Greetings, baseball fans! Opening Day is history. We have 161 more exciting baseball games ahead of us.

Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds is the star player on a team that has been around from 1890 to 1953 and from 1960 to today and only had 17 playoff appearances. They aren’t really a playoff-savvy team and now they found a star in Joey Votto. They thought he could lead the team, and he did, in his fourth year, which is a heck of a lot later than Cincinnati expected he would in 2010 when he had 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, and a .324 average, was an All-Star and even won MVP then. He was still good but Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Howard and Mark Teixeira were the guys who were really better than him but then he bounced back last season with a season almost touching his best. Votto really deserves his spot as fifth.

The Colorado Rockies’ Nolan Arenado is a player who is in the right position. He could have a walk-off cycle one day then go 1 for 3 the other day with a pair of Ks, but what covers up for that fact is that he has 35+ homers the last 3 seasons, and 130+ RBIs the last three seasons too, I won’t even touch his speed, that part of him is really tough to talk about…… he could hit .285+ average and plus 350 total bases and could slug .570 plus over the last three seasons yearly. Arenado is a good fielder, one of the best fielding third basemen of all time; he should get his spot again or a better spot.

Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros should go back to 12^th because first off, he is really over-rated but good at fielding for a really over-rated player. Here’s the spot where you say, “OK, this guy’s crazy; he’s going to move Correa somewhere back.” Well before you close this, read the end of Carlos Correa paragraph and I might convince you otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, he is really good, he is one of the best AL shortstops of all time. His launch angle is a one that spells out dinger with 24 of those last year and he could get in some of those Derek Jeter’s signature throws to beat out even Byron Buxton. Correa managed to get 50 extra base hits last season and he got an XBH 37.5% of the time last season and he should move into the newly vacant spot of 12^th.

Really, no one could be the judge of a pitcher-position player comparison, Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians is better than Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks because, I’ll be straight with you, fans, he is a really good power hitter, but Kluber is a better overall player. His pitch variety, he can mix them up and fool the batter without his own catcher Yan Gomes knowing what’s happening. Kluber has a tantalizing slider and he can fire the pitches and then throw a curve that is 70 mph. Goldschmidt is a homer-prone first baseman with that speed that first basemen don’t have with 18 steals, he can also put up an average of about .300. The 30-year-old first baseman has great years ahead of him, but even the WAR (Which means the higher your WAR is, the worse your team does without you) says that “Klubot” is better than “Goldy” with a 5.8 against an 8.2.

The New York Mets won their season opener in spectacular fashion, pulling off a win against one of the teams that has great players this year. First off, some of the Mets fans’ hopes were down after “Yadi’s” two-run homerun, but the Mets held on with “La Potencia” getting a two-run single and tacking on another run. Later, with 10 Ks from Syndergaard and everyone coming together, Familia sealed the win. The Mets have the best Opening Day win percentage with a .643%, no other team has a percentage above .600. Today’s OD had some shocks, Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs hit a homerun on the first pitch of the season. Noah Syndergaard fanning 10, a walk-off win on a line drive homer by Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles. The Stanton era began with two booms off of Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees and Matt Davidson of the Chicago White Sox crushing 3 goners, for the fourth time in MLB history. The Los Angeles Angels wonder Shohei Ohtani singled on the first pitch he saw and Lewis Brinson of the Miami Marlins made a hopeful debut. Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves will hopefully make his debut later this season. This is an Opening Day to go down in the books.

See you soon, fans, with more player reviews.

Hello baseball fans – you behind home plate, the one up in the cheap seats, and you, still chomping on your hotdog.

Welcome to my baseball blog.

I decided to launch this blog because after reading an article on the top 100 baseball players in Sports Illustrated I felt the writers were sometimes right and sometimes off. This is my spin on those 100 players, as well as others and America’s pastime.

I’m Yulian Avhustyn, a fifth grader and Little League ballplayer.

Hope you stay with me through strikes, balls, outs and home runs till the Fall Classic.

Have another hotdog before you leave.

In Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 Baseball Players, Mike Trout and Jose Altuve are “un-arguably” baseball’s best players.

Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels has 100+ RBIs, 30+ homers, 30+ stolen bases, +.300 average and 600+ plate appearances and is a full-fledged member of the 30-30 club. He is one of the five-tool players scattered across baseball, which is a rare quality in this time in baseball. With his great catches and great attitude he is definitely the best player in the MLB.

Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros is the second best middle infielder (fielding-wise) after Cleveland Indians’ Francisco Lindor and hitting for an average of a whopping .346 average and he has big power with 24 homers and 67 extra base hits in that Little League-size height of his. With those little legs he stole 32 bases; he is one of the elites of the baseball.

But the 3^rd one: Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs does definitely not deserve this spot – he’s good, but just not third-place-good. I think that Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals and he should switch spots without a second’s hesitation. They are virtually the same in hitting but Harper has better long-ball hitting but Bryant is better at fielding however when Harper gets on a roll, WATCH OUT!!!!!!! Kris Bryant doesn’t get on with big power streaks but could hit to all fields, (Which is a rare quality in this modern baseball age), and could hit really big homers but is not as good as Bryce Harper in the hitting for power and average and arm power. Harper can hit more homers and gets more RBIs than him and could slug more.

The Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer should DEFINITELY NOT be 4^th. First off, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers should be switched with Scherzer, Kershaw is strictly better pitcher and has a better sliders and breaking balls and ERA plus the strikeouts, with a 2.31 ERA and 202 SOs. On the other hand, Scherzer just has a decent enough fastball who can put something on it and has stacked up the wins.

 Mookie Betts, the star outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, could really lead the team and drive in those runs and go 2 for 3 with a walk in almost every game, judging that this is the top of the list, he is lucky that this is the beginning, he was ranked well with his 24 HRs and 26 stolen bases. He can also hit for an average of a good .264 average, unlike most centerfielders.

More players later.

In the meantime, Let’s Go Mets!