turning point in modern Australian cricket history, his strengths, which I had

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Major League Baseballs general managers have wasted little time getting to work since Kris Bryant threw out Michael Martinez for the final out of the World Series. The street sweepers have barely cleaned up from the Chicago Cubs victory parade, and outfielder Cameron Maybin?and reliever Pat Neshek?already have switched teams in trades.Starting Monday, general managers will meet in Scottsdale to address industry business and ramp up conversations with their peers and agents that will pave the way for trades and free-agent signings in the weeks to come.MLBs collective bargaining negotiations are ongoing, so no one knows precisely what ground rules will be in place this offseason. And this winters free-agent crop is, by acclamation, one of the weakest in years. Teams in the market for a closer or a power bat have ample options, but impact starting pitchers and middle infielders are next to impossible to find.As the meetings get underway, ESPN.com surveyed 38 baseball people -- general managers, assistant GMs, scouts and one MLB manager -- for their thoughts on six questions that will dominate the news during the Hot Stove season. Here are their responses:1. Which free-agent closer -- Kenley Jansen, Aroldis Chapman or Mark Melancon -- will provide the best value for the contract hes likely to command?Responses: Jansen 19; Melancon 11; Chapman 6; no response 2.Jansens supporters point out that he broke into pro ball as a catcher and might have less wear and tear on his arm as a result. He has developed into an elite closer with a cut fastball that he threw 94 percent of the time in 2016.He has a simple delivery and one pitch to master, one scout said. Theres not a lot to mess up here.Take note of the word value in the question. Melancon is the oldest of the three pitchers at 31, and his average fastball velocity of 91.8 mph is easily the lowest. But he has logged a 1.80 ERA and converted 147 of 162 save opportunities (90.7 percent) since taking over as Pittsburghs closer in 2013. Chapman converted 91.7 percent of his save chances and Jansen 90.1 percent in the same span.Ill go with Melancon simply because I think he gets about half what the other two guys get, an AL assistant GM said. Hes not as dominant, but hes certainly better than 50 percent of those two guys.Chapman maintains his allure with a fastball that routinely cracks 100 mph and was sitting in the upper 90s even when he was gassed because of overuse late in the World Series. He does it the easiest of the three, which I think makes him the best bet to maintain what he has, an AL general manager said.That said, Chapmans domestic violence incident from last winter is giving some teams reason for pause.His off-field issues are a real concern for me long term, an AL scout said.2. Do you think the Cleveland Indians will trade Andrew Miller this offseason? If yes, where will he wind up?Responses: Yes, 2; No, 35. One respondent said the Indians will hang on to Miller and trade him in July.Of the yes voters, one picked the Los Angeles Dodgers as the best landing spot for Miller, while another speculated that the New York Mets might be in play because of Jeurys Familias arrest on a domestic violence charge. The Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants also were mentioned as possible landing spots.Miller has two years and $18 million left on the $36 million contract he signed with the New York Yankees in December 2014. While thats quite reasonable given what he brings to the table, a $9 million annual layout for a noncloser is out of character for a Cleveland team that ranked 23rd in the majors in payroll this season.As Indians general manager Mike Chernoff recently observed, Cleveland has done well through the years by trading veterans on the verge of free agency for young talent. The Indians acquired Corey Kluber, Carlos Santana, Michael Brantley and Carlos Carrasco in such a manner, and theyve since blossomed into front-line contributors. In years where were not competitive, we have to make some of those painful trades, Chernoff said.Ultimately, survey respondents think the Indians will stand pat with Miller because their roster is good enough to repeat in the AL Central and make another deep postseason run. Even if manager Terry Francona might have to pick his spots with Miller over a six-month haul, Miller is too integral to the mix in Cleveland for the Indians to move him.Hes too valuable in a bullpen that he turned around, an AL assistant general manager said. If he wasnt with them, they arent playing in a World Series Game 7. They actually need more pen help. Trading Miller now also would be a tough PR sell for a Cleveland team that ranked 28th in the majors in attendance in 2016.Given his performance in the playoffs, the Indians front office might have to go into hiding if they make that move, an AL personnel man said.3. Which free-agent slugger do you like best: Edwin Encarnacion, Yoenis Cespedes, Mark Trumbo or Jose Bautista?Responses: Encarnacion 17?; Cespedes 17; Trumbo 1?; Bautista 1. One no response.Encarnacion will play at age 34 in 