late-season game last season in which both players drew five personal fouls (two against Norman).Norman, who was head-butted by

Weve all been there: Your favorite team encounters tough times and your focus turns from the misfortunes of the big club to that group of cant miss prospects down on the farm.For me, when I was young, it was the early 1970s Philadelphia Phillies. In 1971, they finished last in the NL East, 4? games behind a third-year expansion team from Montreal that had lost 110 games its first season. Instead of focusing on the travails of Joe Lis and Bobby Pfeil, I read the newspaper references to youngsters such as Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski and Mike Anderson and dreamed of better days to come.Trouble is, those guys dont always pan out (see also, Mike Anderson). Even among those who go on to have successful major league careers, the payoff at the major league level isnt always immediate. Hall of Famer Schmidt had a cup of coffee in the bigs in 72, and then batted .196 in his first full year as a regular in 1973 before lifting off from there.Over the past couple of years, there have been a number of young prospects who have not paid immediate dividends. These range from high-end prospects such as Byron Buxton, Joey Gallo and Orlando Arcia, to accomplished Cuban veteran Yulieski Gurriel, to under-the-radar breakthrough Mallex Smith. Ultimately, their ability to handle adversity and make the necessary adjustments under the glare of MLB-level pressure will determine their respective places in the game.But what do the numbers tell us? Looking at some granular ball-in-play data for these players, lets compare some of those markers to some current upper-end major leaguers who struggled at first before rising to their current station in the game. Cheap Custom Astros Jersey . -- Mike Smith never saw his first NHL goal go in. Custom Jeff Bagwell Jersey . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2. http://www.customastrosjersey.com/ . Barcelona also left injured defenders Carles Puyol, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba out of its squad for the trip to Glasgow. That means that Marc Bartra will probably start again in the centre of the defence alongside Gerard Pique. Cheap Astros Jerseys .Y. - Jerome Samson scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the St. Custom Astros T-shirts .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman said that he thinks NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is straight horrible and that he has no problem with the nickname of his new team?in the cover story in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine.Im part Native American on both my moms and my dads side. Its kind of a funny thing, though. A redskin playing for the Redskins, he said,?in a story written by senior writer Kevin Van Valkenburg.Norman also said hes the best cornerback on Earth and asked when?New York Giants receiver?Odell Beckham Jr. would grow up.?The issue, which has Norman on the cover, will be available on newsstands Thursday.?Normans franchise tag was rescinded by the Carolina Panthers this past offseason, and he then signed a five-year, $75 million deal with Washington in April. He told The Magazine that he felt constrained in Carolina, that he was asked to cut down on his trash talk but wouldnt because Im not a fake.He said the teams conservative nature made him expendable.They kind of shunned me, he said. They turned down a lot of stuff for me, interviews, sponsorship deals, stuff I didnt even know about. They wanted it to be about the two main guuys, Cam [Newton] and Luke [Kuechly].ddddddddddddIn Washington, he said he thinks he can grow....[I]t feels like everybody can say whatever they want, he said. Its a free-flowing kind of place. Its like going from a dictatorship to freedom.Norman saved some of his most pointed comments for Beckham, whom he scrapped with during a late-season game last season in which both players drew five personal fouls (two against Norman).Norman, who was head-butted by Beckham, said the effects of that lasted for more than a week.Everybody saw what he was, Norman told The Magazine. People from around the league were coming up to me afterward and saying, He does that crap all the time. He lost so much respect from people for that little tantrum. Ive already got a couple people telling me, OK, Ive got a hit out on him. Its going to be rough for him this year. And he brought it on himself.Hes skilled and talented. I wont take that away from him. But hes never been through any adversity in his life. Its like, when are you ever going to grow up? ' ' '