Rays Longoria Agree To $100M Extension - RealGM Wiretap

The Rays and Evan Longoria have agreed to a $100 million contract extension that will keep the third baseman with the team through the 2023 season.

The new agreement will maintain the terms of his contract through 2016 and then tacks on six more years. Tampa Bay has an option for 2023.

"We drafted Evan in 2006 with the belief that he and the organization would grow with each other and together accomplish great things  Roger Staubach Cowboys Jersey ," Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said in a statement.

"That is why the Rays and Evan signed a long-term contract in 2008, and it is why we are extending our commitments today. Evan has clearly become a cornerstone player and a fixture in our organization. We are proud of what we have accomplished these past seven years, and I expect the best is yet to come."

Reynolds May Be Pricing Himself Out Of Cleveland - RealGM Wiretap

The Cleveland Indians are off to a great start this season, but there is cause for concern going forward.

Mark Reynolds, signed as a free agent away from the Baltimore Orioles this winter, may be hitting his way out of Cleveland's price range.

Reynolds is hitting .268.354.580 with 12 home runs and 37 RBI in 40 games.

The 29-year-old has a career line of .237.333.480.

锘? Most types of sports equipment like a golf club, a tennis racquet or a baseball bat have a certain spot that, if the ball hits it, will give the player the optimal result. Hitting this sweet spot yields a long drive down the fairway, a swift crosscourt return or home run swing. Every sport has a sweet spot of some type. If you have experienced it, you know when you hit the sweet spot, you barely feel it. The ball goes where you want it to go - even further and faster. Doesn't get any better than that!

But what about the sport of leadership? Aren't we professional athletes in our own right?

Those in professional sports practice 90+ percent of the time and actually "play for keeps" less than 10 percent of the time. As professional leaders, we are almost always "playing for keeps." So it's particularly important that we take time to plan and ensure that we are optimizing our sweet spot.

Did you know the average person possesses between 500 and 700 different skills and abilities? A common defining moment for people is finding that skill or ability that's right in their sweet spot. As leaders  Emmitt Smith Cowboys Jersey , we have a huge opportunity to help our employees find their sweet spots, too.

The first step is ensuring a good fit between an employee's natural abilities and interests and the requirements of the job. This would ensure the "highest and best use" of their talents toward the realization of our high-definition vision. Wouldn't we just love having every single team member working in their sweet spot? We would always be in "the zone" and work would feel like play.

Our ability to match sweet spots to job requirements is the best predictor of job success and, ultimately, of excellent performance. It all starts with a moment to plan for the use of talent on our team.

Let's not forget about ourselves in this matching process. Gaining insights into our own sweet spot as leaders helps us better determine how to design roles and deploy the talent on our team. For example, if my sweet spot is conceptually designing complex deals, I better ensure I have a strong analyst on my team. If my sweet spot is analyzing lots of details and numbers, I want some conceptual, big picture thinkers on my team.

Want to know an easy way to find your sweet spot? Look at the intersection of these two questions:

1. What am I absolutely passionate about?
2. Which tasks are very easy and natural for me to perform?

Most of us vividly remember the moment we found our professional sweet spot. Others told us we made it look easy, that we really excelled and we looked like we were having a ball. Think of the last time when others made these comments to you. What were you doing? Like finding any sweet spot, it's worth hitting these questions around for awhile and practicing our answers before we can serve up a winner.

Ralph V. Gilles understands this process. He dropped out of college and was spending most of his time, by his own admission, slacking in his parents' basement, eating granola  Bill Bates Cowboys Jersey , watching "Dukes of Hazard" reruns and lamenting the sorry state of automobiles being made in America.

Growing up, Gilles was typical of most boys who played with Hot Wheels and Formula 1 model cars. But, as a teenager, he also was extremely talented in sketching vehicles. In fact, his aunt wrote a letter to then Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, saying he should hire her 14-year-old nephew.

A Chrysler executive responded, recommending three design schools. Soon afterward, however, the letter was lost and forgotten. Meanwhile, the car-crazy Gilles completed high school and enrolled in college to study engineering, but dropped out quickly. His reason: "I was in a funk and was really not sure I wanted to be an engineer."

As he continued his granola, "Dukes of Hazard" routine down in the basement, Ralph's older brother  Larry Allen Cowboys Jersey , Max, recalled the letter from Chrysler. He remembered that one of the recommended etches were complete,.