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
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
The conventional wisdom amongst NFL fans and pundits is a team that has multiple picks in the first round of the NFL draft should use those picks to move up and get one of the highly touted prospects. This usually means a trade into the top 10 and often into the top five.
Christian Post Report – This year the Cleveland Browns and the New Orleans Saints each have two picks in the first round. The decisions those front offices have to make is if they should package those picks to move up or simply use the picks they have to acquire two premiere players.
NFLThe NFL wants to expand its playoff tournament
Gil Brandt over at NFL.com has a story that looks at the last five drafts and the times teams had more than one first round pick. In those five drafts, teams selected twice in round one 16 times, so this is a fairly common occurrence. Be they extra draft picks from off season dealings or trades made during the draft, teams having more than one first round selection happen often.
In the case of the Browns, who have twice over the last five drafts taken two players, both decisions led to pretty big draft busts. They picked twice in 2014 and came away with QB Johnny Manziel and CB Justin Gilbert. That doesn’t look good right now but it is far too early to call either player a definite bust. In 2012, the Browns selected twice in the first round and came away with QB Brandon Weedon and RB Trent Richardson, and they most certainly whiffed on both picks. Neither player still plays for Cleveland and that makes their 2015 that much more desperate.
In 2010 the Seattle Seahawks picked twice in the first round and those were the first two picks of the Pete Carroll era. They came away with OT Russell Okung and S Earl Thomas. Those two, along with a stellar 2010 draft class, became the foundation of the an eventual Super Bowl Championship team.
The lesson here is picking twice in the first round gives a franchise a chance to add two solid pieces, but good decisions have to be made with both picks and picking two players seems a far better way to go then trading up for one.
Source : Christian Post
Even during Blackberry’s heyday, it was working with other brands in order to promote and expand its marketing further. One of those companies that the Canada-based manufacturer has been working with is Porsche.
Christian Post Report – Last year, the mobile phone maker announced its latest luxury device. Finally, that new device has hit the Canadian market. According to a report from GSM Arena, the Blackberry Porsche Design P’9983 can now be purchased from Blackberry’s home market for $1,950 CAD, or about $1,545.
YouTube/ScreenshotPhone Arena’s first look at the Blackberry Passport
Like other Porsche Design smartphones, the P’9983 is oozing with appeal. The phone’s entire back is reportedly made out of genuine leather, while the Blackberry device’s Porsche Design is made out of stainless steel.
For interested buyers in Canada, they should definitely checkout Blackberry’s online catalogue to check the phone’s specs.
Blackberry Porsche Design P’9983 boasts the interesting combination of touch and type features. The device gets a 3.1-inch display with 720 x 720 resolution, 2GB of RAM, and a Snapdragon S4 Plus chip.
Rounding up the specs sheet are the 8MP primary camera at the back, a 2MP front shooter, 2,100mAh battery, and a limited PIN that would unlock the device’s messaging options.
The Blackberry Porsche Design P’9983 may be too expensive for interested consumers, but it is still another marketing ploy to assure its fan base that it is still relevant in the business.
Source : Christian Post
In what was a day full of bad news for the Detroit Tigers, the team announced that starting pitcher Justin Verlander and relief pitcher Bruce Rondon will start the season on the disabled list. Verlander’s time on the list will go back to his last start and he will be eligible to return April 12th. Rondon’s circumstance is a bit more complicated.
reuters.comChristian Post Report – for the first time in his career Justin Verlander will go on the disabled list
This is the first time in Verlander’s 10-year career that he has spent any regular season time on the disabled list. He was scheduled to start the second game of the season for the Tigers, but due to the travel schedule and the day off following opening day, the Tigers will not have to make a roster move or bring in a pitcher. David Price will start the opener with the rest of the rotation being bumped up one start till Verlander’s returns. He is suffering from a triceps strain.
“Me speculating wouldn’t change the facts, and the facts are his arm will let us know when he is going to be able to pitch. I will say, and I’ve said it from the get-go, I don’t think this is an injury that is going to be a long-term issue,” manager Brad Ausmus told Mlive.com. “He said after throwing pretty firm (Wednesday) that he felt better today. So that’s a good sign.”