2017. Hes the second-oldest player in this group behind Bautista, who just turned 36. But he has built an impressive portfolio in Toronto in a very quiet and methodical way.Since 2012, Encarnacion ranks second in the majors in home runs to Chris Davis (193), second in RBIs behind Miguel Cabrera (550) and fifth in slugging percentage (.544) behind Cabrera, David Ortiz, Mike Trout and Giancarlo Stanton. Hes regarded as a solid teammate and a low-maintenance producer, and he received the coveted Big Papi seal of approval at the All-Star Game.Cespedes wins points as the best athlete and easily the best defender of the four. He loses support because of the widespread perception that his attention strays and he can become disengaged at times. That perception helped the Mets snag him for three years (with a one-year opt-out) when he hit the open market at age 30 last winter.Trumbo would be wise to stay where he is [in Baltimore], an NL scout said. Hes such a great fit for that ballpark, and Buck Showalter is the perfect manager for him. I think Encarnacion is the best hitter of the group, which makes him less susceptible to wild year-to-year swings. You can make the case that Cespedes is capable of the best single season given the crazy tools, but Ill go with Edwin if Im throwing out 3-5 years. Bautistas options could be limited given his age and defensive limitations.4. Whats the most likely scenario: (1) Ryan Braun gets traded; (2) Yasiel Puig gets traded; or (3) they get traded for each other?Responses: Braun gets traded, 13; theyre traded for each other, 9; Puig gets traded, 9. Five respondents think Braun and Puig are traded, but not for each other. Two survey participants declined to answer.Braun, who turns 33 this month, is coming off a productive season (.305/.365/.538) and is now three years removed from the stain of a 65-game suspension for his part in the Biogenesis scandal. But he still has four years and $76 million guaranteed left on his contract, which makes him a tough fit for a franchise thats in the middle of a youth movement. The Brewers traded All-Star catcher Jonathan Lucroy in August, and its only natural to think theyll move Braun to complete the transition.Puig always seems to be one flare-up away from exhausting the patience of Dodgers management. He hasnt come close to the success he enjoyed as a rookie in 2013, and the Dodgers sent him a message when they demoted him to Triple-A Oklahoma City in August. But hes still only 25 years old, and the Dodgers have to be wary of the possibility of a light bulb going on with a new team.I think theyre afraid of trading Puig and seeing him return to stardom, an NL scout said. They would never hear the end of it.Reports surfaced during the summer that the Dodgers and Brewers were talking, and it makes sense in a lot of ways. The Dodgers are desperate for a big right-handed bat, and Braun would be going home to Southern California. Puig, conversely, would be able to play under a lot less scrutiny in Milwaukee. As an added bonus, the Brewers play under a retractable roof, so he wouldnt have to worry about hitting amid snow flurries in April.Braun is a very good fit for the Dodgers given how bad they have been against left-handed pitchers, a scout said. It will be an interesting cat-mouse game, though. L.A. knows Milwaukee probably wants to move Brauns money. Milwaukee knows L.A. probably wants to move Puig. I assume there will have to be other pieces here. Maybe Milwaukee sends another major league piece to the Dodgers, and the Dodgers send back prospects. Its a good fit on paper, but it might not be super easy to get the right deal.5. Which free agent this winter do you think will land a contract thats far above and beyond what people expect (i.e., the what were they thinking award)?Responses: Ivan Nova 8; Rich Hill and Jeremy Hellickson, 6 each; Ian Desmond 5; Andrew Cashner 4; Edwin Encarnacion 3; Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Michael Saunders, Jose Bautista and Mark Trumbo, 2 each; Aroldis Chapman, Justin Turner, Mike Napoli, Matt Wieters, Derek Holland, Joe Blanton and Jason Castro, 1 each.They should just name this the Jason Heyward Award, joked an AL front-office man. Heyward crafted a happy ending to his first year with the Cubs with an inspirational speech during the Game 7 World Series rain delay, but its hard to get past that .230/.306/.325 slash line in the first year of an eight-year, $184 million deal.The 38 survey participants gave a total of 49 responses because the options were so abundant and a lot of people had trouble settling on one player. An AL scout, for example, picked Cashner as his buyers remorse pitcher and Desmond as his position player.The votes for Hill, Nova and Cashner were predicated on two factors: (1) Theyre the best available options in an abysmal starting pitcher market; and (2) since all three were traded midseason, they cant be given a qualifying offer by their last club. That means theyll all hit the open market unburdened by the anchor of draft-pick compensation.The Phillies are more inclined to give Hellickson a qualifying offer of $17.2 million. He can either accept it and return to Philadelphia, or reject it and go shopping