Subject : in super-G and I know I can do really fast," said Hosp, the 2007 overal
BALTIMORE - Dan Duquettes job description includes making trades that will help improve the Baltimore Orioles. cheap jerseys from china .This off-season, Duquette was in the middle of a potential blockbuster deal.Duquette, the Orioles president of baseball operations, acknowledged Saturday there was substance to reports that the Toronto Blue Jays were in pursuit of him to be club president.A lot of times, players will be a trade rumour and sometimes managers get traded, Duquette said. Its even more rare that executives get traded, but occasionally it happens. Its a unique experience. I think when you have a good team and you do well, people take notice.Under Duquettes guidance, the Orioles won 96 games last season, captured the AL East for the first time since 1997 and advanced to the AL Championship Series.That piqued Torontos interest.As you get better as an organization, things that youre doing are trying to be either emulated or acquired, Orioles manager Buck Showalter noted. Its inevitable as an organization that, as you get better, people are going to be coveted more.Because Duquette is under contract with Baltimore through 2018, the Blue Jays had to offer Baltimore ample compensation to secure his services.No deal was made, so Duquette was talking about Orioles baseball on Saturday at FanFest, the teams annual winter convention.He insisted that Torontos advances did not distract him from seeking to put a better club on the field in 2015.Its important for the Orioles fans to know that my focus — and my singular focus — is on improving the team, he said. We do that day by day, trade by trade, addition by addition. We did that this year in the off-season like weve done it in the past.With the exception of Duquettes potential departure, its been a quiet off-season for Baltimore. The losses include free agent outfielders Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis, along with reliever Andrew Miller.The most notable addition is outfielder Travis Snider, obtained in a trade with Pittsburgh.But thats typical of Duquette, who followed a quiet winter in 2014 by adding Cruz and Ubaldo Jimenez during spring training.While its important to improve your ballclub in off-season, were not really trying to win the off-season, Duquette said. Were trying to put together a team that can compete and get to the off-season and prevail. Thats different from making headlines in the winter time.Showalter had absolutely no complaint about the teams off-season activity.As we get into spring and there comes a need, well be able to do it, he said.The Orioles played much of the 2014 season without injured stars Manny Machado and Matt Wieters. Having them in the lineup will make more of a difference than any trade or free agent addition.The biggest and most powerful improvement we have to our ballclub this year is Machado coming back and Wieters coming back, Duquette said.In other news, suspended slugger Chris Davis said Saturday his use of Adderall last season was not as a performance enhancer but rather a way to cope with an oblique injury that landed him on the disabled list and played havoc with his swing.It was never a baseball issue, he said. Just an everyday life thing.Davis was suspended for 25 games. The punishment will expire after opening day.I was just kind of overwhelmed with everything that was going on last year with the injury, he said. There were a lot of things that were taking my focus away from baseball.Davis said he had previously been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, which got him a green light from the independent administrator of Major League Baseballs drug program to use the drug in 2008.I had an exemption in the past. It was denied in 2013 and obviously, I shouldnt have been taking it last year, Davis said. It was a moment of weakness.After batting .286 with 53 homers and 138 RBIs in 2013, Davis numbers slipped dramatically in 2014 to .196 with 26 homers and 72 RBIs.This year, he expects things to be different.Being away from it a month longer than the rest of these guys was tough at first, but I used it to my advantage to get into my workouts a little bit earlier, Davis said. I definitely think last year got off to a slow start, so this year I wanted to get off on the right foot. Im doing some different workouts this year.He jokingly said that included bunting down the third-base line, a way to cope with the shift that limited his effectiveness. wholesale nfl jerseys . Abreu hit his 20th homer and Adam Dunn added a three-run shot as Chicago beat San Francisco 7-6 on Wednesday, handing the Giants their fifth straight loss. cheap jerseys . The Formula One circus has arrived in town and on this Thursday afternoon the teams crew members are setting up their equipment in the pit lane ahead of the three day race weekend.CORTINA DAMPEZZO, Italy -- Elisabeth Goergl of Austria took advantage of an early start number to win a World Cup super-G on Thursday and boost her status as a medal contender at the Sochi Olympics. Wearing the No. 9 bib, Goergl timed 1 minute, 24.23 seconds down the Olympia delle Tofane course. With changing light making it more difficult for the top-ranked skiers starting 16-22, overall World Cup leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch finished second, 0.04 seconds behind. Nicole Hosp of Austria, another early starter, was third, 0.34 back. It was the sixth win of Goergls World Cup career and her victories are now spread evenly between giant slalom (2), super-G (2) and downhill (2). Goergl also swept gold medals in both super-G and downhill at the 2011 world championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and took bronze in both downhill and giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. With her last win coming in a downhill on home snow in Altenmarkt two weeks ago, her form is right on track for the Sochi Games, which open Feb. 7. "Yes, I feel very comfortable on my material," said Goergl, who let out a loud scream when she finished her run and saw the No. 1 next to her name. "The shape is growing, and Im happy that I can ski the way that I want to ski, and that Im healthy." Goergls mother, Traudl Hecher, won bronze medals at the 1960 and 64 Olympics. Her older brother Stephan was also a World Cup skier, although he retired midway through last season. "Of course I saw all the trophies of my mom. And I was very psyched the very first time I stood) on skis," Goergll said. cheap nfl jerseys. "I always wanted to go faster and faster." Goergl is also known for her singing, having sung the official tune for the Garmisch worlds at the opening ceremony. "If I want to (sing) I want to do it professionally," Goergl said. "Skiing is the focus now, and well see what the future brings." The top Americans were Julia Mancuso in seventh and Stacey Cook in ninth, both season bests. Lara Gut of Switzerland finished 19th and had her lead in the super-G standings cut to three points ahead of Anna Fenninger of Austria, who was fifth. In the overall standings, Hoefl-Riesch holds a 107-point lead over Fenninger. Hoefl-Rieschs previous best result in super-G this season was eighth. "Finally I made no big mistake," Hoefl-Riesch said. "Im proud and happy." Hosp was also third in a super-G in Beaver-Creek, Colorado, in November. "I feel really good this year in super-G and I know I can do really fast," said Hosp, the 2007 overall winner, who missed the Vancouver Games due to injury. "There (were) very hard times for me the last years. Now I got my feeling back." The super-G kicked off a busy schedule of four races in four days in the resort known as the "Queen" of the Italian Dolomites. Downhill races are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, followed by another super-G on Sunday. Two of this weeks races were originally scheduled for last weekend in Cortina but were wiped out due to heavy snowfall. The other two were moved from Garmisch due to a lack of snow in the German resort. cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