Rondon awoke Wednesday morning with a sore shoulder. Thursday he had MRI that showed bicep tendonitis and since he is returning from Tommy John surgery, the Tigers are likely to take cautious approach with him. This is the third season Rondon figured to be a big part of the Tigers bullpen and the third season in which he has not made the team out of spring training.
While the starting rotation was pretty much set and can survive without Verlander to start the season the bullpen has been in flux all spring. Without Rondon, the roster possibilities are endless and the team could carry an extra bullpen arm till Verlander is ready to return.
Source : Christian Post
Just in time to make their subscribers delighted and not waiting for long, Sony recently announced the titles included in their Christian Post Report – PlayStation Plus Free games list for the month of April 2015. Those who are subscribed to the PS Plus program can get their hands on these six exciting games across PlayStation gaming platforms.
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Christian Post Report – PlayStation Plus
PlayStation 4 owners enrolled to PS Plus program can grab a hold to Upper One Game’s puzzle-platformer “Never Alone.” Commended for its simple, yet beautiful cartoon style animation, “Never Alone” is originally priced at $14.99 at the PlayStation 4 Store.
Next up is Terrible Posture Games’ single-player shooter game “Tower of Guns” which is sold originally for $14.99. Laden with “random enemies, random power ups, random bosses, and tons of unlockable items and weapons,” the game is said to be perfect for those who have the affinity for twitch games.
Then there’s “Auru’s Awakening.” Another fast-paced action 2D action platformer, players are put “in charge of Aaru, a mythical creature with two unique abilities, teleportation and charging” as he traverses the dangerous world of Lumenox.
PlayStation 3 owners enrolled to PS Plus program are also in for some treat. There is the highly-rated action-stealth shooter from Bethesda, “Dishonored.” The game follows the story of Corvo Attano, a bodyduard to the Empress of the Isles, who is framed for her murder. Seeking revenge, he becomes an assassin dreaded by most in the industrial city of Dunwall.
PS Vita players are also up for some grabs! Portable gamers can get Guerilla Cambridge’s FPS action “Killzone Mercenary” for free. Or better yet, they can download the puzzle-platformer game “MonsterBag.”
As stated by PlayStation Blog, all the mentioned games will be made available on April 8.
Source : Christian Post
(Photo: Courtesy Metropolitan Police)From left: Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum all left home to reportedly join ISIS.
Christian Post Report – More than a dozen parents have told headteachers of two London secondary schools that they fear their children have been radicalized and could flee the country to join the Islamic State or other terror groups in the Middle East.
The two headteachers told Nazir Afzal, who was the chief crown prosecutor for northwest England until Tuesday, that some teenagers might be planning to join the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as the schools break for Easter, according to The Independent.
“Both [headteachers] said they were scared of the Easter break and would be very relieved if all their pupils came back after the holidays,” Afzal was quoted as saying.
Afzal said he was told by one of the headteachers that parents fear almost every day that their children would flee to Iraq or Syria.
It is believed that about 600 British nationals have left the U.K. to join terror groups in Syria and Iraq since 2013, and about half have returned, according to The Guardian.
ISIS, an al-Qaeda offshoot which seeks to form an Islamic emirate in the Levant region through “jihad,” has gained control over large territories in Iraq and Syria.
The headteachers haven’t report it to police to save the children from facing criminal charges.
“The headteachers said they are in between a rock and a hard place,” Afzal was quoted as adding. “No parent wants to criminalize their child. Their perception of the parents’ lack of confidence also impacted on them, thinking policing and criminalizing is not the approach they want to take — and what else is available to them.”
On why Easter holidays could be a time for the children to make such a move, Afzal added, “When the children don’t have to be somewhere at 9 a.m. and don’t have to be there till 3.30 p.m. there are more opportunities. That’s why Easter came up. After the half-term [it is] the next window of opportunity.”
