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TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers three questions each week. This week, topics cover the Blue Jays rotation, the futures John Gibbons and Alex Anthopoulos, protecting pitchers and a bonus question on his predictions for the MLB playoffs. 1) With J.A. Happ heading to the DL, the Toronto Blue Jays have announced a starting rotation of R.A. Dickey, Drew Hutchison, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan. Should the Blue Jays feel confident with that group or even this early in the season, should they be looking outside the organization for an upgrade? Or should they have kept a prospect like Aaron Sanchez or Marcus Stroman with the big club? The Blue Jays are starting the season with exact rotation they should be using. Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman both need more development but at some point they may be called upon to help. Certainly there are big questions for three-fifths of the starters but there is definitely upside. RA Dickey is just a year removed from his NL Cy Young Award and is predictable and dependable. I cant believe I am saying that about a knuckleballer but it is true. Mark Buerhle is a more than serviceable innings-eater who gives his team a chance to win start after start. After these two though the questions are significant. Brandon Morrow has suffered injuries in each of the past two seasons after looking like a number one starter at times in 2012. Dustin McGowan is throwing in the mid-nineties and is working on a curve ball to go with his devastating slider, but he has thrown just 46 2/3 innings since 2008 because of recurrent shoulder injuries. Drew Hutchison hasnt pitched in the Major Leagues for the past year and a half due to Tommy John surgery but prior to that he looked like he could be a long-term answer for the rotation. Before the season begins players, front office personnel and fans close their eyes and dream about what could be. I can close my eyes and see RA Dickey commanding his dancing knuckler that will baffle hitter. I can envision Buerhle getting a ton of grounders and working quickly getting the powerhouse offense back in the dugout and scoring a ton of runs. I can picture Brandon Morrow rifling his fastball by the games biggest sluggers and logging a ton of strikeouts. I can imagine McGowan and Hutchison fulfilling the potential that they once had as well. It could happen just that way. But it probably wont. My experience is that the more questions you enter with the more things that will likely go wrong. There is a bunch of unpredictability in this rotation. Depth will be important. It is safe to assume that health will be an issue at some point because it has been an issue in the past. Esmil Rogers and Todd Redmond may make starts if necessary. But Alex Anthopolous is going to have to keep working the phones to look for upgrades. Early in the season other clubs arent typically trading good pitchers but he will need to be ready for when they do become available. So when you close your eyes and dream just hope it is not a nightmare. 2) Is manager John Gibbons on the .... seat with the Blue Jays? If the team is slow out of the gate again this year, will he be replaced? Are his and Alex Anthopouloss future tied together (if one goes, the other follows him out the door)? I dont think John Gibbons is on the .... seat during the season this year. I know there were big expectations last year but the collapse wasnt Gibbons fault. The starting rotation just fell apart on him as Morrow and Josh Johnson got hurt and Ricky Romero imploded. Jose Reyes injury crushed the offense early in the season and more injuries followed. The expectations are less this year than a year ago. It certainly behooves the Jays to get off to a good start so they can start to believe in themselves but Gibbons cant pitch for his team and the staff will be the key. I have never been a believer that managers and general managers are tied at the hip. The manager needs to look at the GM as his boss. Clearly Gibbons was brought back to the Jays because of his relationship with Anthopolous but if Anthopolous thinks a change needs to be made he will have to make it. If ownership gets to a point where they believe the roster is flawed and they decide to make a decision on the general manager it is unlikely Gibbons would survive a change in regime. Anthoplous can possibly survive the firing of Gibbons but I dont believe Gibbons would survive the firing of Anthopolous. As it stands today both the manager and general manager are on firm ground as they should be. They just need to be honest with themselves and their bosses about what the expectations are with the roster they have. The owners can hope to be competitive in the tough AL East but if they expect to win it then both Anthopolous and Gibbons are in trouble. This is a roster for which you can hope but not expect great things. 3) With Reds starter Aroldis Chapman and Rays starter Matt Moore both being hit in the head by comebackers to the mound in spring training, is it time for Major League Baseball and/or the players union to implement mandatory pitcher protection? It seems that pitchers have become more and more vulnerable over the past few seasons. Fortunately, we have avoided major catastrophe but we shouldnt be shocked if a pitcher were to be killed by a hit ball. We have just been lucky so far. I am a firm believer that we should never wait for someone to be killed to make a change. Baseball already did that once. Base coaches wear helmets now because a minor league first base coach was hit in the head by a line drive and killed. If protecting pitchers is being considered then protect them. Lets not wait for a tragedy. It is currently optional for pitchers to wear the new protective headgear that was developed by MLB for this year. The feedback so far is that the hats look funny and are not overly comfortable. MLB needs to keep refining the protective hats to make them functional. This needs to be a priority for the Players Association as well. Protective hats for pitchers need to be made mandatory at the minor league level initially. Let the kids get comfortable with them so by the time they are big leaguers it is commonplace. Once the hat is advanced enough make it mandatory for major league pitchers to wear. There is no clock in baseball but we need to put a clock on this. Every pitch thrown puts a pitcher at risk. Please hurry. 