ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Sixteen starts into his first season with the Boston Red Sox, David Price isnt under any illusions about the quality of his performance.Its not acceptable, he said.Not by Prices standards, at least, and certainly not for his price tag. Along with his seven-year contract worth $217 million, the richest ever for a pitcher, comes an expectation of consistent excellence. Instead, Price has delivered a 4.68 ERA that ranks 33rd among 40 pitchers who qualify for the American League ERA title, and he has allowed at least six earned runs in four starts, more stinkers than in any of his seven full big league seasons.But Price is nothing if not self-aware, a quality he learned during his formative years with the Tampa Bay Rays. While his natural ability made him one of the leagues best pitchers, it was his desire to continually evolve that enabled him to maintain that status.In 2012, when Price went 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA and won the Cy Young Award, his fastball averaged 95.5 mph, making him the hardest-throwing pitcher in the majors that year. Yet he insisted on working with Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey to refine his changeup, so much so that he felt comfortable increasing its usage from 12.3 percent in 2012 to 16.8 percent in 2013 at the expense of that blazing heater.Hickey always had confidence in me to be able to make adjustments throughout the season to go out there and try new pitches, Price said the other day at Tropicana Field as his former team took batting practice. He always had my back in that sense. He never said, Hey, what youre doing is working. Lets just stay the course. He understood that I want to evolve, always. And it wasnt even to the point where I thought velocity was going to leave. It was me wanting to be a complete pitcher, being able to locate my fastball on both sides of the plate with velocity and then be able to throw the other pitches for strikes as well. That was something I wanted for myself and something I worked really hard at.It also made Price slightly less of a risky proposition to some teams that considered signing him as a free agent last winter.Price turned 30 last August, an age at which many power pitchers must begin thinking about changing their style. Mid-90s velocity doesnt last forever, after all, and because Price was seeking a contract that would take him into his late-30s, scouts were looking to see that he understood how to get hitters out without merely overpowering them.Sure enough, Price threw his changeup a career-high 22.7 percent of the time last season, according to FanGraphs. And although his fastball still averaged 94.2 mph, seventh-best among AL pitchers, he used it less frequently than ever, 53.4 percent of the time.Prices evolution, or at least his recognition of the need to evolve, helped sway Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who witnessed it up close. Dombrowski acquired Price with the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline in 2014, and although he dealt Price to the Toronto Blue Jays last July 31, he pushed hard to talk risk-averse Red Sox principal owner John Henry into shelling out big bucks to sign him last winter.David had the intelligence and the instincts to [evolve] before he had to, Dombrowski said in spring training. Nothing is for certain, but you look at him now and see a pitcher who can be successful over years to come.Said one National League talent evaluator: Ill give Price credit. He started to show his changeup, with a purpose at times for the right reasons. The fundamental thing for me with guys like him that are power guys is what kind of pitcher are they going to be without their fastball. Do they have a definite feel for what theyre trying to do with the baseball, and do they have enough imagination to get to that second career? Because all the great ones, all those Hall of Famers or close-to-Hall-of-Fame types, they go into their second career and become better pitchers.None of that is any consolation, of course, to Red Sox fans who care only that Price pitches better for the remainder of the season, beginning with Wednesday nights series finale against the Rays.Price insists hes healthy, even though his average fastball velocity is down to 92.4 mph, according to Fangraphs. Although he recently put together an eight-start stretch in which he posted a 2.47 ERA, he has not yet had a scoreless outing. Based on game score, his best performance of the season -- a 14-strikeout, eight-inning start April 26 in Atlanta --was tied for the 153rd-best start by any pitcher this season and the fourth-best by a Red Sox starter.And last Friday night in Texas, Price got rocked for six runs on 12 hits in only 2? innings, which statistically is the third-worst start of his career.The Red Sox signed Price to be the ace they havent had since Jon Lester was traded midway through the 2014 season. If anything, though, he