An MLBoyfriend first! We are celebrating the fans and the Tarps Off that is sweeping the baseball stadiums across the nation. Of course, college sports have a long tradition of male fans going shirtless to support their teams. However, this trend is new to Major League Baseball. There's some debate as to who did it first, but everyone seems to agree it was a group of St. Louis Cardinals fans the got the momentum going.
I usually start checking on Saturday and Sunday to see who might be candidates for the week's MLBoyfriend on Monday. Gavin Sheets was not on my radar at all, and then this happened on Sunday.
That game raised Sheets' stats for the week from good to amazing--2 home runs and reaching base 5 times in a single game will do that. He ended with 10 hits in 16 at-bats for an incredible .625 batting average and 2.177 OPS. He had 4 home runs and 1 double, scored 6 runs and batted in 8. #HolySheets indeed.
It's always fun when players who might not make it into the Hall of (Pretty) Good much less Cooperstown suddenly get hot. Maybe 2026 will be the year Sheets breaks out. Last year (probably Sheets best season), he hit 19 home runs total--which put him in a 10-way tie for 95th place in that stat. He already has 9 dingers this year putting him in a 5-way tie for 31st place.
Even if he reverts to the norm and ends the season with middling stats, no one can ever take away that Sheets won not one but two awards this week.
Congratulations, Gavin Sheets! You are my MLBoyfreind of the week.
Even on the stacked Dodgers roster, Andy Pages stood out last week. He was not just the best player at the plate for Los Angeles, he was the best at the plate in all of Major League Baseball.
Pages had a whopping .417 batting average and 1.357 OPS last week. He hit 4 home runs, scored 5 runs, batted in 8 runs and had 1 stolen base.
Most of those stats come from one game. On Wednesday, May 6th, Pages hit 4 home runs and had 6 RBIs.
Congratulations, Andy Pages! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.
When one of my all-time favorite players has a very good week, the selection of MLBoyfriend is easy.
Six-time MLBoyfriend winner, Byron Buxton, was on fire last week. He had a .345 batting average and a 1.303 OPS with 6 runs and 7 RBIs. He hit 5 home runs--the most in all of Major League Baseball. He also had 2 stolen bases.
Those stats were enough to win him the American League Player of the Week award. As I've probably mentioned 6 times before, he also gets bonus points around here for being very handsome.
Congratulations, Byron Buxton! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week--for the 7th time!
Technically,David Wright was an active player in the first few years of MLBoyfriend. However, due to injuries he only played 37 games in 2016, 0 in 2017, and 2 in 2018. If I had know 2016 would be my last real chance to name him my MLBoyfriend, I would given him the title at least once, because....
Wright is more than a (very) pretty face. He had an impressive career .296 batting average and 1.243 OPS. He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2004 and Player of the Year in 2005. There's also something great about the fact that he spent his entire career with the New York Mets.
David Wright was named "Captain America" for his performance in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. In that tournament, he had a .438 batting average, 10 RBIs and a grand slam.
Now that I've initiated the Retro-MLBoyfriend, I can make up for the injustice of not giving Wright the title in the first year of this blog.
Congratulations, David Wright! You are my second Retro-MLBoyfriend.
To be honest, Shohei's batting stats last week were not that impressive with just a .238 average and .685 OPS. He pitched one game last week, and it was a good one (more on that later) giving him decent, but not amazing pitching stats. In 6.0 innings pitched he gave up 1 walk, 2 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 10. He had a 1.50 ERA and 0.67 WHIP for the week.
With such meh stats, how did Shohei Ohtani win the MLBoyfriend title? By achieving a very specific statistical feat that will probably never be duplicated. I'll let the baseball nerds (said with nothing but love) at Made The Cut explain:
For those who don't watch the video, I'll try to explain. As of the making of this video, Ohtani had gotten on base in 48 consecutive games (which would go up to 51 consecutive games by the end of the week). He had also pitched 32 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run. According to OptaSTATS:
...Since the earned run became an official stat in 1913, Ohtani and Babe Ruth are the only Major League players with a 30-plus-game on-base streak and a 30-plus-inning streak without allowing an earned run at any point in their careers.
Ohtani, unlike Ruth, had these two streaks going at the same time. As two-way players become more and more rare in baseball. It is highly unlikely anyone will do that again.
Congratulations, Shohei Ohtani! You are my MLBoyfriend again. Keep setting records--no matter how obscure--and you have a good chance to keep winning the honor.
As I was looking over the list of the best players last week, Gunnar Henderson's name caught my eye. I went to see how long it's been since he was named my MLBoyfriend, and was shocked to discover he never has never been. Although he's only been in the majors for 4 years, he has definitely made a big name for himself.
I'm sure there have been many weeks when Henderson has been in the running. I looked up the times he has won the American League Player of the Week award to see who took the award that week. On June 12, 2023, he lost to Corbin Carroll--interestingly, both of them would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award in their respective leagues that year. Henderson lost the MLBoyfriend title to the National League Player of the Week, Kyle Schwarber, on September 9, 2024.
Henderson was very impressive last week. He had a .286 batting average, 1.196 OPS with 1 double, 1 triple and 4 home runs. He scored 7 runs and batted in 7. He also stole base twice. I couldn't deny him the MLBoyfriend award any longer.
Congratulations, Gunnar Henderson! You are my MLBoyfreind of the Week.
