TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers three questions each week. This week, topics cover if and when the Blue Jays should start rebuilding, how good catchers handle a pitching staff and how best to develop young pitchers to best avoid arm problems. 1. Jim Bowden wrote on ESPN.com this week that the Jays should already be thinking of blowing the team up, deeming last years deals a failure and suggesting that waiting to tear it down would compound the problem. Agree or disagree with Bowdens assessment? Let me first say that I respect Jim Bowden for his knowledge and his experience. He has been around the game for quite a while and knows what he is talking about. That being said, I do not think it is time for the Jays to blow this team up. We are only in the first week of the season. It is far too early to consider demolition plans. The Jays have a ton of offensive talent. I agree with Bowden that on paper they are under-manned in the pitching department. But the game is not played on paper. It is played by people. RA Dickey could return to his Cy Young form of a couple of years ago. Mark Buerhle looked amazing in his first start and Brandon Morrow at one time, when healthy, was dominant. Drew Hutchison and Dustin McGowan have some upside. Of course, there is plenty that needs to go right but funnier things have happened. I didnt think the Pirates had enough pitching last season nor did I think the Orioles had enough pitching in 2012 to be a playoff team. But they both were. Fans need hope. The season begins with hope for all 30 major league teams. Why rob them of that feeling unnecessarily? I agree with Jim Bowden that it is unlikely that the Jays will make the playoffs. I picked them to finish fourth. So I get it. But I have been wrong before and so has Jim. The season is a marathon. There is plenty of time to disassemble if it is appropriate. Quite honestly, if they should do it now, they should have done it in the offseason when more teams could vie for the Jays talent and had money to spend. This may be the worst time to create a market for players as most teams are tapped out financially at the start of the season. They spent their money in the winter. Just ask Kendrys Morales, Stephen Drew and Scott Boras how difficult it is to find GMs with money to spend. The trades of 2013 were a bust for the Jays but it doesnt necessarily mean that things cant work out this year. If and when it becomes clear that hope is lost for 2014, there will be time to tear things apart. But that wont mean that everything has to be done during the season. Take a deep breath and at least enjoy some hope. 2. The Jays players are already expressing admiration for new catcher Dioner Navarro and the way he handles the staff, in some ways taking not so veiled shots at former catcher JP Arencibias struggles behind the plate. What is your assessment of Navarro and can you explain the intimacies of "handling a staff" and what that really means? Many fans know and use the term, but few really understand the minute details or why it is so important. I am not surprised that Dionner Navarro is getting rave reviews for his ability to handle the pitching staff. Some part of that is about him and some part of that is about the deficiencies of JP Arencibia in the past. We often talk about a catcher "handling a pitching staff" and just assume that everyone knows what we mean. Let me see if I can explain it. It is imperative for a catcher to know his pitchers. He doesnt just have to know what pitches they throw but he has to know when they should be thrown, to whom they should be thrown, how hard to throw them and where to throw them. He has to understand how each individual pitchers arsenal of pitches can attack each hitter on the opposition. The catcher has to know how each pitcher handles pressure. He has to understand when they arent quite right on a given day and what to do to get them right. He has to know the keys for each pitchers delivery and when they are out of sync how to get them back on track. The catcher has to read body language. He has to communicate confidence and support with his own body language. Some players are smart. They can rationally think through situations and know what to do. Some players have instincts, which is defined as a "feel" for the game; an idea about what needs to be done in this time and space. Their natural reactions can lead them down the right path without tremendous thought. The best players have a combination of intelligence and instincts. Navarro has both and it can be seen in his work behind the plate. He has the feel and intelligence to evaluate the situation and what is needed to be successful. This will lead to improved preparation and execution over the course of the season. The Jays need to maximize the talents of their pitching staff as they are not as deep as other teams. Navarro is just the guy for the job. 3. Another season, another rash of pitching injuries, with the Mets Bobby Parnell the latest to possibly face Tommy John surgery. He would be the third Met to have TJS in under a year. GM Sandy Alderson told the NY Times its an "industry-wide