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DENVER -- How so much can change in such little time.The Broncos and Chargers arent exactly the same teams that met in San Diego on Oct. 13 when Denvers 15-game divisional road winning streak skidded to a halt in a 21-13 loss that snapped the Chargers out of a 10-game AFC West funk.Following with a win at Atlanta, the Chargers (3-4) have gone from stagger to swagger, saving coach Mike McCoys hide and earning the chance to make the seasons second half much more meaningful.Weve won two in a row but this is what we expected, what we should have done in some of those earlier games, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. We should be sitting here with a different record, but were not. This one right here can really get us right back in the thick of it.The Broncos (5-2) also are a very different team than the one that stumbled into San Diego under interim coach Joe DeCamillis, got off to a slow start and never recovered.Gary Kubiak is back on the sideline after missing that game under doctors orders following a complex migraine. And quarterback Trevor Siemian isnt nearly as compromised from his sprained left shoulder that did as much to keep him from throwing downfield as the Chargers cover-2 schemes.But the Broncos will be without running back C.J. Anderson , who underwent right knee surgery Thursday, 72 hours after his best game of the season, a 107-yard effort that helped the Broncos beat Houston 27-9 Monday night.Instead, theyll hand off to rookie Devontae Booker and third-year pro Kapri Bibbs, who has four carries in eight career games -- not exactly the 1-2 punch they were so excited about when they rumbled over the Texans.Whenever players get hurt its unfortunate, but thats part of the league, Broncos linebacker Von Miller said. I feel like everybody has to battle some type of injury throughout their career and overcome it, and C.J., hell do that. Hell be right back for us. And what injury does is it gives opportunity for guys to go out and start their legacy.The Broncos felt really good about their 190 yards rushing against the Texans, but now they dont have that 1-2 punch. Or do they?Book is ready to play; Im ready to play, Bibbs said. And I dont think theres going to be any drop-off. I think were going to go in there and were going to handle our business.Thats something the Broncos as a whole didnt do in San Diego earlier this month.Other subplots when the teams meet Sunday:BOSA BOOM: Rookie Joey Bosa has played in only three games but has four sacks, including takedowns on consecutive drives last week in Atlanta. Bosa is the first NFL player since Elvis Dumervil in 2006 to have two multi-sack games in his first three games. He is the only player in Chargers history to accomplish that feat. Bosa missed all of training camp in a contract spat and then injured a hamstring, costing him the first four games.MEN IN THE MIDDLE: In a nod to Denvers star-studded secondary, the Chargers isolated tight ends Antonio Gates and Hunter Henry on Denvers inside LBs Brandon Marshall and Todd Davis last time, similar to what the Falcons had done with running backs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. The Broncos realized they had to mix some zone looks in their man-heavy coverage. Corey Nelson will likely get tested with Marshall dealing with a pulled left hamstring.CHASING RIVERS: Miller, who has 7+ sacks, is excited at the prospect of DeMarcus Ware (broken forearm Sept. 18), returning to the field this weekend. Its like having the Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi, Miller said, praising Wares wisdom and poise. Hes just always calm no matter what the situation. He always has great advice, he always knows the direction to go, and he has the vision.MELVIN METAMORPHOSIS: Chargers RB Melvin Gordon, who didnt score as a rookie last year, leads the league with 10 TDs, eight rushing and two catching. Hes got 10 more touchdowns than he did last year, Denver defensive coordinator Wade Phillips deadpanned when asked what was the difference. No, he was a good back last year. He was a rookie. I think they certainly realized how to use him and hes come on and gotten better and better.BOLSTERED BRONCOS: Denver acquired a tight end just before the trade deadline for the second straight season. Last year, it was veteran Vernon Davis from the Niners. This time, the Broncos got greenhorn A.J. Derby from the Patriots. Playing behind Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett, Derby had no catches this season. But his preseason production -- 15 receptions for 189 yards, a TD -- is roughly what the Broncos other tight ends have managed so far.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton .Scarpe NMD R2 Italia . The Vikings announced Thursday that Priefer will be one of seven holdovers from the previous staff, along with offensive line coach Jeff Davidson, wide receivers coach George Stewart and others. Norv Turner will mark his 30th year of coaching in the NFL as the offensive co-ordinator, as widely reported for weeks, and George Edwards will be the defensive co-ordinator. Nmd Uomo Ingrosso ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. http://www.scarpenmdscontate.it/scarpe-nmd-nere-outlet.html . