2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider: The Top 100 Prospects & More (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781482692044)

Lastoria was born and raised in Northeast Ohio and has lived here all 38+ years of his life. He has grown up as a diehard Cleveland Browns and Ohio State Buckeyes fan, but his entire life he has been following the Cleveland Indians with a passion and deep love for baseball. He has been playing and/or following baseball since he was five years old. Since he can remember that passion for baseball has permeated the minor league baseball scene, and over the past decade-plus minor league baseball now rivals his love for Major League Baseball. Back in 2003, Lastoria started to write about the Indians minor league system for a few different media outlets, and eventually spawned a weekly column called "Minor Happenings" which recapped all the news, notes, and developments in the Cleveland Indians farm system each week. That piece brought about a relationship in 2006 with SportsTime Ohio, the Indians' cable TV home where he began doing freelance stuff outside of the weekly column, and still does so with a blog he has on the new FoxSportsOhio.com site. As things grew bigger in scope, the idea of his own site to better categorize all of his writings came about, and thus the Indians Prospect Insider was born on October 24, 2007. The site has grown a lot over the years as what was initially setup to merely be a blog to post quick updates and such, quickly turned into a legitimate website chock full of information in regard to the Cleveland Indians not just in the minor leagues but the big leagues as well, and on January 1, 2013 the name was changed to Indians Baseball Insider. Over the course of the season Lastoria will travel around and visit all of the Indians' minor league affiliates several times each to get a feel for the players and interview them, various Indians coaches, managers, front office executives, and coordinators in the organization. He also speaks with several executives and scouts for other organizations as well in order to get a good balance of the information he acquires. You'll get no better coverage of the prospects in the Cleveland Indians' farm system and the philosophies of the organization than right here in this book and on Lastoria's website. Several new articles are posted every day and 365 days a year, and you can always expect lots of prospect analysis pieces, scouting reports, interviews, news, inside information, and more.