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Chicago Cubs MLB 2015 News, Rumors: Cubs Have Excellent Young Talent

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Kris Bryant is the young star for the Chicago Cubs that most sports fans have already heard of. However, the Cubs are rich in young talent as Theo Epstein since taking over the reigns has invested a lot of time and even a little bit of money into finding young talent foe the Cubs. That is a big reason why Joe Maddon was such a good fit there and explains away why he so suddenly left his last job with the Tampa Bay Rays.

(Photo: MLB/Chicago Cubs)

Christian Post Report – The Chicago Cubs have a ton of young talent they hope to build around.

Beyond Bryant, who will begin the year at Triple A Iowa, the Cubs have Mike Olt who is 26 and who has had a great spring after tearing up the Arizona Fall League three years ago. Albert Almora has had a great spring as well, hitting .34 in 15 games and making himself look like a sure thing to make the 25-man active roster.

Everywhere one looks in the Cubs’ Sloan Park Complex one sees a top prospect that led MLB.com to rank their minor league system the best in baseball this year. Maddon is excited and impressed with his collection of young talent.

“Personality-wise, I have really been impressed with them as people, and their work has been great. As baseball players, you all knew how good they are. I’m getting to see it for the first time,” he said.

While Bryant is getting all of the attention, Maddon doesn’t see a big difference between him and Cuban Right Fielder Jorge Soler, who impressed the Cubs last spring and will get his first crack at a major league job.

“Coming into it, I had heard about him. To get the opportunity to work with somebody like that, as managers and coaches, it’s somewhat unique. He’s really that impressive, offensively and defensively, [and I] think he can be a good base runner also. He’s just a great guy. He smiles easily. He listens well. He’s the kind of guy you want to grow with,” he said.

Source : Christian Post

Dallas Cowboys NFL 2015 News: Tony Romo’s Contract Restructured

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The Dallas Cowboys have restructured the contract of Tony Romo again. While this saves them money in the short term, it adds significant salary to later years of the contract and more importantly increases his cap hit as he gets older.

Christian Post Report – Romo, set to turn 35 in a few weeks, will certainly decline in skill and he gets older as all NFL QBs do. This could create an interesting problem down the road for the team when it becomes necessary to cut Romo and eat the cap hit on the dead money all of this restructuring has created.

(Photo: Reuters)
The Dallas Cowboys restructured the contract of QB Tony Romo freeing up enough cap space for a potential run at Adrian Peterson.

“The Cowboys have restructured Romo’s deal yet again, creating $12.8 million in cap space this year,” Pro Football Talk reported. “A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that it wasn’t a negotiated restructuring, but an automatic conversion of $16 million of Romo’s base salary to a signing bonus. His salary for 2015 becomes $1 million.”

Signed until 2019, the Cowboys have added $3.2 million of cap charge to the remaining years of the deal. However, the $12.8 million in cap space may become very significant as the team searches for a replacement for the departed Demarco Murray.

Adrian Peterson has a 2015 $12.75 million dollar cap hit, and has long been rumored to be interested in playing for the Dallas Cowboys. The running back wants out of Minnesota and fresh start somewhere else, and now the Cowboys have the cap room to absorb his contract. They would still need to trade for the talented running back and that cost is likely to be high.

“We might add that Peterson and Jerry Jones once had a conversation that skirted the lines of tampering, a conversation in which Peterson reportedly told Jones he wanted to retire a Cowboy,” Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports added. “This is, after all, a kid who grew up a Cowboys fan, went to their games (and in their locker room) as a high-school player in Texas and who wants no part of his current team.”

Source : Christian Post

Dallas Cowboys NFL 2015 News: Tony Romo’s Contract Restructured

Entertainment

(Photo: Reuters)
The Dallas Cowboys restructured the contract of QB Tony Romo freeing up enough cap space for a potential run at Adrian Peterson.

Source : Christian Post

Real Madrid vs Granada Live Stream Free: Watch Online Spanish La Liga Soccer

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REUTERS/SUSANA VERA
Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos celebrates his goal against Real Sociedad during their Spanish first division soccer match at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, January 31, 2015.

Christian Post Report – Real Madrid host Granada at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in the Spanish La Liga on Sunday, with the game set to start at 6:00 a.m. ET, and the match available to watch on live stream (details below).

Madrid’s form has dropped in their recent La Liga matches as they have only won one in their last four matches.

