Baseball

Yasiel Puig entered the 2014 Home Run Derby with some implicit expectations on his shoulders.

Being 23 years old and built like a brick outhouse, Puig came into the ball-spanking competition with the general assumption that he would wow the crowd, if not win the competition.

So it came as a none-too-tiny surprise when Puig, a decent power hitter by any measure, failed to hit a single home run in the Derby on Monday night.

It's impossible to put together a bad starting lineup at the All-Star game. After all, we are talking about nine of the best players in both the American and National League, but some moves do raise an eyebrow in a good or bad way. 

The job for AL manager John Farrell and NL manager Mike Matheny is to put their best foot forward and give their team a chance to win, thereby securing home-field advantage for their league in the World Series. 

It has become redundant to say, but the Oakland A’s made the biggest assault on a possible 2014 World Series title when they added Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to their already-dominant pitching staff on the Fourth of July.

Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton looked like the odds-on favorite to win the 2014 Home Run Derby Monday night after clubbing six homers in the first round. He didn't hit a single one in the semifinals, though, and the new format may have been the culprit.   

Not that the Oakland Athletics needed more good vibes in 2014, ending the first half with the best record in Major League Baseball and acquiring Jeff Samardzija before the All-Star break, but

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• Yoenis Cespedes