Baseball's milestone man has 3000 reasons to smile

Memories of 2002 when the West took Wild Card !! I'm still bitter about that!! The West scares me as Oakland and Seattle can't hit to save themselves - and to be honest I am not convinced the sox are all that great - we have some real issues with the pitching and i only trust bard and albers in the bulpen right now Adrian Gonzalez - just an awesome hitter - a friend of mine from San Diego last year wrote that he never has a bad at bat - jesus he is close - the guy is a machine. Not sure he will keep hitting .350 though - that's absurd!!Check his home run last week vs. Baltimore where he leans into a ball and hits it to the deepest part of Fenway a little opposite field - left me speechless. I'm in love with him (already have two Gonzo shirts as well!) I'm pretty down on Crawford at the moment to be honest - but he should rebound a little. The trading deadline is getting me edgy - I can still tell you where I was and what I did the Nomar and manny were both traded minutes before the deadline , there will not be anything that drastic but I have a feeling he might trade Reddick who I am a HUGE fan of now that he is a little more patient. I did not know that about Vernon Wells at all - thanks for the heads up! Would love to see some ABL and hopefully if we don't get flooded this year I might head out to game in Brisbane in January . So Lackey and Figgins were awesome at the Angels are now are the laughing stock of their teams - what the hell is going on there?!?!?

LOL on Lackey. We offered him a decent contract (can't remember that exact details) thank God you gave him more. Wells looks like he is starting to produce, hopefully he can keep it going (were you aware he played a season in the old ABL?). Texas is a good club it will be a tight race for Division honours. i will be even bold enough to suggest that the W/C can come frm the West. Gonzalez has been a sensational acquisition for you guys, worth every dollar of his contract.

"Thanks for writing the article, Baseball is my religion!!!!!" Tell me about it - I am stoked to see some baseball fans here - we should try and keep this going - I will defiantly try and do a playoffs preview, maybe even something after the July 31st deadline as well leading into the pennant races. Speaking of trades - that K Rod trade to the Brewers is huge - I thought the Mets might have waited a little later to get more in return but that vesting 17.5 million option that is triggered if he appears in 55 games must have triggered their actions so early - in any case it might help the Brewers to a couple of wins but I think they have other issues with Pujols back so early from a broken wrist. Today is the absolute worst day of the year - no baseball what so ever - kills me. Dazell, I think you did the right thing leaving Kansas in 1995 (?) when Jeter debuted for the EE, but gee I hope they can turn it around soon. I'm a huge Hosmer ,Moustakas and Alex Gordon (so good to see him living up to his potential this year)

In my case the measure of the man is that I changed to supporting the Yankees from the Royals purely because of Jeter. Like Jeter (but certainly not in the ability stakes) I have never been a power hitter as a short stop but could always be relied on to make contact and have a decent OBP and average and to be a leader on the field. What I like most besides his off field demeanour is that he just gets stuff done and is one of those players who always seem to be in the right place to make plays other players would not have covered. Yes he's getting old but an article I read recently said most pitchers would prefer to have him there than Eduardo Nunez who is a better defensive player with better range simply because they feel Jeter is a safe bet when balls that should definitely be outs are made outs. That is they are happy to sacrifice on his range in the knowledge he wont stuff everyday plays up like a less experienced player might. Rodriguez is a freak but he really did himself a dis-service with regards to the steroids. Thanks for writing the article, Baseball is my religion!!!!!

Exactly - it will almost be comical how he gets less attention then Jeter and rightly so. Next up will be maybe Johnny Damon then Miguel Cabrera I think - my god he can hit. East is one damn tough division , I'll say that. Really exciting times right now for the Angels with Trout coming up - this kid looks to be real special. Weaver and Haren at the top and even just replacement level production from Vernon Wells (what's worse, the fact that the Angels took him, or the fact that they ate his whole contract!?) and Hunter and they should really beat Texas. I don't think we play them again this year but 7 (?) times this year will do me. You guys don't want John Lackey back at all?? His ERA is under 7 now , he can only improve... Sox rotation looks to be in dire straights right now but they can hit - Adrian Gonzalez is on a whole other level so far.

Rodriguez of course has the problem of admitting to steroid use. We'll never know what his performances would have been without taking them but apart from Yankee fans I doubt there'll be much applause when he gets to 3000. BTW Phil as an Angels fan I'm always happy to see the Sox & Yankees beat each other up.

Agree, re-reading my post it looks like I am really down on the guy , that comes from being a fanatical Red Sox fan. We always joked that his 3000th hit would be a classical Jeter in field hit , which he seems to have so many of now... He is already in great company getting to 3000 , and to be fair he didn't bring the club down at all reaching the feat where as Craig Biggio did with the Astros. What is going to funny is that in a year or two is that A Rod will reach 3000 and get no where near the adulation (even though he hits more an immense amount of power). If Jeter rebounds and has a year like 2009 then anything is possible - and the type of hitter that he is , he just might reach 2009 levels - the guy is in great shape and has always hit with a high BABIP anyway. He could have a year where an extra 30-40 outs from a previous year find a way to land in the outfield or dribble past short or second base.... Next thing you know he is batting .300 again and asking for an extension. If he got to 4000, I would combust though - it was hard enough watching him get 3000! At least the Sox won ten of eleven while he did it I guess.

Jeter getting to 4000 is a long shot for sure Phil although to be fair he's in good company given that only two players (Rose & Cobb) ever got to that mark.

Love seeing some baseball written here - my favourite sport by a country mile , and this season has been great so far. While I am happy for Yankee fans and still can't believe he homered off David Price of all people , Jeter is next to a zero chance of 4000 hits, he only projects to barely get 180 hits this year and is declining now for the second straight year. Actually he's been bad for three of the last four seasons... http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jeterde01.shtml I can not see him getting another 3 year contract like he did in the past off-season. His range is horrible at SS (always has been) and he needs to play 6 years to get to 4000. If he is serious about his legacy he will retire gracefully sooner rather than later. He really is having a horrible year this year - .270 .330 .353 - is not good enough for a lead off hitter unless you are a Kansas City Royal. "Jeter has an astounding seven world titles to his name" I have him at 5 - 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. Should be an interesting run home - like I said - great to see someone writing about baseball here - keep it up!!

Not a fan of the Yankees but congratulations to Jeter. All the more amazing is that he is just the 11th player to accumulate 3000 hits with the one team.

Awesomely written article, nice to see an aussie writer with real baseball insight