Week 17: Mike Yastrzemski

When I saw the news that rookie Mike Yaztrzemski hit his first walk-off home run in the majors yesterday, I thought, "How cool that Carl Yaztrzemski has a son playing baseball." 

It took a while to sink in that a player that I can easily remember playing—I was able to drive when he retired—has a grandson playing for the San Francisco Giants. 

Yaz was famously old for a baseball player (a whopping 44!) when he retired, but still...

Special All-Star Break Edition

Welcome to the first All-Star MLBoyfriend Tournament.

This year, I'll be picking my  All-Star MLBoyfriend from the Home Run Derby participants. There are three reasons for this. First, I saw a lot more of the Home Run Derby than I did the actual All-Star game, so I can make a better informed choice. Second, there's a more manageable pool to select from. Finally, MLB nicely created this very handy bracket for me to use.

Week 26: Tyler O'Neill

This should be the most exciting time in baseball with lots of teams fighting to get into the postseason. Unfortunately, there aren't that many exciting races this year. That's why it's fun to watch teams that are in the hunt for one of the few spots left open. The St. Louis Cardinals are one of those teams and they have been having a great run. On Saturday, September 22, Tyler O'Neill gave the Cards a much needed win with a walk-off home run, and it is a joy to watch.



Wait a minute. Is O'Neill shirtless at the end of that clip? I believe he was. Is there a better look at what happened? Why, yes, there is.

Tyler O’Unit with the #walkoff.

You’re going to want to watch to the end. 😉 pic.twitter.com/8pEGN6uRD0

— MLB (@MLB) September 22, 2018

How does O'Neill feel about having his jersey and undershirt ripped off by his teammates? Fortunately, at least two news outlets thought to interview him about just that after the game. And, they both included more footage of the event.





Anyone who follows this blog knows that O'Neill gets bonus points for being Canadian. He gets double bonus points for having a father who named Mr. Canada.

Week 21: Ronald Acuña Jr.

Ronald Acuña Jr. has been on my radar for much of the season. This is the week Atlanta's likely National League Rookie of the Year is finally my MLBoyfriend.

Acuña had eleven runs, four home runs, nine RBIs, three stolen base, a .464 average, and 1.523 OPS last week. He had an amazing home run streak that ended on Tuesday, August 14. He hit homers in five consecutive game and--even more impressively--he hit lead-off home runs in three consecutive games. Speaking of his Rookie of the Year possibilities, at the age of just 20, Acuña is the youngest player to hit home runs in five consecutive games in over a hundred years and the youngest ever to  hit three lead-off home runs.

Week 9: Gleyber Torres

2017 was the summer of Aaron Judge--at least here at MLBoyfriend. 2018 looks like it might well be the summer of Gleyber Torres. The rookie is off to a great start this season.

Last week Torres had his best at the plate with .318 average, 1.400 OPS, nine RBIs, five runs, five home runs. Speaking of those home runs, he managed to set a couple of records with them.

• On Monday, May 21, twenty-one-year-old Torres became the second youngest Yankee to hit two home runs in one game--Mickey Mantle was twenty years old when he set the record in 1952. Fun fact #1: On May 6, Torres broke one of Mantle's "youngest" records when he became the youngest Yankee to hit a walk-off home run--he was 45 days younger than when Mantle set the bar. Fun fact #2: Torres hit both home runs off of Bartolo Colon--Torres was three months old when Colon made his major league debut in 1996.
• Torres became the youngest player in American League history to hit home runs in four consecutive games with his fifth homer of the week on Friday, May 25. 

Torres bat didn't really heat up until recently--he's hit all of his eight major league home runs in May and, as mentioned, five of them last full week of May. However, his defense has been on point from the start. Yankees manager Aaron Boone has been very impressed with Torres fielding. After Gleyber's first week in the majors, Boone said this of him:

"He looks like a seasoned second baseman with a shortstop’s arm. I knew he was a good defender but I think he’s been great out there. There’s a confidence, there’s a heartbeat, there’s a clock that he plays with out there that’s really impressive. More so than maybe I even thought."

I was watching the Yankees v. Houston game while writing this post, and saw Torres make two great catches--confirming why I chose him this week.

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.

Rookie of the Year: Aaron Judge

This will probably be the least surprising blog post in the history of the internet. But here goes...

The MLBoyfriend Rookie of the Year award goes to Aaron Judge!

Get used to seeing Judge win a lot of  awards this fall. With 98% of the vote, he was just named American League Rookie of the Year by Sporting News.

Judge hit 52 home runs this season--the most ever in a rookie year.

A lot of attention has been paid--rightfully--to Judge's batting stats. He had a .284 batting average (which admittedly is good but not great), a 1.049 OPS, 114 RBIs, 124 runs, and, of course, the 52 home runs. However, he's also a monster in the outfield--making great catches like this one from the last game of the ALCS.