problem." Pitch counts and innings limits for young pitchers dont appear to have made much of an impact. Do you acknowledge this as an industrywide problem - or is it more of a team/system problem as it does seem to hit some teams (including the Jays) more than others. What do you think is the best way to bring a pitcher along after draft day? And has your mind changed on that over time? Injuries for pitchers is a GMs worst nightmare. Just when you think you have enough pitching, injuries happen and you can find yourself shorthanded. The arm is not built to throw a baseball. Every time a pitcher throws the ball, there are fibers that tear in the shoulder, bicep, tricep and forearm. I have seen thermodynamic pictures of a pitchers arm before and after pitching. The amount of heat given off from the bleeding in the arm after pitching is profound. You can only imagine the toll that throwing a couple of hundred innings can take on a pitchers arm. In 2013, Justin Verlander threw 218 innings and 3692 pitches (most in majors). That doesnt include the 23 innings he tossed in the playoffs, nor does it count spring training innings and pitches. In addition to all of this game activity, Verlander had pitching practice between starts. The bottom line is that his arm took a ton of abuse. When I became general manager of the Mets in July of 1997, one of the first things I did was call a meeting with our top pitching coaches and team doctors. We were having a significant number of arm injuries and it was severely impacting the pitching depth in our organization. The outcome of that meeting was clear; pitchers can injure their arms in two ways: fatigue and poor mechanics. Too much throwing for any pitcher can lead to injury. It doesnt matter if he has perfect mechanics or the worst mechanics; too much throwing can break down any arm. There was an old school belief that the more pitchers throw the stronger they get. The science doesnt support that. Fatigue breaks down the arm. Mechanics for a pitcher is critical. He has to be able to repeat his delivery in order to throw consistent strikes. If a pitcher has poor mechanics in his delivery, he can put more pressure on his elbow or shoulder, making it more prone to injury. Pitchers can pitch with poor mechanics but they are much more prone to injury, especially if they are fatigued. Poor mechanics lead pitchers to tire more quickly and when tired, the poor mechanics make the pitcher more vulnerable. It is really that simple. After this meeting, we implemented very stringent pitch count limits in our minor league system and dramatically reduced the number of arm injuries. The arm only has so many bullets in it. They cant all be wasted in the minor leagues. We had to learn to be more efficient in our player development. I predicted Stephen Strasburgs arm problems a couple of years ago. He has poor mechanics, which put a significant amount of stress on his elbow and shoulder. You might wonder why they just dont try and correct his mechanics. Often times, cleaning up a pitchers poor mechanics can rob him of what makes him special: velocity, movement or deception. In Strasburgs case, his mechanics are his mechanics. It is how he is wired to throw a ball. I completely supported the Nats when they made the unpopular decision to shut Strasburg down even when they were going to the playoffs in 2012. If the Nats dont take dramatic steps to protect their big right-hander moving forward, he will break down again. He is so valuable to their franchise they are crazy if they dont. Arm injuries will always be part of the game. But I truly believe that individual organizations can make significant strides in reducing arm injuries. Throwing less to pitch more is the answer. Jack Butland England Jersey . Its not intended to be some magical formula and doesnt apply any context, like, for example, taking injuries into account. This remedial statistical method has gone 9-5 in picks through the first three rounds. 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Redden played a total of 1,023 regular-season games with Ottawa, the New York Rangers, St. Louis and Boston. He finished with 457 points (109 goals, 348 assists) and a plus-160 rating over his career.NASHVILLE -- A long dormant Predators power play is finally beginning to produce. David Legwand had a goal and an assist to lead Nashville to a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night. Patric Hornqvist and Paul Gaustad also scored for the Predators, who have won two straight. Carter Hutton made 33 saves. Nashville closed out the first period with power-play goals from Hornqvist and Legwand just 28 seconds apart. "When you can go 2 for 2 pretty much on the power play, thats a game-changer," Legwand said. "Its huge for our team. Executing 5-on-3s is big." The Predators had not scored a power-play goal in their previous six games, five of which were losses. "When we score a power-play goal, its pretty good," coach Barry Trotz said. "The last six or seven games, its been a little bit dry in terms of the goal production. That was a real big turning point for us. It gave us a lot of confidence