Welcome back, baseball fans!

Returning to my critique of Sports Illustrated top 100 baseball players, for No. 51 SI listed the Cardinals centerfielder Tommy Pham who is a rookie wonder. Also, think logically, a superstar like him only hits an XBH 34.6% of the time, which is awkward for a rising star so that sucks him down the garbage chute. He had a .411 OBP and he struck out 22% of the time which is really good for centerfielders and taking into account that Mike Trout is MLB’s best player and he only struck 17.7% (which is phenomenal because there is only SO 4.3% difference in between them) of the time. So Trout is just better. No doubt Pham is getting better and will get a better spot no doubt next year.

At 52^nd is Jake “Snake” Arrieta of the Philadelphia Phillies. Let’s just be honest. He’s hanging by a thread to be in this game. If his next few starts suck, then he’s going to be sent to the bullpen or out of baseball all together because no team will even think about signing him. Arrieta is nervous when he gets out on the hill and tosses a few innings. He had a 3.53 ERA (good for him), just under 170 innings pitched and the only thing he does half good is he keeps his hits down. Arrieta has come from a gum stain on the floor to winning the Cy Young Award and, coming in 6th in MVP voting only 2 years ago, he should go back and possibly switch with Dallas Keuchel.

Now comes the story of a guy who thought he would have a life in “The Banner State,” but at the end of the trade deadline of last year, he gets traded to sunny Los Angeles, where they really don’t appreciate his awesomeness and then gets traded to the north side of The Windy City to the playoff-going Cubs. Then he went downhill because of all of his crazy moving around. He went from a 2.83 ERA to a 3.44 ERA, a total of 10 wins and 12 losses and never had a lot of awards except All-Star selections. If he wouldn’t have gotten traded from Texas then he may have a chance of his spot, but not now with his just 186.2 innings, even though Joe Maddon at No. 53 knows that he just got a very good weapon and he trusts him, he gets by hitters by just junk, not his usual heat. If he could try a little harder (I’m not saying that he’s not trying.) he will almost be MVP, very close Cy Young, he may be worthy of all of it, but for now, at least 75th.

Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox is 54th on the list. When he was a rookie, don’t get me wrong, he was really good, he won Rookie of the Year and the Silver Slugger award for the 4th time in history to win both awards in the same year but then all of MLB forgot about him for about two years. And then he explodes in the 2017 season with 33 homers and a cycle, the most he ever had since his rookie year. He had 102 RBIs, also the most he had since his rookie year and 3 SBs, the same he had in his rookie season. He’s like a clone of his rookie year. He deserves a better spot in the Top 100 because of his stats, (check them!!!!) and speed and Rick Renteria can put him almost anywhere on the field including DH, he deserves 37th.

A.J Pollock of the Arizona Diamondbacks at 55^th is the guy who thought he is one of the best centerfielders in the NL (they don’t have much to choose from in the NL). Pollock should face reality, blink and rub his eyes a few times. He is not really good, he’s okay. 14 HRs, 40 RBIs and 20 SBs, he could carry the team, hmmm, half-way, hmmm, 18.289734520894% way, with Paul Goldschmidt doing the rest and that’s normal for any player especially (especially him) for a centerfielder. He is really fast too and could occasionally sneak into Sports Center Top 10 Plays, I think he deserves his spot.

As for my latest dugout thoughts:

Alright so, I think the news of the Mets is all over the world by now. The same record as the Yankees, loss to the Cardinals in extras by a walk-off single by Dexter Fowler, OK, enough of a very, very sad team that is going to lose until tomorrow when they win and going to go to the World Series. Wait, way too many fantasies, but, it’s possible. Ronald Acuna Jr. had his loooong awaited debut, one of the fastest already, second game, third on 4/27, already; launch angle too, first homer and the fans went nuts, he went crazy, he is officially craaazy. Speaking about Yu Darvish, he threw a sleepy 64 mph pitch to strike out Manny Pina. Albert Almora Jr.’s catch was off the charts, he was better than Kevin Pillar on that catch. It’s official, we have baseball’s first no-hitter in 2018, who threw it, wait, who is that S-s-s-Sean M-m-m-a-n-e-a-Manea, the A’s rookie sensation, threw not a perfect game, but just a no-hitter, still good.

So now that the games and the teams are settling in, the Wild Card still didn’t start. I won’t do a challenge now, oh, maybe I will, who are the top 5 fastest players in baseball, right now.

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