How I became a Minor League Fan

I've been a Yankees fan for years before I learned about the minor leagues. I was fairly young and I was still learning about sabermetrics and the changing ideas about the game of baseball. Then, in about 2009 I learned of a man named Jesus Montero. Montero was the Yankees top prospect in their system despite him being a couple years from the bigs. He was supposed to be the Yankees new backstop once Jorge Posada retired. However, his defense wasn't all there which made him a possible career designated hitter or right fielder.

From then on I became more interested in the minors, for not only the Yankees, but for all teams around baseball. I figured it would be cool to see how the game's future stars played before they made the show.

My favorite story about a minor league player is how Mike Trout came up. In the online community Mike Trout was one of, if not the top prospect in baseball. Yet, outside of it not many knew who he was, or that was the case in my area. Everyone I knew was on the Bryce Harper bandwagon. While I was a bigger fan of Mike Trout's game. Trout is the poster boy for sabermetrics in the war against WAR, so naturally I'm a fan of his. Now, two years into both of their careers Trout is the better player of the two. Though both are extremely talented players and who's considered better could change within the next three seasons because baseball is baseball. Back in late August I came to the conclusion that Trout would be a top five player of all-time if his career projected out similarly to the way if has two years through. Now if I look at the numbers and project his career with updated numbers he might be the greatest of all-time.

Minor League Baseball even impacted my favorite hobby, sports writing. I've always used the web to get my sports thoughts and ideas out in some shape or form. I started off small and then slowly gained momentum with the amount of people who read my writing. After some years of polishing my prose, which is still being polished, I contacted John Sickels about writing for Minor League Ball. John was kind enough to let me on board, and I have learned a ton of things about writing and prospects from him. He was the first to give me a shot on a bigger stage. He's opened a lot of doors for me and for that I'm thankful.

Then a month or two ago I was talking to an online friend of mine. He just became a scout and I was curious as to how he did that. He told me his story and I noticed that he and I were very similar. We both showed interest in our teams' minor league systems and wrote about baseball. This is where I decided that I wasn't going to be a baseball writer, or a sports writer, but I was going to become a scout or a coach of some sort. Minor League Baseball has led me to a possible career path in something I actually care about. Which is all you can really ask for.