Welcome back, baseball fans!

J.D Martinez of the Boston Red Sox had topsy-turvy seasons the past few years going from Houston to Detroit to Arizona and now finally to Boston to join the Red Sox and try to have more success in the position of LF or DHing almost every day. He really reinvented himself to be a slugger with 45 homers, 104 RBIs and a .303 average to rank himself among the best in the AL East. Coming into 2018, he will have to partly carry the team and with help from Jackie Bradley Jr. (A veteran), Rafael Devers, veteran-to-veteran help from Eduardo Nunez and Dustin Pedroia, he is a big upgrade for the already great Red Sox lineup. As I see the Red Sox fight through the tough conditions of contending for the playoffs, the cornerstones of the club are veterans, well, most of them. He should get a better spot because a lot of players that are 30+ can’t hit even 25+ HRs.

I know what made the LA Dodgers lose the World Series, their bullpen, with only superstar Kenley Jansen as the closer, they need middle relievers, with a 3.1 WAR and 5 wins (pretty high for closers these days), 1.32 ERA and 41 saves. He has a combined 124 saves the last three full seasons. With 109 K’s and 293 the past three seasons – this is remarkably high for closers these days. He was an All-Star and was 5th in the Cy Young voting, only him, Zach Britton, Shawn Tolleson and Andrew Miller were in the Cy Young voting the past three years, mostly starters. I don’t know what the quartet of people writing this thought say; but he is one of the best, if not the best closer in the game though Greg Holland is good. He and Jansen were tied for second most saves in 2017.

Next up is also one of the elite closers in the game, Craig Kimbrel – Red Sox relief pitcher, who can close out a game no matter how hard it is to do it. He does it in my mind as the 2nd toughest division to do it in (The first is the NL West), he has the Bronx Bombers on one hand and Manny Machado on the other. He has other small power hitters like Hanley Ramirez, J.D Martinez, Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaegarts, Josh Donaldson, Kendrys Morales, Justin Smoak and Justin Schoop. He has 126 SOs, 35 saves, 5 wins (high for relief pitchers (The 126 SOs are the most out of any closer in the game (Again!!) and a 1.43 ERA. He is not trying to be a power pitcher with heat and lots of breaking balls. Kimbrel just is, and he looks for strikeouts opposed to groundouts or fly outs. He is not as good and consistent as Jansen but is certainly getting a spot in the 40s in my book.

Chris Taylor was meant to be the back outfielder that would only pinch-hit and play when someone was injured badly with the Dodgers, when he was with Seattle, no one even knew he was there, just playing 86 games there with no injuries in 2 and a half seasons there, only playing shortstop with no home runs, if he ever played. When he came to the Dodgers as a mid-season trade, he jumped right into the spotlight playing almost every game in the short time the season had left. Last season, he had 140 games, 148 hits, 21 HRs, 72 RBIs, 17 SBs and a .288 average, even racking up NLCS MVP for 2017. I don’t know what is in store for 2018 with five home runs already, but we don’t know him that well, he earns his spot well this year.

Ian Kinsler who has always tried to be a superstar at second base and it’s working and it’s going to work, because of his trade to Los Angeles. Now he could be the leadoff hitter for them and really produce. He isn’t really the consistent power guy a team like the Angels need but has some pop with 22 homers and the Angels really don’t need speed, and he and Mike Trout are the only 5-tool players (Ian Kinsler is kind of a 5-tool but when he leaps or steps on the gas, he’s really good.) that they have, he also has stolen base power in him and moderate doubles with 14 SBs and 25 doubles. He has 130 hits and the Angels are looking for a dependable lead-off hitter and finally they found one, for the Angels, he is really, really, really good, but for SI’s Top 100 baseball players, he doesn’t go that close to one, so he should get a spot a few spots before him.

And on to this season’s baseball diamond. 

The Dark Knight is in Gotham City and pitching woefully. Oh, wait, not any longer, he got traded to Porkopolis, Cincinnati, to meet the Reds. So he pitches four innings, allows one hit and got two strikeouts. Wow, now the trade is looking really bad, but not for the Mets, they got veteran catcher Devin Mesaraco, who is really overlooked. He might look a little heavy but he could save a lot of passed balls and has a huge swing for a 6-1 guy. He mostly has an upward swing that causes him to miss a lot of good pitches instead of driving them for base hits. When he finally hits one, he drives one either out of here or a pop out to the left fielder. Sorry, I’m a little late on this one, Albert Pujols joins an exclusive club, 3,000 hits, 600 home runs, with three other members: Alex Rodriguez (On route to Hall of Fame), Willie Mays (In the Hall of Fame) and Hank Aaron (In the Hall of Fame). What does that tell me? Well, Albert is going to Cooperstown.

The Amazin’ Mets actually batted out of order. You think this is a joke, or I misstated the real Mets for some Little League team? No, the New York Mets actually batted out of order, Wilmer Flores and Asdrubal Cabrera flip-flopped and Jay Bruce got called out, weird-but true. So the myth that Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge will hit more than 115 homers. They’re off to a slow start, 21 four-baggers in a little more than a month, will they? They already had 27 last season at this time.

When announcers or people on SportsCenter say that baseball is played a lot with young talent lately, they’re mostly focusing on the Braves, who have seven players age 25 and under, and four of them are in the lineup almost every day and three of them are pitchers. Robinson Cano is on the disabled list with a broken hand when he got hit with a pitch, hard, I saw it, it hurt when I saw it. Fransisco Lindor actually put on the wrong gear when he went up to bat, the wrong helmet so that his ear was prone to get hit.

Charlie Morton and the Astros’ pitchers are just really good, 14 strikeouts, Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers Jr., well, now I understand why they won the World Series and what is really crazy is that Carlos Correa is only 23 years old. Sean Newcomb is pitching great for the Braves and they were dead last in that crazy division two years ago, and the second place team: the Philadelphia Phillies were dead last year.

This division is crazy, but what is really crazy is that Miami, was second last year and now is last, hopefully, the Mets or the Nationals win the division because this division WILL get sent to the psychiatric hospital.

One last thing before I go, I know that home runs win ball games, but strikeouts and HRs have gone up, way up, not because of juicing, because of launch angle and a more upward swing, causing the hitters to miss really good pitches to drive for doubles and maybe triples. Now all players are focusing on home runs and even the new trend has got to me, I'm repairing my swing to be more base hits, and drive into the alleys like my coach says. This is exactly what Devin Mesaraco does to his swing and he makes contact either a round tripper or a routine flyout to left field.

Thanks for reading. Visits have reached 645. Have another hot dog on the way out.