TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers several questions each week. Jaydon Mickens Jersey . This weeks topics include the battle atop the American League East, Bryce Harper rocking the boat, All-Star Derek Jeter and more. 1. The Baltimore Orioles have taken over first place in the AL East (albeit by percentage points) from the Toronto Blue Jays following Thursdays games. Will the AL East race come down to which GM makes a move first, or do you see one club having an advantage over the other as they are currently constructed? The Blue Jays and Orioles are two very similar teams. They both have dynamic offences and somewhat less than overwhelming pitching. They also are in a similar position as they find themselves in an uncommon spot atop the AL East. I have been saying over and over that this year is an unanticipated opportunity for the Jays. This is a season that the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays are all subpar teams that are not playing very good baseball. If there was ever a year for the Jays to go for it, this is it. But the same logic applies to the Orioles. Whereas, the Jays and Orioles are very similar, there are some subtle differences. The Jays have a better offence as they have outscored the Orioles by 35 runs. The Orioles have the overall edge in pitching as they have a 3.90 ERA (7th) and the Jays have a 4.03 ERA (11th), but interestingly, within those pitching numbers, the Jays have a better starting pitchers ERA, while the Orioles bullpen is almost a run better in ERA. What does this all mean? It means that a general manager will decide who wins the AL East: Dan Duquette vs. Alex Anthopolous. If either team decides to let their offence be the focus of the club, that will be the team that will lose. Pitching wins championships. These two teams need better pitching, not only to win the division or to be a Wild Card team, but they need better pitching if they have any designs on advancing once in the playoffs. The most interesting part of this will be that they will battle for the same players in the trade market. Neither team is likely to get David Price, since the Rays probably wont move him within the division, but Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel (a former Oriole) of the Cubs could help both teams. If Cliff Lee of the Phillies returns to health before the deadline, I would expect him to be made available. His contract is likely prohibitive to the Jays and his health history prohibitive to the Orioles. There is speculation the Phillies might move Cole Hamels, but he would have to approve any trade and it is unlikely he moves north of the border. The Os might have an edge in getting Hamels if he is moved, but his contract may be prohibitive considering how they got burned by the Ubaldo Hernandez deal this year. AJ Burnett could be a chip the Phillies would move. The Jays know him well as he played there a few years back. The fear with Burnett is that he faded down the stretch last year for the Pirates. Will he do the same this year? There is a ton of interest in the NY Mets lefty Jon Niese. He would help both teams and fits financially, as well. The Jays have a recent history of trading of trading with the Mets in the R.A. Dickey deal. Relationships matter, so this could give the Jays a slight advantage. If the Mets make Bartolo Colon available, he could be a target of both teams. He is an experienced 41-year-old guy who is a competitor and he has pitched successfully in the AL. The Orioles may shy away from his age, giving the Jays an advantage. I suspect both teams will also target relievers. The San Diego Padres are getting the most calls right now as they have both closer Huston Street and set-up man Joaquin Benoit available. I dont anticipate either team targeting a closer to step in and assume the duties, so any interest in Street would likely be to add him as a set-up man and use him as insurance to close. Joaquin Benoit is the best set-up man available and he has some experience as a closer. It will be far easier to make a deal for Benoit than Street. He would be a difference-maker for both clubs. Both the Orioles and Jays have enough depth in their farm systems to make deals for this year. Certainly the GMs would have to swallow hard to trade away prospects, but let me remind you that prospects get general managers fired. Big leaguers win championships. So as the players battle and the managers manipulate their rosters to try and win games, this season will be decided by guys who wear ties to work not uniforms. May the better man win. 2. When he returned from injury earlier in the week, Washington Nationals OF Bryce Harper told the media his ideal lineup for the club that included him starting in centre field over teammate Denard Span. Manager Matt Williams downplayed the comments as best he could afterwards. How disruptive are comments like this to the team, or does the media make more out of it than there really is? Is Bryce Harper a good player? I find myself asking this because so far I am not really sure how good he is. He has shown flashes of brilliance, but he is only a .273 career hitter. He has never driven in over 60 runs in a season. Now, I know he has suffered injuries that have limited his playing time, but at some point he needs to be