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This is the time of year when MVP candidates are made. The V stands for valuable, and theres nothing more valuable than stepping your game up a notch to lead your team to wins in December. (Except, of course, doing the same thing in January, but MVP is a regular-season award.)As our panel of 12 experts reassessed the top candidates after Week 13s action, how did things change? Who helped himself? Who moved up? Who dropped out?With four weeks to go, this is the way we see the NFLs MVP race.Methodology: Each of our 12 panelists nominated their top five candidates.?First-place votes were worth five points, second-place votes worth four, third-place?votes worth three, fourth-place votes worth two and fifth-place worth one.1. Derek Carr, QB | Oakland Raiders?Regular-season passing:?300-for-458 (65.5 percent); 3,375 yards; 24 TDs; 5 INTs; 65.8 Total QBRCase for Carr:?He is Mr. Fourth Quarter. A tough-as-nails team leader who gets better as the game goes along. Down 24-9 to the Bills with a little more than 20 minutes left in the game, Carr led the Raiders to 29 unanswered points and a sixth straight victory. Hes at his best in the biggest moments, which is MVP stuff.Case against Carr:?As was the case last week, Carrs numbers overall dont stack up brilliantly with other MVP-candidate quarterbacks such as Tom Brady, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan or even Kirk Cousins. Theres also a growing case to be made that Carr is the second-most valuable player on his own team, behind star pass-rusher Khalil Mack.2. Tom Brady, QB?| New England Patriots?Regular-season passing:?208-for-302 (68.9 percent); 2,470 yards; 19 TDs; 1 INT; 82.1 Total QBRCase for Brady:?The touchdown-to-interception ratio is flat-out inconceivable. He has to play without his top offensive weapon now, and if the numbers and wins keep piling up post-Rob Gronkowski, thatll only make Brady look more valuable by seasons end.Case against Brady:?Its all about games played. We went over it last week. For a candidate to win this award in spite of playing only two-thirds as many games as his competitors, his performance has to be considerably and unassailably better than theirs. And there are just too many strong candidates whove played every game.3. Ezekiel Elliott,?RB?| Dallas Cowboys?Regular-season rushing:?263 carries; 1,285 yards; 12 TDs Regular-season receiving:?28 receptions; 322 yards; 1 TDCase for Elliott:?No team runs the ball on a higher percentage of its plays than the Cowboys do, which means the run game is more important for Dallas than it is for any other team in the league. Elliott leads the league in rushing yards by 242 and in runs of 20 or more yards. He stays on the field on third downs and blocks or catches the ball if need be. He is the Dallas offense.Case against Elliott:?As with Carr, there are some who wonder as to whether Elliott is even the most valuable player on his own team, or if that award should go to fellow rookie Dak Prescott. Couple that with the tendency of this award to go to quarterbacks (eight of the past nine years), and you wonder whether Elliotts year can be clearly good enough to convince voters.4. Matthew Stafford,?QB?| Detroit Lions?Regular-season passing:?291-for-433 (67.2 percent); 3,224 yards; 21 TDs; 5 INTs; 72.5 Total QBRCase for Stafford:?He has a case kind of like Carrs, given that his team has had to come from behind in the fourth quarter in seven of its eight victories. Staffords performance has been steady in Jim Bob Cooters offense, and the comebacks are the kinds of heroics that help a guys MVP case.Case against Stafford:?The numbers really arent that good. Even in the fourth quarter, he has just five touchdowns and two interceptions. Overall, hes eighth in Total QBR, eighth in completion percentage, 12th in yards per attempt, 10th in yards and eighth in completion percentage. The numbers look all right next to Carrs, but theyre not among the top in the league. Ephemerally, Stafford feels like an MVP candidate because he passes the eye test and his team is 8-4, but he doesnt have MVP stats.5. Dak Prescott, QB?| Dallas Cowboys?Regular-season passing:?243-for-358 (67.9 percent); 2,974 yards; 19 TDs; 2 INTs; 85.2 Total QBR Regular-season rushing: 217 yards; 5 TDsCase for Prescott:?The Cowboys went 1-11 without Tony Romo last season. This season, with Prescott, theyre 11-1. He diagnoses defenses pre-snap like a veteran, he makes smart decisions during the course of the play and the team clearly believes in him. Theres nothing not to like about him.Case against Prescott: It may or may not be fair to downgrade him for this, but Prescott is operating in maybe the most favorable of circumstances for a quarterback in the entire league. He has the leagues best offensive line in front of him, the leagues best running back and an elite receiver in Dez Bryant, who catches the ball when Prescott chucks it downfield. That doesnt mean hes not most valuable, just that there might be other players carrying a higher share of the responsibility for their teams success.Elston Howard Yankees Jersey . Numbers Game looks into the Canadiens securing the services of Thomas Vanek in a trade with the New York Islanders. The Canadiens Get: LW Thomas Vanek and a conditional fifth-round pick. Yankees Jerseys China . Louis. To which I would say two things: 1. Where there is smoke, there is or perhaps has been a little fire. Or, in other words, the two teams would appear to have at least spoken. And spoken is defined as one calling the other to inquire, no more, no less. https://www.cheapyankees.com/3161g-zack-britton-jersey-yankees.html . Galatasaray said in a statement on its website Monday that Mancini signed a three-year contract and will be paid 3.5 million euros for the upcoming season, with his salary upped to 4. Jacoby Ellsbury Jersey . