Every year you make sure to check out the players an organization sends to the Arizona Fall League. These can be players the team is fast tracking to the Bigs, players changing positions or players needing extra work while rehabbing from injuries. The Blue Jays have seven prospects playing this year with the Salt River Rafters: four pitchers, a catcher, an infielder and an outfielder. The four of most interest are all pitchers - Drew Hutchison, Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and John Stillson. Hutchison, coming off of Tommy John surgery, pitched 35.1 innings this past season split among Single, Double and Triple-A. Clearly, the Jays are trying to get him more work to hasten his return to the big club. Hutchison has been pretty sharp making four starts for the Rafters, going 1-0 with a 0.57 ERA and with two walks and 14 strikeouts over 15.2 innings. As good as he looked, when you consider how few innings he pitched this past season, it would still make a lot more sense for Hutchison to spend the bulk, if not the entire coming season, in Double and Triple-A. Aaron Sanchez is two years younger than Hutchison at 21, but is regarded as the Jays top pitching prospect what with the trades of Justin Nicolino to the Miami Marlins and Noah Syndergaard to the New York Mets a year ago. The only real knock so far on Sanchez has been his control. With the Rafters, he has eight walks in 13.1 innings, but otherwise, the numbers look pretty good. In four starts hes 0-1 with 10 strikeouts and a 1.35 ERA. However, it still looks as though hes at least another year away from a shot at the Majors. The other two are puzzlers. After a year starting at Double and Triple-A, 22-year-old Marcus Stroman is only working in relief in the AFL. Hes pitched in seven games, just 7.2 innings and is 0-2 with a 4.70 ERA. Hes struck out six and walked only 3 and opponents have only hit .207 off him. Alex Anthopoulos said towards the end of this season, he might trade some of the Blue Jays bullpen depth, to fill other holes. So, perhaps, Stroman will move into the Jays pen to fill one of the created openings. The fourth pitcher is right-hander John Stillson, who greatly impressed skipper John Gibbons last spring. The 23-year-old right out of Texas A&M went 6-2 at Triple-A Buffalo out of the bullpen with four saves. He struck out 47 and walked 15. Unfortunately, he hasnt pitched well in the AFL. Hes appeared in just three games out of the pen going only two-and-a-third innings and getting hit hard. Stillsons ERA is 23.14 and batters are hitting .438 against him. Yes, there is still Kyle Drabek and the impending return of Brandon Morrow from his injury and the possibility that Ricky Romero has a shocking return to form, but its still pretty clear Alex Anthopoulos is going to have to do most of his searching for pitching help outside the organization in the off-season. Monday at 5:00pm et. is the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers of to their perspective free agents. The Blue Jays are not expected to tender right-hander Josh Johnson who went 2-8 in an injury plagued first campaign with the Jays. The Blue Jays were supposed to have met with their medical people over the weekend to determine if it was worth making Johnson any sort of offer at all, say in the $2-3M range for one season. Interest in Tanaka A reworked Japanese player-posting system havent been put into place yet, but the interest in Masahiro Tanaka continues to skyrocket. The 25-year-old who went 24-0 this season for the Rakuten Golden Eagles, threw 160 pitches in a complete game loss in Game 6 of the Japanese World Series to the Yomiuri Giants. The very next day, though, in Game 7, Tanaka came right back and threw 15 more pitches in the ninth to nail down the victory and give Rakuten its first league title ever. The New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs just a few of the clubs who want to get into the bidding once a new posting system is in place. Bay Area Share? There is a chance that the Oakland Athletics could be playing in the San Francisco Giants ballpark for the next two years. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, unless the As can get a two-year lease agreement in Oakland rather than the six-to-eight-year deal the O.co Coliseum people want, they will be playing out of AT&T Park as soon as this spring. The As want to maintain their flexibility so they can move someplace else if a new facility isnt built in Oakland. A few scheduling details would have to be worked out, since, right now, the As and Giants are both scheduled to play eight games at home on the same days. End of the Astrodome? The fate of the sports first indoor facility, the Houston Astrodome, could well be decided shortly. There is a vote being taken on Tuesday on a $217M bond issue on whether to transform the Astrodome into a convention and exhibition centre. If the nays carry the vote, the Astrodome, which opened in 1965, will be leveled. Da... Clarkson Jersey . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. Nick Foligno Jersey . 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With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. LONDON -- A three-man independent panel will investigate cyclings doping past, including allegations the sports governing body colluded with Lance Armstrong. UCI President Brian Cookson said Wednesday the commission will investigate allegations "that the UCI has been involved in wrongdoing in the past -- allegations which have done so much to hurt the credibility of the UCI and our sport." The probe is expected to centre on the UCIs handling of doping in the late 1990s and early 2000s, especially its links with Armstrong. Much could hinge on whether Armstrong and former UCI presidents Hein Verbrugggen and Pat McQuaid agree to testify. The UCI and Verbruggen have been accused of protecting Armstrong and helping cover up his doping. The American was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from Olympic sports for life after admitting to doping. The investigative panel will be based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and will be called the Cycling Independent Reform Commission. Cookson said he wants the investigation completed this year. The commission will be chaired by Dick Marty, a Swiss politician and former Swiss state prosecutor. The other members are German anti-doping expert Ulrich Haas and Peter Nicholson, a former Australian military officer and war crimes investigator. "Their work will also be focused on understanding what went so wrong in our sport and they will make recommendations for change so that as far as possible those mistakes are not repeated," Cookson said in a statement. In an interview published by Britains Daily Mail in November, Armstrong said Verbruggen helped him cover up doping at the 1999 Tour de France. Verbruggen dismissed it as a "ridiculous story." Armstrong said Verbruggen insisted "weve got to come up with something" to explain his positive tests for a banned corticosteroid. The UCI accepted Armstrongs backdated prescription for a cream to treat saddle sores, allowing him to stay in the race. He went on to win the first of his seven Tours. The UCI panel is also expected to investigate whether $125,000 donated by Armstrong was paid to cover up suspiccious doping tests.dddddddddddd Creation of the panel was one of the main campaign pledges of Cookson, a Briton who unseated Irelands McQuaid in the UCI presidential election in October. Cookson said the panel will have complete access to UCI files and electronic data that was seized by investigators within minutes of his election. The panel will seek testimony from current and past riders and officials. The UCI is working with the World Anti-Doping Agency on what type of incentives to offer witnesses in exchange for their co-operation. Cookson has said Armstrong would be among those invited to testify before the UCI panel, as well as Verbruggen and McQuaid. Armstrong has said he would co-operate with any international commission on cyclings doping past. He is seeking a reduction in his life ban. Armstrong has so far refused to provide sworn testimony to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. It was USADAs detailed report in 2012 of drug use by Armstrongs U.S. Postal Service team that led to him being stripped of the Tour championships he won from 1999 to 2005. USADA has said the only chance to lessen the penalty is to answer questions under oath. Armstrong said on Twitter on Tuesday that "my position remains unchanged" and he plans on "co-operating openly & honestly" with any UCI commission that contacts him. He tweeted that "I can also confirm that neither myself nor anyone on my team has been contacted by the UCI or the independent commission." Cookson said the UCI will cover the full budget of the commission, which will operate "completely independently of the UCI" and receive no instructions from the body. Haas, a German professor of law at the University of Zurich, is an experienced judge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport who has been involved in prominent cycling cases. Haas was the chosen arbitrator of Alberto Contadors legal team on the three-man panel which eventually stripped the Spanish rider of his 2010 Tour de France victory and banned him for two years. The panel decided that Contadors positive test for clenbuterol was caused by a contaminated supplement. cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '