representative said he was taking his role - al

SAN DIEGO -- Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged the games rising home run numbers Tuesday, but he expressed confidence that they arent a product of juiced players or juiced baseballs.Each MLB team is averaging 1.16 home runs per game this season -- the highest home run rate since the average of 1.17 per game during the height of the steroid era in 2000. The home run rate, which ebbed at 0.86 per game in 2014, began to spike during the second half of last season, but Manfred said MLB has no reason to think the rising power numbers are a product of increased steroid use.The increase in the number of home runs takes place against a different backdrop, Manfred said in his annual All-Star Game session with the Baseball Writers Association of America. Major League Baseball does 22,000 drug tests a year. The World Anti-Doping Agency says we have one of the best testing programs in the world, let alone in professional sports. Our investigative capacity in the area of performance-enhancing drugs is probably the best in the world. So Im much less concerned that this is due to [PEDs].We think it has to do with the way pitchers pitch and the way hitters are being taught to play the game. Youve seen some unusual developments in terms of home run hitters being up in the lineup to get them more at-bats. So we think it has more to do with the game this time around, because were comfortable were doing everything we can on the performance-enhancing drugs front.Since January, 70 players (13 big leaguers and 57 minor leaguers) have been suspended for violations of baseballs joint drug testing agreement. Several active players -- most notably, pitchers Justin Verlander and Jeremy Guthrie and outfielder Jeff Francoeur -- have pushed for stiffer penalties as a disincentive to players who might use PEDs.Manfred also discounted the theory that changes in the baseball used by MLB might be contributing to the rising power numbers. He said MLB has done extensive testing on the baseballs and found no changes.In 2013, Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato resigned amid a scandal over livelier baseballs in Japan. The scandal broke after Wladimir Balentien of the Yakult Swallows hit 60 homers to break the record of 55 shared by Sadaharu Oh, Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes.There are certain mistakes in life that if you pay attention to whats going on around you, you are not inclined to make, Manfred said. There was a scandal in Japan over the baseball being changed that cost the commissioner his job. I like my current gig, so I think you can rest assured that the baseball is the same as it was last year. Cheap Vapormax China . -- PGA TOUR Canada member Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Web. Cheap Vapormax For Sale .500 on the season. The Jets are now 0-5-1 in the second game of back-to-backs. The game started the same way the Vancouver game started the night before, with the Jets taking the first two penalties of the game and killing off the first, but the Oilers getting on the board first, scoring on the second man-advantage. http://www.cheapvapormaxwholesale.com/ .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. Vapormax Cheap Online .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. Discount Nike Vapormax . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Mark Coyne has made it a personal mission to turn St George Illawarras NRL fortunes around, but admits the responsibility ultimately lies with coach Paul McGregor and chief executive Peter Doust.The former Dragons skipper has been drafted in to help return the club to its competitive best following a wide-ranging review of their poor 2016 campaign.He will join sports scientist Dr Craig Duncan, and coaching and performance specialists Clare Prideaux and Dirk Melton on a four-person football committee for a series of meetings over coming months.Coyne, who spent more than a decade at the Dragons, said the groups aim was to make sure McGregor and his staff had the right systems in place to be successful as early as next season.Theres no reason why that cant happen, he told AAP on Thursday.I understand that fans are disappointed in the way the clubs performed in the previous few years. What the club is attempting to do now is address that by looking at building a football department that is a lot more focused on high performance.Theres no doubt that Mary (McGregor) is going to be under a bit of pressure. Im good friends with him, but my role is to make sure he and the people around him have the right focus to put 17 players on the field every day that are going to be extremely competitive.The rretired Australian and Queensland representative said he was taking his role - albeit very small - very seriously because part of his heart belonged to the club.ddddddddddddve gone for St George since I was seven years old and Ive had the honour of leading the club and playing with them for 12 years, he said.I absolutely have a lot of investment in that club and I want to see them get back to where they were in 2008, 2009, 2010 and challenge for the premiership.Apart from poor on-field execution, Coyne felt the playing roster was the Dragons biggest issue this season.But deciding who to let go and who to recruit was beyond the committees control.The CEO and the coach are ultimately responsible for the roster, and in my view, the roster certainly needs to be enhanced, he said.They are both jointly responsible for making sure that the roster is going to give them the best opportunity to win a premiership.Ill work hard with the committee to make sure that we provide the football department with the tools and the programs to be able to maximise their success, but then its over to them to implement and execute those programs to make sure that the club is successful. 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