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One of my favorite things to follow as a sports fan is Minor League Baseball. The mystery of a prospect is very intriguing to me. Projecting prospects is an extremely hard thing to do. For every Derek Jeter there are hundreds of guys who never even get a chance in MLB. When I was first given this opportunity to write for Total Sports Blog, I knew that I wanted to write something about prospects. I have decided, instead of just making a list of top prospects, I am going to hand pick a few guys every so often and write a little bit about each player. Some of these guys will top of the line prospects, and others will be under the radar guys that I particularly like. Today, I will profile Oscar Taveras of the Cardinals, Gary Sanchez of the Yankees, and Tony Zych of the Cubs.

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Nate McLouth watches his “foul ball” in game 5 of the ALDS.  Photo courtesy of ELSA/Getty Images

It takes too long…

The umps usually get it right anyway…

They haven’t really used replay for 100 years, why now?…

Who cares?  You’re right, and it’s 2012 for Christ’s sake!

Why is it that a regular season game between the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs has 18 different cameras out there to make sure that the right call is made, but MLB has like 3 for a playoff game?  It makes NO SENSE. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s no secret that Derek Jeter gets more ass than a toilet seat.  It’s been rumored that he sends his one-night-stands off with a parting gift the next morning (a signed baseball).  Once engaged to Minka Kelly, Jeter is now single and back on the dating scene.  After tying Lou Gehrig for most 200 hit seasons as a Yankee, I figured we’d take a look back at the girlfriends of Derek Jeter:
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By Michael Cruz

To start off, I’d like to introduce myself. My name’s Michael Cruz, a 16 year old from Central California, born and raised Mets fan.

For the second year in a row, the National League has made a statement that they CAN compete with American League. The way I see it, is: The NL plays smart, small ball with great pitching; the AL…. smash, smash, smash the ball and go yard. But this year was different. Fielder, who was named 2011 All-Star Game’s MVP, went yard with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning for the National League. In the top of the inning, Jose Bautista tried to score from 2nd on a line drive into left field, but was gunned down at the plate by Hunter Pence to end the inning.

Lots of people only know Bautista for his homers, but he’s also a great outfielder. Bautista played RF last night and made a great, sliding catch in foul territory.

An odd highlight of the game, which I thought was very fun to watch, was Heath Bell’s hustling entrance. He always runs to the mound, but last night he added a little spark to it with a pop-up slide at the mound. The crowd loved it.

RBI’s from Prince Fielder, Andre Ethier, and Pablo Sandoval were what made up the 5 runs for the NL.

The American League was not as exciting as I thought they would be. NL’s bullpen really held them down. 2011 Home Run Derby runner up Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo shot in the top of the fourth for the AL’s only run of  game.

What really got the crowd going were the 4 Yankees that did not show up – Jeter, Rodriguez, Rivera, and Sabathia. The only player on the Yankees that I thought had a good enough excuse not to show up was A-Rod.  He recently had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee. Other than that, thinking of not showing up is just arrogant. Jeter just hit his 3,000th hit in straight class with a homerun. I am definitely not a Yankee fan, but I still had respect for the man. It would have been great if he showed up, that way his celebration could have been a nationwide thing instead of just in New York. Sorry guys, Jeter has emotional problems  and supposedly needs a rest. The others are just as arrogant as well.

Derek Jeter homers for his 3,000th hit

Yesterday in the Bronx, Derek Jeter collected hit number 3,000 the way he has collected so many others. Odds were that number 3,000 would probably come off of an inside fastball that he would fight off, and drop into right field like so many of his other hits have.  But that would be too boring.

In Jeter’s first at bat, he singled to left field for this 2,999th career hit.  El Capitan wasn’t messing around today, you could tell it was time to get this over with.  Before the at bat that could possibly produce the magical hit, the ball boy had to deliver the specially marked Jeter baseballs what were stamped with a serial number to assure their authenticity.   Always one for the dramatics, Jeter fouled off two straight with a full count as 56,000 fans stood on their feet.  Finally on pitch number eight of the at bat, David Price threw a curveball that Jeter waited on, and deposited into the left field stands.

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