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 8: Mookie Betts

We're only about a third of the way through the season, but it's kind of surprising Mookie Betts hasn't been my MLBoyfriend yet. He is arguably the best batter in baseball this year. He has the most runs scored (43), is tied for the most home runs (his teammate J.D. Martinez also has 15), an impressive .365 batting average (the highest for any player with more that 25 at bats in the season), an equally impressive 1.198 OPS (the highest of any player with more than 13 at bats), and 11 stolen bases.

Last week, Betts continued that pace with a .387 average, 1.134 OPS, six runs, two home runs, five RBIs, and four stolen bases. He definitely remains a top candidate for American League MVP.

The other thing that makes Betts such an obvious choice for MLBoyfriend is that there is no shortage of great pictures of him. My "photo research" (i.e., Google image search) turned up an embarassment of riches.

So why did I pick Betts this week passing him by for the last seven? It's because we found about his bromance with former MLBoyfriend J.D. Martinez.

Week 7: James Paxton

James Paxton had a very good week on the mound last week. In two quality starts, he pitched fifteen innings, had a 1.80 ERA, a 0.60 WHIP, and had one win. Those stats are almost, but not quite, as good as the week Paxton won the MLBoyfriend title last year. However, he earned the repeat win because on Tuesday, May 8, Paxton threw a no-hitter.

I should note that throwing a no-hitter is not enough to win the title of my MLBoyfriend. Especially this season when we're on track to see quite a few no-hitters. There had already been two before Paxton's last week. Fun fact: The first three no-hitters of 2018 have been in three different countries--the United States, Mexico and Canada. Paxton's no-no caught my attention for two reasons.

1. He is on my fantasy baseball team, The Lake Washington Gillygoofangs. So, I was very happy with his contribution to the pitching stats. (It's not his fault that the week wound up being pretty mediocre for the team.)
2. He was the one that threw his no-hitter in Canada--and he's from British Columbia. Friends of this blog may remember that I have a soft spot for Canada and Canadian players.  Paxton's nickname, The Big Maple, is almost enough to make him my MLBoyfriend all by itself.

Week 6: Gerrit Cole

AZcentral.com wrote the perfect headline for why I chose my MLBoyfriend this week: "Astros' Gerrit Cole flirts with no-hitter". Gerrit Cole did throw an amazing game on Friday, May 4th. First, he went nine full innings--which is very rare these days even when a pitcher is doing well. In those nine innings Cole allowed no runs and only one hit and one base on balls. That's not just flirting with a no-hitter; it's flirting with a perfect game.

Cole also struck out 16 batters in the game. That's a lot. It was a career high for him. As a point of comparison, 20 is the most that a single pitcher has struck out in a regular nine-inning game. Here's a look at all 16 strike-threes in just 16 seconds.



There are two things that are notable about that video. The second is how amazingly consistent Cole's form is. If you didn't notice the batter changing, it would look like a loop of the same pitch. With that consistency, Cole has struck out a whopping 77 batters so far this season. (That was the most of any pitcher in MLB until Max Scherzer pass him with 80 on Sunday, May 6th.)

As good as he is at baseball, I wonder if, perhaps, Gerrit Cole isn't playing in the wrong sport. Since I live in Minnesota, I can't help noticing that the he has perfect hockey hair.