They drew 1-1 against Villarreal at home before losing 1-0 to Athletic Club in the next game.

Madrid rebounded with a 2-0 win against Levante to possibly give them momentum ahead of their El Clasico against Barcelona.

Unfortunately, Madrid lost 2-1 at Camp Nou as Cristiano Ronaldo’s equaliser was erased by Luis Suarez’s goal in the 56th minute of the match.

As a result, Madrid are now four points behind Barcelona in the race atop the table. With only a handful of games remaining, they must string together some wins and hope that the Catalans drop points if they want to emerge as champions.

Meanwhile, Granada are 19th in the league and are in danger of being relegated.

They have only collected four points in their last five league fixtures and are two points from safety.

Their last win came against Malaga but they have lost matches against Levante, Barcelona and Rayo Vallecano.

In their last La Liga game, they drew 0-0 against Eibar at home to get a consolation point.

When Granada and Real first played this season, Real dominated the game as they won 4-0 at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes.

Ronaldo opened the scoring early in the second minute of the match, before James Rodriguez doubled their lead in the 31st.

Carrying a two-goal lead into the second half, Karim Benzema then made it three for Real with a strike in the 54th minute, before Rodriguez secured his brace in the 86th of the match.

The last time Granada won over Madrid was back in February 2013 and Madrid have won three straight.

For live updates and scores, visit Yahoo! For live streaming, click here.

Source : Christian Post

George R.R. Martin Aims to Finish ‘Winds of Winter’ by 2016, Releases New Excerpt from Upcoming Book

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Youtube Screenshot/ file
George R.R. Martin

Christian Post Report – Everywhere he goes, it seems as though George R.R. Martin can’t escape questions from “Game of Thrones” fans, particularly this one question: when will “Winds of Winter” be done?

It is expected that the upcoming fifth season of “Game of Thrones” will be catching up with many of the storylines from Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” saga, and earlier this month, the author took to his blog to announce that he will not be appearing on certain conventions so he could work on the book.

The author recently said that having “Winds of Winter” published before the premiere of season 6 of “Game of Thrones” next spring “has been important to me all along.”

“I wish it was out now,” Martin told Entertainment Weekly. “Maybe I’m being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances. I’m turning down a lot more interviews—anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done.”

The author revealed that he just came up with a big, revealing twist on a long-time character that he never previously considered.

“I’m still weighing whether to go that direction or not,” he teased. “It’s a great twist … It’s nothing I’ve ever thought of before. And it’s nothing they can do in the show, because the show has already — on this particular character — made a couple decisions that will preclude it, where in my case I have not made those decisions.”

Meanwhile, Martin debuted an excerpt from “Winds of Winter.” The passage, which is more than a few lines, appears to be an entire chapter told from the view of Sansa Stark. The character is played by Sophie Turner on “Game of Thrones.”

The excerpt can be read on Martin’s site, www.georgerrmartin.com.

Source : Christian Post

The Detroit Tigers Will Start the 2015 Season With 24 Men on the Active Roster

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MLB/Detroit Tigers
What are the Detroit Tigers actually worth?

Christian Post Report – The final cuts have been made. The opening day roster has been set and because of a quirk in MLB transaction rules the Tigers will begin the season with just 24 men on the big league roster. There were not a lot of surprises but after learning that starter Justin Verlander and relief pitcher Bruce Rondon would begin the year on the disabled list there was some intrigue as to who would lock down the final spots for the Tigers pitching staff.

Blain Hardy and Kyle Ryan were in the running for bullpen spots but were optioned to Triple A Toledo Friday Morning. The Tigers also reassigned Josh Wilson to minor league camp to get them down to the 25 man limit. Of course that is 25 men with Verlander who has yet to be placed on the disabled list. That will likely happen tomorrow and be retroactive to his last start.

Chris Iott of Mlive.com explains why the Tigers cannot carry an additional relief pitcher while JV sits on the DL.

“If the Tigers carry a relief pitcher on the roster to start the season, they would not be able to promote a starting pitcher to pitch in Verlander’s place for 10 days. So the Tigers might want to see how Verlander fares this weekend — he is scheduled to throw a bullpen session — before naming a replacement for him.”

Verlander is scheduled to pitch April 12 and if he remains on schedule for that return the Tigers can simply survive shorthanded till then or once that is more official than can bring up an additional bullpen arm. There are some rumors of the Tigers looking to trade for an additional reliever but that would seem to be a separate issue for now. The Tigers open the season on Monday with David Price talking the mound for his first Opening Day start with the team.