has fallen in line with a rotation that isnt nearly good enough for a franchise that has designs on returning to the postseason for the first time since winning the World Series in 2013.In early May, with help from second baseman Dustin Pedroia, Price identified a flaw in his mechanics that was causing his legs to not be in sync with his arm. The problem now, Price says, has been finishing off hitters. He has allowed 51 batters to reach a full count, and of those, 25 have reached base (10 hits, 15 walks). But the best strategy against Price has been jumping on first pitches. Hitters who have put the first pitch in play against him are 24-for-48 (.500) with six homers.And while Price has projected a sense of calm, even after his roughest outings, he wants you to know he hasnt been satisfied with the way his season has gone. If his years in Tampa Bay are any indication, he will continue to evolve to stay ahead of hitters.Just because I dont display my frustration in front of everybody, it doesnt mean that I dont care, by any means, Price said. Its not that youre OK with it or you accept it. Its just you learn how to move forward. Thats what Ive done. Ive had some tough games, absolutely. Ive definitely had more tough games this year than I have in any other year, and thats tough, for sure. Ive had too many of those bad games, and its not acceptable.[Boston] is definitely a tough place to play, and I knew that coming in. They have high expectations, and I definitely have high expectations for myself. I want to go out there and throw the baseball the way that I know I can and the way that I have in my career. I know I will do that. Im healthy. I know Im going to throw big games for us this year and the rest of my career. I know good things are going to happen for me.The sooner the better for a Red Sox team that needs Price as much as ever. Wholesale Royals Jerseys . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. Steve Balboni Jersey . PAUL, Minn. https://www.cheaproyals.com/947a-kevin-seitzer-jersey-royals.html . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. Whit Merrifield Jersey . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. Eric Skoglund Jersey . The Dane followed up his first European Tour title last weekend with eight birdies and just a single dropped shot on Thursday for a one-stroke advantage over South Africas Allan Versfeld and Portugals Ricardo Santos. By the end of this week, Englands cricketers will have had to decide whether or not to tour Bangladesh. The official word is to go, but the spectre of terrorism weighs heavily on young men to whom the world has become a small and threatening place. This very personal choice will be driven by instinct, opinion at home, and not least by the extent of their own ambitions. Of course, no one wants to give in to terrorism but it really isnt that simple. Englands cricketers know their homeland and live within its problems and parameters every day of their lives. Bangladesh is an unknown. Alastair Cook has given a lead but it is not a directive. For the sake of Bangladesh, we must hope the players follow him. For those who do not, there will be neither blame nor shame.In a very different age I toured Bangladesh with the MCC. It was 1981, just a few months before Ian Botham turned the Ashes upside down, and over a four-week period 14 English cricketers of varied talents came to see the world through a new lens. We stayed in a two-star hotel in Dhaka, along with a legion or more of cockroaches, and in essentially primitive government rest houses everywhere else. Mostly we ate eggs, though the stoical among us quite enjoyed the curries served for lunch at the matches. On some evenings we had chicken, boiled or fried - at best you would call it stringy - and on others more spicy local food made with vegetables. We didnt touch the tap water, drank a little whisky if we could lay our hands on it and slugged back dark green bottle after bottle of 7 Up. On visits to the British High Commission, we loaded up on beer treated with preservatives, which gave us crushing hangovers. No one grumbled. When we awoke each morning, the sun was shining.We played on hard-baked mud pitches against good cricketers and held our own. The crowds that greeted us in the towns did so with an almost ghoulish fascination, first staring as if we were from another planet - which we sort of were - and then breaking out in bursts of cheer and encouragement. At the cricket grounds, the reaction was different. Our best efforts were greeted by silence, as if they hadnt happened. This was in direct contrast to the efforts of their own team, which were celebrated with a manic zeal. It is not so very different on the subcontinent today, though the IPL appears to have led to a greater appreciation of the game at large - as opposed to only the celebrities who play it.The captain of that MCC tour, Michael Mence, had to return home early due to dysentery. John Hampshire stood in