CHICAGO - Pitcher Felix Doubront and the Chicago Cubs have agreed to a one-year contract for $1,925,000 and avoided arbitration. Dontae Johnson Seahawks Jersey .The 27-year-old left-hander was 4-5 with a 5.54 ERA in 14 starts and seven relief appearances last year for Boston and Chicago, which acquired him July. He went 2-1 with a 3.98 ERA in four starts with them.Doubront made $586,000 last year.The agreement on Thursday left pitchers Travis Wood, Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop, catcher Welington Castillo, infielder Luis Valbuena and outfielder Chris Coghlan as Chicagos remaining unsigned players in arbitration. Byron Maxwell Jersey . Adam LaRoche will take that. "I like our position in the standings and I like how our team is playing," LaRoche said after Washington swept a day-night doubleheader from the Cubs on Saturday. Alex McGough Jersey .A. Happ is coming off his first start of the year, a win at Philadelphia Monday. The former Phillie allowed three hits in five scoreless frames of a 3-0 triumph.FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Devin McCourty wont allow himself to get caught up in Peyton Mannings pre-snap antics on Sunday.New Englands Pro Bowl safety cant afford to. Hell end up losing.I would say the chess game is pretty one-sided. Its like being a kid going against a father in chess, McCourty said of trying to anticipate Mannings moves. Hes a very smart quarterback. He knows what he wants to do. Most of the time he knows what the defence is in, so if what he had planned isnt going to work, hes going to get the offence in something else.You dont want to try to overthink yourselves and really dont want to try to outsmart Peyton Manning.Its been quite some time since anybody has done that.New Englands second-ranked passing defence gets its chance Sunday afternoon when Manning and the Denver Broncos (6-1) travel to Gillette Stadium for a midseason showdown with the Patriots (6-2).Seven teams have tried to slow down Manning this season. None have succeeded. In Denvers only loss, Seattle held Manning to 303 yards and two touchdowns with an interception.One of the best quarterbacks in history weve got to face and he doesnt make it easy. He wants to make sure theyre in the perfect play every snap, said Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork. We have to play an A-plus game to be successful. Anything other than that, were going to have problems.Just ask the Chargers, 49ers, Jets or Cardinals, Mannings last four victims since his only loss of the year in the third game of the season.Since then, hes thrown 14 touchdown passes and sits near the top of league in almost every major passing category.But whats new?Obviously, hes a great quarterback — the best quarterback Ive coached against, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. I see no weaknesses in his game.The 16-year veteran, who two weeks ago set the new standard for passing touchdowns in a career, has thrown for 2,134 yards and 22 touchdowns, tied with Indianapolis Andrew Luck for the league lead. He has completed 69 per cent of his passes, the second-best rate in the league, and hhas been intercepted just three times while guiding the leagues highest-scoring offence at 32 points per game. Alex McGough Seahawks Jersey. He faces perhaps his stiffest test of the season this week, though, as New Englands defence is yielding just 211 passing yards per game and is the only unit in the league not to allow a completion of more than 40 yards.But as he typically does, Manning most likely will manoeuvr around that.It helps that he has one of the leagues most dangerous receiving corps with Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Wes Welker and tight end Julius Thomas.Mix in running back Ronnie Hillman and the Patriots defence is in for one of its tallest tasks of the year.Isnt it the most prolific offence in the history of the NFL — last year and then you bring most of those weapons back this year and then add Emmanuel Sanders? McCourty said. I guess you can go back and forth and debate, but the offence is probably a little better than it was last year and it was easily the best offence in the NFL last year.Manning most definitely will make his checks at the line of scrimmage, reading the defence and screaming out audibles before almost every snap, but dont expect McCourty or Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis to enter into a guessing game with the chess master.Youve always got to be careful with thinking you know something, thinking you know a check, McCourty said, then next thing you know an 80-yard pass is over your head.And dont think for one second that Manning has forgotten last seasons meeting at Gillette, when the Broncos jumped out to a 24-0 halftime lead before falling 34-31 in overtime.McCourty knows that Manning will try and replicate what worked in that first half and change what didnt in the second.If you do something well, a teams probably going to come back to it in some shape or form, maybe not the same exact look, he said. But you always want to know how a team hurt you, and I think even though its hard to get a good beat for it, you still want to watch the film and see what theyre doing. Cheap Brewers Jerseys Cheap Twins Jerseys Cheap Mets Jerseys Cheap Yankees Jerseys Cheap Athletics Jerseys Cheap Phillies Jerseys Cheap Pirates Jerseys Cheap Padres Jerseys Cheap Giants Jerseys Cheap Mariners JerseysCheap Cardinals Jerseys Cheap Rays Jerseys Cheap Rangers Jerseys Cheap Blue Jays Jerseys Cheap Nationals Jerseys ' ' '