Moving right along with the countdown

90. Next guy up is Carlos Martinez, who still hasn’t made his first start of the season because of a right shoulder cuff strain. Throughout his career, Carlos has loved pitching deep in games, about 700 innings pitched in the past four seasons. He’s started 110 throughout those four seasons, so, that’s like 6.1, 6.2 innings a game, now that’s good. His accuracy is OK, though could be better, 264 walks in those four main seasons of his career and only 30 wild pitches. That number is that low because of 9-time Gold Glover Yadier Molina behind the plate. I know what you’re thinking, catchers deal with passed balls but without Yadi behind the plate, that number would be 50. He only allowed 60 homers. OK, just register that for a few seconds, 60 homers in four seasons. That’s Cy Young quality stats that I just showed you, but the crazy thing about it is that he hasn’t even been in the conversation. Just two All Star appearances, even without the awards, those stats deserve to be higher up on the list. Maybe low 50s, what was SI thinking?

89. Scooter Gennett is the first man in the 80s. He’s also injured with a “severe right groin strain and will miss 8-12 weeks of action.” (quoted from Baseball Reference) His average is pushing .290 for his career, .310 last year. This guy is a really valuable player for the Reds as they’re trying to emerge from the basement. He is a five-tool player without the speed, so, a four tool player. He’s a power hitter with 20 homers or more in each of his last two seasons. More than 200 total bases in each of his last three seasons. Even with the limited action for “8-12” weeks, if he hits 20 homers or more this season, this guy is the best pure hitter on the Reds. 2018 was really his breakout year – no injuries, for the first time in his career, more hits than games played and if you really look into the stats, first or second most everything in his career. He is a mixture of everything and he is really underrated and he is should be higher up on the list, maybe high-40s.

88. Blake Treinen is the next player on this list and this elite reliever has posted a 0.87 ERA (He’s not qualified for the leaders of the ERA, but if he would be qualified, he would be second). He has broken through the ice of being a rookie in a hitting league and struck out 100, career high, last year. He faced 41 batters this year and only 7 of them got on base, 14 of 41 he struck out. He only allowed one run to score on him. He is an elite reliever who can close out games. He has five saves already, that’s half of the wins.  Bob Melvin trusts him to shut out a game, he knows even if he allows a run, the A’s dynamic offense will come back. His fastball is topping out at about 98 mph, which is the speed of a Little League pitcher compared with the new heat the closers are coming out with. I think he should be 99 or 100 or not even on this list.

87. Rockies “ace” Kyle Freeland is coming up next. He’s started four times this year already and pitched 21.2 innings and allowed 21 hits, consistent, if I do say so myself. He struck out 23 hitters this year, so everything is around consistent for the season so far. That’s why I put the quotation marks around ace because he’s not Sandy Koufax but he’s not a mop-up man in the back of the bullpen. He’s the best the Rockies have. He’s allowing about 4-2/3 batters per inning. He has a 5.40 ERA in his five starts; he’s given up 14 runs. Kyle Freeland right now is the best that the Rockies have, they need run support to bear down and power through as their record right now is 3-12, oof. He’s probably mid-90s in my book.

86. Elite closer Edwin Diaz follows. Alright fellas, the first Met player of the year. Let me just start of by saying, were the writers doing something when they were writing this but 57 saves doesn’t go to 86^th best, maybe 30^th or so best. 91 saves in 2017 and 2018 and in those two seasons, 139.1 innings pitched and 85 hits allowed and a 2.58 ERA and 213 Ks with a 13.8 K/9, with those stats, he’s maybe mid-20s. The scary thing is he’s only 25, so then he has a lot of potential and could be the best closer in baseball for many years to come. But man, what were they thinking.

From today’s ballparks – I want to start off saying Fernando Tatis Jr. is an actual stud, hitting for power, 4 homers already, same as Bryce Harper, average .250, speed, he hasn’t shown it yet but the stat lines from the minors do say it, fielding, flew maybe 6 or 7 feet just to catch a line drive and has an arm like every great shortstop should have. Hats off to German Marquez, a complete game and allowed only one hit and rung up nine guys. He had a no-hit bid through 7.1 innings, still no-one has a no-hitter this year. The second Mexico Series happened between the Cardinals and Reds, the last game was today and the series was tied at 1-1. Tim Anderson hit a Grand Slam against the struggling Yanks and they won today. CC Sabathia went five innings, allowed one hit and struck out three, which proves that the big old man can still do it. The Phils went all the way to 14 innings with Miami and then Jean Segura blasts a two-run bomb to send the Phils home happy, I gotta say, the Phillies are putting up a fight for first in the NL East, but the Phils did have a nice offseason and got nice players but on the other hand, so did the Mets. CHRIS DAVIS FINALLY GETS A HIT AND HAS A GOOD DAY, FINALLY!!! He went 3-5 with four RBIs, now, don’t boost your ego too much Chris, take it easy, don’t hurt yourself. Cody Bellinger is on an absolute tear, he is insane, leading the MLB in runs, second in homers, same with Jose Altuve, homer in five games straight, the Astros and the Dodgers really got a run for their money with these two. Ronald Acuna Jr., since Monday has three homers, 9 RBIs and 7 runs, Acuna is really good when it comes to hitting the baseball, he’s got a lot of better years coming up. The Yankees are still without have their lineup and now have signed two new players, the local bartender and that guy that runs the convenience store on the corner, yeesh, injuries really hit them hard.

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