for a deal on the open market. But interest is likely to be tempered if the team that signs him knows it would have to surrender a draft pick in return.Nova raised his profile considerably by going 5-2 with a 3.06 and a stunning 52-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio after the Pirates acquired him from the Yankees at the non-waiver trade deadline. But he turns 30 in January and has a career FanGraphs WAR of 8.9. He has yet to surpass a 2.4 WAR in a single season.Someone will make a silly deal with Nova after a great second half in Pittsburgh, a National League evaluator said. Hes hit the market at the perfect time in a pitching-starved market and had the second half of his life. No wonder the Pirates havent re-signed him yet. Hes banking on a huge payday, and someone is going to give it to him and regret it in a few years. He is the pitching land mine of the free-agent market.While scouts love Hills competitiveness and pitching acumen, hell turn 37 during spring training and has a lengthy injury history. Hill is 15 months removed from a stint with the Long Island Ducks in the independent Atlantic League, and the 110? innings he amassed with the Oakland As and the Dodgers in 2016 were the second-highest total in his 12-year major league career.Cashner has long teased front offices with his mid-90s fastball, but he went 1-4 with a 5.98 ERA for Miami after the Marlins acquired him from San Diego with hopes he could be a difference-maker in a pennant race. Cashners brief tenure in Miami was most notable for his complaints about the teams facial hair policy.[Radar] gun pointers might fall all over themselves over his velocity, but the bottom line is that he cant go through a lineup twice, a scout said. He might be a piece in a pen, but somebody will overpay.6. Will Chris Sale be traded this offseason? If your answer is yes, what do you think is his most likely destination?Responses: No, 18; Yes, 18; No response, 2.Most likely destination: Red Sox 5; Dodgers 4; Yankees, Nationals and Rangers, 2 each; Cubs, Braves and Astros, 1 each.Sale is one of MLBs elite starting pitchers, but his fractious relationship with White Sox management was on display for the world to see when he cut up the teams old-time uniforms during a spat in late July. The White Sox held on to Sale at the trade deadline, but they might be tempted to gauge the market this winter. Given the unappealing free-agent options, contenders in need of rotation help will be exploring deals for Sale, Sonny Gray and even $206.5 million man Zack Greinke this winter.I think the White Sox have had enough of his antics, a National League evaluator said of Sale. I see the Dodgers making a huge play for him and finding the young, necessary chips to push to the middle of the table to get an ace.Skeptics counter that the White Sox just hired a new manager, Rick Renteria, and are motivated to make one more big push under the teams 80-year-old patriarch, Jerry Reinsdorf. Ill say no, because I dont think Reinsdorf will ultimately sign off on a deal, an American League GM said.Sales team-friendly deal is also a factor in trade talks. Hes under contract for $12 million next season, and the White Sox have club options for $12.5 million in 2018 and $13.5 million in 2019. Thats another reason for general manager Rick Hahn to set an asking price that might be too exorbitant for the Red Sox, Dodgers, Yankees and other clubs with high payrolls and deep farm systems.Youve got his ability, for one thing, an AL executive said. Hes a No. 1 starter. Then his contract makes it even more valuable. I just dont know whos going to ante up and give them what theyre looking for. If Im the White Sox, whats the urgency to trade him? Theyve got a window here to compete if they can get their act together and start making some better decisions.Nike Shox Nz Homme . The Barrie Colts defenceman, who impressed many with his play for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship, is the top-ranked skater in the February rankings. He has 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points in 45 games with the Colts this season. Nike Pegasus 33 Homme . Spiller left Week 3s 27-20 loss to the New York Jets with a thigh injury, but fully practiced with the team all week and expects to be ready to go on Sunday. http://www.airvapormax.fr/prix-nike-air-vapormax/nike-vapormax-noir.html . -- The goal posts lying flat on the field, Arizonas fans lingered on the field, congregating around the locker room entrance nearly 30 minutes after rushing out of the stands. Vapormax Nike Noir . