TSN baseball analyst Steve Phillips looks at Robinson Canos contract demands, who was in the wrong in the Braves/Brewers brawl, the best and worst moves made by GMs this season and the end of the Yankees run. Devon Kennard Jersey . 1. According to an ESPN report, 30-year-old second baseman Robinson Cano is looking for a 10-year, $305 million contract when he hits free agency after the World Series. Will recent bad examples (A-Rod, Pujols) of such long-term deals make it any harder for Cano to get what he wants, or is it still safe to say someone will pony up? I completely understand why Robinson Cano would ask for a 10-year, $300M+ deal. Why not? His agent wouldnt be doing his job if he didnt start by asking for the biggest deal ever. Cano is the best player available this off-season and typically that guy asks for the most money ever. The union likes it that way. It is somewhat predictable. Cano is a Yankee. They have the highest payroll in the game which empowers agents. Considering that the Yanks didnt make the playoffs this year for only the second time in the last 19 years, Canos camp may sense some desperation on the Yankees behalf to retain him. Desperate teams are easy prey for wily agents. Robinson Cano is the best second baseman in baseball. Plus, he is the best player on the Yankees. That is worth a ton of money. Teams with interest in Cano are going to have to weigh the length and volume of the contract. Any player who makes the kind of money that Cano is seeking or that ARod and Pujols are making, effectively own the organization. Clubs have to decide whether to mortgage the future of their franchises to sign one player. It is risky stuff. I dealt in chump change back when I was general manager. In 1998, I signed Mike Piazza to a seven-year, $91 million contract, the biggest at the time. That worked out pretty well, although Piazza wasnt nearly the same player the last few years of the deal as he was the first four years. I offered Mike Hampton a seven-year, $105 million deal that he thankfully rejected and signed with Colorado (eight years, $120M). I remember uttering my proposal to Hamptons agent and immediately regretting it. Instant buyers remorse. I was scared to death to sign a pitcher for that period of time. I was lucky as Hampton turned out to be a bust. Alex Rodriguezs 10-year, $275 million contract is an albatross around the Yankees neck. They would love to get out from underneath it. Even if Rodriguez werent tied to steroid usage, the Yanks would want to dump him. His performance has declined so significantly and he has been hurt so much that they arent coming close to getting their moneys worth. Rodriguez has had numerous off-field issues as well, which have caused distraction and frustration for the organization. On the other end of the spectrum, Albert Pujols is one of the best human beings in baseball. He is one of the hardest workers and most disciplined players in the game. He works hard and prepares. He cares and he wants to win. He takes care of his body. He is a superstar with a utility man attitude. His contract for 10 years and $240 million looks to have been a bad investment so far, too. Pujols has underperformed during his first two years as an Angel. He has been hampered by injuries, ultimately having his 2013 season ended because of a tear in his foot. What seemed like a great investment in one of the best people/player combinations has quickly unraveled. There will be very few teams that will even consider Cano. Some teams will be eliminated because of the length of the contract and some because of the annual average value. Even owners who may want to make a splash could quickly be chased away by the Pujols and Rodriguez stories. The main players in the Cano sweepstakes are likely the Yankees, Dodgers, Angels, Mets and Tigers. For each club though, there is reason to doubt their willingness to spend the big bucks. The Dodgers have big dollars tied up in a number of players already. The Angels have spent money on Pujols and Josh Hamilton over the past two years. How much more risk can they assume? The Mets are still digging themselves out from the Bernie Madoff mess and were clearly burned by the Johan Santana mega-deal. Plus, the Mets will not start a bidding war in NY that they cant win. The Tigers have been big spenders in a middle market and you have to wonder how much more is in the bank. That leaves the Yankees. They have been burned by the ARod deal. Plus, they want a payroll under $189 million and signing Cano would make that nearly impossible. The rational me thinks that Cano wont get a 10-year deal and he wont get $30 million per year. But the experience in me says that it only takes one team and whenever the Yankees are in the mix, big money will be spent. Remember, there is always one more Yankee dollar than any other club can pay. My prediction is that the Yankees let Cano test the market where he realizes that the $305 million isnt there. The Yanks ultimately get a deal done in the eight-year, $184 million range. 