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. Stan Smith Outlet . -- PGA TOUR Canada member Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Web. Scarpe Yeezy 350 v2 . -- Eastern Kentucky thrives off creating havoc for others.As each opposing batter steps to the plate, you might notice New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner do something you would not expect: He often removes and repositions his cap as if to adjust it, a curious move for a player who shaves his head almost daily.So does Jacoby Ellsbury, who has a full head of hair, and so does Aaron Hicks, who like Gardner, has taken a blade to complete the job that Mother Nature started.But Gardner is not repositioning that cap for comfort, or checking to see if his long-departed hair has miraculously returned.He, like the others, is checking to be sure he is standing where he is supposed to be standing -- a hidden aspect of big league defense that goes beyond the infield and is finally getting some of the spotlight.When it comes to positioning their outfielders, the Yankees literally keep the information under their hats. Before each game, bench coach Rob Thomson, responsible for the outfield defense, gives Gardner, center fielder Ellsbury, right fielder Hicks and rookie outfielder Aaron Judge an index card with precise locations for each opposing hitter.Those locations are determined by a proprietary computer program developed by the Yankees analytic squad, headed by David Grabiner. It takes a multitude of factors -- among them the hitters power, his tendency to pull or not pull the ball, and his career history against the Yankees pitcher that night -- and spits out a spray chart which places the outfielder in the optimal position to make a play.We have analytical assessments that show specifically where guys hit the ball, a Yankees staffer told ESPN.com. I mean, it shows us exactly where guys hit the ball just about every time. And its hitter/pitcher specific, based on pitch velocity and location. Positioning is based on a lot of factors, including the speed of the defender.Those positions are notated as plus or minus numbers, in feet, from the default position the Yankees coaching staff plots out on the field. There are numbers for the depth at which the outfielder should be playing, and how far he should shade to the right or left. For example, for a strong right-handed hitter such as the Baltimore Orioles Mark Trumbo, the card might read +15 for distance and +10 for side-to-side positioning, indicating the player should play 15 feet deeper than the default position and 10 feet closer to the line.Everyone notices the infield shifts, because youve got guys playing completely out of position, Gardner said. But what people dont realize is that were doing a lot of similar things in the outfield, too, these days. It may not look as radical, but weve been doing it for the last year, year-and-a-half now.Over the past decade, infield shifts, once thought to be a novelty indulged in by eccentrics like Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, have become as commonplace as the strikeout. Five years ago, teams employed 2,464 shifts; this year, its projected to be 28,117 -- a number high enough that MLB is now looking into a series of rule changes, including restricting shifts. Since 2006, the number of runs scored in Major League Baseball has plummeted from 23,599 to 19,761, and among the insiders ESPN.com spoke to for this story, there is the belief that it is partly due to base hits being taken away by the shift. In fact, one Yankees executive predicted baseball would never see another .400 hitter because of the shift.Outfield positioning, on the other hand, is often overlooked. That is, until early June, when it was revealed that the Los Angeles Dodgers had requested, and been refused, permission by the New York Mets to position their outfielders with the help of laser range finders, and to mark those positions on the outfield grass with spray paint. In the wake of that story, its becoming more evident that outfield shifting is perhaps just as complicated and as crucial as it is in the infield -- and lately it has been pushing the boundaries of baseball.Its far from science fictionUsing a laser to locate the depth of outfielders may seem extreme -- the Yankees, for example, have pinpointed their default position as 30 feet in from the outfield wall in all fields without the help of a laser, merely the judgment of their fielders -- but there is really nothing all that radical about it. Although it may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, and raise the specter of a construction site, with tripods and laser levels set up all over the field, the reality is a lot simpler.Teams that use lasers to position their