NEW YORK -- Edwin Encarnacion needed no further prompting when asked what the Blue Jays needed to most improve upon in the second half. "I think the starting pitching," he said. "If we want to win, we know and they know we need to pitch better." The numbers back up Encarnacions statement. Whats more, Encarnacions All-Star numbers give him the platform to offer an opinion few other position players could share. Toronto enters the break with the second-highest starters ERA in baseball. At 5.07, only Minnesotas (5.23) ranks worse. Pundits figured the Twins would have a poor rotation but R.A. Dickey, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle were supposed to be the backbone of a revamped Blue Jays rotation that would propel the club to its first playoff appearance in 20 years. Encarnacion is hitting .264/.345/.476. He has 25 home runs and his 67 since the start of 2012 are third most in baseball behind Miguel Cabrera and Chris Davis. Hes a leader, respected not only in his own clubhouse but around the game. "We have the talent in the clubhouse and I know the pitchers can do better than theyve been doing," he said. "We just need to focus in the games and I know things are going to change." Jose Bautista, voted to New York City by the fans, pointed the finger at himself. "Were totally capable of playing a lot better baseball than weve shown," said Bautista. "We just need to play better as a team. Like I said earlier today, Im number one on that list. Ive been very inconsistent this year and I need to pick it up some and bring that consistency that I know I can bring to the table and bring more of a steady production and help the team win more games." Trade talk will intensify once the schedule resumes later in the week. The July 31 non-waiver trade deadline is looming. Toronto has been linked to the Cubs Matt Garza, to the extent that scouts have been watching his starts, but general manager Alex Anthopoulos says he wont acquire a rental player. Garzas contract is expiring so he falls into the hands off category. Whether or not moves are made is irrelevant to at least one Blue Jays All-Star. "I would take the perspective of that (Alex) doesnt think we need to make a move because he thinks we can do it with what we have," said Brett Cecil. "Thats just me personally. I would hope all the guys, even without talks of trade or anything, would think that we could do it without any types of moves or anything like that and I would hope guys would take it that way if we didnt make a move." The Blue Jays are 45-49, in last place in the American League East, 11.5 games behind division-leading Boston. Toronto is 8.5 games behind Texas for the second American League wild card spot. BORAS TALKS PEDs In the wake of ESPN reports that Major League Baseball will seek to suspend as many as 20 players with alleged links to Biogensis, super agent Scott Boras put out the call for due process. "If we have positive analytical we have no issue," said Boras. "Now were in an area where weve got negative analytical and yet weve got circumstantial pursuit on non-analytical cases. That is in the rules, that is in the rules but it is causing a problem in the game. The problem is its affecting the masses that are innocent. Its affecting the integrity of the game and we have to look at that as to how we approach that. Do we allow the witch hunts? Do we allow the early speculation?" Among those with alleged links to Biogenesis, a now defunct Miami-based anti-aging clinic that peddled performance enhancing drugs, are the Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Milwaukees Ryan Braun. Rodriguez is an admitted steroid user but he claims to have stopped after departing the Texas Rangers following the 2003 season. Braun, the 2011 National League MVP, tested positive for a banned substance shortly afterward but the case was thrown out when a judge ruled the samples chain of command had been compromised. Others, like Texas Nelson Cruz, have never had a positive test. CONFIDENCE IS KEY Cecil admitted to TSN.ca he lost confidence in himself during his trying seasons of 2011 and 2012. Its a fragile thing. "I think a lot of players would tell you that its not because they have all the confidence in the world in themselves," he said. "Sometimes its not necessarily the most truthful thing thats coming out of their mouths. I know as far as me, I mean I told you guys, 2011 and 2012 I still had all the confidence in the world but I really didnt, I really didnt." Prior to his scoreless inning in Baltimore on Saturday, Cecil had allowed runs in two consecutive appearances for the first time all season. He admitted, even then despite his brilliant year, his confidence began to waver. The difference now? Cecil trusts his repertoire. "Back in 2011, 2012, even when I had a good outing I still didnt know if my stuff was good enough to play up here and when I got knocked around I really didnt think it was good enough to play