week by making 32 saves and stopping 2-of-4 shootout attempts in a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Custom Memphis Grizzlies Jerseys . It certainly isnt a coincidence that Dwight Howard has scored at least 20 points in each game of the winning streak. http://www.grizzliesbasketballpro.info/J...sey/.com)LeBron clearly likes his Italian sports cars, and thats ok with me, so up next up is the 458 Spider. Jevon Carter Jersey . Jovanovski, the 2012 champ seeded fifth, will meet surprise Japanese qualifier Misa Eguchi on Friday. Eguchi, ranked 183rd, qualified for her first WTA main draw this week, then beat No. Shareef Abdur-Rahim Jersey . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Latvia won a four-man World Cup bobsled race Sunday, while the U.Rene Bourque will play for the Montreal Canadiens tonight in Game 3 of the teams second-round series against the visiting Boston Bruins. Bourque leads the Canadiens with four goals through six games of the playoffs but was forced to miss Mondays practice with the flu. You can listen to the game live on TSN Radio 690 in Montreal or on TSN.ca/Montreal. Tuesdays skate was optional with defencemen Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban, forwards Thomas Vanek, Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais as well as goaltender Carey Price among those who elected to skip the skate. The series shifts to Montreal after the Canadiens and Bruins split the first two games in Boston. Facing the prospect of a two-game hole in the conference semis, the Bruins sent everything they could at Carey Price on Saturday. One shot knuckled into the ice and skipped past Price to tie the game. Barely two minutes later, Price couldnt get all the way over to stop Reilly Smith. Smith scored the go-ahead marker during a four-goal flurry to end the third period as Boston came back to beat Montreal, 5-3, in Game 2 on Saturday after dropping Game 1 in double overtime. The Bruins rebounded from Thursdays Game 1 loss, when P.K. Subban scored on a Montreal power play 4:17 into the second overtime, and they rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the second meeting with 13 1/2 minutes to play. "Weve been a strong third period team the entire year," said Smith. "We started getting bounces. ... It ended up working out great, but its tough when youre relying on the third period to come back." After Thomas Vanek scored his second goal of the game for Montreal -- both on deflections from Subban -- Dougie Hamilton beat Price with a high wrist shot from the point at 10:56 of the third off a pass from Brad Marchand. Just over three minutes later, Patrice Bergeron picked a loose puck off the wall, and his harmless shot from the right boards looked like it had little chance of going into until it took that funky hop next to defenseman Francis Bouillon and several feet in front of Price, going in over his shoulder.dddddddddddd Smiths winner with 3:32 left came after a cross-ice pass from Torey Krug was tipped by Brendan Gallagher, slowing it down before it reached Smith in the right circle for his near-side wrist shot. "They poured it on at the end of the game," said Price. "I thought they got pretty lucky. They were playing desperate ... and they found a way to put it in the net." Milan Lucic added an empty-netter and Daniel Paille scored earlier for the top-seeded Bruins. Tuukka Rask made 25 saves for Boston, which also lost Game 1 to Detroit in the first round, then won the next four to advance to the second round for the fifth time in six years. The Bruins, Stanley Cup winners in 2011, made it to the Cup Finals for the second time in three seasons last spring before bowing out to Chicago in six games. Mike Weaver had a goal for Montreal and Price gave up four on 34 shots. He had 25 saves on 26 shots in the first two periods. "I thought we put ourselves in a position where we thought we could take the win," said Subban. "But its very tough to go into an opponents building and steal two games in the playoffs. Its not an easy thing to do. And unless you play a full 60 (minutes) youre not going to be able to do it. We didnt play a full 60 today." The Original Six rivals are meeting in the playoffs for the 34th time. The Canadiens are 24-9 in the previous 33 series, but the Bruins have won the last two in 2008 and 2011. Game 4 is set for Thursday in Montreal. The Bruins and Habs split two meetings at the Bell Centre during the 2013-14 regular season, but Boston has claimed four of the past six road encounters in this series. 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