Source : Christian Post

Kentucky Wildcats vs Wisconsin Badgers Live Stream, TBS TV Schedule: Watch NCAA 2015 March Madness Online (Preview)

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Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
The Kentucky Wildcats.

Christian Post Report – With only four teams remaining, the Kentucky Wildcats face the Wisconsin Badgers in the Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament.

The match is on April 4, 2015 and starts at 8:49 PM ET.

Kentucky came into the tournament as the top team in the Midwest Region and have shown that they are a level above their competition.

They opened the tournament with a big 79-56 win over Hampton, with Karl-Anthony Towns leading the way with 21 points while also grabbing 11 rebounds in the contest.

In the next round, they dispatched the Cincinnati Bearcats 64-51 with forward Trey Lyles scoring 11 points and taking 11 rebounds in only 28 minutes on the court

They would go on and dominate West Virginia in the Sweet 16 behind five players scoring double digits in the 78-39 victory.

Again, Lyles was the team’s top performer with 14 points and seven rebounds, while going 4-of-7 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free throw line.

The Wildcats only got a real challenge when they faced the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the tournament’s Elite Eight.

Notre Dame kept things close throughout the match but it was evident that Kentucky’s poise and composure would carry them on to the next round.

In the 68-66 win, Towns carried the load for the team with 25 points while only missing three of his 10 attempts on the field. He also had five rebounds and four assists to help get the victory.

On the West Region, the Badgers opened their tournament with a 86-82 win over Coast Carolina.

Frank Kaminsky scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebound on the night to lead them to the next round.

Next was eighth seed Wisconsin and it took four players to score in double digits to get the 72-65 victory.

Kaminsky had 16 points and seven rebounds, while Sam Dekker led with 17 points and also grabbed five boards.

Wisconsin then booked their place in the Elite Eight with a 79-72 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels behind a big second half.

Despite being down at the half, Wisconsin were anchored by Dekker’s 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting to prevent the upset.

Wisconsin drained 87% of their shots from the free throw line to complete the turnaround and get the win.

Finally, they dispatched the Arizona Wildcats with Kaminsky and Dekker both scoring over 25 points in the 85-78 win.

Similar to the previous round, Wisconsin were down at the half but made up in the second frame to book their place in the tournament’s final four.

For live scores and updates, visit NCAA.com. For live streaming, click here.

Source : Christian Post

Barcelona vs Celta De Vigo Live Stream Free: Watch Online Spanish La Liga Soccer

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Reuters/Image

Barcelona try to extend their lead atop the Spanish La Liga table as they visit Estadio de Balaidos to face Celta de Vigo.

Christian Post Report – The match is on April 5, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. ET.

With a four-point lead over Real Madrid, Barcelona have peaked at the perfect time as they have won four straight league matches.

They beat Granada 3-1, Rayo Vallecano 6-1 and Eibar 2-0 ahead of their El Clasico match.

Playing as hosts against Madrid, Jeremy Mathieu was an unlikely goal scorer as he gave the Catalans the lead at home.

Cristiano Ronaldo levelled things for Madrid but Luis Suarez’s goal in the second half helped them get all three points.

With only 10 games remaining on their schedule, and a four point lead, Barcelona only need to take care of their advantage and prevent collapses as they try to secure this year’s championship.

Meanwhile, Celta de Vigo are 11th in the league and are trying to break their way into the top half of the table.

They are only one point behind 10th place Real Sociedad and four points from the eighth spot.

Despite winning their last match, Celta’s form has been poor. That win was their first in the last four games starting with a 1-1 draw against Elche.

They lost heavily to Villarreal before a 2-1 loss to Athletic Club in a match where they saw themselves down 2-0 in the first half.

However, Celta have hope in this match as they beat Barcelona in their first meeting this season.

When the two teams first met at Camp Nou, Joaquin Larrivey scored in the 55th minute to give the visitors an unlikely win against the Catalans.

Prior to this win, Celta have failed to beat Barcelona in their previous eight matches across all competitions.

As a boost, reports have surfaced that Lionel Messi could play in this fixture as the Argentine is still recovering from a foot problem.

To view updates and highlights, go to Yahoo! For live streaming, click here.

Source : Christian Post

Kentucky Wildcats vs Wisconsin Badgers Live Stream, TBS TV Schedule: Watch NCAA 2015 March Madness Online (Preview)

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