together and well find ways to win.Vancouver took a lead in

After spending much of his career in vagabond/survivor mode, Brandon Moss has embraced a more prominent role this season as a main cog for the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite being in the throes of a 1-for-30 slump, Moss is still second on the team to Jedd Gyorko with 25 home runs and has a chance to play a pivotal role in the Cardinals push for a postseason berth.With each home run trot, Moss is also looking at life-changing financial security. Before his recent free-fall, several industry observers said a contract in the three-year, $36 million range is a realistic possibility when Moss hits the free-agent market this winter. Thats head-spinning stuff for a 33-year-old outfielder-first baseman whose closest career comparable on Baseball-Reference.com is Dan Pasqua.?From an outside perspective, Moss twin objectives seem incongruous. How can a player in a pennant race maintain the calm and focus necessary to perform while simultaneously knowing his production will help drive the biggest contract of his life? This is the challenge for players whove reached the intersection of commerce, performance and human nature known as the walk year.To be honest, it hasnt entered my mind very often, because youre caught up in the middle of the season, Moss said. It could end up being the best year youve ever had, and that will be exciting. At the same time, you have a game to play every day. It doesnt really matter until the season is done and you can reflect on it.Among the 100-plus players on the cusp of free agency, some have a lot more at stake than Moss. Toronto sluggers Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista entered the season competing for the honor of most desirable power hitter on the 2016-2017 free-agent market.Bautista, who turns 36 in October, has been on the disabled list twice this season and is hitting .228 in 346 at-bats. It would benefit him greatly to close with a flourish and help his agents pitch a more upbeat storyline in a what have you done for me lately? world. Encarnacion, 33, has burnished his credentials by putting up strong number (37 homers, 112 RBIs and a .267/.358/.543 slash line). At an All-Star Game news conference, Bostons David Ortiz made waves -- and flirted with a tampering violation -- by lobbying the Red Sox to sign Encarnacion as their next designated hitter.Carlos Gomez, Andrew Cashner, Brett Anderson and Colby Rasmus are among big leaguers whose financial aspirations have taken a hit with disappointing walk-year numbers this summer. Conversely, Washington catcher Wilson Ramos has raised his stock by posting career-best numbers at age 29, and Baltimore outfielder Mark Trumbo can expect to cash in on his 40-plus homer bonanza.And its anybodys guess what October will bring. The 2015 postseason made a big difference for Daniel Murphy, who parlayed a homer-happy October with the New York Mets into a three-year, $37.5 million contract with the Washington Nationals in December.As a rule, players in their walk years -- or platform years -- take pains to say all the right things. Theyll insist their agent is doing the heavy lifting and that theyre focused exclusively on baseball. But as several players whove gone through the process can attest, theyre either fibbing or trying to talk themselves into an alternate reality.Players are human, Cardinals manager and former big league catcher Mike Matheny?said. Youd be the same way. If your contract was coming up and youd have to produce, it would make you extremely rare for it not to be on your mind.Everybody is different. I have a couple of friends who just loved the business of baseball. They would know their on-base percentage from the previous at-bat by the time they got back to the dugout. If thats how youre wired, thats fine. But its going to wear on you mentally, physically and psychologically.Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth, who signed a seven-year, $126 million deal in December 2010, knows from experience that the pressure of playing for a once-in-a-lifetime contract can put a player on edge. The tension is even higher for players on contending clubs.Everything is magnified, whether you like it or not, Werth said. If you play good, you have a chance to set up your childrens children. Its the kind of generational wealth that doesnt come along. Most people dont get chances at that type of wealth. It can definitely mess with your head.Challenges aboundThe carrot of a big contract is a reward for surviving the war of attrition. Most players spend several years in the minors before reaching the big leagues. Then they play three years in the majors before becoming eligible for salary arbitration, and three more after that before hitting the open market. So with the rare exception of a Mike Trout, who signed a $144 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels at 22, most big leaguers have to be patient to hit paydirt.Its a mental test, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer?said. Everybody is aware of it. Youve worked so hard for so long to put yourself in this position. How many guys make it five years in the big leagues? Not many, so even to give yourself an opportunity to get to free agency is an accomplishment.Is there such a thing as a walk year effect? A 2014 study published by the Society for American Baseball Research determined that the adjusted OPS for players in their contract year increases by 6.7 percent. But the list of breakouts, flops and players who perform to their career norms suggests that pending free agents are subject to the same variables as everyone else in the game.Injuries are an occupational hazard. Players have family problems, sick kids at home and other daily stresses just like the general population. Ballplayers on contending teams often play before bigger