The last two seasons injuries have ruined any chances the Toronto Blue Jays might have had of contending, especially those to the pitching staff. Sammy Watkins Jersey . This time around the injury bug has bitten hard on the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Tampa Bay has three of their elite starting pitchers sidelined right now. Over the weekend, Alex Cobb strained a left oblique muscle during a stellar performance against the Cincinnati Reds. Hes gone four-to-six weeks. Lefty Matt Moore is due to play catch on the side today in Baltimore as doctors are trying to decide if he needs Tommy John surgery or whether his left elbow will get better with treatment and rest. Right hander Jeremy Hellickson, who also has an elbow issue, is hoping to be back in May or early June. Even a team as deep and talented as the Rays cant afford to lose three starting pitchers. The Red Sox also have problems. Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia has had to return to Beantown to get his left wrist checked out. Shane Victorino is out as well with a thumb injury and 39-year-old closer Koji Uehara is being examined to determine the cause of shoulder stiffness. The Yankees are no different. They lost their new closer David Robertson to the 15-day DL with a groin muscle pull, first baseman Mark Teixiera is injured again, catcher Francisco Cervelli has a hamstring problem, second baseman Brian Roberts had to sit out with back tightness and team captain Derek Jeter missed two games in a row over the weekend with quad tightness. The Yankees were so thin in the infield, they had to move Kelly Johnson back to third base, rookie Yangervis Solarte to second and have Carlos Beltran play his first game ever at first. The Baltimore Orioles biggest concern is star third baseman Manny Machado, who continues to rehab his surgically repaired knee. The Blue Jays have a few problems of their own with Maicer Izturis tripping on the dugout steps Sunday in Baltimore and spraining his left knee and then having to go on the 15-day DL. On the plus side, Jose Reyes and closer Casey Janssen could be back by next weekend in Cleveland and lefty J.A. Happ is already back up from Triple-A Buffalo. The bottom line is, the Blue Jays, Yankees and Rays are locked in a three-way tie for first in the A.L East at 7-6. The Orioles are second at 5-7 and the Red Sox are bringing up the rear at 5-8. By the weekend, the Jays should have the healthiest line-up in the division and this is the time for them to take advantage of their rivals injury woes and do some real damage. - The team that has really come of nowhere in the first two weeks of the season is the Milwaukee Brewers. Coincidentally, they had an identical record to the Blue Jays a year ago at 74-88. They are off to a torrid start this time around, winning nine-straight through Sunday and a 10-2 record. This is the second-best start in franchise history after 1987 when they started the year 13-0. Their starting rotation of Yovani Gallardo, Kyle Lohse, Matt Garza, Marco Estrada and Wily Peralta have nine quality starts in 12 games, and the staff ERA is a sparkling 1.80. Ryan Braun has had a good bounce back year, so far, from his Biogenesis PED suspension and has made a successful move from left field to right to clear a spot for youngster Khrys Davis, who is regarded as a budding star. The other big story for the Brewers is closer Francisco Rodriguez, once a star with the Angels. He stepped on a cactus is Spring Training and was still pulling out spines until about a week ago. His left foot, his plant foot when throwing, was so tender that he had to pay extra attention to his delivery to keep it consistent. K-Rod has been perfect so far, going four-for-four in save situations. The teams payroll, according to Cots Baseball Contracts, is about $103.4 million. Thaats roughly $29 million less than the that of the Jays. The interesting thing is that they have a dozen players on their roster making the minimum of between $500-534K. In other words, there is a good mix of veterans and youth. The Brewers lead the NL Central by three games on the St. Louis Cardinals and they open an early season showdown series at Miller Park on Monday night against the Redbirds. - There is a Milwaukee connection to one of the players the Blue Jays have in Buffalo. Juan Francisco is a 62", 245-pound first/third baseman, who was released by the Brewers during spring training. The Jays picked him up to add a little punch with the Bisons. The 26-year-old left-handed hitter has provided just that. In fact, last season he hit 18 homers split between the Brewers and the Atlanta Braves. The knock on Francisco is that hes not every good defensively, but hes turned into a good pick-up for Buffalo especially since the Brewers are picking up $331,967 of his salary. - Tuesday marks the 11th-annual Jackie Robinson Day where the MLB honours the man who broke the colour barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The year before Jackie broke in with the Dodgers organization, he played with the old Montreal Royals in the International League. I was curious to find out who was the first African-American to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs in that same league. It didnt happen until 1951. In July of that year, Jack Kent Cooke, the communications mogul who later owned the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Kings, bought the Leafs. A week-and-a-half later, he signed two African-American players, pitcher Leon Day and catcher-third baseman Charlie White. Later in that season, another black pitcher, Frank Barnes, joined the Leafs. He only made two appearances with the club and had an ERA of 45. Of the three, though, according to my research, Barnes is the only one of the trio still alive. He is 87-years-old. Yankees great Mariano Rivera was the last player to wear the number 42. Now that Rivera has retired, the number 42 will never be worn again. Dorian ODaniel Jersey . Perhaps their first trip to the city of Winnipeg in 16 years can serve as the shakeup they need. Anthony Hitchens Jersey .