Major League Baseball’s season began March 29 and a couple baseball players are excited to see their favorite team perform.

Sophomores Ty Walser, Dylan Tuttle, and Seth Ingle all prefer the Atlanta Braves, saying that they their fondness of the team comes from when they were children. Tuttle’s favorite athlete that played for the Braves is Hall of Famer third baseman Chipper Jones because he shares the trait of being a switch hitter, something that not many baseball players can do.

“My grandma met Chipper Jones in a bar one time,” said Tuttle. “Ever since then, I thought they were pretty cool and started going to their games.”

Ingle and Walser prefer Braves’ current first baseman Freddie Freeman, and Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine. Both Guilford baseball players say that these two MLB players perform exceptional and are enjoyable to watch. Currently, the team is 5-2 and half a game back behind the New York Mets for first place in their division.

“The Braves have the talent, but they have not been doing good the past couple years,” said Ingle. “They are doing well so far this year, so that was unexpected.”

Even though the Braves are heavily favored by the group of baseball players, sophomore Giovanni Garcia says that he has grown up liking the New York Yankees because of his dad.

“It goes back to my dad,” said Garcia. “He is from Brooklyn, New York. He always had a Yankees hat and Yankees gear on. He also always had it on TV, so I figured I might as well be a Yankees fan.”

Garcia used to enjoy watching Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez before they retired. He says that even though there was controversy over Rodriguez and performance enhancing drugs, he still loved to see him play.

During the offseason, the Yankees acquired the National League MVP powerhouse Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins. This led to speculation about how good the Yankees will perform this year. The combination of Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius and Giancarlo Stanton have attributed to eight of the team’s 13 homeruns so far this season. At 4-4 and third in the American League East, Walser says that the Yankees are liable to heat up this season due to this trade.

“I think the Yankees have a shot at doing well this year,” said Walser. “They added Giancarlo Stanton to their roster, so they have a lot of potential.”

Tuttle holds high hopes for the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers have not made it to the playoffs since 2011, where they lost in the National League Championship Series best of 7 against the Los Angeles Cardinals, 4-2. Since then, the Brewers have accumulated three seasons under .500, and one season barely above it at .502. Last year, however, they brought attention to themselves as they finished the season, 86-76, falling one game short and narrowly missing a postseason berth.

In the offseason of 2017-2018, the Brewers made incredible leaps into the trading market. They traded away four top prospects, but got in return several key assets that Tuttle believes will help boost the team to a surprising season.

The reigning World Series champions, the Houston Astros, are off to a great start this season as well. They are currently on top of their division with an 8-2 record. Their opponents from the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are struggling to compete. Second to last in their division, they broke a 4-game losing streak by beating the San Francisco Giants 2-1.

As for Guilford baseball, the men’s team prepares to head to Lexington City, Virginia to face Washington and Lee on April 14. They are attempting to scrap together conference wins after suffering a 4-game conference losing streak in late March.