2. Brian McCann and Carlos Gomez got into it after Gomez had a very slow home run trot in the Brewers win over the Braves on Wednesday. Its the second time McCann has gotten into someones face this month. Who was in the wrong? The Braves/Brewers game on Wednesday night was ugly. Carlos Gomez was out of line. He crushed a home run. It was a blast worthy of admiration. Good for him. But you just arent allowed to stand at home plate and admire it in the big leagues. And admire it, he did. Straight away center field about 12 rows up. The ball sailed out of the park. It hit a seat and bounced another 8-10 rows up. It was only as the ball was rolling back down through the stands that Gomez finally touched first base. What he did violated one of the unwritten rules of baseball: "Thou shall not show up the opposition." When you win a confrontation in baseball, it is not proper etiquette to over-celebrate and rub it in. Gomez clearly did that. He was in the wrong. The Braves were appropriately angered by Gomezs behavior and let him have it as he ran around the bases, particularly first baseman Freddie Freeman and catcher Brian McCann, who blocked home plate. It is the first and only time I have ever seen a catcher block home plate when the homer went out of the park. He was holding Gomez accountable for his behavior. He was confronting it. Someone had to do it. Gomez was clearly in the wrong. The Braves were disrespected and needed to address it with Gomez. The mistake on the Braves part though is that they put at risk their post-season hopes. When McCanns confrontation with Gomez escalated to a bench-clearing brawl, the Braves put at risk their entire season of hard work that put them atop the NL East and a shot at the best overall record. All it takes is one nut job from the Brewers to sucker punch McCann or Freeman or Jason Kimbrel and the Braves World Series chances would have been greatly diminished. As it stands, OF Reed Johnson was given a one-game suspension for punching Gomez. Freeman who was also ejected but did not receive a suspension. That is fortunate as the Braves would not catch the Cardinals for the best overall record without him. So Gomez was more wrong but the greater risk belonged to the Braves. 3. Now that the season is just about done, what was the best move of the year made (or not made) by a GM, and what was the worst? Over the course of the year, each general manager makes decisions that are good and bad. They find a diamond in the rough or sign a player who gives them exactly what they expected. But they also all miss on a player or two. They trade for a player or sign a player and that guy just doesnt live up to expectations. The teams that go to the playoffs are fortunate to have more players perform than not. They also tend to stay healthier than other teams. The best move of the year goes to Boston Red Sox. It wasnt any of their acquisitions of Koji Uehara, Matt Thornton, Ryan Dempster, Jake Peavy, Mike Carp, Stephen Drew, Jhonny Gomes, Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli or Joel Hanrahan. Many of those acquisitions have been phenomenal and have paid huge dividends. The Soxs biggest and best move though was the trade which sent utility man Mike Aviles to the Toronto Blue Jays for manager John Farrell. Blue Jays fans are probably going to scoff at this but it is true. If fired manager Bobby Valentine managed this same roster, the Sox would not have the best record in baseball. Farrell brought in stability and repair. He brought back the stability that existed under Terry Francona without being Terry Francona. Even Francona couldnt have done the job Farrell did because of the baggage that remained from his dismissal. The key for the Sox coming into the season was the repair of John Lester and Clay Buchholz. Of course, the rest of the staff needed to perform as well but these two young guns needed to get their careers back on track. In 2012, Lester was 9-14 with a 4.82 ERA. This year, he is 15-8 with a 3.67 ERA. Buchholz is 11-1 this year under Farrell with a 1.60 ERA, despite some arm issues after going 11-8 with a 4.56 ERA. In order for the Red Sox to be successful this year, Farrell needed his leaders Dustin Pedroia (.296, 9HR, 83 RBI) and David Ortiz (301, 29 HR, 100 RBI), to be productive and focused in a way that they werent a year ago. They havent disappointed as both of them are having highly productive consistent seasons. Farrell has blended a group of new players into the Red Sox way of doing things, too. It is difficult to assimilate so many new players on the same roster and to get them to quickly feel like a team. He did it like a 20-year veteran manager. By the way, the next best move made by a team was the Cleveland Indians