Two months ago, three children from Bethnal Green academy in east London reportedly fled their homes to join groups in Syria. And a month ago, a court confiscated the passports of four other teenagers after concerns they could be trying to join a terror group in the Middle East, according to reports.
Some say it is the responsibility of the schools to inform police about the possibility of some teenagers joining ISIS.
“Where heads have clear evidence that young people may travel to Syria or are involved in extremist activities, they can and must alert parents and the appropriate authorities,” Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, was quoted as saying.
The issue was first reported by The Times (of London).
Source : Christian Post
(Photo: Twitter)Christian student Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, said she prayed to God and drank lotion to survive for two days during and after the massacre at Garissa University College in Kenya.
Christian Post Report – A Christian student who said she hid and prayed for her life as al-Shabaab terrorists shot dead scores of her fellow believers during a bloody massacre at Garissa University College in Kenya Thursday, emerged alive from a large cupboard where she was hiding Saturday and revealed that she drank lotion to survive.
Medical staff tasked with handling the bodies of the 148 people who were killed during the rampage of terror reported in Sky News that the student, Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, emerged from the cupboard as they were rounding up the bodies.
Cheroitich explained from her hospital bed that she covered herself with clothes in the cupboard as other Christian students who were also in hiding gave in to demands from the terrorists to come out of hiding. Those who did were lined up and shot by the Muslim terrorists as Cheroitich prayed.
“I was just praying to my God,” she said.
She was so traumatized by the ordeal that when rescuers first came to help she suspected them of being terrorists. She finally emerged from her hiding place after Kenyan security officials got one of her teachers to convince her it was safe to come out.
(Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen, arrive at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 3, 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.
According to Reuters, Christian congregations who heard the reports of Christians being slaughtered during the raid, while some Muslims were spared, are now running scared as the terrorist group of Somali militants vowed Saturday that it intends to wage a long war with Kenya and make its cities run “red with blood.”
“No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath from occurring in your cities,” the group said in an emailed statement received by Reuters.
“This will be a long, gruesome war of which you, the Kenyan public, are its first casualties,” it added.
Local Police allege that militant Islamist Mohamed Mohamud, a reportedly soft-spoken former teacher, is the mastermind of the Garissa massacre. He is a Kenyan of Somali origin and is wanted in connection with a long list of recent cross-border killings and massacres in Kenya’s northeastern border region, according to Sky News.
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@leoblairSource : Christian Post
In what was a day full of bad news for the Detroit Tigers, the team announced that starting pitcher Justin Verlander and relief pitcher Bruce Rondon will start the season on the disabled list. Verlander’s time on the list will go back to his last start and he will be eligible to return April 12th. Rondon’s circumstance is a bit more complicated.
reuters.comChristian Post Report – for the first time in his career Justin Verlander will go on the disabled list
This is the first time in Verlander’s 10-year career that he has spent any regular season time on the disabled list. He was scheduled to start the second game of the season for the Tigers, but due to the travel schedule and the day off following opening day, the Tigers will not have to make a roster move or bring in a pitcher. David Price will start the opener with the rest of the rotation being bumped up one start till Verlander’s returns. He is suffering from a triceps strain.
“Me speculating wouldn’t change the facts, and the facts are his arm will let us know when he is going to be able to pitch. I will say, and I’ve said it from the get-go, I don’t think this is an injury that is going to be a long-term issue,” manager Brad Ausmus told Mlive.com. “He said after throwing pretty firm (Wednesday) that he felt better today. So that’s a good sign.”
Rondon awoke Wednesday morning with a sore shoulder. Thursday he had MRI that showed bicep tendonitis and since he is returning from Tommy John surgery, the Tigers are likely to take cautious approach with him. This is the third season Rondon figured to be a big part of the Tigers bullpen and the third season in which he has not made the team out of spring training.
While the starting rotation was pretty much set and can survive without Verlander to start the season the bullpen has been in flux all spring. Without Rondon, the roster possibilities are endless and the team could carry an extra bullpen arm till Verlander is ready to return.
