Verwaltungsangelegenheiten » longest winning streak of the season on Sunday

Matt Carpenter, whose bases-loaded double off Clayton Kershaw propelled St. Louis to victory in its NL Division Series opener, was a 13th-round draft pick signed for $1,000 five years ago.Kolten Wong, who hit the tiebreaking, two-run homer for the Cardinals in Game 3 against the Dodgers, was a first-round selection in 2011 with a $1.3 million signing bonus.And Matt Adams, whose three-run homer in Game 4 on Tuesday put St. Louis in the NL Championship Series for the fourth straight year, cost just $25,000 to sign when the Cardinals drafted him in the 23rd round in 2009 — the 699th pick overall.Building largely from within in the free-agent era, St. Louis topped the 10 post-season teams with 17 homegrown players on its 25-man division-series roster, according to STATS.The total cost of those initial contracts: $13,082,500.Thats just more than half the $23 million the Los Angeles Angels are paying Albert Pujols, the three-time NL MVP who left the Cardinals after the 2011 World Series title for the riches of southern California.Thats something we as an organization take a lot of pride in, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, when you see how many of these kids came up through and are contributing, not just making it here, but thriving at this level and helping us to be able to walk in there and pop champagne.Among the post-season teams, Kansas City is second with 13 homegrown players, followed by San Francisco (12), the Angels (11), Washington and the Dodgers (10 each), Pittsburgh (nine), Baltimore and Detroit (seven each) and Oakland (one) — pitcher Sean Doolittle.While baseballs biggest spenders already are home, the final four teams rank sixth in payroll (San Francisco), 11th (St. Louis), 14th (Baltimore) and 19th (Kansas City).Baseballs collective bargaining system rewards teams that made good scouting decisions on young players, whose salaries are a fraction of what veteran stars earn.We have to use our farm system, obviously, in a variety of ways, not only to transition championship players to the major leagues, but we have to use it to acquire talent, Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.A swap brought Kansas City ace James Shields, who will start the ALCS opener against the Orioles. The Royals paid a hefty price, sending Wil Myers to Tampa in the 2012 off-season — Myers was last years AL Rookie of the Year.Like the Cardinals, Kansas City had three homegrown players drive in the go-ahead runs in the Division Series — all former high first-round draft picks who have all struggled to live up to their hype: Mike Moustakas ($4 million as second overall in 2007), Eric Hosmer ($6 million as third overall in 2008) and Alex Gordon ($4 million as second overall in 2005).Ten of Kansas Citys players were acquired in the June draft of high school and college players who reside in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, and three were signed as amateur free agents.Fifteen Cardinals were obtained in the June draft and two as amateur free agents. Five more were acquired in trades and just three signed as major league free agents: shortstop Jhonny Peralta and pitchers Randy Choate and Pat Neshek. And while Peralta was given a $53 million, four-year contract last off-season, Choate is in the middle of a $7.5 million, three-year deal. Neshek signed a minor league contract just before spring training, earned a $1 million salary after making the big league team and became a first-time All-Star.They joined a core of players who have known each other for several years.I think it does start in the minor leagues, Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha said. Every single minor leaguer, theyre kind of preached on that whenever you get up to St. Louis, youre expected to win.John Mozeliak was hired by the Cardinals scouting department after the 1995 season, kept gaining promotions and became general manager in October 2007. His current roster includes five first-round draft picks — none higher than the 19th selection because St. Louis has had a winning record during each year of his tenure.And his group also includes passed-over players whose draft slots read a bit like a lottery ticket, with Adams joined by picks Nos. 350 (Seth Maness), 399 (Carpenter), 639 (Trevor Rosenthal), 802 (Tony Cruz) and 965 (Sam Freeman).Homegrown players arent a new trend for St. Louis: Three of them also drove in the go-ahead runs against Washington in the 2012 NL Division Series: Daniel Descalso, Allen Craig and Pete Kozma.I think it shows that they believe within the organization, Adams said. They draft guys that they can develop and are their type of player. Thats a big thing, knowing that if you get drafted by the Cardinals, you know that youre going to have a chance to come up through the organization and play in the big leagues with them.___AP Sports Writers Janie McCauley and Dave Skretta contributed to this report. cheap jerseys from china . -- Down to 10 men and behind on the scoreboard, Toronto FC displayed its perseverance. wholesale nfl jerseys online . - Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has nothing but good problems right now. http://www.cheapchinanfljerseys.org/.com) - Whew! North Dakota States reign as the three-time FCS national champion was pushed to the limit by South Dakota State on Saturday, but freshman R. china jerseys nfl .com) - Tonight will go a long way in determining the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference. wholesale cheap nfl jerseys .