up here," he said. "After the last two outings I know my stuff plays up here and its just a matter of how Im going to deal with the little things that I did wrong and how am I going to take it into my next outing." MUTUAL RESPECT AMONGST VOTTO AND ENCARNACION Edwin Encarnacion and Joey Votto were teammates with the Cincinnati Reds from 2007-2009. Votto, Toronto born and raised, had high praise for an old friend. "Edwin was one of my favourite teammates," said Votto. "Actually, whenever we made the trade for Scott Rolen, for the first month or so whenever Scott would start chirping at me I would tell him how much I miss Edwin. You know, I really miss Edwin, I wish we wouldnt have made that trade, Scott. Im very fond of him and Im really, really happy for his success and I hope he keeps it up because its fun watching him on the highlights hit all of those home runs." "He loved the way I acted," said Encarnacion, whose outgoing personality runs counter to Vottos more reserved countenance. "He loved it. We enjoyed all moments when I was there in Cincinnati with my old team." TAKING IT ALL IN Four-year-old Edwin Encarnacion Jr. was sitting on dads lap during the afternoon media availability session. Each player is seated at his own podium and the assembled media can wander at their leisure. Young Edwin was a trooper. The session was held in the open air of the concourse inside the home plate entrance to Citi Field. With a humidex reading outside of close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and hundreds of bodies roaming a confined space, it got a little warm. Brett Cecil was looking most forward to having his three-year-old son, Bryton, on the field with him during the home run derby. Steve Delabar had pictures taken with family members including his wife, infant daughter, parents and in-laws, all of whom traveled to New York to share his first time All-Star experience.Cheap Air Max Shoes For Sale . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. Cheap Air Max Shoes Online .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. http://www.salecheapairmax.com/ . Rinne played two periods in his first game since left hip surgery in early May. Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. Cheap Nike Air Max Shoes Wholesale . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. Cheap Sale Air Max .ca NFL Power Rankings, overtaking the Denver Broncos and remaining ahead of NFC competition San Francisco, Carolina and New Orleans.Sebastian Vettel does not think Ferrari needs to turn the world upside down after a disappointing British Grand Prix, saying the race simply did not suit the team.Vettel could only manage ninth position at Silverstone in a race which saw him spin out on several occasions. Ferrari had hoped to challenge Mercedes coming into the weekend but has lacked performance throughout and was out-qualified by both Red Bulls on Saturday.Vettel started 11th after serving a gearbox change penalty and admitted it was difficult to fight back through the field after his initial spins.It was not an easy race, Vettel said. For sure in these conditions its easy to get it wrong and make a mistake. I think you saw a lot of people going off track, unfortunately I was one that went off track and spun. So that lost us a lot of time but I think overall it was quite tricky with the conditions until the end with a dry line and wet patches here and there. So I think the fact that then I was stuck in traffic for some laps doesnt help with looking after tyres etc. So you lose the rhythm a little.As a result you can see we werent quick enough to challenge for a podium this weekend, so theres plenty of things for us to understand and learn. In this regard I think it has been a weak race for us but I dont think we need tto turn the world upside down.dddddddddddd We know the car that we have and I think if you look at the performance yesterday it was more or less in line. Again, its not the most competitive weekend for us, but for sure today we seemed to lose a little bit compared to the people ahead.Vettels ninth could have become tenth because of a five-second time penalty incurred after forcing Felipe Massa wide at Turn 2, though he managed to build a big enough gap to Daniil Kvyat to hold the position. Vettel felt the penalty was harsh.Not much to say. I was on the inside, he went a little bit wide at Turn 1, he was on the inside for Turn 3. We basically hit the brakes at the same time, I was trying to turn in and every time I tried to turn in I lost the car, lost the car, lost the car. So I had to open up and went wide myself.Obviously there was no intention to force him off the track because I was going off the track as well so it wasnt something that I controlled, but for some reason the stewards took the view that I did that on purpose and I got the penalty. But I think it was a racing incident.The incident also earned Vettel two penalty points on his superlicence. ' ' '