KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The Atlanta Braves have been on a signing spree. So far theyve locked up first baseman Freddie Freeman, right fielder Jason Heyward, starter Julio Teheran, and closer Craig Kimbrel. On Wednesday, the Braves extended the contracts of general manager Frank Wren and manager Fredi Gonzalez. Wren and Gonzalez were entering the final years of their contracts and Braves president John Schuerholz simply said he wanted the deals to be done as soon as possible. Terms and the amount of the contracts were not disclosed. Schuerholz made the announcement before the first full-squad workout of the spring. "Theyve done wonderful jobs for us," Schuerholz said. "Were not going to talk about the lengths, but they have been extended." After a long first day with the full squad, Gonzalez said he was happy to have the contract issue out of the way. "Im excited," Gonzalez said. "It gives me a chance to stay in Atlanta and I love being here. This is a place I want to be for a long time. Im just happy with the whole thing." Last season, the Braves went 96-66 and won the National League East before falling in the playoffs. Gonzalez finished third in National League Manager of the Year voting. He has a career record with the Braves of 279-207. Gonzalez has a long history with the Braves as a third base coach under manager Bobby Cox. He started his managing career with the Florida Marlins where he served for 3 1/2 seasons. Wren has been in the Braves organization since 1999 and replaced Schuerholz as general manager after the 2007 season. Schuerholz said he was happy to have Wren and Gonzalez wrapped up before contracts became an issue during the regular season. "Its just not the way to run a company," said Schuerholz of spending the year negotiating contracts. These guys deserve better than that and thats why we did it." "Thats not something we wanted to avoid, its just not the way to run a company," he said. "And these guys deserve more than that, better than that, and thats why we did it." The four player signings along with the Wren and Gonzalez extensions, showed that the Braves arent afraid to spend money. On the four players alone, they spent $227.7 million. NOTES: Gonzalez got a chance to see RHP Brandon Beachy pitch and said he is impressed. Beachy was 2-1 with five starts last year after returning from Tommy John surgery. ... Gonzalez said he is still adjusting to the new rules regarding replay. The Braves will be allowed the use of replay three times during spring training. He said he is still trying to figure out the rules. He said he will likely have a part-time coach in the replay booth to send down signals on the calls. ... RHP Kris Medlen sat in front of the dugout at Champion Stadium to have his hair completely shaven to support awareness and funding for cancer research. Several cancer survivors helped out and Medlen said he felt fine about his new look after it was over. . Speaking on TSN Radio 1050s TSN Drive with Dave Naylor on Monday, Colangelo said he had no intention of tanking the shortened 2011-12 season, but definitely wanted a high pick in the draft. "I wish that word wasnt used for headline reasons," said Colangelo, "but the story behind it was: how can we fix the system? How can we tweak the system to make it less likely that teams are rewarded for losing records? "I do believe that if youre as transparent as we were at the time - with our season seat holders, our fans, the market place and the media - everybody knew what the plan was and what we were going through. . The Canadian defensive tackle suffered the injury on Monday and had tests done on Tuesday. He was a potential starter on the defensive line but head coach Mike OShea said he wasnt even thinking about the ratio when he got the news.