crowds than those who are plugging away for sub-.500 clubs. And luck is always part of the equation. A walk year is the absolute worst time to plummet to the ranks of the BABIP dregs.Amid those challenges, free-agents-in-waiting have an additional hurdle to overcome: Theyre bombarded with questions and speculation that their peers dont encounter in a non-contract year. Agent Scott Boras refers to the specter of free agency as the elephant in the ballpark.The stimulus the athlete is given in the walk year is different from any other time in his career, Boras said. You cant avoid it, because people walk up and ask you the question. You have your fellow players, outside players, the fans, the media and your loved ones. And then you have your interpersonal stress. You have the funk of the season. Players go through normal slumps, and everyone will say, Hes responding to the stress of free agency. OK. Can you find me the slumpless season? No one has one.For stars, contract-related uncertainty can suck up all the oxygen in the room during the winter caravan. Agent Paul Kinzer served notice during MLBs winter meetings that Encarnacion wanted his contract situation resolved by opening day or he would end talks and test free agency. Encarnacions season proceeded without resolution.Bautista arrived in Dunedin, Florida, in February and made news when he said he would not give the Blue Jays a hometown discount, because his current four-year, $65 million deal already fit that description. Bautista reportedly was seeking a $150 million contract before this season.Everything I said was honest and straight to the point, Bautista told ESPN.com earlier this season. It was coming from a very honest and educated place.As players try to navigate the walk-year obstacle course, teams are similarly challenged. The Texas Rangers, American League West front-runners, have five free agents on the roster (Ian Desmond, Mitch Moreland, Colby Lewis, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Gomez) and two other players (Jonathan Lucroy and Derek Holland) with contract options that need to be addressed this winter.The Rangers are mindful of maintaining equilibrium in their clubhouse as they negotiate with some of their pending free agents and table discussions with others until the offseason. But the process is more complex this year as MLB and the Players Association take part in labor talks that could result in several changes to the basic agreement.From our experience, even when both sides are trying to work toward the same common goal, theres a chance for negative feelings on one side or the other, Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said. When youre putting a dollar amount to a players value and contributions, inevitably you may have two different opinions. When that takes place, how do the player and the club react? As a club, youre always very reluctant for it to have a negative impact on the teams performance.Worst-case scenariosAs the season progresses, the dynamics change. If players grind it out through nagging injuries and their numbers suffer, theyll win the admiration of their teammates. But will those subpar stats come back to bite them on the open market? When Alex Rios hit four home runs in 492 at-bats for the Rangers in 2014, a lot of teams were scared off by his lack of power. The Kansas City Royals thought it was a sign of character that Rios played hurt for a last-place team, and they signed him to a one-year, $11 million deal in December 2014.Players who slump in April and May have to resist the temptation to try to make it all up in one day. The indignity of staring at a .180 batting average on the scoreboard is tough enough without seeing piles of money disappear.Scouts generally agree that Desmond pressed after rejecting a $107 million contract offer from the Nationals in early 2014. Desmonds .233 batting average and .290 OBP in 2015 were career worsts, and reality set in when he had to wait until late February to sign a one-year, $8 million contract with Texas. Desmond has since bounced back, embracing a move to center field and making the All-Star team, and hell have a chance at a free-agent do-over this offseason.Pending free agents on losing teams have to block out the additional mid-summer distraction of the free-agent rumor-fest. The speculation can take all sorts of intriguing twists and turns.We call it contract-season occurrences, Boras said. I have a wonderful occurrences database. Its like Halloween: How many different scary characters can you come up with?Keeping it amicable?Scherzers big contract-season occurrence came in March 2014, when news broke that he had turned down a $144 million offer from the Detroit Tigers. After the Detroit front office released a statement confirming that Scherzer had rejected a substantial, long-term contract extension offer that would have placed him among the highest-paid pitchers in baseball, the atmosphere turned chilly.I just wanted to table it for the offseason, Scherzer said. I was amicable about it. My attitude was, I just want to play out the season, and lets take care of this in November. When they made everything public, I felt like they werent being amicable about it. Once everybody knew the numbers we were discussing, it made it difficult with my friends and family. I constantly felt like it was in my face.I just figured, This is what it is. This is the bed I made. I know what Im doing. Im confident in my decision. I looked through all the numbers, and I knew, Im not getting worse as a pitcher. Im getting better.Scherzer gained some peace of mind when Boras took out an insurance policy as a safeguard against injury, and he did mental gymnastics to make sure his priorities were in order. Each night before bed, Scherzer reminded himself that his sole focus should be on winning games rather than making money. He went 