NEWS » er.Doziers 17 homers since June 19

SECAUCUS, N.J. -- The Toronto Blue Jays drafted a tall, athletic pitcher with their first pick of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft. Sound familiar? The Blue Jays selected right-hander Phil Bickford with the 10th overall pick Thursday. The 17-year-old right-hander from Oaks Christian High School in California is six-foot-four, 200 pounds, and can throw a 96 m.p.h. fastball that Torontos director of amateur scouting, Brian Parker, says is polished. Bickford led his high school club to its division championship, where he struck out 18 batters in the final, including 11 in a row. Bickford finished his senior season with a 1.72 earned-runs average, allowing 44 hits and recording 159 strikeouts in 99.1 innings. "Were very excited about this kid," Parker said on a conference call. "Hes got one of the best fastballs in the draft. Hes an athletic kid and were all very excited to get this guy going." Blue Jays scouts seem to have an eye for rangy pitchers of late. Toronto has drafted 11 pitchers measuring six-foot-four or taller since 2007. "I think its something we look for," Parker said. "I think athleticism is something we focus on with pitchers, especially high school kids. Those are the types of frames and athletes were looking to get into our rotation." Parker said that Bickfords fastball is good enough for professional baseball right now, but the other pitches in his repertoire need development. "We think the secondary stuff is developing," Parker said. "We think the changeup is the better (secondary) pitch right now, but we think he has the chance to have a pretty good breaking ball." Bickford has a commitment to NCAA Division I school Cal State Fullerton, but Parker doesnt see that as an obstacle to getting him signed. "Almost every high school kid out there has a college commitment," he said. "Thats kind of the territory that we have when we take high school guys." It hasnt always worked out for Toronto, however. The Blue Jays drafted six-foot-four right-hander Tyler Beede out of high school in the first round of the 2011 draft even though Beede had a commitment to Vanderbilt University. The Blue Jays and Beede couldnt bridge a sizable gulf in negotiations over a signing bonus, and Beede elected not to sign.Vapormax Off White Pas Cher . P.A. Parenteau scored early in the third period to help the Avs edge Toronto 2-1 on Tuesday night. Cory Sarich also scored for Colorado (3-0-0), which is off to its best ever start. Nike Air Vapormax Soldes . Here are his mid-season NBA awards. MVP: (KEVIN DURANT-Thunder) - Has been sensational this season and more importantly, the most consistent player in the league. Considering that his team has been without star guard Russell Westbrook and with the free agent departure of sharpshooter Kevin Martin, hes had to carry the majority of the load to not only keep his team afloat but more importantly, at an elite level. http://www.maxnikepascher.fr/destockage-air-vapormax.html .Y. -- Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse have another World Cup gold medal after winning the two-women bobsled race on Saturday in Lake Placid, N. Chaussure Nike Air Max 270 Soldes . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night. Vapormax Plus Soldes . -- Al Jefferson found a groove just in time for the Charlotte Bobcats.MINNEAPOLIS -- The Kansas City Royals will try and continue their dominance of the Minnesota Twins when the teams play the second of a three-game series on Saturday night at Target Field.Kansas City is 6-1 against Minnesota this season, including a 7-3 victory in the series opener here on Friday.The main reason for Kansas Citys success has been the play of catcher Salvador Perez, who has been a Twins killer over the years and was again on Friday.Perez had just one hit on Friday, but it was an important one, muscling through a Kyle Gibson curveball that snapped his bat and blooping it into shallow left, scoring two runs and giving Kansas City a lead it wouldnt relinquish.For the season, Perez is hitting .519 against the Twins and has a .322 career mark against them.Those are the kind of breaks that have been going against us a little bit, said Royals manager Ned Yost. To finally take the lead back, that was a big hit. But thats what happens when you put the ball in play. You got guys in scoring position and you find ways to put the ball in play. It doesnt have to be pretty, it just has to be effective and that certainly was effective.Minnesota got home runs from Miguel Sano and Brian Dozier on Friday. Both players have been red hot of late, but other than those two, the Twins have struggled to score consistently.ddddddddddddSano has five home runs in his last seven games and reached the 20 home-run plateau for the first time in his career.Doziers 17 homers since June 19 are more than any other player in baseball.Its unfortunate that (Dozier and Sano) has been the majority of our output it seems as of late, said Twins manager Paul Molitor. Runners in scoring position, opportunities, some of those things are still areas that need improvement.We like the home runs, they play for sure, but we need to find some other ways to score.Kansas City will turn to Dillon Gee in game two of the series, three days after he pitched two innings and earned the victory in the Royals 14-inning win over the Chicago White Sox. Gee had his worst outing of the season in a start against the Twins on May 25, allowing six runs (five earned) on 10 hits and a walk in five innings.Tyler Duffey will try for his third consecutive victory for Minnesota. He allowed just one run on four hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in six innings against Houston on Monday. ' ' '