Week 15: Aaron Judge

In theory, my MLBoyfriend is chosen from the last week of play, but this one was in the bag by Monday, July 10. That's when Aaron Judge won the Home Run Derby and became my first repeat MLBoyfriend of 2017.

Judge didn't just win the Home Run Derby--he crushed it hitting four home runs over 500 hundred feet. That night, the Yankees rookie was the biggest, brightest star in baseball.



And he did it wearing really cute, tropical pattern socks.

Congratulations, Aaron Judge! At the Home Run Derby, you became not just my MLBoyfriend, but you were America's MLBoyfriend.

Week 11: Jacob Faria

Last week, I chose the hottest rookie at the plate as my MLBoyfriend. It only seemed fair that this week I pick the rookie who is tearing it up on the mound. Jacob Faria has been the starting pitcher in just three major league games and has has notched up three wins--two of them in the last week.

To say Faria is a "rookie" is a bit of an understatement. This isn't his first year in the majors, it's his first month. We're not even through the month, and it has already been a very eventful one for Faria. On June 1st, he was still the ace for the Durham Bulls and pitched a humdinger of a game for them.

On June 5th, the Bulls manager informed Faria he should pack his bag because he would be starting the next night in Tampa Bay against the Chicago White Sox. It was supposed to be a one-and-done start to fill in for Rays' starter Matt Andriese who was on the 10-day disabled list. Despite pitching an impressive game in his major league debut--he went 6.1 innings with five strikeouts and just three hits and one earned run scoring a win and a quality start--he was, as planned, sent back down to Durham. Then, on June 12th, Andriese was put back on the DL and Faria was called back up to start the next day.

This brings us to last week. Faria's first start of the week was on Tuesday, June 13th, in Toronto. He threw another strong 6.1 innings with eight strikeouts, six hits and one earned run. He was now two-for-two in wins and quality starts. The Rays wisely decided not to send him back down and made him a permanent part of the rotation after his second game.

Week 10: Aaron Judge

Number 99 of the New York Yankees had a very good week.

Aaron Judge had a batting average of .500, a WHIP of 1.600, hit three home runs, had six RBIs, and scored 10 runs over the past seven days.

That's an amazing week in what is turning out to be an amazing rookie year. Aaron Judge has to be considered the top contender for the American League Rookie of the Year, and there's already serious talk that he is on the path to be the league's MVP for 2017.

The fact that Aaron Judge has done all this while wearing (and looking fantastic in) Yankees pinstripes is the icing on the cake in my book.

Speaking of looking great, Aaron Judge caught my eye wearing this off the field. Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for guys who aren't afraid of to rock a shirt with a bold pattern.

Week 21: Gary Sanchez

I'm a lifelong Yankees fan, so it's surprising that it's taken me this long to chose a Yankee as my MLBoyfriend. Well, the right guy finally came along. Gary Sanchez was called up by the Yankees on August 2, and now, he's leading their quest for a wild card slot.

Last week, Sanchez was on fire at the plate batting over 500--to be exact, in 23 appearences, his average was .522. He had a 1.911 OPS, the highest in the MLB for the week. This all brought a lot of scoring for the Yankees--five home runs, seven runs scored, and nine runs batted in.

That kind of power is rare enough, but a catcher who can hit like that is a real treasure in baseball. The Yankees saw the potential in Sanchez to be that extra special catcher when he was just fifteen.

Sanchez not only gets to wear the Yankees Pinstripes--the best sports uniform ever--he also gets all the cool catcher's gear. IMHO, that is a killer combination.

Week 14: Max Kepler

I live and work in the Twin Cities, and after the week we've had, I was clearly going to pick a Twin today. Max Kepler was a leading candidate obvious reasons:

Then, on Sunday, Kepler hit a grand slam to help in the Twins clobber the hateful Texas Rangers 15 to 5. It was the first Twins grand slam of the season and rookie Kepler's first in the big leagues. Kepler has a knack for making a big impression. His first major league home run was a walkoff dinger against the (also hateful) Boston Red Sox which led to this picture of Kepler with my other favorite Twins, Eduardo Escobar, Eduardo Núñez and the dreamy Trevor Plouffe.

Here's some fun facts about Kepler interspersed among unrelated pictures of him.

Week 1: Trevor Story

My first MLBoyfriend of the season had to be the Rockies rookie who tore it up, Trevor Story. He may have had the best first week of major league play ever.  I didn't draft him for my fantasy team, but I was smart enough to pick him up after his amazing, record-setting two-home-run debut in the majors on Opening Day. Added bonus: Trevor is pretty cute.

Of course, he's even better looking when he hits a homer which is often.

He also works it in the infield--check out his stuck-out tongue which shows he's really concentrating.