Like the flowers and blossoms suddenly appearing on a sunny spring day in Vancouver, the Whitecaps young guns are themselves starting to bloom. Frank Gore 49ers Jersey . On Tuesday afternoon, a group of (dont call them reserve) players who didnt feature in the 2-1 win over Houston, took care of business against an FC Edmonton team preparing for its NASL campaign. Throughout the afternoon, the Whitecap squad averaged a tender 20.8 years of age. That number was brought up by 26-year-old Carlyle Mitchell, and 25-year-old goalkeeper Paulo Tornaghi. Had 17-year-old Marco Carducci started in goal, the average age might have dropped into the teens. But as they say in the game, "if youre good enough, youre old enough", and the young Caps proved it with a sterling performance going forward, scoring three goals in the first 17 minutes. They also held their nerve defensively against a big, physical Colin Miller-coached team that will be trying to join the NASL elite in 2014. The culture of competition that Carl Robinson has built is starting to permeate through the residency program, which Gordon Forrest helps oversee in addition to his first team assistant coaching duties. That common thread, and the managers desire to connect the entire club, is starting to bear fruit in the form of players like Marco Bustos, Kianz Froeze, Mitch Peraux, and a more recent revelation, Nicholas Prasad. The 18-year-old Surrey native stepped into an unfamiliar right back spot over his more natural centre back role, and didnt put a foot wrong in his 45 minutes of work. It was a side that wouldnt look out of place against MLS competition, when you consider that Mitchell, Johnny Leveron, Kekuta Manneh and Eric Hurtado have all seen first team spells in their young careers. The Whitecaps depth will come in handy during next months Amway Canadian Championship for the Voyageurs Cup, a competition the Whitecaps have yet to win in their MLS era. Despite a small sample size, youd have to think Vancouver would be considered favourites to finally win it at this stage. If they do represent Canada in CONCACAF, the club could easily send a young squad to play the group qualifying games. This would not leave their first teams regular season endeavours severely hamstrung, as weve seen from so many CCL campaigns in the past. For now, the youngsters will have to keeping pushing and competing until the opportunity presents itself. But as in springtime, when the fruit starts to ripen, its only a matter of time until it gets picked. George Kittle Youth Jersey . -- The Detroit Lions made it crystal clear to Golden Tate that he was their top target in free agency. San Francisco 49ers Jerseys . LOUIS - Two-thirds of the St. http://www.49ersrookiestore.com/49ers-Terrell-Owens-Jersey/ . Curtis Davies and Robert Koren secured the victory with goals inside 35 minutes of the fifth-round replay against the second-tier side.As Major League Baseballs regular season winds down, theres considerable focus here on what the Toronto Blue Jays spent (or didnt spend) on players heading into this season, what they apparently wouldnt spend in-season and what theyll be willing to commit going into 2015. And theyre all reasonable questions since ownership was working under a self-imposed salary cap, otherwise known as a budget. The issue may be more that the Blue Jays were unwilling to budge from that amount in the face of such obvious needs as starting pitching and second base help. There are a lot of major league teams that spent similarly or significantly less than the Blue Jays and put together better lineups. The relationship between spending in baseball and success is much less straight-forward than, if you spend it, it will come. It of course being the post-season. This season, the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox had the second, third and fourth-highest opening day payrolls in baseball, at $202, $180, and $162 million respectively. And as of today, those teams sit 14, 21, and 26 games respectively out of first place within their divisions. In the case of the Red Sox and Phillies, both teams will finish in last place this season. Thats $544 million spent on players to finish a combined 61 games out of first place. Which isnt to suggest that spending in baseball doesnt affect overall performance. Of the six division leaders in baseball right now, only the Cardinals and Orioles are in first place without outtspending all of their division rivals based on opening day payrolls. Tom Rathman Jersey. . But among the four wild card teams in place now - Kansas City, Oakland, Pittsburgh and San Francisco rank 19th, 25th, 27th and seventh. That tells you that baseballs intent to make the post-season accessible to teams that couldnt spend their way to the top of a division is working. Its just not working for the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays shouldnt necessarily to be prepared to spend more going into next season. Its just that pointing to payroll as the reason why this team has missed the post-season for more than two decades is shortsighted and misses the bigger issue with this team, which is the ability identify and develop major league talent and sign players to contracts that provide the best return on investment. The Blue Jays opened this season with a payroll $21 million more than the St. Louis Cardinals, $25 million more than the Orioles, $40 million more than Kansas City, $49 million more than Oakland and $64 million more than Pittburgh. All of those teams are currently in a playoff position. The Washington Nationals - with the best record in the National League and a 16-game lead in the NL East, have done so with a payroll just over $2 million more than the Blue Jays. The bottom line is this: focusing on payroll in fact obstructs the flaws in how this team has been built. So if youre a fan fed up with the Blue Jays mediocrity, what this team is willing to spend should be well down your list of concerns. ' ' '