hiring of Terry Francona. He is as good a game manager as there is and he is great at handling people. He singlehandedly changed the atmosphere in the clubhouse and the dugout. He got the young kids to believe in themselves. He also managed an underwhelming pitching staff to the point where they had success and gained confidence. The worst move of the year has to be the Angels signing of Josh Hamilton. I didnt anticipate this one. I actually thought Hamilton with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout in the Angels lineup would be a powerhouse. Hamilton struggled early and was never able to find his stroke. His .248/.304/433 slash line is the worst of his career. He averages .294/.354./.530. He only has 21 HR and 76 RBI as well. He has looked lost at the plate most of the year. He never had one of his patented hot streaks. I know that the first year with a new team and a big contract can weigh heavy on players, especially those with the propensity to want to be liked like Hamilton. But he doesnt make adjustments and his bat looks slow. Hamilton will end up with over 160 strikeouts for the second straight year. Maybe all of the years of hard living have caught up to him. If you couple the poor performance from Hamilton and the injury-plagued production of Pujols, you can understand why the Angels struggled so much this year. That is bad but it is made worse by the fact that the Angels have another $330 million owed between the two of them. If they dont turn it around significantly, we may not see the Angels be competitive for the next decade. Fair or Foul The Yankees are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. It is only the second time in the last 19 years that they will be watching October baseball instead of playing it. They have had a great run of success. Over almost two decades, the business plan and baseball plan of the Yankees has worked perfectly. They had good players, which allowed them to win and make money. The additional money allowed them to buy better players and win more games. Which in turn started the cycle all over again. It worked so well that they won five World Series championships, created a regional sports network, built a new stadium and made a great profit. Alas, all good things must come to an end. And it sure feels like an end is here. Attendance numbers have dropped each of the last three years. YES network ratings have fallen off significantly. Revenues are down. The business plan is falling apart. The roster has gotten old, too. The Yankees face the reality that Alex Rodriguez (38) is half the player he used to be while his contract is more than three times what he is worth. Mark Teixeiras performance has continued to decline and he lost almost the entire season to injury. He is scheduled to earn $22.5 million per season through 2016. CC Sabbathias (33) performance has declined as he has thrown almost 3000 innings in 13 years. The captain Derek Jeter (39) hardly played this year as his legs are giving out on him. Andy Pettitte (41), the most successful Yankee starter over the last 19 years, is retiring along with the best closer in the history of the game Mariano Rivera (43). Starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda (38) is a free agent as well as outfielders Curtis Granderson and Ichiro Suzuki (39). The Yankees best player, Robinson Cano is a free agent as well. Cano is seeking over $300 million for 10 years. The problem is that the Yankees need to make significant additions to a team that had Cano. If they lose him, they have that much deeper a valley to pull themselves out of to get back to a playoff roster. The Yankees are desperate to keep him, which means they may give him a contract they regret five years from now. General manager Brian Cashman does a great job. But the Yankees need help everywhere. They are old and slow and have tons of money committed to declining players. Factor in that the Steinbrenner boys want the payroll below $189 million and the reality is that the Yanks cant get enough in the free agent market or in trades to get the train back on the tracks. It was a good run but it is over. The Yanks will be closer to the bottom than the top of the AL east for the next few years and quite possibly longer. Brandon Marshall Jersey . - In about six minutes, the Memphis Grizzlies had allowed their 23-point lead to be cut to seven. Robert Thomas Jersey . Perhaps their first trip to the city of Winnipeg in 16 years can serve as the shakeup they need. http://www.nygiantsfanatic.com/c-4-giants-phil-simms-jersey.aspx . The Brazilian-born strikers brace drew him level with Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo as the leagues leading scorers with 17 goals apiece through 16 rounds. "The important thing is to help the team win, not the goals," Diego Costa said. After a first half dominated by defence, Atletico pressed