Mitch Keller

Mitch Keller is, perhaps, not the most surprising pick for MLBoyfriennd this week. After throwing two great games, he was named the National League Player of the Week.

On Tuesday, May 8, Keller went a full 9.0 innings against the Rockies. He struck out 8, gave up only one walk and 4 hits with no runs scored against him.

Keller had another killer game on Sunday, May 14. In 7.0 innings, he had 13 strikeouts and gave up 4 hits and zero bases on balls--again, with no runs scored against him. Here's a breakdown of his pitching in that game. (Warning: this video is for true baseball nerds only.)

Keller ends the week with 2 wins, a very low 0.56 WHIP, and 0.00 ERA. While this is, by far, the best week of his season so far, he has been off to a very good start with 5 wins, only one loss, and a respectable 2.38 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. Bonus fun stat: Keller has the most strikeouts ending with a called strike of any MLB pitcher so far this season. He has struck out 30 batters looking--8 more than his closest competition, Gerrit Cole.

Congratulations, Mitch Keller! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. Fun fact: Mitch Keller is the first MLBoyfriend to hail from my homestate, Iowa.

Anthony Santander

I'll get to the stats in a moment, but I don't want to bury the lede. These two pics taken last week are the main reason Anthony Santander is the latest MLBoyfriend:

While those pics might be the main reason for this week's pic, they aren't the only reason. Santander put up some excellent number last week.

Santander had 12 hits in 27 at-bats for an amazing .444 average. He had 7 runs, 2 doubles, 3 home runs. and 9 RBI.

Santander had his best day at the plate on Friday, May 5th. That night, he hit 2 home runs including a grand slam.

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Congratulations, Anthony Santander! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

PS: This photo of Anthony Santander from last week didn't really fit with text of this post, but I couldn't help myself--I had to include it.

Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. had a very good week at the plate. He had 9 hits in 27 at-bats for a .333 average with one double, 2 home runs and 5 RBI.

But it's what he did as a base runner that really put Chisholm over the top last week. He stole base 4 times! Two of those times were in the very same inning. Stealing bases is not necessarily the most valuable skill in baseball, but it is really fun to watch.

Speaking of fun to watch. Here's how Chisholm arrived at the ballpark a couple weeks ago.

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Congratulations, Jazz Chisholm Jr.! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Marcus Semien

I probably don't need to explain why I select someone as handsome as this:

Still, Marcus Semien had some good stats to go with his good looks last week. 

Semien had 9 hits in 20 at-bats last week giving him a .450 batting average. He scored 9 runs, hit 2 home runs, had 8 RBI and 2 stolen bases.

For the Texas Rangers, Semien's performance has been a big part of why the team now leads the American League West. For me, it means lots of close-up pics of him getting high-fives from his teammates.

Congratulations, Marcus Semien! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Brent Rooker

I have a soft spot for good players on not-so-good teams. To say the Oakland A's are off to a bad start would be an understatement. Yet, one of the A's, Brent Rooker had a pretty great week last week.

Rooker had 10 hits in 24 at-bats last week with 4 home runs, 1 double and a whopping 11 RBIs. 

Ironically, Oakland's best slugger got his spot in the line up because another player is injured. Rooker is definitely making the most of his opportunity.

If anyone is looking to fill an outfield position on their fantasy baseball team, take a look at Rooker. With a .417 batting average, .464 OBP and .958 slugging percentage, he was the 3rd best fantasy player last week according to ESPN's "Player Rater"; however, he is on a roster in less than 8% of ESPN fantasy leagues. So, you should be easily able to pick him up.

Congratulations, Brent Rooker! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week. 

Drew Rasmussen

Drew Rasmussen had, hands down, the best starting week of any pitcher in Major League Baseball. 

On April 3rd, Rasmussen threw 6.0 scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals. He gave up just 2 singles, struck out 7 batters and had 0 walks. 50 of the 66 pitches he threw were strikes. His win meant the Tampa Bay started the season 4-0. The Rays have never before won their first 4 games in their 25 year history.

Rasmussen took to the mound again on April 6th and threw 7.0 more scoreless innings. This time, he gave up only 1 hit, struck out 8 batters, and, again, had 0 walks. His second win was the Rays' 9th straight win--the best start to a season for any team in 20 years.

Rasmussen ended the week with a 0.00 ERA and a miniscule 0.23 WHIP. I think the most impressive stat is that he didn't give up a single base on balls in 13 full innings.

Congratulations, Drew Rasmussen! You are my MLBoyfreind of the week. My only regret is not selecting you sometime last season when your stats might not have been as great, but your beard was much, much better.

Last 7: 13 IP, 3 H, 15 K, 0 BB, 0.00 ERA, 0.23 WHIP

DATE	OPP	IP	H	ER	BB	K	HR	DEC	ERA	WHIP
4/9	Oak	7.0	1	0	0	8	0	W	0.00	0.14
4/3	@Wsh	6.0	2	0	0	7	0	W	0.00	0.33

Liam Hendriks

I'm starting off 2023 with an unconventional pick. It's not that Liam Hendriks isn't a very good player--he's one of the best closing pitchers in the game. He's also really fun to watch because he's very passionate and animated on the mound. One of the highlights of the 2022 All-Star Game was when Hendriks was "Mic'd Up" although I'm guessing the network wished they had muted him.

Hendriks is a favorite of LGBTQ+ baseball fans for his very vocal allyship. That was a big part of why he won the MLBoyfriend title last year during Pride Month. 

So, Hendriks seems like a natural choice to be the first MLBoyfriend of 2023. Except he didn't pitch at all during the opening week for the worst reason. In January, Hendriks announced that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and would be starting treatment. 

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Being the beast that he is, Hendriks managed to show up for spring training while he was undergoing his cancer treatments. The good news is that Hendriks has started his last round of chemotherapy today.

A special message from Liam Hendriks: pic.twitter.com/kSE1bjBkZD

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 3, 2023

Another encouraging sign is that the White Sox have placed Hendriks on the 15-day IL rather than the 60-day IL. While it doesn't seem likely he'll be back on the mound in two weeks, it sure would be great to see him pitching in May. In the meantime, you can help Liam and his wife Kristi raise funds for the Lymphoma Research Foundation by clicking here and buying one of his "Close Out Cancer" shirts--I just got one for myself.

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Congratulations to Liam Hendriks! You are my first MLBoyfriend of 2023 because what you're doing off the field is much more important that anything that happened on the field this week. That said, I can't wait to see you pitching again.