outfielders -- and while the practice is not commonplace, MLB executives say the Dodgers are by no means alone in using them, listing the Texas Rangers as another example (the Yankees, too, have used lasers to determine the distance to the outfield walls at their spring training complex in Tampa) -- generally use the type of handheld range finders used by golfers to measure the length of their tee shots, which usually sell for less than $200.There are even apps available for as little as 99 cents, although their accuracy and ease of use cant compare to the higher-priced models. But whatever type a team chooses to use, the procedure is the same: The device is held by hand by a team staffer from behind home plate during batting practice and aimed at a player standing in the outfield. The staffer keeps moving the player until he is standing in the position the team wants, at which point he either must remember that precise location or, as the Dodgers requested, mark the spot in some way in the outfield.That is where the Mets objections came in. They asked for a ruling from MLB, which announced that deliberately marking the field was a violation of league rules.Technically, youre not allowed to purposely damage the field in any way, a league executive told ESPN.com. That includes spray paint, or leaving golf tees in the outfield, or even kicking a divot into the grass with your heel.The executive admitted, however, that it was difficult to enforce such a rule when it is routine for pitchers to dig up the area around the rubber with their spikes and for hitters to groom the batters box before each at-bat. He also acknowledged that the Dodgers were probably not the only team to use laser technology to position outfielders, and that there was nothing in the rulebook prohibiting a team from using them before the game, either at home or in a visiting park.And according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, other teams had asked for, and been granted, permission to mark the outfield in Dodger Stadium.Every team has different priorities, Roberts said at the time. There have been various teams that have asked to make a mark on our field. Weve been OK with it.A baseball source with knowledge of the Dodgers position methods told ESPN.com the original request -- to use the laser to pinpoint a spot and mark it with an easily-removable shot of spray paint -- was approved by Citi Fields groundskeepers. It was then vetoed by Mets manager Terry Collins.Its not that big a deal, but TC totally overreacted to the whole thing, the source said. Ninety percent of the time weve asked, the other team was OK with it, and [the Dodgers] have allowed other teams to do the same.Mets GM Sandy Alderson said the Dodgers did not ask permission.We observed some members of the Dodgers organnization using technology to establish defensive positions, presumably to use during the game, Alderson said at a news conference.dddddddddddd We werent sure that was appropriate.MLBs objection to the use of laser range finders during the game is an extension of its policy disallowing electronics of any kind in the dugouts during a game -- a rule designed to prevent sign stealing.Of course, the most famous example of sign stealing in baseball history was decidedly low-tech, when New York Giants catcher Sal Yvars revealed that, by using a telescope mounted in the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds, Bobby Thomson was tipped off that Ralph Branca was about to throw him a fastball in the rubber game of a 1951 playoff series with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Thomson subsequently hit the Shot Heard Round the World, propelling the Giants to the World Series.Recently, baseball relaxed that rule to allow managers the use of Wi-Fi-disabled computer tablets preloaded with statistical information, spray chart, and video of previously-recorded at-bats between hitters and pitchers playing in that nights game.But allowing NFL-type espionage from the owners box, including aerial photographs, wireless communications between coaches in the stands and on the field, and photos faxed to the sideline, isnt coming to baseball anytime soon.Baseball has been kind of slow to adopt that kind of technology, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. Look at how long it took to get replay.As a result, outfield positioning, in spite of the sophisticated computer algorithms designed to pinpoint them with precision, is often as low-tech as a coach simply waving a player over from the dugout, the way its done in Little League or in Sunday morning softball games across the country.It is customary in a visiting park for a coach to walk the field with the teams analytics expert before a game to map out outfield positions, but once the game starts, it often comes down to educated guesswork.Outfield positioning has always lagged behind infield positioning, Mets assistant GM John Ricco said. Industrywide, this is still kind of a work in progress.Landmarks, lines of sight and other low-tech