Valencia into its area and Diego Costa did the rest.INDIANAPOLIS -- Big Roy came up with a big answer for his critics and his teammates Wednesday night. He played like an All-Star when the Pacers really needed it. After 48 hours of questions and criticism, Roy Hibbert scored a season-high 28 points, grabbed nine rebounds, blocked two shots and altered a handful of others to help the Pacers get even in the Eastern Conference semifinals with an 86-82 victory over Washington. Hibbert sounded more relieved than redeemed. "David (West) always talks to me about being the person that rescues yourself when youre in the middle of the ocean," Hibbert said after Indiana tied the best-of-seven series at 1-1. "Theres nobody who can throw a lifesaver or a rope out to help you. So I had to do it myself." The next step is proving he can play this way again Friday when Washington hosts Game 3. Hibbert went into Wednesday with a combined total of 37 points and 24 rebounds in Indianas first eight playoff games. Twice in the previous four he failed to score a point or grab a rebound. Beleaguered Pacers fans wanted Hibbert benched. Frustrated teammates talked publicly and privately about needing more from their 7-foot-2 centre. Critics turned Hibbert into the butt of jokes and on the Internet, some even tried to explain Hibberts incredible disappearing act with unseemly speculation. After talking to his old college coach, John Thompson III, and Colts linebacker Robert Mathis, a close friend, Hibbert blocked out the inescapable firestorm, focused on basketball and fueled the decisive 6-0 run late in the fourth quarter. It was enough to put repeated smiles on Hibberts face, even if he considers it only a start. "I just want to string a few games together," he said. "Consistency hasnt been my biggest friend this year. Im going to try to continue to play aggressive and Im going to try to control the things I can control. I cant control play calls, but I can control how hard I play, how fast I run down the court and how well I play defence." George Hill finished with 14 points, Paul George had 11 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Lance Stephenson added 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists. And for the first time this post-season, the Pacers held an opponent to fewer than nine 3-pointers. Washington finished 5 of 21 from behind the arc, the lowestt percentage (23. Shane Vereen Jersey. ) in the playoffs this year. Much of the credit went to Hibbert, who helped open up the offensive lanes for his teammates and protected the rim well enough that Indiana could spread out and defend the perimeter. "Hes got our attention now," Drew Gooden said. "Weve got to be focused on guarding the Roy Hibbert we know." It was a lost opportunity for the Wizards, who had won their first four playoff games on the road -- three at Chicago and Monday night at Indy -- and could have gone home with a commanding 2-0 lead. They had chances. Washington led by as much as six early in the third quarter and rallied in the fourth to take a 77-74 lead with 5:01 to go before Hibbert and George scored six straight to give the Pacers the lead for good. Marcin Gortat finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Bradley Beal had 17 points and Nene added 14. "He came out with a lot of intensity and established position," Beal said. "We didnt play our best game. We didnt shoot the ball and we didnt defend like we know were capable." But Hibbert changed this game almost by himself. He scored the first five points of the game, an indication that things were going to be different, and he came up big late, too. Hibberts nifty stop-and-go layup got the Pacers within 77-76. That basket ignited the decisive 6-0 spurt. Georges steal on the ensuing possession led to a layup from Hill that gave Indiana a 78-77 lead, and Hibberts presence in the middle allowed George to find a lane for a two-handed dunk that made it 80-77. All the Wizards could muster after that was an alley-oop layup from Gortat and a long 3-pointer from Beal that got the Wizards within 84-82 with 11 seconds to play. West made two free throws and Hibbert sealed it by grabbing the last rebound of the game. "He carried us tonight," West said. "I thought he was very relaxed before the game. He was relaxed this morning. He didnt say a whole lot, but as a professional, I think everything just came down on him and he responded the right way." Notes: Hibbert was 10 of 13 from the field and made all eight of his free throw attempts.... Nene went to the locker room in the first quarter after apparently hurting his left leg or ankle but returned early in the second quarter and finished the game. Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Authentic Jerseys NFL Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys 2019 Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping ' ' '