José Soriano

Yikes, the Labor Day holiday somehow made me forget it was Monday and MLBoyfriend day. So, this week's entry will short and sweet--but the winner is no less deserving.

On Monday, August 25, José Soriano threw 5.2 innings against the Texas Rangers. He gave up just 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6 hitters. Then, he went 7 full innings against the Houston Astros on Sunday, August 31. He gave up only 1 hit and 3 walks while striking out 8. He gets bonus points for smoking two teams from Texas.

Soriano ended the week with 2 wins. He had a very low 0.71 WHIP and a 0.00 ERA.

Congratulations, José Soriano! You are my MLBoyfriend of the Week.

Week 12: Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani is possibly the best designated hitter in the MLB right now. At least the fans seem to think he is. He is handily winning the All-Star voting for the American League DH.

He put up some great numbers last week at the plate. He had a .292 average and 1.287 OPS with 5 home runs, 5 runs, 7 RBIs, and one stolen base.

Ohtani also happens to be one of the best starting pitchers in baseball. He had a solid outing on Thursday, July 17, scoring a win and a quality start. 

He pitched 6.0 innings giving up just one earned runs, one base on balls, and 5 hits.

In short, Ohtani had a very good week and earned the American League Player of the Week award for the third time in his career.

He's also pretty dreamy.

Congratulations, Shohei Ohtani! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. Clearly, this is more prestigious than MLB Player of the Week--because this is only the second time you've won this title. However, I see the strong chance of more wins in your future.

Week 15: Andrew Heaney

Andrew Heaney showed what he's made of with just one pitch last week. This isn't about athletic ability although he certainly has plenty of that. What Heaney displayed was pure heart.

Heaney's teammate, fellow pitcher and friend, Tyler Skaggs died on Monday, July 1st. Heaney pitched for the first time after that on Saturday, July 6th. His first pitch was a slow curveball, Skaggs's signature pitch.



Prior to the pitch, Heaney had written "45", the number Skaggs wore, on the mound.

Week 17: Mike Trout

At the tender age of 26, Mike Trout played in his seventh All-Star Game. He hit a home run in the game, and while he hits a lot of home runs, this one was notable for a couple of reasons. First, Jacob deGrom, who is one of the best pitchers in the baseball was pitching. The other is that it prompted Bryce Harper, who is not known for his lack of ego, to admit Trout is the best player in the Major League Baseball. Harper was giving an interview from the field when Trout hit his dinger, and you can hear his commentary in this video.



Mike Trout took to social media during the game and posted a selfie from the field with fellow American League All-Stars and MLBoyfriends, Aaron Judge and Mookie Betts.

#AllStarGame is always something special. Thank you for the hospitality DC!!!

A post shared by Mike Trout (@miketrout) on Jul 17, 2018 at 9:09pm PDT

I love this photo of Trout taking that pic because he looks little standing
next to Aaron Judge--and Mookie Betts looks tiny. FYI: Trout is 6'2", 135lbs.

On the very same day that Mike Trout was enthusiastically participating in the biggest promotional event in baseball, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that Trout was not doing enough promotion. 

“Mike has made decisions on what he wants to do, doesn’t want to do, how he wants to spend his free time or not spend his free time,” Manfred said in the hours before MLB’s All-Star Game at Nationals Park. “I think we could help him make his brand very big. But he has to make a decision to engage. It takes time and effort.”

Pretty much everyone including The Los Angeles Times, Deadspin, The New York Post, and even frickin' Gold Digest called bullshit on Manfred's comments. Even better, lots of folks took to social media to show why Mike Trout is not only the best player in baseball, he might be the best ambassador of baseball. Here's one of my favorite tweets:

A couple weeks ago at Camden Yards, I watched Trout pull a 6-year old out of the pregame crowd. He spent the next 15 minutes with the kid by his side during BP. Stretched with him, chatted with him. Even gave him his bat. Never seen anything like it. It looked like this. pic.twitter.com/eZhagoXeb4

— Eddie Matz (@ESPNeddiematz) July 18, 2018

For more, check out the Twitter hashtag: #MikeTroutMoments. Or this post aptly titled "Here's a bunch of videos of Mike Trout doing nice things for kids" from the USA Today sports blog For The Win's weekly feature, "Mike Trout Mondays".