less about the hype and more about actual production. He needs to less about talking and more about doing. At 21 years old, there is still plenty of time for Harper to fulfill his potential, but he really needs to focus more on his production and less about writing out the line-up. I mean, really? Twenty-year veterans dont make comments about who they believe the manager should be playing. Who does he think he is? As much as Harpers comments rubbed Williams the wrong way, it had to rub his teammates that way, too. Players dont care for young phenoms who talk. Remember when Cole Hamels of the Phillies hit Harper with a pitch a couple of years because he just didnt like his style? That tells you what players think. Earlier this year, Williams benched Harper for not hustling. It was a huge statement made to Harper and the entire organization. It said that it doesnt matter who you are, if you dont do what I say you will be held accountable. Harpers cocky attitude without having accomplished anything significant in the big leagues alienates him from his peers. They had to enjoy some of the air be taken from his balloon. Harper gave Matt Williams another opportunity to make a statement. This time Williams chose to minimize Harpers comments and protect. Time will tell if this was the right approach. I would have preferred my manager knock him down a few pegs by calling Harper in and telling him to shut his mouth and just play. Then, when asked by the media, I would have wanted Williams to say, “It has been addressed internally. Beyond that I have no comment.” The most important aspect of this though is the player-to-player reaction. What is going on in that clubhouse? Bryce Harper desperately needs a veteran player to grab him by the collar and mentor him. Harpers ego may not allow him to be open to that, but boy does he need it. These comments can force Harper into isolation to where he wont interact with teammates. What a lonely existence. The Nats can overcome this now, but in the long run it will tear apart the fabric of the franchise if Harper is left unaddressed and isolated. I was worried about Harper when his parents appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16 with a title “Baseballs Chosen One.” I am more concerned now. No kid should have to live up to that. It sets him up to fail and disappoint, even if he turns out to be a pretty good player. Just play Bryce. Lighten up. 3. Derek Jeter – who is outside the top five in most offensive categories among AL shortstops – still holds a solid lead in All-Star voting. Does Jeter deserve a final All-Star start as part of his farewell tour or is this just another flaw in the voting system? Derek Jeter does not deserve to be an All-Star based upon his on-field performance this season. The fans are voting for him to show their respect for his long and meritorious service. I understand that. I have tremendous respect for Jeter. He is a superstar on and off the field. He is one of the most clutch players I have ever seen and one of the classiest, too. Playing in New York is not easy. Players play and live in a fishbowl. Jeter has survived a lengthy career without scandal. He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. That being said, his leading the balloting for shortstops and starting the All-Star Game isnt appropriate. It shows a major flaw and contradiction in the entire system. One of the slogans for the midsummer classic is “The All-Star Game means something.” It is not just an exhibition. The teams are playing for home-field advantage in the World Series. I get it, that can certainly be important. Is there any other game that means something where the fans get to pick who starts the game? If the Jays come down to the last game of the regular season against the Orioles and the winner is the division champ and the loser is a Wild Card team, should John Gibbons let the fans decide who is starting in the game? Of course not. There is an easy solution: The fans vote for players they want to see in the game, but the players vote for the starters in the game. The fan vote is a popularity contest. It is not a strategic evaluation about winning a game. The fans should get a say in the roster, just not the starters. This would allow for Derek Jeter to appropriately be recognized, but still allows the game to be played like it mean something. Bud Selig is stepping down at the end of this year. Maybe if the fans start campaigning for me to be commissioner I can institute this change. Do I have your vote? