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The Oakland As have the best record in the American League at 13-5 and are second only to Milwaukee by a half-game for best record in the Majors. This organizations success, at times, defies logic. They play in the most in-need-of-repair stadium in the Majors and traditionally draw in the bottom third, if not worse, in the Majors. Yet, here they are at 13-5 atop the American League West after starting last season at 12-5 en route to a 96-win season. There were a couple of things that caught my attention about the As 4-1 victory over Houston. First, it was the starting pitcher. Jesse Chavez was actually with the Blue Jays back in 2012 as a reliever. He didnt see much action with a team that had three starters - Brandon Morrow, Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek - down with injuries. Later that year, the Jays lost the then 28-year-old on a waiver claim by Oakland. Last season, he worked in the As pen as a reliever. Now the As, thanks in part to injuries, have given the 30-year-old right hander the chance to start. So far, it looks as though the As have struck gold. Chavez has made four starts and in doing so, became the first starter in franchise history to go at least six innings in his first four outings and give up one or fewer runs in each. Sunday, he picked up his first Major League victory as a starter and has solidified his spot in the Oakland rotation. The other thing I noticed is the As lineup. Of the 11 players who appeared in that 4-1 victory over Houston, only one was actually signed and developed by Oakland. That was budding Cuban star Yoenis Cespedes, who defected in 2011 and signed a four-year, $36 million contract with the As in February of 2012. All the rest were picked up in trades - many descript or on waiver claims or lower-tier free agents. Take Daric Barton, who came on late in the game to play first, but can also catch. He was picked up in a trade with St. Louis, along with infielder Kiko Calero and right hander Dan Haren, for then ace lefty Mark Mulder, who ultimately blew out his shoulder with the Redbirds, sat out a few years and ultimately had to abandon a comeback this spring. Barton is still contributing to the As and Haren is still going strong elsewhere. Josh Donaldson failed as a catcher in the Cubs organization and with the As. Then they made him into a third baseman and hes turned into a star. The As, with a limited payroll, just keep finding ways. If you roll back the clock to the year 2000 and then go over the As records over the following 14 seasons, theyve had nine winning seasons, four losing seasons and one .500 season. In fact, they had five seasons in a row between 2007 and 2011 where they only reached .500 once. But their successes have been mighty; two seasons with over 100 victories and seven more with at least 91. In 14 years, the As have finished first in the AL West six times. They have made the postseason eight times. Grant you, they have only won one division series and were defeated in the only ALCS they made it to. But I dont think I have to remind you there have been plenty of other teams that havent come close to making the postseason over that 14 year span, teams that have a lot more money to spend and better venues to play in. The other amazing thing about the As is their attendance. If you go back to when they were the Athletics in Philadelphia, where they resided for 54 years, the Athletics never broke one million in attendance once. During their 13 seasons in Kansas City, the As only surpassed one million twice, while in 46 years in Oakland, they have only bettered the two million mark, which is generally conceded to be the break-even point, 11 times. How good have they been over the last 14 years? Well collectively, they have finished 204 games above .500. The only two teams in the American League that have been head and shoulders better than them are the Yankees at 390 games over .500 with two World Series wins and two losses, and Boston at 265 games over .500 with three World Series triumphs. Billy Beane and Moneyball may have been overrated to a degree, but the As have proven to be one of the great franchises in the game against all odds. The Blue Jays have a significant homestand starting up Tuesday night. Baltimore comes to town for three followed by Boston for three. At 10-9, the Jays are one game ahead of the Orioles and Bosox. The Jays starting rotation will have to deliver more innings over these next six games. Last turn through the starting five, lefty Mark Buehrle was the only one able to get through the sixth and then beyond. The Jays have a bit of a psychological edge in both these series. The Orioles will be coming off an emotional Patriots Day game in Boston Monday morning and a draining series against the Bosox. Then Boston goes from that series to a three gamer with the Yankees. Both the Os and the Red Sox could be a little battle worn by the time they hit Toronto. Everybody talks about the Jays someday regretting trading Noah Syndergaard to the Mets. Well Henderson Alvarez is already in the Majors and looking dominant at times with the Miami Marlins. Saturday at home, he hit 96 MPH on the radar gun and pitched a complete game two-hitter, as the Marlins shut out Seattle 7-0. He faced just 28 batters, one over the minimum. It