round pick for a totally unused

NEW YORK -- On Tuesday night, after another mediocre game at the plate, Alex Rodriguez insisted he was ready to go on a tear. nfl jerseys china . He knew what he was talking about. A-Rod gave Will Smith a rude welcome to the major leagues Wednesday night, hitting two homers off the rookie to back another strong start for Andy Pettitte and lead the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 8-3. "I said it with conviction not because it was going to sound good here in my locker but because I felt it," Rodriguez said. "Its good to back that up." Rodriguez snapped a 52 at-bat homerless drought and drove in three runs for New York. Curtis Granderson also connected off Smith and the Yankees scored three times in the fifth with help from some inept relief pitching. Derek Jeter had three hits to tie Paul Waner for 15th with 3,152. Before Jeter singled in the eighth, Waner had been the only player who reached a bigger hits milestone than Jeter in a Yankees uniform. "Big Poison" got just one hit with New York, his final one in a career spent mostly in Pittsburgh. New York scored as many as three runs in the first inning for the first time in 31 games since April 19 and finished a 3-3 homestand. The Yankees start a 10-game trip at Oakland on Friday following their first consecutive wins since taking three in a row from May 10-12. Pettitte (2-1) followed eight innings of four-hit ball against Cincinnati with seven-plus crafty innings in his third start since coming out of retirement. He gave Smith a lesson in mixing pitches and working out of difficult situations. "I feel like Im moving the ball around the zone and that makes it difficult to hit," Pettitte said. In the third inning, first baseman Mark Teixeira started a double play with a diving stop. Pettitte got out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth with a strikeout -- one of his eight Ks -- giving a slight fist pump walking off the mound. "Hes as good as Ive ever seen over there," Pettitte said about Teixeira. Pettitte gave up seven hits, including homers to Billy Butler and Mitch Maier. The 39-year-old left-hander has not lost to Kansas City since 1999. In 24 games against the Royals, he is 14-3. "I faced him before he retired and now after he came back, and I actually see things different that hes doing," Butler said. "Hes throwing more off-speed stuff, more curveballs and changeups. Before it was 90 to 94 with hard cut in on you. You knew he was throwing it and he knew you knew he was throwing it, and it was going to beat you. But hes crafted his game and his last two starts have been great." Smith (0-1), a 22-year old called up from Triple-A Omaha on Tuesday -- not the actor with a movie coming out this weekend -- started off with an out for the scrapbook: He got Jeter to hit a grounder to shortstop. But it was rocky the rest of the first for the lefty who was two months shy of 6 when Pettitte made his debut in 1995. "I was nervous a little bit, facing a future Hall of Famer to start your career, in Derek Jeter," Smith said. "That was cool at the same time, but you still got to go out there and make your pitches and get people out." Granderson homered to deep right on a 1-2 pitch. TV showed Smiths mom in the stands shaking her head: welcome to the big leagues, son. After a walk to Teixeira, A-Rod crushed a ball into the left field stands for a 3-0 lead. By the time Nick Swisher hit a pop up with two outs, Smiths mom couldnt watch: she had covered her face with her hands. It was an out, mom. When Rodriguez homered in the third to centre field, mom sat stunned with her hands behind her head. "She was nervous. Shes been like that since I was in high school," Smith said. "She and my dad ... my dad used to pace around the stadium. They always get nervous and always will be." Rodriguez had just one RBI since he last homered and drove in three runs on May 6 at Kansas City, 15 games ago. It was Rodriguezs 60th multihomer game. Smith was lifted after giving up a one-out single in the fourth. He yielded five runs and six hits in 3 1-3 innings. Luis Mendoza, the pitcher originally slated to start Wednesday night, relieved. Rodriguez came up in the fifth with the bases loaded and grounded into a fielders choice. Jeter, who bunted for a hit, was forced out at home. The Yankees came in 8 for 41 (.195) with the bases loaded but they didnt need a hit in that situation in the fifth to score their runs. The Yankees walked three times and were twice hit by pitches in the inning. Robinson Cano had an RBI fielders choice -- a nice diving stop by shortstop Alcides Escobar -- and Andruw Jones and Teixeira, back in the 3-hole after two games batting seventh, walked to force in runs. "Its a club that a lot of times works the count really well and is going to have its share of walks," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Eric Hosmer went 3 for 4 with an RBI to raise his average to .191 for the Royals. NOTES: The Royals dropped to 4-3 in the deciding game of series this season. ... New York went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position, leaving the Yankees 9 for 85 (.106) in their last nine games. cheap jerseys . -- Brian Unk shot a final round of 5-under 65 Sunday to finish one shot ahead of Calgarys Wes Heffernan and win his second Canadian Tour Seaforth Country Classic title. cheap jerseys from china . Huberdeau, the third-overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, will not be eligible to play in the NHL this season except on an emergency recall, according to TSNs Bob McKenzie. http://www.cheapnfljerseychinaonline.com/ . The Nashville Predators needed a little extra time to stretch their run to five. David Legwand scored the only shootout goal, Pekka Rinne finished with 39 saves and the Predators beat the St.Well, that was quick. Shortly after climbing to within 3.5 games of the Easts final playoff spot, the Toronto Raptors dropped three straight games (including one pivotal contest against the Easts current eighth seed, the Milwaukee Bucks) and all but eliminated themselves from the postseason conversation. Now the attention turns to new priorities as the club looks to set themselves up for a strong transition into the 2013-14 season. The overriding concern for the next six weeks is simple: win. With