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety. Nike Pegasus 33 Homme . The Oilers come in having lost five in a row (0-4-1) and 16 of their last 20 games, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.On the afternoon of October 15, 1991, I fell in love for the first time.I was six years old and sitting cross-legged on the coarse, carpeted floor of my aunts living room in suburban Melbourne, watching - live and free to air - a 50-over FAI Cup match between New South Wales and Victoria at North Sydney Oval.Two brothers, twins alike in ball-striking ability, were laying waste to a Victorian attack featuring five former, current or future international bowlers and, erm, Paul Jackson, a left-arm orthodox spinner who was keeping a young fella named Shane Warne out of the Victorian side.One brother wielded his bat like a paintbrush. The other wielded his bat like a butchers cleaver. Yet, for reasons that remain a mystery (even to me), it was the latter I fell for. Perhaps it was because, even through the minuscule convex TV screen, I could see the steely glint in his eye, for which he would later become famous. Or maybe I just liked the fact that he appeared to be as fond of playing the cut as I went on to be.His name was Stephen Rodger Waugh.He bludgeoned 126 runs off 133 balls that day. (Twin brother Mark made 112 off 123.) From that day forth, Steve Waugh, as everyone seemed to call him, became my favourite cricketer.In October 1991, he wasnt yet one of Australias National Living Treasures. He wasnt even in the Australian Test XI. He had been dropped the previous summer after a five-year, 42-Test match run in the team as an allrounder batting mainly at six yielded just three hundreds and a batting average of 38.24.He was widely seen, to paraphrase Fitzgerald, as a cricketer who had had advantages at the selection table that others hadnt, and failed to make the most of them.When, through sheer weight of first-class run-scoring, he won a recall to the Australian Test XI the following summer, it was as a No. 3 and the opponents were the cricketing demi-gods of the Calypso Empire that was still in its pomp.His scores in the first two Tests read: 10, 20, 38 and 1.His Test career hung by a thread. Then, over the course of four and a half painstaking hours at the SCG, he ground out an even hundred against a West Indian attack featuring Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop. As a Test batsman, he never looked back, averaging 56.60 in his next 121 Tests, after just 37.14 in his first 47.Earlier that summer another great Australian cricketer had emerged onto the world stage, and it was to him - Melbourne-born and bred - that so many of my fellow Melbournians gravitated. The cherubic legspinner seamlessly assumed the mantle of Great Victorian Hero relinquished by Dean Jones to the era-defining chants of Waarr-nee, Waaaaaar-nee that rang around the G. I respected and admired Shane Warne the bowler, but he wasnt the cricketing hero for me.Warne loved being the centre of attention. He was comfortable there in the spotlight, courting public affection as naturally as a bee gathers pollen; a born showman with a million-dollar smile. He looked as open and at ease with a person hed just met, as he did with his best mate - a trait to admire, but one I knew I could never share.Waugh, on the other hand, seemed quiet, private, studious, thoughtful and impeccably rational. Soon I would receive detailed, written confirmation of my youthful impressions gleaned from afar in a form that is, sadly, now almost alien in this Twitter age: a book, by which I mean a real, self-written work, not the ghost-written copy hurriedly dashed off to the publishers just in time for the holiday season that nowadays passes for a cricketers work. In 1993, Waugh wrote his first book, Steve Waughs Ashes Diary. It sold so well that he authored another ten tour diaries, one book of photographs, and a 720-page, 1.9 kilogram autobiography.The early tour diaries were the best. With no formal leadership responsibilities, Waugh was free to observe, think, wander, explore, photograph and write. As a writer, he was no Ray Robinson, but he wrote lucidly, perceptively, and honestly about the big issues both on and off the field, his approach to the game, tactics, his relationships with team-mates and administrators, and his philosophy towards life in general. Perhaps most importantly of all, unlike so many of the anodyne offerings churned out by professional sportsmen nowadays, he never hesitated to offer an opinion about an important issue, no matter how controversial.It was often the little things that stood out, like his reflection on his first encounter with a local - who said, Hello, Mr Wog. Very well played in 1987, all the best for 96 - upon arriving in India for the 1996 World Cup:Its amazing how one comment can put everything into perspective, and this one did just that for me. Sometimes you forget how much this game can affect people. You take things for granted. But when you realise a guy like this remembers how you performed nine years ago and wants you to do well, even though youre part of a visiting team - thats a very effective reminder that you have an obligation to always give it your best shot. Youre not only playing for yourself and your team, but also for the numerous people out there who care whether you succeed or fail. Passages like that quickly won him an 11-year-olds trust, revealing a person who never forgot, and always fulfilled, his responsibilities, but never allowed himself to be crushed by them. The kind of man any earnest, bookish young boy aspires to be. He never strayed into pretension either, keeping his underrated sense off humour - which ranged from toilet to slapstick to mildly absurdist - firmly intact.ddddddddddddThe same 1996 World Cup diary containing the