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On July 4, 1939 Lou Gehrig gave one of the most memorable speeches ever. He had been diagnosed with an illness, ALS, which later became know as Lou Gehrigs disease. It is a horrible disease where once strong bodies deteriorate before our very eyes. Gehrig had played a then record of 2,130 consecutive games. That is about 5.83 years of playing baseball over a 17-year career. He was the most durable player in the game at the time. His body allowed him to play through pain and injury. How ironic that it was his body that so quickly deteriorated? He died less than two years after his speech. How unfair. Gehrig didnt deserve this. He did everything right. He was a classy professional who showed up for work everyday. He prepared well, played hard and produced at the highest level. He had it all. He was adored and respected by his teammates, his bosses, the media, and the fans. He was loved by his family. He had everything. If anyone had a right to feel like a victim it was Lou Gehrig. Yet, there was no victim in him. He proclaimed, "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." In his darkest moment, robbed of that which he loved the most he found gratitude. He went on to say what he was grateful for, "I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. "Look at these grand men [his teammates]. Which of you wouldnt consider it the highlight of his career to associate with them for even one day? "Sure, Im lucky. Who wouldnt consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert -- also the builder of baseballs greatest empire, Ed Barrow -- to have spent the next nine years with that wonderful little fellow Miller Huggins -- then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology -- the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy. "Sure, Im lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, thats something! When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, thats something. "When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter, thats something. When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, its a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, thats the finest I know." I have learned through my own struggles over the 51 years of my life, particularly the last five years, that we all have stories. We all have struggles. We all walk with a limp. Some of our limps are more profound than others. Some of us are better at hiding our limps than others. But we all have them. I have learned, too, that I am not here to teach, but rather I am here to learn from those around me. Everyone I cross paths with in my life can teach me something. I can always find a way to relate to the struggles of someone else and learn from them. I can relate to Lou Gehrigs story in my own way. There was a time in my life where from the outside I had it all: a loving family, a great job, money, respect etc. I had all of those things that the world would deem needed for success. Then, in one fell swoop, it all fell apart it. My illness, addiction, led me down a path of self-destruction. I actually didnt believe I had a lot to live for. My initial reaction was to feel like a victim, but I learned from others who were suffering, as I was, that there is no recovering in that victim place. So I decided to fight to get better. I truly believe that you find out a lot more about people when they are facing adversity than when things are going well. Its easy to be a good teammate, coworker, employee, husband, wife and friend when everything is going well. When things are their darkest, we show what we are truly made of. Lou Gehrig at his darkest moment found a solution in gratitude. I have learned that along the way, as well. When I dont feel right or if I feel like a victim during the course of my day, I stop and list the things I am grateful for. It is hard to feel like a victim when I dwell on all of the gifts in my life. I believe and have experienced that from our greatest miseries come our greatest blessings. I am living that. So today, I am grateful for Lou Gehrigs courage. I am grateful for his reinforcing that gratitude is the answer. I am grateful that I get to make a living doing what I love. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for the support of TSN and my other employers. I am grateful that I see the world differently and interact with it differently today. I am grateful for my faith. I am grateful that I am not judgmental like I once was and that many people dont judge me without knowing me. I am grateful for my fall because it was the only way I could rise. Lou Gehrig is known as the Iron Horse because of his consecutive games played streak. He is known for a disease that is absolutely awful. But to me he is an inspiration of faith and courage. He taught me something and for that I will always be grateful. Niles Paul Jersey . For the Blue Jays the time was Wednesday and the ace was R.A. Dickey. He stepped up. "I feel some responsibility as a stopper from time to time," said Dickey. Yannick Ngakoue Jersey . The club says its first-choice centre back "underwent medical tests on Wednesday morning" which confirmed he has injured his right hamstring. The injury was caused in the second minute of Tuesdays 4-1 league win over Real Sociedad in the Camp Nou when teammate Sergio Busquets accidentally struck Mascherano just above the knee with an outstretched boot. http://www.cheapjaguarsjerseyssale.com/?tag=marcell-dareus-jersey-sale . Smith, an eighth overall pick, had two goals in only 276 minutes of playing time over 16 appearances last season. The left side midfielder played only 43 minutes in three games this season.TORONTO - Its been almost a full year since Raptors forward Landry Fields underwent surgery to correct a debilitating and somewhat enigmatic injury to his right elbow; an injury that nearly turned him against the game that he loves. For Fields, the road to recovery has been a long and arduous journey, one that continues to this day as the 25-year-old prepares for his fourth NBA season and