approachesThe Yankees take a simple approach to determining the straight-up position for their outfielders. Thomson merely draws a visual straight line from first base through second base and all the way to the outfield wall to determine the default position for his left fielder, and a line from third base through second base for his right fielder. The center fielder playing straightaway stands on the axis of a line drawn between home plate, second base and the center-field fence. All position themselves 30 feet straight in from the wall as a starting point.From that starting point, the outfielders tip their caps to consult the cards that pinpoint the precise location for each opposing hitter.To ensure his fielders are in the right spot, Thomson said he sits in exactly the same seat in the Yankees dugout every night, from where he can see the players in relation to reference points on the outfield wall. In left field, his reference point is the first S in the first State Farm sign; in right, its the P in Pepsi. Center is the 4 in the 408-foot marker. In a visiting park, Thomson uses the same system, choosing a spot in the dugout from which he can see the reference points he determined from his pregame walk-through in the outfield.But Thomson admits it is difficult to tell if a player is in precisely the right spot from the vantage point of a dugout, especially regarding depth.And many other factors can cause an outfielder to have to adjust his position significantly from where the computer has told him to play. Thats because outfielders must be able to see the hitting zone, and that view is often obstructed. Part of that is due to the infield shifts, which often cause an infielder to move into an outfielders line of sight. Part of it is due to umpires, who also must shift their positions when the infielders shift. Sometimes, the position of the sun or the looming of shadows can force an outfielder to move.We try to be exact out there, but youve still got to read swings, Gardner said. And to do that, sometimes you cant stay in the middle. I have to decide whether to choose the left fork in the road or the right fork in the road. So you might not be standing exactly where the computer tells you to.Still, Gardner said, When youre trying to cover 2? acres of ground [the size of the Yankee Stadium outfield], I dont think 10 or 15 feet makes that much of a difference.Others in the organization, however, might beg to differ. Our infield shifts do very well, but our outfield positioning is a problem, a Yankees staffer said. It does not match up with the recommendations.The Yankees say they are plus-30 with infield shifts, meaning they have converted 30 balls in play into outs that would have been hits with a conventional infield alignment. They say their shifts are especially effective when Masahiro Tanaka is pitching, because the consistency of the location of his pitches within the strike zone makes it easier to position their infielders with precision.Leaguewide, players are hitting .264 when not facing a shift, and just .232 against full shifts of three or more fielders on one side of the infield, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Against the Yankees, those numbers are .259 no-shift and .241 full-shift.The Yankees outfield positioning, however, is a different story.The teams out rate -- the number of fly balls converted into outs by their outfielders -- has actually decreased since 2010, when they converted 69.2 percent -- a number that would put them second in the majors in 2016 -- according to ESPN Stats & Information.But over the past five years, including the two seasons in which they have used their computer algorithm, the Yankees out rate has hovered at a decidedly middle-of-the-road 65 percent.That can be due to several factors, including the age of the Yankees primary starting outfielders, whose average age was 34.3 before Carlos Beltran was traded to Texas, and the effectiveness of their pitchers. The Yankees pitching staffs hard-hit rate -- on fly balls and outfield line drives -- this year is 34.6 percent, 23rd in baseball.By contrast, the Cubs, with outfielders who average 26.5 years old and a staff with a hard-hit rate of 30.4 percent (fourth best in baseball), have converted 69.1 percent of their outfield chances which is second in the majors. The Kansas City Royals, with Alex Gordon in their outfield, lead the majors at 69.9 percent; the Tampa Bay Rays, with Kevin Kiermaier, are third at 68.4. The Dodgers, whose outfielders also average 26.5 years old, have converted just 66.6 percent -- 12th in baseball -- though, to be fair, their 30.3 percent hard-hit rate clips the Cubs for third best in the bigs.So it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what determines the defensive efficiency of an outfield, but common sense tells you that precision positioning cant compensate for slow or aging outfielders or a poor pitching staff.As Ricco said, If our pitcher makes a mistake, all that other stuff goes out the window. ' ' '