Source : Christian Post
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(Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)
A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen, arrive at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 3, Christian Post Report – 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.
(Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen, arrive at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 3, Christian Post Report – 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.
(Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)Mourners gather to view bodies of the students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen, at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 3, Christian Post Report – 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.
(Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)Garissa University students wait at a temporary shelter as they wait for relocation after Thursday’s attack by gunmen in their campus, in Garissa April 3, Christian Post Report – 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus, some Christian Post Report – 200 km (1Christian Post Report – 20 miles) from the Somali border, in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.
(Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)Bodies of suspected Garissa University College attackers are seen in a morgue in Garissa, April 4, Christian Post Report – 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on Garissa University College is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say as a government failure to prevent bloodshed.
The Somali terror group al-Shabaab Saturday threatened to launch more bloody attacks on Kenya after its militants killed nearly 150 students in a targeted attack on Christians at Garissa University College Thursday.
“No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath from occurring in your cities,” the group said in an emailed statement Saturday, according to Reuters.
The al-Qaeda-affiliated group called it a long and gruesome war with Kenya, saying its cities will “run red with blood.”
The terror group said Thursday’s attack was in retaliation against Kenya’s troops fighting its militants in Somalia. Kenya’s troops have been in Somalia, which shares a long border with Kenya, since Christian Post Report – 2011.
In Thursday’s attacks, the students at the targeted site were there to pray. They were lined up by four militants and were made to wait for their turn to be shot, according to The Telegraph.
Some of students were speaking to their parents on the phone when they were shot dead. The militants had asked them to tell their parents that their aim was to force Kenyan troops to leave Somalia.
(Photo: Reuters/Herman Kariuki)
A relative is assisted by Red Cross staff as bodies of the students killed in Thursday’s attack by gunmen, arrive at the Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi, April 3, Christian Post Report – 2015. The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed. Strapped with explosives, masked al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus in a pre-dawn rampage on Thursday.
“This is the level of depravity that we are dealing with, it is something beyond the comprehension of anyone normal like you or I,” an anonymous government source was quoted as saying. “These are not people who can be reasoned with, only force can stop them.”
A gunman also told students they were “here to make your Easter holidays better” and warned of further attacks to come.
“If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot,” Collins Wetangula, the vice chairman of the student union, noted in a FOX report earlier.
The death toll has risen to 148, according to Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery. Of those killed, at least 14Christian Post Report – 2 were students, mostly Christian. More than 100 others were injured, and nine of them are said to be in critical condition.
Kenyan police have arrested five suspects, according to CNN.
The Interior Ministry has also announced a reward of Christian Post Report – 20 million Kenyan shillings ($Christian Post Report – 215,000) for suspect Mohamed Mohamud.
The World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission called the attack “cowardly, senseless, inhuman, targeted killing of innocent Christian students.”
“Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the shameless killing, as well as groups like al-Qaeda, Islamic State (ISIS) and Boko Haram are transnational terror groups or aspire to become one, and appear to be either cooperating or competing with each other in revealing their evil intent,” WEA-RLC Executive Director Godfrey Yogarajah said in a statement.
“It’s an unfortunate race among terror groups to cause destruction of human lives to maintain their relevance at a time when ISIS is causing unprecedented bloodshed. This trend demands that the international coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria should expand their mission to include other terror groups as their targets – of course, not with airstrikes or troops on the ground,” Yogarajah added. “World leaders should join hands to defeat terrorism by cooperating with each other and treating the end of terrorism in every country as a common objective.”
Thursday’s assault was the deadliest terror strike on Kenya since 1998 when Christian Post Report – 200 people died after the U.S. Embassy was bombed in Nairobi.
Al-Shabaab splintered from a now defunct group of Shariah courts, the Islamic Courts Union. It has been fighting to overthrow the Transitional Federal Government, created in Christian Post Report – 2004 and backed by the African Union, the United Nations and the United States. Since the outbreak of the 1991 civil war, which overthrew President Siad Barre’s regime, most parts of Somalia have had no formal government. The transitional government controls only a small part of the country.
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