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA and finished fifth in AL Cy Young award balloting in 2014. He signed a seven-year, $210 million contract (with half the money deferred) with Washington the following winter.When youre in your free-agent year, everybody has this notion that its the first time youre playing for a contract, Scherzer said. Well guess what? I had to do it my junior year of college, and then I did it three times in arbitration. I guarantee you, its a bigger deal when you have zero in your bank account than when you already have a decent size bank account. My thinking was, Ive already done this four times. Whats gonna change? Nothing.Moss, a career role player, is in a different realm from the Bautistas, Encarnacions, Werths and Scherzers of the baseball fraternity. He has played for six teams and been traded and released multiple times, and he knows how it feels to have to fret over winning a roster spot. With roughly $12.6 million in career earnings to this point, he cant afford to let his attention stray from the wild-card race to the more substantial windfall that awaits him.If youre like me, youve always been on a one-year deal anyway, Moss said. Up until now, Ive always been fighting not to be a free agent.Moss and his fellow free agents, at all points in the spectrum, will get a better idea of where they stand soon enough. Halloween is coming fast. But theyll have to wait until December and January for trick-or-treating. Todd Frazier Mets Jersey . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. Pete Alonso Mets Jersey . Tracey comes to the Blue Bombers after spending over a decade with Queens University. Most recently he was the schools assistant football coach. http://www.metsbaseballauthentic.com/nolan-ryan-mets-jersey/ . The Cincinnati Reds remain perfect with their speedy rookie outfielder in the starting lineup. Adeiny Hechavarria Mets Jersey . The news was first reported on Gonzalezs Twitter account and confirmed by the Rockies. Gonzalez has a six-week window before position players have their first workout at spring training in Arizona. Noah Syndergaard Mets Jersey . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Vancouver Canucks werent going to let a pair of three-goal leads slip away in the same week.After blowing a big advantage in an overtime loss to Chicago on Saturday, the Canucks held on Wednesday night for a 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes.Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi each had a goal and two assists, with Loui Eriksson and Horvat scoring 17 seconds apart during a three-goal second period. Alexandre Burrows also zipped in a shot, knocking goalie Mike Smith out of the game 6:49 into the period. Burrows had an assist in a battle of teams at the bottom of the Pacific Division standings.The Canucks third line of Horvat, Baertschi and Burrows combined for eight points.Ive liked that line for three or four games, Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said.The Canucks talked about the loss to the Blackhawks in two different meetings upon arriving in Arizona.Guys felt comfortable. We knew what we had to do, Burrows said. We had to apply going into the third. We wanted to make high-percentage plays and play the right way and not sit back too much, and I thought we did a better job.Ryan Miller had 35 saves and improved to 10-1 in his career against Arizona. Smith had 13 stops before departing and Louis Domingue finished the game, making nine saves.It was awful. I was sleeping from the first goal, Smith said.Arizona tied it at 1 when Anthony DeAngelos shot deflected in off Christian Dvorak 58 seconds into the second. But the Canucks answered with their two quick goals.Eriksson beat Smith with a dribbler of a shot off a bouncing pass from Markus Granlund from behind the net. Then Horvat passed to Burrows, who sent the puck back to Horvat for a shot through Smiths glove side for a 3-1 lead.Horvats seven goals lead the Canucks this season.We played such a strong game for 40 minutes against Chicago and we brought that into tonights game, Horvaat said.dddddddddddd The bounces went our way.Burrows scored after collecting the puck off the boards, his long wrist shot getting past Smith to give the Canucks a three-goal lead.Vancouver beat Arizona for the second time in less than a week and has points in four of its last five games, three of those being wins. The Coyotes had played five straight one-goal games until Wednesday but have lost five of their last six.The Canucks took advantage of a turnover by defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson deep in his own zone to take a quick lead. Ekman-Larsson blindly backhanded the puck on a clearance attempt to Horvat, who assisted on Baertschis redirected shot at 3:08 of the first period.Weve got to make plays, not turn it over and we need saves, Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. Just do the job, do the job together and well find ways to win.Vancouver took a lead into the third period for just the third time this season.Game notes Baertschi, a former junior hockey teammate of ailing Coyotes minor leaguer Craig Cunningham, paid tribute to Cunningham by writing the word Cunny on his sticks. Cunningham, who plays for Tucson of the AHL, collapsed on the ice before a game last weekend and is hospitalized in critical condition. ... F Jack Skille is out with an upper body injury and was scratched. ... Vancouver called up C Joseph LaBate from Utica of the AHL. LaBate made his NHL debut on Wednesday. ... Coyotes D Luke Schenn and D Jakob Chychrun were scratched. ... Coyotes captain Shane Doan tied Rod BrindAmour for 20th place on the NHLs career games played list at 1,484.UP NEXTCanucks: At Dallas on Friday night in the third game of a three-game road trip.Coyotes: Host Edmonton on Friday night in the finale of a three-game homestand. ' ' '