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks take aim at their longest winning streak of the season on Sunday when they host the Calgary Flames in a battle at the United Center.PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The salary cap is going up and business is booming, but still the NHL often gets the most attention for ugly stuff that happens on the ice. Ugly was front and centre Saturday night during the Boston Bruins-Pittsburgh Penguins game that led to two suspensions and three players on the injured list. But instead of expressing concern over Shawn Thornton and James Neal, the leagues board of governors gave vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan a thumbs up for his handling of discipline. "I believe the sense of the room is that Brendan Shanahan and the department of player safety has the confidence of the board of governors. He certainly has my confidence," commissioner Gary Bettman said. "Its about modifying an element of the games culture and we think weve made positive, dramatic steps forward." When Thornton is suspended following an in-person hearing Friday, it will be the 19th ban this season that costs players at least one regular-season game. The first 18 suspensions added up to 77 games, including Neals five for kneeing Brad Marchand in the head. But Shanahan told the board Tuesday that among roughly 55,000 hits over the course of a year, only 50 to 100 are problematic. General managers have noticed a major change over time. "Youre not going to rid yourself of suspensions and what have you, but weve certainly come so much farther," Nashville Predators GM David Poile said. "I mean, look where we were. Ive been around for a long time, and some of the stuff that happened in the so-called old days, to where we are now, its so much better for the players and a so much better game." Its a different game, too. Some of the same hits that used to be acceptable are now spelled out as illegal. Shanahan has taken to producing videos showing examples, something that earned praise from Bettman. "My guess is people dont analyse the things he does in the detail that he does, and if you study the videos that hes put online, the specific instances where supplemental discipline is imposed or the more general tapes that hes put online explaining what the standards are of play, people should take a great deal of comfort that were being extraordinarily proactive," Bettman said. The next step could be harsher punishments as more of a deterrent for players. But general managers didnt display much of an appetite for change in that regard. "If managers and the board of governors want the suspensions to increase, I think that thats a direction theyll certainly give me," Shanahan said. "I can say from my perspective that I think that players do feel the effect of the suspension. Whether its two games or a lot more games, I think that players dont like being in that position, they dont like the game being taken away from them." General managers dont want the game taken away from its roots, either. Shanahan gave his usual update on player safety on the second and final day of the board of governors meeting at the Inn at Spanish Bay, and Peter Chiarelli of the Boston Bruins emphasized that the league can absolutely have hitting and progress with safety at the same time. "You can have both and you should, and theres a respect factor that the players have to adapt, and theey are," Chiarelli said.dddddddddddd "Theres a physical component to the game. Its just going to be a continuing challenge. Youre going to have discussions like these, youre going to have incidents like these. It may be longer suspensions, but you cant have a physical game without having these things." New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello said Monday evening that the onus is on players to follow the rules. Its his hope that maybe the fear of a season-long suspension will stop some of the violence around the league. Poile believes the incidents in the Penguins and Bruins game represented much more of an isolated incident than a trend. "I would think that the type of thing that Neal did, I cant even remember seeing something like that," Poile said. "And Shawn Thornton, he seems to be a stand-up guy, always seems to play his role really well. Hes already said he made a mistake, and hes going to pay for that. He knows that. And I dont think that stuff is going to happen very much. You cant say never, because its a physical game and thats why we partially like the game. Stuff is going to happen." How much stuff has happened was what Shanahan updated the board on Tuesday. As for the future of suspensions, it wont be much different right away. "There has to be the due process and it has to evolve and stuff," Chiarelli said. "You cant just say, All right, lets change the template. You cant say that. Its not fair to the process, its not fair to all the parties. You guys talk about trends and opinions on certain trends, and we do the same thing. In due course that will manifest itself." In addition to talk about player safety, deputy commissioner Bill Daly provided the board with a logistical update on the Sochi Olympics and a joint evaluation of substance-abuse policy between the league and the NHLPA. The deaths of Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and Derek Boogaard in the summer of 2012 prompted a look at how players mental health is handled. "We commissioned jointly with the Players Association and co-operated with them on an independent review of our program and I reported on the results of that review today," Daly said. "The bottom line is the report was good, that the program is doing what it is intended to do, it is helping players and former players in times of need." Daly updated the governors on what to expect from the Olympics and during the NHLs break, along with some logistical elements. Bettman said the governors were briefed on the leagues discussions with the NHLPA about reviving the World Cup of Hockey but predictably did not have any new information to share. "I think its no secret that we collectively believe having a world cup on a regular basis makes sense, the specifics were not there yet on," Bettman said. Bettman reiterated the NHL has no formal plans to expand beyond 30 teams, though he did spend a good portion of his time with reporters fielding questions about expansion. He did not rule it out in the near future. "Were getting lots of expressions of interest and no decisions have been made to do anything other than listen," he said. "We havent embarked on a formal expansion process, but when people want to talk to us we listen." ' ' '