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1. Edwin Encarnacion Yankees Jersey . He says so-called TRT is only one problem and he wants to go even further than the ban. "Its about time," St-Pierre told reporters at a promotional event in Montreal on Friday. "I think its a good thing.DENVER -- The St. Louis Cardinals picked up a win before a pitch was even thrown when reserve outfielder Jose Martinez captured a playful, pregame staredown with Colorado reliever Carlos Estevez.Too bad for the Cardinals that didnt count in the standings. They sure couldve used it.Nolan Arenado hit a grand slam, German Marquez pitched five solid innings for his first major league win and the Rockies slowed the Cardinals playoff chase with an 11-1 victory on Wednesday.The Cardinals, who had won four straight, entered the day tied with New York and San Francisco atop the NL wild-card standings. The Mets and Giants both played later.Arenado broke open the game in the second with his NL-leading 39th homer of the season. His fourth career slam made it 6-1.Its a pitch that simply caught too much of the plate.Stayed straight, starter Luke Weaver said. For it to flatten out at such a big moment right there is disappointing.Weaver (1-4) was roughed up by the Rockies, surrendering seven hits and six runs in two innings. Before this game, the right-hander had allowed 12 earned runs in his last seven starts combined.The Cardinals had some early momentum when that standoff went their way just after the anthem.Heres how it unfolded: Estevez and Martinez stood near their dugouts -- with their baseball cap over their heart -- and refused to back down until the other moved first.Estevez blinked first and made a winner of Martinez, who celebrated before retreating to the dugout. Estevez said manager Walt Weiss pulled him in out of fear of being ejected.Its not fun to have one less bullpen guy, Estevez explained.Martinez was going to see this thing through to the end -- no matter the consequences.The umpire asked me, `Why you do that? Im like, `When youre a rookie and a big league guy asks you to stand up there, I stand up there, said Martinez, who had a pinch-hit single in the seventh. The most important thing is we have fun and the fans enjoyed it.This was a memorable day for Marquez (1-0), who made his first big league start after three appearances out of the bullpen. He allowed one run and struck out three.At 21 years, 212 days, Marrquez was the second-youngest pitcher in Rockies history to earn his first win, the team announced.dddddddddddd The youngest was Jamey Wright (21-206).A great pitching performance from the kid today, Weiss said. Its easy -- easy velocity. Very effortless.The hard-throwing Marquez was acquired in January as part of the deal that sent outfielder Corey Dickerson to Tampa Bay. Marquez pitched a majority of the season for Double-A Hartford, where he was chosen as the pitcher of the year in the Eastern League.Marquez worked his way out of several dicey situations against the best road team in baseball. He allowed his only run in the second, when Jeremy Hazelbaker led off with a double and later scored on Kolten Wongs sacrifice fly.The Cardinals took two of three from Colorado during a series in which their starting pitchers were brilliant at the plate. Carlos Martinez, Adam Wainwright and Weaver went a combined 4 for 4 with two doubles and six RBI. Weaver had a single in his only plate appearance.DJ LeMahieu got two hits and drove in two runs to raise his average to .351. He holds a slight lead over Washingtons Daniel Murphy in the NL batting race.TRAINERS ROOMCardinals: OF Matt Holliday (broken right thumb) is hoping to take live batting practice Friday at Wrigley Field before the Chicago Cubs series. ... C Yadier Molina had the day off.Rockies: Third base coach Stu Cole sat out another day after being hit in the head by a ball that caromed off another during batting practice Tuesday.THIS & THATRockies catcher Tom Murphy had a three-run homer as part of a five-run seventh. ... Arenados grand slam gives him 128 RBI this season, which leads the majors.UP NEXTCardinals: After a day off, RHP Mike Leake (9-10, 4.54 ERA) opens a three-game series Friday in Chicago. RHP Jake Arrieta (17-7, 2.96) goes for the Cubs.Rockies: RHP Tyler Chatwood (11-9, 4.13) takes the mound Thursday to begin a four-game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Chatwood is 7-1 with a 1.77 ERA in 11 road starts this season. ' ' '