“I always did my stuff ahead of the deadline. The best deal Ive ever done was the Darryl Sydor deal. We did that at the end of January in 04, and Syd was the missing piece. http://www.thechiefsshoponline.com/Youth-Will-Redmond-Chiefs-Jersey/ . Virtanen opened the scoring at 6:45 of the first period, then gave Canada a two-goal lead with a power-play goal 1:03 into the second. Sweden cut the lead in half when Daniel Muzito Bagenda scored a power-play goal at 10:57 of the second.TSN Hockey Insiders Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger have the latest on expanded video review, changes to overtime, face-off modifications and the NHL potentially allowing kicked-in goals. Are GMs any closer to a consensus on expanded video review that would include goaltender interference? Bob McKenzie: I wouldnt go as so far as to say that theyre reaching consensus, but they are having some scintillating conversations that we never heard before on goalie interference and that is this - in the breakout group that they had today, a couple of the general managers, Brian Burke and Bryan Murray amongst others, said that, if they want to go to review goaltender interference, they would like the referees to be able to it on the ice, in the penalty box with a monitor there, NFL-style. Thats never really been discussed before. The NHL has always been hesitant to do it. It will be interesting to see whether it gets any support from the larger group on Tuesday. Darren Dreger: Additonal video review is generally a hot-button topic at these meetings. Weve talked, seemingly, on an annual basis about the coachs challenge. Well again, that has legs. Theres some concern as to how you work out the details. The devil is in the details with the criteria. If the puck leaves the zone, does that nullify the coachs challenge? If theres a change in possession, does that nullify the challenge? I think you could see some real traction on additional video review for goaltender interference, but also the puck off the net that ends up in the goal and, perhaps, looking at offsides, like the Matt Duchene goal scored last year. That still haunts the NHL and video review could have stopped that. Could we see it expanded in time for the playoffs? Dreger: Very, very unlikely. I think its a long shot at best because theres a review process that the NHL has to go through that includes the competition committee and, ultimately, the Board of Governors would have to sign off on it during the Stanley Cup finals. Ken Hollands proposal for a three-on-three overtime, as they try to reduce the number of shootouts, seemed to be gaining momentum. Has it now hit a major roadblock? McKenzie: It certainly seems ass if that momentum has dissipated. Armani Watts Chiefs Jersey. Everybody who was talking about it at the November general managers meetings in Toronto arent talking about it now. Glen Sather, New York Rangers general manager, called three-on-three overtime a pipe dream. Nobody seems to be talking that up too much, but what they are talking about is, potentially, doing a dry scrape of the ice before overtime instead of after, when they normally do it before the shootout, and going to the long change format, that is with the goaltender in the same position as he is in the second period, furthest away from the teams bench. A much harder change that usually results in more goal-scoring in the second period. Face-offs and Face-off markings were also under scrutiny on Monday. What options for change are there? Dreger: Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues pitched a novel idea, stealing from the Olympic tournament, in how the alignment was used in the Olympics, with the spacing between the hashmarks. In the NHL, theres just a three-foot separation. In the Olympics, it was five feet and, should the NHL consider that, it would create more space and there would be less contact, so the forwards could have some more room to move. Another face-off idea, and I think its a long shot at best, is trying to get rid of wasted time in throwing the centremen out of the face-off circle when hes completed an illegal draw. Move that centre back one foot is an idea that was pitched on day one. Some are intrigued by it to the point that they want further discussion, but I dont see this one flying. Is the NHL seriously considering counting all goals kicked in with the skate on the ice? McKenzie: Well, they are certainly talking about it and its a big step forward. They are looking at a liberalized kicking-in of goals, but were going to wait to see. You just never know. Dreger: Im sure the Players Association will have some input on that and, certainly, any overtime modifications being made. We know that Mathieu Schneider, Joe Reekie and Rob Zamuner will attend Tuesdays meetings and the sense is that they have some thoughts of their own on some tweaks or changes that might help grow the game. 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