4) With the second and third opening days approaching for Major League Baseball it is time to make predictions. Here is how I see the American League:AL East AL Central AL West 1) Boston Detroit Oakland2) Tampa Bay* Kansas City** LA Angels3) Baltimore Cleveland Texas4) Blue Jays Minnesota Seattle5) New York Yankees Chicago Houston * first Wild Card ** second Wild Card AL CHAMPION: Oakland As defeat Detroit AL AWARDS AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, DetroitAL MVP: Justin Verlander, DetroitAL Rookie of Year: Yordano Ventura, Kansas CityAL Manager of Year: Ned Yost, Kansas City Here are my predictions for the NL:NL East NL Central NL West1) Washington St Louis LA Dodgers 2) Atlanta** Milwaukee SF Giants*3) NY Mets Cincinnati Arizona4) Philadelphia Pittsburgh Colorado5) Miami Chicago San Diego* first Wild Card ** second Wild Card NL CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Dodgers NL AWARDS NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Atlanta BravesNL CY Young: Stephen Strasburg, Washington NationalsNL Rookie of Year: Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates Manager of the Year: Mike Matheny, St Louis Cardinals WORLD SERIES CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Oakland As LET THE GAMES BEGIN…..PLAY BALL!!! Nick Bonino Jersey .com) - Speed skating has belonged to the Netherlands at the Sochi Olympics and that did not change on Tuesday. Mario Lemieux Jersey . No such luck. Wiggins owned the end of Parkers impressive homecoming. The Kansas star scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half, outplaying Parker down the stretch and helping the fifth-ranked Jayhawks knock off No. http://www.thepenguinshockeyshop.com/Br ... er-Jersey/. The Texas Rangers said Darvish was examined by team physician Dr. Keith Meister before Tuesday nights game against Houston, and that "everything appears to be OK." Darvish is expected to make his scheduled start Wednesday night in the series finale against the Astros. Paul Martin Jersey . The 37-year-old Wolf, making a comeback from the second Tommy John surgery of his career, allowed three hits and one run. He struck out seven, walked one and won for the first time since he pitched Baltimore past Tampa Bay on Sept. Marc-Andre Fleury Jersey . One category most Canadians will be watching is for Best NHL Player, with a list that includes three Canadians amongst the five nominees. Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, and Jonathan Toews are among the players with a shot at being named Best NHL Player.Oklahoma City, OK (SportsNetwork.com) - Russell Westbrooks 29-point outing, his career-best 11th straight game with 25-plus, helped the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 98-75 win over the Charlotte Hornets. Westbrook had to take a bulk of the scoring ................ once again because his star teammate, Kevin Durant, sat for a fifth consecutive game due to a sprained ankle. Serge Ibaka scored 13 points with a season-high 14 rebounds and Anthony Morrow chipped in 11 points for Oklahoma City, which won for a second straight day after a two-game skid. The Thunder were coming off a 114-106 win over San Antonio on Christmas. We talked about playing every night, playing with a defensive brand every night. Back-to-back games now... I was proud of our defensive effort, Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. Brian Roberts paced the Hornets with 17 points off the bench and Marvin Williams added 11 points in a reserve role. Charlotte had its season-high four-game winning streak snapped and dropped its eighth straight game in the series. Westbrook had a productive first half, scoring 19 points to help his team take a comfortable lead into the locker room at the break. Charlottes Cody Zeller opened the scoring with a jumper, then Westbrook scored six points during a 9-0 burst for the Thunder. Westbroook found Ibaka for a 3-pointer later in the frame to extend the lead to double digits and Oklahoma City entered the second up 33-24.dddddddddddd. Theyre so good defensively, we just had trouble in the first quarter making shots, Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said. We played a very good team and they played well. The Thunder then scored the first eight points of the second, and Westbrooks jumper with over four minutes to go in the quarter giving Oklahoma City a 53-34 cushion and it led 59-40 at halftime. Oklahoma City was held scoreless for the first 3:51 of the third but Charlotte could not take advantage, scoring just four points over that span. Westbrook scored six straight points during a 17-4 run that started with Ibakas jumper that ended the scoring drought, with the Thunder opening up a 76-49 lead at the end of the spurt. Morrows trey capped the scoring in the quarter and helped the hosts to an 81-56 lead entering the fourth. Game Notes Hornets guard Lance Stephenson missed his fifth straight game with a pelvis injury ... Ibaka had four of his teams 10 blocks ... Oklahoma City shot 41 percent from the floor and held Charlotte to 28.7 percent shooting ... The Thunder had a 44-24 advantage in the paint. 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