at home." Erik Cole had the goal for Dallas, which has lost three of four. Cole scored the games first goal at 18:07 of the opening period when he took possession of the puck behind the Nashville net and skated out front before lifting a backhand over Huttons right shoulder. Making his second consecutive start, Hutton improved to 6-3-1 this season. Dallas got into trouble when Shawn Horcoff took a high-sticking penalty at 18:45 and Brenden Dillon was sent off for delay of game 7 seconds later after his clearing attempt from inside the Stars blue line sailed over the glass. "We lost the game in a 2-minute span," Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. "We were playing a good period and had a lead, but for me its a mental mistake we cant make as a team." Hornqvist got NNashville on the scoreboard at 19:02 on the two-man advantage.dddddddddddd From the bottom of the right circle, Legwand found Hornqvist alone in the slot, where he wired a wrist shot high to the stick side of Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen. Legwand scored on the 5-on-4 at 19:30 when he collected the rebound of Roman Josis shot from the left point and put it by Lehtonen for his sixth of the season. "I think for me, whats huge is instead of being down 1-0, were up 2-1 after the first period," Hutton said. "Then you kind of have some confidence and we have a couple of big penalty kills in the second which really kind of get me into a groove." Shea Weber assisted on both of Nashvilles first-period goals, giving the team captain 10 points on the power play this season. Nashville is 11-0-1 when leading after the first period. Gaustad gave the Predators a two-goal lead at 9:14 of the second, beating Lehtonen with a wrist shot from the left side. The goal came on a delayed penalty to the Stars and with Hutton off for an extra attacker. Gaustad has four points in his last two games. This one was the first of three straight road games for Dallas against fellow Central Division teams. "These are big ones," defenceman Alex Goligoski said. "We have two more big ones on this road trip to turn it around. Not the way we wanted to start it, but thats the beauty of hockey. You have to prove it every day." NOTES: Dallas D Aaron Rome appeared in his first game of the season. ... Josi has points in three consecutive games. ... Nashville won for just the third time when allowing its opponent to score first. ... Hutton turned aside 12 shots in the first, nine in the second and 12 in the third. ' ' 'management career to have won 20 trophies but winning the FA Cup, which is steeped in so much history, will always be one of the most special achievements of my career. Van Gaal sacked by United Louis van Gaal has been sacked as manager of Man Utd I am very disappointed to be unable to complete our intended three-year plan. I believe that the foundations are firmly in place to enable the club to move forward and achieve even greater success. I hope that winning the FA Cup will give the club a platform to build upon next season to restore the success that this passionate set of fans desire.Having managed in Holland, Spain and Germany, I had always hoped for the opportunity to manage in English football and be part of English culture. Both of these experiences have lived up to expectations and been fantastic. Van Gaals last game in charge was their FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace on Saturday I thank my players and wish them well for next season. It has been a pleasure to work with them and it has been particularly rewarding to see so many young players take their chance to break into the first team and excel. I look forward to watching the continued development of these young players next season.Thank you to the owners and board of Manchester United for giving me the opportunity to manage this great club. Where it went wrong for LVG Key issues that cut short Dutchmans tenure I would also like to express my gratitude to the amazing United supporters. They are truly tthe best fans in the world.dddddddddddd.I am indebted to my support and coaching staff, who have given me their all during their time at the club. Van Gaal leaves United after two seasons, with Jose Mourinho expected to take over I am deeply grateful to each and every member of the clubs staff - the sports science team, the medical team, the kit and laundry department, club administration, the press office, the managers team, the Academy team, ground staff and the catering team, both at Old Trafford stadium and Carrington training ground, all of whom have given me their unwavering support in my time at United. Never in my 25 years as a manager have I been so well supported in my role. Danny Higginbotham says Manchester United had no choice but to sack Louis van Gaal Finally, my special thanks go to Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton for always making me and my family feel so welcome throughout my time as Manchester United manager. Also See: United sack Van Gaal Mourinho mythbusting Did United progress under LVG? Where it went wrong for LVG ' ' '
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