was Alvarezs first victory since he no-hit the Tigers on the final day of last season. He is 1-2 this season with a 2.66 ERA. Giants righty Tim Hudson is joining some exclusive company. He set a Giants record over the weekend by throwing 30 innings without issuing a single walk. He has also come close to a Major League mark by starting a season with four games of at least seven innings without walking a single batter. A gentleman by the name of "Tiny" Bonham also did that in 1944, according to ESPN, and Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander had a six game run in 1923. We mentioned right hander Dan Haren a little earlier in connection with the As. Well, hes trying to reboot his career with the Dodgers. His control has been impeccable in the early going. He has 20 strikeouts and just two walks. Of all active pitchers, Dan Haren has the top strikeout-to-walk ratio at 4.09 to one. Balenciaga Canada Shoes . - Kyle Wood and Barclay Goodrow scored second period power-play goals to provide all of the scoring for the North Bay Battalion in a 2-0 victory over the Erie Otters in Ontario Hockey League action on Thursday. Wholesale Authentic Balenciaga . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. http://www.clearancebalenciagacanada.com/. The stress, the waiting, the whispers about whether he doped during his stellar cycling career, all of it ended when - after nearly two years - federal prosecutors closed an investigation of him last week without bringing any charges. Balenciaga Shoes On Sale . The Tournament of Champions, which starts Friday, is his first event since a freak accident in Shanghai two months ago. Snedeker was on a Segway scooter during a corporate outing at Sheshan International when he took a tumble and injured his left knee. Balenciaga Sneakers Canada . Sterling was banned for life and fined US$2.5 million by the NBA on Tuesday for racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation. Nash, who plays for the rival L.A. Lakers, spoke as a representative of current NBA players at a press conference assembled by Sacramento mayor and National Basketball Players Association adviser Kevin Johnson.Tampa Bay Lightning 4 Winnipeg Jets 2 (Jets 19-22-4, Home 10-9-1) – The loss snapped the Jets three game home winning streak and extended their losing streak to four after the 0-3 road trip. Its the first time this season they have dropped four straight regulation games. There wasnt a lot of offensive flow to Tuesdays game with the Lightning outshooting the Jets 5-2 in the first with Valtteri Filppula opening the scoring 1:20 in. The Jets capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play to tie the game 1-1. Olli Jokinen converted a Mark Scheifele pass, Jokinens 11th on the year and first power play goal of the season. For Scheifele it was his 13th point in the last 14 games. Scheifele, who had five points in his first 24 games, now has 18 in his last 22 games. Dustin Byfuglien also had an assist on the goal. There was a little more action in the second with the shots 12-7 in favour of the Lightning, with each team scoring a goal. The Jets took a 2-1 lead on a power play goal by Byfuglien, assists to Blake Wheeler and Ondrej Pavelec. Byfuglien now has 12 points, including four goals, in his last 13 games. Ondrej Palat tied the game at 15:37 on an odd man rush. The third period was all Tampa. They outshot the Jets 16-5, outscored them 2-0 and watched as the Jets frustration level boiled over. Pavelec was the only reason this game stayed close as the final shots were 33-14. Marty St. Louis on a power play made it a 3-2 game, St. Louis then added an empty net goal to put the game away. In the final 15 minutes of the third the Jets took five minor penalties and a fighting major. On the empty nnet goal Zach Bogosian lost his footing and went hard into the back boards, and headed straight for the dressing room with an upper body injury.dddddddddddd There was no post game update on his condition. The Jet had only 14 shots, their lowest total this season. Scheifele played a season high 20:56, while Devin Setoguchi saw his ice time drop to a season low 5:35. Setoguchi has not scored in 17 games. Bryan Little has now gone 11 games without a goal. Playing seven games in 12 days seems to have taken a toll on the Jets as there was not a lot of jump to their game. Bogosian and Eric Tangradi each had three shots on goal. The power play connected twice, after going zero for 13 over the last six games. From players to coach Claude Noel, the frustration was evident in the post-game interviews. “The game was poorly played, poorly executed. We did not get anything out of that game that was positive. For us this is the worst weve played. We had nothing. It was a very empty game and we got very little production.” When asked if he got enough out of his top players, Noel said, “The whole body of work was not very good. Im not going to throw our best players under the bus. Thats not going to happen. Well look at it and try and figure out where we go from here.” The Jets do not play again until Saturday when the three-game home stand continues against Columbus (TSN 1290), with Phoenix here Monday (TSN Jets, TSN 1290). Saturday will be Evander Kanes 300th NHL game. The 22-year-old has 11 points in the last 12 games, including seven goals. ' ' '