Week 5: Didi Gregorius

Sure, picking the American League Player of the Week to be my MLBoyfriend may be the obvious choice. But sometimes, the obvious choice is the right choice. Didi Gregorius had only one serious competitor for the title this week, and the was the National League Player of the Week, and favorite of this blog, Joey Votto.  Gregorius had a .357 batting average and 1.241 OPS with seven runs, ten RBIs and four home runs last week. If you'd like to take a look at those home runs, here they are:




That excellent week topped off an excellent first month of the season for Gregorius. In fact, he had, arguably, the best beginning of the season at the plate of any short stop in MLB history--at least, according to Twitter:

Didi Gregorius is 1st shortstop in MLB history with at least 8 HR and 27 RBI in team's 1st 22 games.

— Katie Sharp (@ktsharp) April 25, 2018

He currently has a .340 batting average, 1.202 OPS, 24 runs, 30 RBIs, two stolen bases, and ten home runs. The season is very young, but there is already talk of an MVP award for Gregorius.

By the way, Gregorius's fielding has been pretty solid too.

Week 4: Manny Machado

It was only a matter of time before Manny Machado became my MLBoyfriend. In fact, it's a bit odd that he's never won the title since he's been an outstanding player for the past few years. He's also pretty easy on the eyes.

The time has finally come. Machado had a .500 batting average and 1.833 OPS with seven runs, eight RBIs and five home runs last week.  He hit two of those home runs on Sunday, April 22, to cap off a great week.



Machado has now hit eight home runs this season--only Mike Trout has more with nine. His defense has been on-spot too. Check out this nice play he made on Friday, April 20.

Week 3: Joe Mauer

So this happened on Thursday....



...and with his 2000th hit, Joe Mauer won the title of my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Joe Mauer is the 285th player in Major League Baseball history to join the 2000 Hits Club and only the third to reach that mark while playing for Minnesota Twins.

Mauer's timing could not have been better. The Twins next three scheduled home games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were postponed due to the freak spring blizzard that dumped over a foot of snow on Target Field. If he hadn't hit his 2000th hit on Thursday, he would have certainly hit it on the road instead of in his hometown (well, St. Paul is his hometown--so I guess you'd call the Twin Cities his hometowns).

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 1: Anthony Rizzo

It seems fitting to start 2018 with a returning favorite of this blog. Anthony Rizzo has been my MLBoyfriend of the week in both 2016 and 2017. He's not resting on his laurels though. He went far above and beyond to earn be my first MLBoyfriend of the season.

Rizzo hit a home run on opening day, but lots of players did--29 to be exact for a total of 33 home runs in on the first day of the season. However, Rizzo's was special. Playing in Miami, just a few miles from his hometown of Parkland, he wore a patch in memorial to the seventeen victims of the shooting at his alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He paid tribute to them as he reached home plate.

Not only did Rizzo wear a Stoneman Douglas t-shirt during opening day warmups...