Congrats to my All-Star MLBoyfriends!

If anyone thinks this blog is just a beauty pageant for baseball players, I'd like to point out that I'm batting .643 with nine of my fourteen picks being chosen for the MLB All-Star Game.

Week 2: Eduardo Núñez.

Week 3: Bryce Harper.

Week 5: Robinson Canó.

Week 6: Max Scherzer.

Week 7: Jackie Bradley, Jr.

Week 8: Buster Posey.

Week 9: Madison Bumgarner.

Week 10: Wil Myers.

Week 12: Josh Donaldson.

Congrats to you all on earning two of the biggest honors in Major League Baseball this summer, being elected to the All-Star Game and spending a week as my MLBoyfriend.

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 13: Danny Espinosa

It seems appropriate to pick a member of the Washington Nationals as my MLBoyfriend on the 4th of July. However, my selection of Danny Espinosa is not a hollow display of patriotism. Last week, he had a .423 batting average and 1.593 OPS with five home runs and a whopping seventeen RBIs--he brought home six more runs than anyone in MLB.

Most of Espinosa's fireworks at the plate came in a four game series against the Cincinnati Reds in which he hit the five home runs including two grand slams. Not surprisingly, the crowd in Nationals Park showed him a lot of love.

He made several trips out of the dugout for "curtain calls".

Week 12: Josh Donaldson

This week's pick for my MLBoyfriend has less to do with his performance last week--which was certainly excellent with a .500 batting average and 1.146 OPS--and more to do with how he's done so far this season. Josh Donaldson has been the first runner-up for the title almost every week; however, since all of the winners have been able to complete their duties, he has never assumed the title. He came very close to winning last week, but I had to acknowledge Ichiro's milestone. I also liked that Donaldson "talked his way into the lineup" last Wednesday when he was battling some soreness and his manager wanted him to rest. That shows a lot of heart.

In addition to having putting up some impressive numbers this season, Josh Donaldson has several other qualifications for being my MLBoyfriend. First, maybe I'm seeing things, but he seems to have a wide stance (wink, wink).

He's also prone to sticking out his tongue which, as you may remember from Week 1, is a good way to catch my attention.

Week 11: Ichiro Suzuki

On Wednesday, June 16th, Ichiro Suzuki got his 4,257th career hit spanning the Japanese and North American major leagues, surpassing Pete Rose's total in Major League Baseball. There's some debate about whether or not Ichiro really broke the "Hit King's" record. However, there's no debate about the fact that Ichiro has earned the title that Pete Rose will never, ever, ever get: my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Ichiro is certainly a future Hall of Famer. (It's neither here nor there, but for the record, I believe Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame.) If I had had this blog 15 years ago, Ichiro certainly would have won the been my MLBoyfriend at least once during his outstanding "rookie" year with the Seattle Mariners when he was totes adorbs.

Of course, he was definitely boyfriend material when he wore the best sports uniform ever.

Week 10: Wil Myers

I picked up Wil Myers for my fantasy team last Sunday, and he was a big part of my team's dominance in last week's match up. His 3 home runs, 7 RBIs, 7 runs and 2 stolen bases along with a .333 batting average and a whopping 1.185 OPS were more than enough to earn him the title of my MLBoyfriend.

My only regret is that I didn't pick Myers up earlier as he has been on a hot streak since the beginning of the month.

While he looks good on the field...

Week 9: Madison Bumgarner

For the second week in a row, a member of the San Francisco Giants earned the title of my MLBoyfriend. I would like to spread the love around more, but when I looked back on the week, my favorite player was clearly Madison Bumgarner.

He pitched a humdinger of a game against the hateful Atlanta Braves on Thursday, June 2, with 11 strikeouts, a 0.78 WHIP and an ERA of 0.00 (which, if you didn't know, is the best possible ERA). In that game, Bumgarner also hit his second home run of the season--a two-run shot that left his bat at a sizzling 109 mph.

Bumgarner and others are now calling for his inclusion in the All-Star Home Run Derby. That ain't gonna happen, but still, it's a fun idea.