Week 16: Kole Calhoun

I have two reasons for selecting Kole Calhoun as my MLBoyfriend. The first is that I love a Cinderella story in baseball. To put it kindly, Calhoun's season so far has been mediocre. His batting average so far is a measly .182. Now suddenly in July, his bat is getting hot.

Calhoun had a really good week last week. On Tuesday, July 10, he went three-for-four, with a home run, two RBIs, and three runs scored. He hit two home runs on Friday, July 13, which meant he alone scored all two runs the Angels scored in that game. He scored the winning run in the tenth inning of the game on Saturday, July 14.

Kole Calhoun makes a leaping catch on Saturday, July 14.

For the week, Calhoun had a .364 average, a 1.355 OPS, six RBIs and seven runs. He has only hit nine home runs all season and four of them were last week. He had a much better week than his superstar teammate (and two-time MLBoyfriend winner), Mike Trout. Last week, Trout had only a .282 average, .730 OPS, three runs, and no RBIs or home runs. 

Mike Trout passes the MLBoyfriend torch to Kole Calhoun.

Week 12: Mike Trout

I would like to officially welcome Mike Trout back to MLBoyfriend after far too long an absence. Somewhat shockingly, the only time he has won the title was September 6, 2016. This Angel doesn't need to wait in the wings any longer--because he crushed it last week.

Two of Trout's stats from last week are almost unbelievable: he had a batting average of .684 average and a 2.118 OPS. He also had eight runs, four home runs and seven RBIs. Oh yeah, his fielding wasn't too shabby either.

Here's a Mike Trout highlight reel from one game, the Angels' June 12th game against the Mariners. Many players would be happy to have this be their highlights from a full week of play.



It's no surprise that Trout is had a great week last week. He is having a amazing season so far. This is also no surprise because he has had one of  the most amazing careers in MLB history. Just 26 years old, Trout has been a star player for will player for seven years. and is already on track to break a ton of records. Check out this excellent article/video on "How Mike Trout stacks up to MLB greatests as he closes in on 1,000 games."

Week 2: Shohei Ohtani

I usually like to start posts with an action shot of my new MLBoyfriend. However, this week, I couldn't choose between showing Shohei Ohtani batting or pitching because he was amazing at both last week.

Ohtani had a .462 batting average and 1.654 OPS last week with four runs, seven RBIs and 3 home runs.

Then, on Sunday, Ohtani was nearly perfect on the mound for seven innings--striking out twelve batter, walking just one, and giving up merely one hit earning a quality start and a win.

Week 22: Mike Trout

Mike Trout has been a candidate for my MLBoyfriend almost every week this season--if for no other reason than I just wanted to use this picture.

Last week, he put up the numbers to earn the title. Last week, Trout had a staggering .556 batting average and 1.986 OPS with three home runs, eight runs and six RBIs. He even managed to steal a base. Very impressive numbers for a guy who has slumped in August in the past.

Unfortunately, there was some bad news for Trout last week. He was involved in a car accident on Wednesday in which a a woman was injured. I do not believe in lowering the bar for basic human behavior for athletes or other celebrities. That said, it seems this is not the type of tabloid story we are unfortunately used to with athletes. Trout rushed to help the injured person, cooperated fully with police on the scene and showed no signs of intoxication. Again, none of this is admirable per se; however, when I first saw just the headlines--especially the one in the New York Post--I was afraid it would be a deal-breaker. After "researching" the case (i.e., Googling "Mike Trout car accident"), this doesn't disqualify hm from being my MLBoyfriend. He had the day after the accident off, and was quickly back in form--hitting a home run at his first at bat on Friday.