Welcome back, baseball fans.

Sorry about my silence but I had projects for finish for school. Imagine!

The Space City legend Dallas Keuchel, who they take real good care of, I mean, if they could, they would give him 7 to 9-day rest, but, they can’t because the Astros are a game behind the Mariners. Wait, the Mariners? Wow, I thought they were like third or fourth or even last in their division. They also limit his innings (which they shouldn’t), to limit his arm so he can go longer the next game or so he could put a little more something on his pitches. He has 142.2 innings which is low and 125 SOs which is low for a guy like him. He has a 2.90 ERA and only allowed 50 runs last season over 23 games. Keuchel faced 518 batters and 116 got a hit and 19.9% of batters got a hit. Max Scherzer had a 16.1% of batters getting a hit. He is getting old, and he should be pushed over to a better spot despite his 23 games and 14 wins against only 5 losses, which is stupendously good for a 30-year-old.

Next is, Kyle Hendricks, wait, who is he again? Oh, right, he’s the Cubs’ new guy. That was 2014, well now he’s one of the Cub’s aces (and they don’t have any except for Jose Quintana and that’s stretching it) with 139.2 innings. Hendricks could have had more but his innings were stabbed in the back and the knife was twisted by injuries. Just keep in mind he is pitching in the really tough NL Central, which gives him a really hard time to be good. But he is surviving, he is one of the aces of the NL too, but, not as good as DeGrom or Scherzer. He has a lot of work left ahead of him, he should get a spot closer to the best.

Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays is the next up, he is one of the youngest, shortest best starting pitchers in the AL East, with his short delivery and frame. He played in 33 games last year, pitching 201 innings, 13 wins, 164 SOs, giving up only 21 HRs. If your brain wants to chew on something….chew on this, Marcus Stroman allowed 21 homers last year which is the same amount of dingers as Corey Kluber, and one LESS homer than Max Scherzer, those two players that I compared Stroman to, they won the Cy Young for their leagues last year. Those stats speak for themselves. 201 hits, 82 runs. He only plunked six batters and has the occasional bad outing but not as much as most mediocre-to-good pitchers, he should get a spot in the 40’s.

Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. is next and is more than a AL East superstar, he is a AL superstar, he is getting short bursts of hits and could get consistency out of himself. Somehow his average isn’t that high, he could slug too, with a .402 slugging percentage and 118 hits and his rare pop of speed with 8 stolen bases  and has five already in 2018 and he beat out three triples last year and has one this year. To tell you the truth, he could legit fly up to last year until he got a small injury, he could still fly like crazy, just not as much. He got to the offseason, and then rehabbed and he will fly, I bet that this year he will get more SBs than he got last year. He should work on the power, the only thing he should look at is and fix is his power. Last year, John Farrell trusted him so much that he put him in the lead-off spot which is really good, but then you look at this year, batting ninth every single day, it doesn’t mean that he’s bad, it just means that Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi are just better than him (maybe not Andrew). He should stay where he is or move up a very few spots.

The next champ is the greatest Baltimore second baseman that baseball has seen, Jonathan Schoop, who has remarkable power with that really, really upward swing of his bat and the ball has nowhere else to go but out of the park. He was first on his team with WAR and RBI and second in Ruthian Blasts with 32 homers last year and 67 extra base hits, the same with fellow second baseman, Jose Altuve also had 67 XBHs, Altuve had a higher average and more stolen bases, but Schoop had more dingers and more RBI, who’s better? I really don’t know. It’s obviously Altuve but Schoop is not far behind. He could drive in runs with 105 RBIs which is tied for twelfth in MLB last season and was first among qualified second basemen. He can also hit for average with a .293 which is 5th among second basemen, he also has the trained power of plate discipline. These days, who has natural plate discipline? (Weird, natural, really, never heard of it)  He waited for a career high of 35 BBs, and he is really showing to the baseball world that he is one of the most powerful infielders in the major leagues.

As for this season’s diamond …

So the Red Sox DFAed (designated for Assignment which means that the team that has 10 days to trade him or else, he gets released). With Wilmer Flores going to the shelf to join the party that’s not playing and not helping the Mets try and win a game, what do the Mets do? Well, their general manager, can I even call him a general manager, more like a couch potato that gets paid to sit at his desk and watch his team drop “rock bottom” as Mickey Callaway said, from a very high place in his office. He should sign Hanley to play first and you CAN’T let Adrian Gonzalez play every day and Jay Bruce playing first is like letting Mike Trout be the catcher, let Bruce play his natural position in right field (I’m thinking about playing Bruce in left field. Maybe, just maybe.) Adrian Gonzalez not playing every day, but play and put Hanley somewhere because the Mets NEEEEEEEED a bat, any bat and right now, Hanley is their Numero Uno choice.

The Mets lose again, wow; they get swept by the Cubs in a FOUR-game series, wow. I went to the game on Friday with my class and they lost. So you know one of those T-shirt cannons at games, well, I was talking to two of my friends and then BLAMMMOOOOOOOOO, I get hit with a T-shirt flying 50+ mph in my neck, then guess what, the shirt fell down to the people below me and my classmates. Crazy, right? Just crazy and funny.

Back to baseball. Javier Baez actually stole home against the arguably worst pitcher on the Mets, Steven Matz, so when Wilson Contreras played the worm on the hook and Matz throwing to pick him off, Baez in the meantime was sprinting home at full speed and guess what? The throw is a little late, by maybe a millisecond, but Kevin Plawecki pretty much didn’t want to put the tag on him and Baez took advantage of it and swiped home. Wow, the Mets really and I mean really suck on defense.

Most people know that Danny Farquhar had a brain aneurysm, so, Danny came to Guaranteed Rate Field and threw out the first pitch, little off, but he’s a pitcher. I don’t know if it’s just luck or are the Cardinals the super team right now, they have walked off 2 of their last four, Ozuna had a grand slam on June 3 and homer no. 100 on 6/2 and Michael Wacha actually took a no-hitter in to the ninth inning and then Colin Moran singled as a pinch-hitter.

Right now: You can vote for the 2018 All-Star team right now at MLB.com (there are many more cool things on MLB.com than you think, lots and lots of cool stuff every day.) and you click on it and then you can vote and each person that votes could win a RV, pretty nice, the 89th All-Star Game will be on June 17, 2018, at Nationals Park in Washington DC and it will be broadcast on FOX. When Giancarlo Stanton hit his 12th home run of the season on June 2, it landed right in a bachelorette party at Camden Yards, right there, he crashed a bachelorette party, but he wasn’t even there. On June 4, the 2018 MLB Draft will be in Secaucus, NJ, at 7 PM and will airing on MLB Network.

So my question is: How many All-Star appearances plus Silver Sluggers times Gold Gloves did Ivan Rodriguez have in his career? (All-Star + SS x GG=) That’s my question.

Thanks for reading.