Gildenberreich » can turn their catching duties over to Evan GattiS

CALGARY -- The defending Olympic womens bobsled champions are back in the same sled once again. Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse will reunite at this weekends season-opening World Cup at Canada Olympic Park as they begin their buildup to the Winter Games in Sochi. Humphries won a world title last year and has reached the podium at 13 straight events. Moyse, who competed in track cycling and rugby while taking a break from bobsled, has returned in top form after undergoing hip surgery a year ago. The veteran brakeman from Summerside, P.E.I., has set personal-best start times since coming back and won a push challenge event last weekend. She also set a new start record during selection races in Whistler, B.C.. "That just made me excited about what I can possibly contribute and what I can give back to this team this year," Moyse said in a recent interview. "Because of that excitement and being named to the team as Canada 1 and being put into Kaillies sled, I think that excitement is just transcending. "Kaillie and I are both really excited about what we can do and what we can possibly experience this year." Humphries and Moyse first started sliding together in January 2009 and won Olympic gold a year later. Off and on, they have spent about 2 1/2 years together as a duo. Humphries, from Calgary, won the overall World Cup title last season with Chelsea Valois of Zenon Park, Sask. Valois will team with Edmontons Jenny Ciochetti in the Canada 2 sled for the season opener. Moyse suffered a serious ankle injury at the 2010 Rugby World Cup. She later took up track cycling before deciding about a year and a half ago to concentrate on both bobsled and rugby. She underwent hip surgery last fall and now feels as strong as ever entering the Olympic season. Her performance at testing made the decision to return to the Canada 1 sled with Humphries an easy one. "Based on the results, it was a no-brainer in terms of teaming us up together," Moyse said. There will be some changes in the mens sleds as well. Pilot Chris Spring of Calgary will team with Jesse Lumsden of Burlington, Ont., in the two-man and four-man sleds. Lumsden won the World Cup title with pilot Lyndon Rush of Humboldt, Sask., last season. Spring and Lumsden will be joined by Ottawas Cody Sorensen and Ben Coakwell of Saskatoon in the four-man sled. Rush will team with Calgary brakeman Lascelles Brown in the two-man and four-man sleds. David Bissett and Neville Wright, both of Edmonton, will join them in the four-man. The other Canadian sled will feature Justin Kripps of Summerland, B.C., who will drive Torontos Tim Randall, James MacNaughton of Newmarket, Ont., and Graeme Rinholm of Medicine Hat, Alta. The Canadian skeleton team is also looking strong this season. Calgarys Sarah Reid, who won bronze at the 2013 world championship, leads the womens side this week. She will be joined by Cassie Hawrysh of Brandon, Man., and Calgarys Robynne Thompson. The mens lineup for the season opener includes Eric Neilson of Kelowna, B.C., and Calgary-based racers John Fairbairn and Dave Greszczyszyn. "We have a really strong team," Neilson said. "We came out in selections, thats always the most stressful part. So the team is ready to go." Mellisa Hollingsworth of Eckville, Alta., and 2010 Olympic champion Jon Montgomery of Russell, Man., will open the season on the Intercontinental Cup circuit. Athletes can qualify for Sochi while competing on that circuit or at the World Cup level. Some 350 skeleton and bobsled competitors from 30 countries are expected to participate this week, including World Cup four-man champ Alexsandr Zubkov of Russia and World Cup skeleton champions Martins Dukurs of Latvia and Marion Thees of Germany. Competition kicks off Friday afternoon with the skeleton races. The two-man bobsled follows in the evening. On Saturday, the four-man bobsled is set for the morning with the womens bobsled scheduled for the afternoon. Site Air Max Pas Cher Chine . His brother — Red Lake chiropractor Richard Radford — is en route to Sochi to cheer on his younger brother. "Ive been getting texts from Eric and he just says the atmosphere is amazing, its special,” he said. Air Max Chine Pas Cher . Asdrubal Cabrera had four hits and three RBIs, Michael Brantley also homered and the Indians beat the injury-riddled Minnesota Twins 9-4 Thursday for their first three-game winning streak this season. http://www.pascherairmaxchine.fr/ . PETERSBURG, Fla. Air Max Pas Cher Chine Livraison Gratuite . The three Calgary natives will compete after the sport was skipped by the Vancouver Games in 2010 but later included on the program for Sochi, Russia. The fight to include womens ski jumping prior to Vancouver went to the courts only to have the Supreme Court of Canada rule against the athletes appeal in 2009. Air Max Pas Cher Livraison Rapide .com) - Bayern Munich winger Xherdan Shaqiri is expected to miss the next two weeks because of a thigh injury.The New York Yankees addressed a position of glaring need by signing the top free agent catcher. Numbers Game breaks down the Yankees addition of Brian McCann. The Yankees Get: C Brian McCann. McCann, 29, was the top free agent catcher on the market and the Yankees had a gaping hole at the position -- their catchers hitting a Major-League-low 8 home runs with a .587 OPS last season -- so this seems like a suitable fit. McCann has hit at least 20 home runs in seven of the last eight seasons and, since 2006, his 171 home runs leads all catchers. His fWAR of 28.9 since 2006 ranks second among catchers, behind only Joe Mauer. More recently, however, there have been signs of decline, as might be expected since McCann has logged more than 1,000 games behind the plate. For example, McCanns 4.5 fWAR over the last two seasons ranks 16th at the position. Defensively, McCann is below average, with a negative Defensive Runs Saved in each of the last five seasons and a below-average caught stealing percentage in every season of his career save for 2010, when he threw out a career-best 30% of attempted base-stealers. Shoulder woes in recent seasons dont figure to make those numbers any better in the future. A left-handed power hitter, McCann figures to benefit from the short right field fence Yankee Stadium, though hes just 1-for-12 in three career gamees in the Bronx since the Yankees moved into their new home.dddddddddddd He does have a .303 batting average and .902 OPS, with 24 home runs, in 114 career inter-league games, so the switch to the American League shouldnt cause major problems. With McCann leaving, the Atlanta Braves can turn their catching duties over to Evan Gattis, a free-swinging power hitter who forced his way into the lineup with a strong rookie season in 2013. McCann has signed a five-year, $85-millon contract, with a $15-million vesting option for a sixth season. Its significant money, to be sure, but the question will be how well McCann ages. While some decline is to be expected in a deal that will take him through age 34, if McCann is capable of playing 120 games and slugging 20 homers a season, then that will count as a major upgrade behind the plate for the Yankees; the kind of free agent signing that will improve their chances of returning to the postseason. Though the Yankees make noise about getting under Major League Baseballs $189-million lusxury tax limit for 2014, for a team with virtually unlimited resources, like the Yankees, getting to the playoffs really ought to be the bottom line. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '