Have the Amazins Crashed?

But first: 80. Jameson Taillon is the first player for this week who I remember very distinctly because his debut was against the Mets. He pitched 6 times for the about .500 with the Pirates who are really struggling with offense. He’s given up a lot of runs in relation to his IP. Imagine only walking 6 guys in 31 innings, that’s crazy, Taillon has precision control. He just needs to throw the junk (or the speed) away to allow fewer hits and pitches right over the plate that lead to huge hits. Overall, I don’t see why Taillon can’t get an All-Star selection. I think maybe he’s high 60s on the list.

79. J.A. Happ is a veteran pitcher who pitching like he’s 27. In all of his pitches he feels confident as he should, all of them are really good. Hap doesn’t really go deep into games, he’s struck out 24 this year and he’s 36 years old, now that’s old. He gives up about a hit an inning, but his control is amazing, no wild pitches yet, only 8 walks, WOW. He relies on the strikeout to get about 17% of his batters retired and he retires about 70% of batters, I’m telling you, he’s good. With a few other pitchers in the AL, he’s another one that’s just consistent every time out there.  I think he should be in the low 60s.

78. Part of the Yankees, Aaron Hicks, who is a good, consistent extra-base hitter with speed and some pop. He is an amazing outfielder, except he has never won a Gold Glove, there’s always someone better, like Trout or Jackie Bradley Jr. He had a breakout season last year, with 27 homers, but not many RBIs for someone who has 27 homers, 79. His batting average isn’t good, his OBP and SLG isn’t really up to snuff. He had 224 total bases last year, above average for a player on the Yanks, fourth on his team. I would say he’s about in the top 7 on the Yanks for everything, he’s a crucial player for the Yanks to function, some might say Judge or Stanton or Gregarious, but no, it’s Hicks. I think he should be somewhere in the mid-60s or low 70s.

77. Here is a feel good, comeback story. Michael Brantley, a good contact hitter who was injured for a while but then came back and made a feel good story come true. To go along with that contact stuff, in a season where he played 100-plus games, his average has never been below .266, which, if you think about that, that’s good. The Astros signed him in the offseason realizing he’s a smart player and will lead your squad to success because he’s still got some gas in him (to play) and he will lead the young players to be better with charisma and tips. He has a .314 average with 33 hits and 5 homers. One third of his hits are extra base hits and that just proves that he’s in love with singles. I think he should stay where he is if not move up 10 spots on this list because he’s a dark horse in the AL and his talent is smothered by the rest of the amazing and talented ‘Stros.

76. Now here is a very dark horse to be this far down the list, very, very dark. Jack Flaherty didn’t seem no. 76 material, but then, after I did my research, the info reinforced my point. He allows a lot of homers, a lot of hits (more than a hit an inning), and faced 105 batters in only 24 innings. A 5.25 ERA. All of these factors don’t add up to being #76. One thing that I can dig up is that he strikes out a bunch of guys, about 30.5% of the hitters he faces. Only 1/3 of the guys he faces get on, anyway, those are two stats. He needs to work on his control and his precision accuracy not to put the ball right in the sweet spot for hitters. He’s dipped his feet into the water now he needs to put his head down and pitch the god!@#$ ball. He pitched a nice game last night, 7 IP, 4 H, 4 Ks, I mean, that’s a good outing. I think he should be in the high 80s, low 90s.

Ok, the Mets have officially burned out, they lasted about 20 games this year -- they lasted about 10 last year, they burned out. Pete Alonso is literally carrying the ball club now. 5-1 bottom 7d against the Brewers, Pete Alonso hits a three run dinger to put them within one. Then, top eight Jeurys Familia forgot how to play baseball. The ball was literally going foul, so, he picks it up and throws it to first, right when Yelich is about to step on the bag, run comes home and the Mets are within two, another run scores later in the inning, within three. The Mets never stopped fighting and bore down and scored a run, the game would’ve gone into extras if Familia hadn’t choked really badly. But, the Mets won today (4/28), OK, maybe we’re coming back.

Congrats to Albert Pujols on becoming 3^rd on the All-Time List of RBIs, passing the drug addict, but slugger Barry Bonds. Chris Sale is just horrible, making a French waiter just off the boat from France better than him (who knows nothing about baseball). The whole Red Sox organization is horrible, Mitch Moreland is leading the team in homers (7), but then he has only 18 hits, but then the hits leader, JD Martinez, who has 33 hits, has only 4 homers. Then five guys have either 14 or 13 RBIs. JD Martinez has 51 total bases, the leader of the Yankees piecemeal lineup which I will get to later, Luke Voit has 51 total bases. Then they only have five guys with over 40 total bases, then the sixth is 31. The consistency of this team is horrifying. The pitching staff has 109 SOs, only 109, Chris Sale is a 7 time All-Star, who has weirdly never one a Cy Young, this year he most certainly won’t win one now because he’s 0-5, he’s given up 19 runs in 23 innings, striking out 24. The lefty gave up 28 hits and surprisingly only 6 homers. Lucky for them, the Red Sox have a cushion under them, the cellar-dwelling Baltimore Orioles, who are just about saving them from going all the way down to last place. Cody Bellinger is a god, he’s leading or tied for first in homers, RBIs, runs and BA, hits, OBP, SLG and OPS. That is mind blowing, how can any hitter be that good? Brodie Van Waganen has decided to do some spring cleaning, oh yeah, designating Travis D’Arnaud for assignment, oh yeah, good move, Brodie. Now, Brodie has to get a good pitcher in Dallas Keuchel and Ervin Santana and his work is done until the Trade Deadline. The Yankees are 9-1 in their last 10 with a lineup in which I only know 3 guys, that’s insane. Well, a valid excuse is that they’re really only playing the bottom half of the AL, no one really good.