http://www.cheaphornetsjerseysauthentic.com/. Dirk Nowitzki scored 25 points, Shawn Marion had 22 and the Mavericks beat undermanned Philadelphia 124-112 Friday night, handing the 76ers their 10th straight loss. . - Quarterback Brady Quinn says he has been released by the Miami Dolphins. . The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the search, confirmed reports by several media outlets. The interview took place in Southern California on Monday.Though Mark Giordano had the counting numbers to legitimize his Norris Trophy candidacy last season, with 14 goals and 33 assists in 64 games, the crux of the argument in support was tied up in Calgary’s Corsi% splits. With Giordano on the ice last season at 5-on-5, Calgary controlled 53.4% of the play – the mark of an elite hockey team. With Mark Giordano off of the ice last season, Calgary controlled just 43.1% of the play – the mark of a lottery-bound hockey team. The difference isn’t anything we have seen since Corsi% started being collected in the 2007-2008 season. To illustrate this, I went ahead and compiled the widest on-ice/off-ice Corsi% splits for defensemen over the last seven years. Relative Excellence Year Player Team Corsi% Corsi% Off RelativeCorsi% 2013-14 Mark Giordano Calgary 53.4% 43.1% +10.3% 2010-11 Dustin Byfuglien Winnipeg 54.3% 45.0% +9.3% 2013-14 T.J. Brodie Calgary 51.5% 43.3% +8.2% 2012-13 Christian Ehrhoff Buffalo 50.1% 42.1% +8.0% 2009-10 Carlo Colaiacovo St. Louis 56.8% 48.9% +7.9% 2012-13 Anton Stralman N.Y. Rangers 57.3% 49.6% +7.7% 2011-12 Alex Goligoski Dallas 54.3% 46.8% +7.5% 2010-11 Lubomir Visnovsky Anaheim 48.9% 41.4% +7.5% 2013-14 Matt Niskanen Pittsburgh 53.4% 46.1% +7.3% 2013-14 Marc-Edouard Vlasic San Jose 58.2% 51.1% +7.1% These players are sorted by differential (or RelativeCorsi%), so at least in the hockey analytics era, Giordano’s performance is without parallel. It’s also worth noting that frequent defence partner T.J. Brodie – who Calgary just locked up on a team-friendly five-year deal – is also on the list. The data speaks quite well of how impactful the players are relative to their team’s performance when they are on the ice, but it also speaks to how poorly the teams perform when they are off of the ice. This point is one that shouldn’t be lost. If last year’s Flames team had ample depth that pulled their weight when Giordano was taking a breather, Giordano would have never appeared on this list. The disparity is just as much Giordano’s dominance as it was Calgary’s futility. This is precisely the reason why you don’t see elite possession guys like Drew Doughty, or Nicklas Lidstrom, or Zdeno Chara in the above group. They always drove play favourably, but also had ccompetent teammates that pulled their weight when they were off the ice.dddddddddddd This gets into Calgary’s bigger issue – a stunning lack of depth at the NHL-level away from the players assigned to handle tough opponents. To Calgary’s credit, it’s a problem they’ve identified, though I don’t know if they’ve went about addressing it in the best manner possible. They signed Deryk Engelland and Raphael Diaz in the off-season, and traded for Ladislav Smid a few months prior. Kris Russell, who feels something of a Flames veteran by current standards, has logged all of 76 games with the team and he’s another player also acquired via trade, in the summer of 2013. Dennis Wideman’s best years are behind him now, but I’m sure the team still sees him as a serviceable back-end guy who can give them twenty minutes a night. To test if there’s been any improvement early this year from the run of blue-line changes, we can pull out Corsi% again for Calgary with Mark Giordano on the ice v. Mark Giordano off of the ice. With or Without Giordano Status CorsiFor CorsiAgainst Corsi% Giordano On-Ice 116 115 50.2% Giordano Off-Ice 173 290 37.4% As a quick reminder here, Calgary’s Corsi% with Giordano off of the ice last season was 43.1% -- a ‘we are quite interested in the upcoming draft lottery’ sort of number. This year, it’s down to a pitiful 37.4%. Though it’s only been eight games, I find it hard to legitimize a small sample size argument from this set of data, if only because it’s just a continuation of what we witnessed all of last season. What’s interesting about Calgary is troubleshooting the team’s issues isn’t a particularly difficult task. The team glaringly lacks depth and competency, but does have a small group of fantastic players who seem to engage in playoff-caliber hockey when they are on the ice. That’s more than you can say for some of the teams who already hold a vested interest in the upcoming draft lottery. It might be in Calgary’s best interest to let the anchors drag the team down, putting them in a position to bid for one of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, or Noah Hanifin. The point of interest here is seeing whether or not the majority of Calgary’s lineup – which is emphatically poor – can drag down a small group of excellent players and a decent duo in net between Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo. It’s a fascinating internal battle, and ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how the Calgary management group handles this going forward – especially if they’re considerably outside of a playoff position come the trade deadline. ' ' '