no draft pick to look forward to, there is no motivation for the club to tank games the rest of the way. The coaching staff should keep driving a winning mentality into its players, rather than let them take their foot off of the gas pedal to close out the season. There are still a lot of issues with the construction of this club, and it is far easier to evaluate those issues if the club is going full-bore right up to the end. That isnt to say that player development should take a backseat, however. Jonas Valanciunas has looked like a changed player since returning from his broken finger and featuring him in the post the rest of the way is terribly important. The Raptors are aching for a player who can create high percentage shots consistently around the basket and Valanciunas has been flashing some confident and aggressive moves around the hoop of late. Finding a way to exploit that more frequently is important as it will be a staple of the clubs attack next season. If the Raptors can get to a point where they feel comfortable having Valanciunas as a post threat (albeit a developing one), then that could have a significant impact on their summer shopping season as it could cross one notable need off the list. In that same vein, Terrence Ross needs to see more minutes the rest of the way, as well. Hes played only 8.4 minutes per game since the All-Star break, and while part of that is a result of his 18.2% shooting clip during that span, hes simply too important to the clubs future to see so little action the rest of the way. As productive as Alan Andersons been in spurts this season, he is simply not a long-term asset for the club (their glut on the wings makes re-signing him this summer a questionable proposition) and Ross has too many key attributes that the organization needs to hone before next season. If Rudy Gay is going to be the clubs primary offensive weapon going forward, then it makes sense to develop Ross as a counter-punch to Gays attack. At his best, he can hit outside shots, play strong perimeter defence and fill the lanes on the break - all assets that will make Gays life easier out on the court. None of this is to suggest, though, that Valanciunas and Ross should be given an unlimited leash, nor that the team should be sacrificing their quality of play to get them minutes. As important as their individual development is (and it is key), of greater importance for the club is the level of accountability that is needed to turn this organization into a consistent winner. No player should be allowed to get away with unproductive play just because they are young. They need to be allowed some latitude to play through mistakes and learn, but there also needs to be explicit parameters as to what will get them pulled out of a game. This is about laying a foundation of accountability, and it needs to be ingrained in a player as early as ppossible. cheap nfl jerseys. Which, of course, routes us to where everything Raptors related eventually gets routed back to: Andrea Bargnani. It is beyond imperative that the club sever ties with him this summer, for the same oft-cited litany of reasons that have always dogged Bargnani, but figuring out the best path to get him traded is the biggest headache in Raptor-land right now. Hes playing so poorly these days that 11 points on 4-14 shooting (his line Saturday against the Bucks) now constitutes a good game. He looks totally drained of confidence out on the court and his teammates arent exactly killing themselves to cover for his mistakes anymore. Considering this, its hard to conceive of a situation where the Raptors could part with the remaining two years and $23-million left on his contract and get any kind of value in return. They have to find a way, though, because that hefty salary represents the second-largest salary drain on their ledger and they have too many holes to fill to sink so much cash into an unproductive roster spot. In order to up his value, however, hes going to need a steady diet of minutes and a concerted effort to make him look good on offence while hiding him on defence. Unfortunately, this strategy flies completely in the face of the winning-based priorities that have been outlined already, but such is the cruel reality of professional sports. Getting some kind of value in exchange for Bargnani this summer is nearly as important as hammering in the kind of good, self-policing habits that the Raptors need to become a better team next season. Balancing those two priorities is going to be tricky, and frankly there are going to be nights when Casey gets it wrong, but its an unenviable task that is too important to be swept under the rug. While fans will clamor for Casey to just park Bargnani on the bench, the organization cannot afford to devalue this asset any further than it already has been. They need desperately to build him back up so they can sell him for something useful in a few months time. Basically, fans have to stomach him more now to avoid having to stomach him at all later. Thats the trade-off and people are going to have to embrace it. After that, its just a matter of working through the system from game-to-game until the season wraps up. That means continuing to look for the right way to unleash Kyle Lowry, as he needs to be more of a factor next season. That means finding ways to get Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan higher percentage shots (they are both shooting below 41% since the trade). That means keeping the defensive efficiency on its current upward trend while trying to reverse the plummeting efficiency on the offensive end. That means finding minutes for Sebastian Telfair so as to avoid having given up a valuable high second round pick for a totally unused asset. Most importantly, though, it means finding a reason for an increasingly jaded fan base to look forward to next season after this one proved so thoroughly underwhelming. This season was supposed to showcase the future of the Toronto Raptors, but instead it just showed everyone more of the same. If there really is the core here of something special, then the organization should dedicate the next six weeks to demonstrating it to their fans. This was an underwhelming season, give them a reason to be excited for the next one. wholesale authentic nfl jerseys ' ' '