Die Macht » insiders who see significant decli

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Bruce Chen had the Boston Red Sox popping up and out. Chen outdueled Jon Lester and the Kansas City Royals defeated the Boston Red Sox 5-1 Thursday night. The Royals won for the 16th time in 20 games since the All-Star break. The Red Sox, who have the best record in the American League, lost for only the third time in 10 games. Chen retired 15 on fly-ball outs. "A phenomenal job," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He was ahead in the count most of the night. He commanded the ball down, commanded the ball up, changed speeds. Anytime you see a lot of popups, out-front swings, you know Bruce is on his game and he got an awful lot of them tonight." Chen, who was making his fifth start since beginning the season in the bullpen, did not allow a runner past first base until the eighth and retired 11 in a row in one stretch. He gave up five singles, walked one and struck out two before leaving with two outs in the eighth inning. "Movement on the ball," Chen said of the high number of fly outs. "They see it and at the last moment, it cuts or sinks or theyre a little bit out in front. I think, also, the combination of different pitches, not repeating the same pitch or same pattern has to help. Brett (Hayes, the catcher) did a really good job of reading the hitters." Hayes, who was just called up from Triple-A Omaha, had not caught Chen since spring training. "Bruce was being Bruce," Hayes said. "He kept hitters off balance, throwing all of his pitches for strikes, making them chase and out in front. Hes just a veteran who knows how to pitch. Anybody who pitches like that is fun to catch, especially him." Red Sox manager John Farrell was impressed with Chen. "He varied his arm angle, varied his speed, stayed out of the middle of the strike zone, then he would elevate to give us a different look," Farrell said. Luke Hochevar got the final four outs for his second career save. Lester (10-7), who came into the game with a 6-2 record and 1.64 ERA in nine starts against the Royals, needed 41 pitches in the first inning when Kansas City sent eight men to the plate and scored three runs. Jonny Gomes fielding error on Alex Gordons fly to left made two of the runs unearned. Lorenzo Cain, who opened the inning with a double, scored on Gomes misplay. Mike Moustakas two-out single to right with the bases loaded scored Billy Butler and Gordon to make it 3-0. "Moustakas had a huge hit to put us by three," Yost said. Rubby De La Rosa replaced Lester in the eighth and Butler hit his first pitch out to centre for his 10th home run. Justin Maxwell homered with two outs to make it 5-0. "Obviously it was a long first, a lot of pitches," Lester said. "I knew I had to somehow grind my way through it and get seven, save the bullpen. Thats something you have to learn to do, to find a way in those outings to go six or seven or maybe eight, and I was able to do that." Lester, who was roughed up for six runs and 11 hits in 4 1-3 innings by Arizona in his previous start, shut down the Royals after the first, allowing just two more singles in seven innings. "I thought he righted himself and did a tremendous job to go seven and give us an opportunity to win," Farrell said. Stephen Drew, who had two hits to extend his hitting streak to a season high nine games, singled home Gomes in the ninth for the only Red Sox run. "Bruce is the star of the game," Butler said. "He absolutely pitched his game. He held down a pretty good offence." NOTES: The Royals optioned LHP Danny Duffy to Triple-A Omaha and purchased the contract of LHP Francisley Bueno from their Pacific Coast League affiliate. ... Daniel Nava came off the paternity leave list and started at first base for the Red Sox, who optioned RHP Steven Wright to Triple-A Pawtucket. ... DH David Ortiz, who had started 95 games, was not in the Red Sox lineup. "Its not injury related," Farrell said. "Its just a day. Truth be told, wed expected more off days overall than he has been." ... Red Sox RHP Clay Buchholz, who went on the disabled list June 18 with a neck strain, is scheduled to throw 25-30 pitches off the mound Friday.Air Max Outlet Uk . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Cheap Air Max 200 Uk . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. http://www.fakeairmaxukoutlet.com/best-max-97-trainers-cheap-uk.html . Meanwhile, there were huge victories for Sunderland and West Ham over fellow relegation rivals, leaving the battle to avoid the drop up for grabs with the bottom 11 teams separated by just six points. Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres scored second-half goals to seal a fourth straight victory for Chelsea, which climbed above Arsenal and Manchester City in the standings ahead of their games on Monday and Sunday respectively. Air Max Shop Uk . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. Air Max Wholesale Uk . -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar will be out for roughly four weeks after tearing his left hamstring.The voting panel for our third annual NFL QB Tier Rankings consisted of 42 league insiders -- 10 general managers, five head coaches, seven offensive coordinators, five defensive coordinators, eight personnel evaluators and seven other position coaches/executives.?I polled coaches and evaluators on 33 QBs, asking them to place each player into one of five tiers, with Tier 1 reserved for the very best and Tier 5 reserved for the very worst:Tier 1: Can carry his team each week. Team wins because of him. Tier 2: Can carry team sometimes but not as consistently. Tier 3: Legit starter but needs heavy run game/defense to win. Tier 4: Might not want this guy starting all 16 games. Tier 5: Do not think this guy should be starting.In the end, we averaged the tier rankings for each quarterback to produce a 1-33 ranking across four tiers (no starting QBs received enough Tier 5 votes to fall into the fifth tier), and gave the insiders anonymity so they could speak candidly.?Here are the 2016 NFL QB Tier Rankings, with a full voting breakdown at the bottom of the article. We start with two players who received unanimous Tier 1 status for the second consecutive year.Tier 1 | Tier 2?| Tier 3 | Tier 4TIER 1 (3 QBs TOTAL)T-1. Tom Brady | New England PatriotsAvg. rating: 1.00 | Change in rating:?0% |?2015 rank: T-1Brady opened last season with 22 TD passes and only two interceptions during the Patriots 8-0 start. The TD-INT ratio dipped to 14-5 the resst of the way as New England lost top wide receiver Julian Edelman while becoming desperate enough at running back to bring Steven Jackson out of semi-retirement at age 32.dddddddddddd Its tough finding league insiders who see significant decline in Brady, but speak to enough of them and youll run across a few.He is going to be a 2 probably this year, but Id say right now he is a 1, an offensive coordinator said. I see him starting to slide a little bit physically. The thing that stands out to me is, the accuracy of his throws has really decreased. [Rob] Gronkowski and his receivers are making these unbelievable catches, ones that are low, that are outside, to make these plays.Others thought Brady was actually improving by leveraging a growing knowledge base, finding new ways to beat defenses. A different offensive coordinator said he thought Brady worked through issues that affected him a couple years ago as he modified his throwing motion. This coordinator thought Brady had regained accuracy as a result.Yeah, he is pretty old, but does he look old to you when he plays? one GM asked. He is in complete and utter control of everything, and that is a 1 to me. And he can still throw the hell out of the ball. When he starts throwing like Peyton Manning threw last season, then Ill say, Well, he should be lower. ' ' '