for him and, though afflicted by stomach ailments himself, led us with the sort of no-nonsense approach required for such demanding conditions and feisty opponents. Most of us remember these eye-opening experiences with fondness. There was no luxury, just a common purpose and the resulting camaraderie. But this was not the world inhabited by the England players today. The nearest we got to a threat of terrorism was the third afternoon of the Dhaka Test, when an abrasive section of the huge crowd lit a fire in one of the stands, possibly because we had manoeuvred a promising position in the match. We left the field for an hour or so until the police sorted it. We were amateurs, touring out of choice and doing all we could for crickets global reach. Our aims and ambitions were far removed from those of the professionals of the moment.It is a fact that Islamic militants claimed responsibility for attacks that killed 29 people in a restaurant in Dhaka only two months ago and that a week later another attack led to four more deaths. No one knows whether it is safe for England to tour Bangladesh today. Equally, no one knows if it is safe for Bangladesh to tour England or, specifically, for any tourist to shop in the centre of London. Hardly anywhere in tthe cricketing firmament is categorically safe anymore - parts of the Caribbean maybe.dddddddddddd But the game must go on if at all possible, otherwise there is no game.The ECB security team has covered the bases. The experts say there is no reason to cancel the tour. Each of the players has the right to make his own choice, and those who decide against might have to accept the consequences of absence if their replacement performs well. This is a part of the circle of life. We all make choices and have to accept the result of them.Security will be detailed and tight, making life less relaxed than would otherwise be the case. Cricketers mainly limit themselves to nearby cafés, restaurants and shopping malls, and these are as much a lottery as they would be anywhere else. This might be a tour on which to train hard, play hard and bunker down. The ground and the hotel will be alive with police and armed forces. The journey to and from will be protected by an armed guard. No stone will be left unturned to ensure safe passage.This is good enough for the England captain and might well prove to be good enough for the players under his command. Cook is not a man easily diverted from his responsibilities and his commitment to the cause is writ large in the position he has taken. Eoin Morgan is less sure. Cricket remains the one sport in which the captains word still echoes more loudly than that of the coach. Morgan has understandable concerns, and probably a general suspicion that the risk, at such a time of unrest, outweighs the potential reward of three one-day internationals in foreign conditions for his fast developing team. As it happens, the two England coaches - Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace - can offer an interesting perspective since both were working with Sri Lanka when the team bus was attacked by terrorists in Lahore in 2009. They can provide reassurance and also a dose of reality. Farbrace has said that he sees no reason not to tour.Either a player wants to go or he doesnt. Both options are fine. One point for the players to absorb from outside the collective is that the decision should not be clouded, consciously or subconsciously, by the challenging playing conditions or the limited attractions of Dhaka and Chittagong. There is a nice golf course in Dhaka, and a club or two, but thats about it on the recreation front. In general the pitches will be dry, bare and slow - not to everyones taste but a good rehearsal for India.If you tour Bangladesh, you tour for the cricket and for the joy of the people. You spread a gospel and inspire a movement for the game that has given you the life you love. It means a great deal to Bangladesh that England go there. More than it does to England that Bangladesh come here. Bangladesh faces the challenges of poverty, overpopulation, global warming and now terrorism. It is not a lucky country but it is a wonderful country, if not in the way of the wonders that are perceived to make this contemporary world spin round. And it is a cricketing country, where escape is found in the games of bat and ball.This is not to say that, individually, the England players have a responsibility to Bangladesh. Far from it. The responsibility is to themselves and their families. There is no case for persuasion or influence - only for reassurance and due diligence from the board, which has been both thoughtful and thorough. In this case, influence comes by example. Cook has laid out a marker. Andrew Strauss, Englands director of cricket, is bound to be on the plane too. Whatever individual choices are made, the ECBs determination to go ahead is the right thing by Bangladesh and will be seen as an inspiration to the game. ' ' '