passage on responsibility quoted above features: Waugh accidentally crapping his own pants trying to open a jammed bus window; Australian players attacking one another with salt, pepper and weaponised dairy products in the business-class section of a plane; and an Indian newspaper article about a man who lovingly kept a pet cow (She is really good looking and has an exceptional figure) in his eighth floor Calcutta apartment, which Waugh chose to reproduce without comment.Waughs writing, especially in his pre-captaincy days, was so extensive that avid readers like myself felt as if we knew him, even though wed never met him.He was a self-described nerd. He was not gregarious or charismatic like Warne, or a naturally great group communicator like Mark Taylor, although he was good friends with both. He placed great value in friendship, which, much like Test runs and wickets, was something he thought had to be earned, but once earned, brought with it attendant obligations of loyalty, trust and confidence, which must never be betrayed.He was more comfortable in the company of a few close friends than in large groups. Unlike more than a few Australian cricketers at the time, he was curious about the cultures of the foreign lands that the Australian team visited, and instead of bunkering down in his hotel room with a tin of baked beans and a stack of videos, he spent most of his free time on tours exploring the local surrounds in the company of one or two team-mates or journalists who shared his curiosity.He was an excellent, empathetic one-on-one communicator and an astute observer of not just society but individuals too, always being the first to support a team-mate or friend who was down. He practised the precept that Josh Lyman set out - he comforted his friends in times of difficulty and he celebrated with them in times of triumph. When, in the midst of a form slump, Warne announced his premature retirement to his team-mates during the 1999 World Cup, Waugh went on a long, heartfelt walk with him.Waugh had a clear idea of how to prepare himself in order to extract the maximum number of runs from himself for the benefit of his team. He knew how to get the best out of his team-mates too. His unconventional policy of trusting tailenders and not shepherding the strike produced a fount of lower-order partnership runs for Australia, and he had a knack of compiling of series-turning partnerships with greenhorns, such as the 385 runs with Greg Blewett at the Wanderers in 1997.He had an instinctive feel for the ebb and flow of a game of cricket and the mental acuity to know how and when to intervene tactically in order to maximise Australias chances of winning. The unexpected and successful deployment of Warne as a pinch-hitter early in Australias chase of an imposing 287 for victory in their 1996 World Cup quarter-final was Waughs idea - Warne slogged 24 off 14 balls and Australia won with 13 balls to spare. Waugh was always trying to think of ways to improve Australias chances of winning a game, even where that meant increasing the risk of losing.He was a good judge of character - both on and off the cricket field - which, combined with his cricketing knowledge and experience, gave him a close to flawless ability to judge whether a cricketer could succeed at Test level.All these things we knew from reading his early tour diaries.Thus, when his critics - who remained present, if not plentiful, throughout the second half of the 90s, even as he established himself as one of the worlds pre-eminent batsmen and captains - unfairly criticised him, I bristled and not only wanted to defend him, but felt as if I knew what to say.Initially, though, it was his weaknesses, not his strengths, that manifested themselves in his captaincy tenure. No longer one of the boys, Waugh found that the lines of communication to his troops were now garbled and, lacking Taylors gifts of group speak, he was unable to repair them on his own. Australia nearly lost the Frank Worrell Trophy and successive group-stage defeats to New Zealand and Pakistan at the 1999 World Cup left them on the brink of early elimination and Waugh on the verge of being sacked as one-day captain.Then, at that turning point in modern Australian cricket history, his strengths, which I had read about for so many years in his books, started coming to the fore - the veteran allrounder Tom Moody, who Waugh had personally asked the selectors to include in Australias World Cup squad, re-established good lines of communication with the rank and file and contributed valuable quick runs and wickets; Warne, who Waugh had backed throughout a tournament-long form slump, came good at the business end; and Waugh himself took personal responsibility for his teams fate, scoring a team-best 398 runs at 79.60 for the tournament as Australia went unbeaten for seven consecutive matches to win their first World Cup since 1987.That victory proved to be the watershed moment in Waughs captaincy. Soon, all the virtues that wed seen in his diaries manifested themselves in his captaincy and, by the time he retired in January 2004, Steve Waugh was, and forever will be, one of Australias favourite cricketers. But, he was mine first. ' ' '