second with the Raptors. This summer was a time of reflection, a time of change in his life, both personally and professionally. Returning to play in 46 games following ulnar nerve surgery early last season, Fields battled through the aftermath of his injury, a hitch in his shot and the resulting toll it took on his confidence. He had targeted the offseason as a time of reconciliation, a time to reconstruct the shooting mechanics that had been betraying him. It turned out to be more trying than he could have anticipated. "There was a point where I was so frustrated, my dark days basketball-wise," Fields told TSN.ca in an exclusive conversation Tuesday evening. "Even in the summer there was a lot of ups and downs," he admitted. "Its just a continual process really. In my mind I thought I [would have] surgery and boom, Id be back to normal, but clearly [that] isnt the case." First and foremost, as Fields pointed out, the nerve still needed to heal and strengthen. Trying to avoid that temptation to put the cart ahead of the horse was his biggest challenge, as he juggled on-court work with the natural healing process that had to occur first. In an attempt to work around the injury and play through it last year, Fields developed some bad habits including what he called a "weird motion" in his shot. He recalled the "down periods" this summer, when he would be in the gym working tirelessly to hone in on his mechanics as he would lose the strength in his shooting elbow. The injury has forced Fields to reinvent his shot and his game while calling a few unexpected audibles along the way. He even tried to do something that is mostly unheard of at the NBA level, change shooting hands mid-career. "At that point I was like, its early in the summertime what if I just start working with my left [hand for] a couple months and see how far I can go," he said of the short-lived experiment. "It didnt really work as I excepted it. Im right handed, so I got off of that and stayed faithful to the process and what the doctors were saying." Fields was a 39 per cent three-point shooter as a rookie with the Knicks back in 2010-11, a year in which he attempted 219 triples. Last year he made just two of 14 attempts from long range. "In my mind I just wasnt playing with a full deck of cards," Fields said of his first season in Toronto. "I want[ed] to shoot it but I understood that my strength and my sensation and the seensory skills in my right hand arent nearly what they need to be so I cant really feel when Im going up for a shot. Telvin Smith Jersey. ." "Its almost like Im shooting a ghost ball or something," he joked. "So when thats going on, yeah youre confidence kind of dwindles. Youre like, I cant shoot right now, not because I dont want to but I literally cant. Its physical." Still not 100 per cent, Fields says he can "finally see a light at the end of the tunnel" and is ready to get back to work. Most importantly, he insists the confidence issues that plagued him last year are forever in the past. "You can tell his confidence is at a much higher level," teammate Aaron Gray said of Fields after the first couple days of camp. "He had to deal with so much last year that I hope no player has to do. Just finding your rhythm and your balance between life and basketball, its huge." Finding serenity in his private life, with a marriage and the birth of his first child, has allowed him to find that balance and put basketball in perspective. Although Steve Novak and Austin Daye will compete with Fields for minutes behind Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan at the wing positions, the presence of accomplished shooters could take the pressure off the Stanford grad. "I told him, dont even worry about his shot," said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. "Hes been working his butt off on his shot, his shot has improved but Im not even concerned about that because he brings so many other things to the table." "I think the weight of the world is off his shoulder," he continued. "Hopefully him knowing that we dont need his shooting to give us a chance to win, that takes some [pressure off]." Instead, Fields will be asked to contribute in other areas of the game, areas he has excelled at in the past, making for what should be a natural transition into his new role. At 6-7 Fields is a skilled defender that Casey has used in man coverage on the likes of LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. He can handle the ball, move without it and rebound as well as anyone at his position. This will be an important season for Fields as he continues to work his way back from an injury that, at least temporarily, changed the way he approached his job. "Im just trying to go out there and really try to have fun again," he said with a smile on his face. "I think last year with the injury it took away that fun aspect for me of basketball and you never want to go to work and not have fun." "I would still work hard but [when] you dont see the kind of results that youre putting the time in to get, it really starts to play with you. So this year Im not [going] to worry about any of that, just [going to] try to go out there and play for my teammates, play for the city and really have fun with it all." 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