BALTIMORE - Dan Duquettes job description includes making trades that will help improve the Baltimore Orioles. [url=http://www.vapormaxscontateoutlet.it/vapormax-nere-scontate-outlet. html]Vapormax Nere Saldi[/url] .This off-season, Duquette was in the middle of a potential blockbuster deal.Duquette,

BALTIMORE - Dan Duquettes job description includes making trades that will help improve the Baltimore Orioles. Vapormax Nere Saldi .This off-season, Duquette was in the middle of a potential blockbuster deal.Duquette, the Orioles president of baseball operations, acknowledged Saturday there was substance to reports that the Toronto Blue Jays were in pursuit of him to be club president.A lot of times, players will be a trade rumour and sometimes managers get traded, Duquette said. Its even more rare that executives get traded, but occasionally it happens. Its a unique experience. I think when you have a good team and you do well, people take notice.Under Duquettes guidance, the Orioles won 96 games last season, captured the AL East for the first time since 1997 and advanced to the AL Championship Series.That piqued Torontos interest.As you get better as an organization, things that youre doing are trying to be either emulated or acquired, Orioles manager Buck Showalter noted. Its inevitable as an organization that, as you get better, people are going to be coveted more.Because Duquette is under contract with Baltimore through 2018, the Blue Jays had to offer Baltimore ample compensation to secure his services.No deal was made, so Duquette was talking about Orioles baseball on Saturday at FanFest, the teams annual winter convention.He insisted that Torontos advances did not distract him from seeking to put a better club on the field in 2015.Its important for the Orioles fans to know that my focus — and my singular focus — is on improving the team, he said. We do that day by day, trade by trade, addition by addition. We did that this year in the off-season like weve done it in the past.With the exception of Duquettes potential departure, its been a quiet off-season for Baltimore. The losses include free agent outfielders Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis, along with reliever Andrew Miller.The most notable addition is outfielder Travis Snider, obtained in a trade with Pittsburgh.But thats typical of Duquette, who followed a quiet winter in 2014 by adding Cruz and Ubaldo Jimenez during spring training.While its important to improve your ballclub in off-season, were not really trying to win the off-season, Duquette said. Were trying to put together a team that can compete and get to the off-season and prevail. Thats different from making headlines in the winter time.Showalter had absolutely no complaint about the teams off-season activity.As we get into spring and there comes a need, well be able to do it, he said.The Orioles played much of the 2014 season without injured stars Manny Machado and Matt Wieters. Having them in the lineup will make more of a difference than any trade or free agent addition.The biggest and most powerful improvement we have to our ballclub this year is Machado coming back and Wieters coming back, Duquette said.In other news, suspended slugger Chris Davis said Saturday his use of Adderall last season was not as a performance enhancer but rather a way to cope with an oblique injury that landed him on the disabled list and played havoc with his swing.It was never a baseball issue, he said. Just an everyday life thing.Davis was suspended for 25 games. The punishment will expire after opening day.I was just kind of overwhelmed with everything that was going on last year with the injury, he said. There were a lot of things that were taking my focus away from baseball.Davis said he had previously been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, which got him a green light from the independent administrator of Major League Baseballs drug program to use the drug in 2008.I had an exemption in the past. It was denied in 2013 and obviously, I shouldnt have been taking it last year, Davis said. It was a moment of weakness.After batting .286 with 53 homers and 138 RBIs in 2013, Davis numbers slipped dramatically in 2014 to .196 with 26 homers and 72 RBIs.This year, he expects things to be different.Being away from it a month longer than the rest of these guys was tough at first, but I used it to my advantage to get into my workouts a little bit earlier, Davis said. I definitely think last year got off to a slow start, so this year I wanted to get off on the right foot. Im doing some different workouts this year.He jokingly said that included bunting down the third-base line, a way to cope with the shift that limited his effectiveness. Vapormax Scontate . Ramirez is still hitting behind Puig, only now they are in the third and fourth spots, and the change is starting to generate positive results for manager Don Mattingly. Nike Vapormax Nere Scontate .com) - Many people at Eastern Washington are waiting to see if star quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. http://www.vapormaxscontateoutlet.it/vapormax-nere-scontate-outlet.html . Its the second straight year he has decided not to play as he cuts back his schedule. Stricker was replaced in the field by Ryo Ishikawa of Japan.LONDON -- The independent panel investigating doping in cycling hopes the chance for reduced bans and even immunity will encourage witnesses -- including Lance Armstrong -- to come forward. Tasked with shedding more light on the sports tainted past, the three-man commission, which is also investigating whether cyclings governing body colluded with Armstrong, has the power to propose reduced sanctions against testimonies. It has been set up with the approval of the World Anti-Doping Agency and will be able to seal deals with cheats offering valuable information. "The reduced bans will obviously apply to people who have not been already sanctioned," commission chairman Dick Marty told a conference call on Tuesday, adding that immunity could also be granted in some cases if the information is of "great importance." Armstrong has already been banned from Olympic sports for life but can still hope his case will be reviewed if he gives substantial information to the panel based in Lausanne, Switzerland. "For those who have already been punished and are still willing to give important information, the commission can advise the competent authorities to reconsider and shorten their bans," Marty said. The panel, which had a UCI-funded budget of 3 million Swiss francs ($3.35 million) was a key element in the manifesto of Brian Cookson, who was elected UCI president last year after defeating Pat McQuaid. It started its work on Tuesday with the aim of producing a comprehensive report within a year. "Its not just about learning from the past, its also learning lessons for the future so we dont make the same mistakes," Cookson said. The commissions main job is to determine how the culture of doping was able to flourish within cycling and to "discover the main providers and facilitators of doping in cycling" since the Festina affair in 1998. Armstrong has said he would co-operate with any international commission on doping inn cycling. Vapormax Flyknit Scontate. He has so far refused to provide sworn testimony to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, whose detailed report in 2012 of drug use by Armstrongs U.S. Postal Service team led to him being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Cookson did not say whether Armstrong or former UCI presidents Hein Verbruggen and McQuaid had been contacted by the commission but added they would be more than welcomed. The UCI and Verbruggen have been accused of protecting Armstrong and helping cover up his doping. The American might be interested in co-operating after telling a British newspaper last year that Verbruggen helped him cover up doping at the 1999 Tour de France. Verbruggen dismissed it as a "ridiculous story." "There will an invitation to anyone who comes forward," Cookson said. "To anybody, Lance Armstrong or anybody else. Please come forward and offer your information to the commission. ... This is a window of opportunity." Both Marty and Cookson said confidentiality will be granted to witnesses but all the criminal offences compiled will be transmitted to the relevant authorities, whichever the country. They added that negotiations will take place with possible witnesses ahead of their testimonies in order to determine if the information they can provide justifies a reduced ban. "There can be preliminary discussions but until the evidence has been heard it is impossible to determine the amount of sanction reduction," Cookson said. "The reduced sanctions will only apply for the period that the commission is operating, and the danger is other people will come forward. If anyone has something to hide now is the time to come forward and tell all of the truth before someone else comes and tells the truth about your activities." The other members of the commission are German anti-doping expert Ulrich Haas and Peter Nicholson, a former Australian military officer and war crimes investigator. ' ' '