Derek Jeter

The American League East is the most competitive division in baseball. From this division, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles made the playoffs last October. The Tampa Bay Rays came up just short in their playoff push, but have competed for the division crown in each of the past five seasons.

The five-time Atlantic League Champion Somerset Patriots have hired Shane Spencer as their hitting and third base coach. For those who don’t remember, Shane Spencer was in large part responsible for one of the greatest playoff moments in the history of the game.

Collectively as a professional fraternity, sports journalists seem to think they are an extremely bright and witty bunch. Whether engaging in snarky Twitter wars with perceived imbecile readers or not allowing comments on their pristine works of art (looking in your direction, Mike Lupica), they seem to sit high atop their soapbox completely invulnerable of public criticism and immersed in their superior infallibility.

The image of Derek Jeter playing for a team other than the New York Yankees is difficult to visualize. 

Jeter wearing a different uniform (and likely playing a position other than shortstop) would seemingly cause a rip in the fabric of the universe. This is the sort of thing that just isn't supposed to happen.

Derek Jeter is one of the best players to ever play the game for the Yankees. When you are a legend in your sport, you get rewarded with millions of dollars - and a revolving door of hot girlfriends.

We have seen Jeter with numerous ladies that we expected - and often hoped - he would finally settle down with. Every time the public has come to expect him to finally have found the 'one,' we get another one of those breakup tabloids.

In January of this year, the New York Times ran a story that said the Yankees are saving now for a potential free-agency splash next winter.

Count Derek Jeter as one of the biggest early-season surprises in baseball.

Only a couple of months from his 38th birthday, the Yankee captain has had perhaps the best start of his Hall of Fame career. He entered the second game of the series against the Texas Rangers batting .411 with 30 hits and a 1.08 OPS.

It was 9-0 in the fifth inning.

Everything was looking in favor of the Red Sox on Saturday after they had chased Freddy Garcia in the second inning and forced Joe Girardi to go to the bullpen.

The "it was" phrase is a common phrase uttered a lot in Boston.

Like, it was 3-2 in the 1986 World Series. And it was 5-2 in the eighth inning of the 2003 ALCS.

On Saturday, it was 9-0 Red Sox heading into the sixth inning.

The situation is simple. It’s late in a scoreless ballgame, there are no outs and the number six batter gets a single up the middle. It would only make perfect sense for the next batter to bunt and move the base runner to second, right?

Now that Derek Jeter has reached (and then quickly surpassed) the 3,000-hit mark, I think it’s time to see how Robinson Cano’s young career stacks up to the New York Yankees captain's early years.

Jeter is halfway through his 17th season (16th full season), whereas Robinson Cano is halfway into just his seventh season in the bigs.