Mookie Betts

I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I'm headed to the Minnesota State Fair right after posting this, and I want to spend as much time with the Butter Heads as possible. Mookie Betts is back on top here at MLBoyfriend.

Betts had 9 runs, 4 home runs, 7 RBI, and 1 stolen base with a .346 average and 1.337 OPS last week. Those are some very good numbers. Plus, he has the best smile in baseball.

Congratulations, Mookie Betts! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Bryan Reynolds

Bryan Reynolds had a very good week last week. He had a .391 average and 1.418 OPS with 8 runs, 11 RBI, and 4 home runs. 

On Thursday, August 18, Reynolds hit two home runs in one game. His first homer was the 2,999th in the history of his home field, PNC Park. I'll let the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette take it from there:

Who better to hit No. 3,000 than Reynolds? In the fifth, he stepped up again, after another Newman single, and ripped an even more majestic shot to right. That got Reynolds’ home stadium to 3,000, got Reynolds to 20 on the season and gave him the third multi-homer game of his career. For a little bit of extra symbolism, the 3,000th home run came on what would have been legendary outfielder Roberto Clemente’s 88th birthday. 

“I didn’t know about it [beforehand], but it’s pretty crazy to be a little part of that history,” Reynolds said.

The second homer, which came on a 3-0 count, also gave Reynolds four homers in his past four games, as he continues to prove that he is the straw that stirs the Pirates’ offensive drink when his swing is going well.

Reynolds also happens to look very handsome as he rounds the bases.

Congratulations, Bryan Reynolds! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Chandler Redmond

Update: Last week, Chandler Redmond posted an anti-LGBTQ+ video on social media. Specifically, it joined in the right-wing attack on LGBTQ+ youth. As I said in the "My Ethical MLBoyfriend" post, there are some things that are automatically disqualifying for me. Redmond hereby has his status as a one-time MLBoyfriend revoked.

Welcome to the first ever installment of my MiLBoyfriend. This week, a Double A player clearly deserves the honor. Chandler Redmond of the Springfield, Missouri, Cardinals hit a home run cycle on Wednesday, August 10th.

For those who don't know--and I didn't before this happened--a home run cycle is when a player hits a solo home run, a 2-RBI home run, a 3-RBI home run, and a grand slam in a single game. It is one of the rarest achievements in baseball. Tyrone Horne, also playing AA ball at the time, hit the first home run cycle in MLB history in 1998. Redmond hit the second ever last week. Horne and Redmond are the only members of a very exclusive club that no player in the majors has ever gotten into. Let's go to the videotape.

Need a little more context for how impressive Redmond's accomplishment is? Not only is the home run cycle incredibly rare, it brings some impressive statistics with it. Only 18 players in the majors have hit the four home runs in one game required as the basis for the cycle. Hitting the cycle means Redmond had 4 home runs and 10 RBIs in one game (he actually had another hit in the game which gave him 11 RBIs). The most home runs any MLB players had over the course of seven days last week? 4. The most RBIs? 10.

Congratulations, Chandler Redmond! You are my MiLBoyfriend of the week. 

Alex Vesia

Relief pitchers don't get nearly enough respect--including from this blog. There have only been a few relief pitchers named my MLBoyfriend. Those who have, Liam Hendriks, Ryan Helsley and Sean Doolittle, took home the title more for statements they made off the field than their performance on the field. In order to address that, I've chosen the most valuable relief pitcher of the past week: Alex Vesia.

Vesia pitched a total of 4 innings across 4 games in the last seven days. He gave up just 2 hits, no walks and no runs--earning a hold for each of the games. So, for the week, Vesia had a 0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP and 4 holds.

Relief pitchers are so low profile, that there were really no news articles from the past week about Vesia to link to and very few recent pics available to use. Thank goodness for his Instagram page.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alex Vesia (@alexvesia)

 Sure, this post is sponcon, but it's funny. Plus, Vesia is adorable in it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alex Vesia (@alexvesia)

I also kind of love that instead of a photo of him on the mound or even in uniform, this is picture on Vesia's Wikipedia page:

Congratulations, Alex Vesia! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.

Aaron Judge

Okay, fine, Aaron Judge, you win. I've been trying to get some fresh faces on this blog and not keep going back to past winners; however, despite your many previous appearances, there's no denying that you fully deserve to be my MLBoyfriend again this week.

Judge had 7 runs, 10 RBIs, and 1 stolen base with a .348 average and 1.483 OPS last week. He also hit 5 home runs which included two milestones. On Friday, July 29th, he became the first player to have 40 home runs this season--and only the 10th player in the history of the MLB to hit 40 home runs in a season before August. Just to make a point, Judge then hit hist 41st home run of the season, a grand slam, to win the game.

On Saturday, July 30, Judge hit his 42nd home run of the season which was also the 200th of his career. This was another historic feat because it was the second fastest any player has ever had 200 career home runs--Judge did it in 671 games, and it took Ryan Howard just 658 games.

Even though MLBoyfriend is technically awarded for the past week, it's worth noting that Judge has been on a hot streak for a while now. In the last 15 days, he has had 15 runs, 9 home runs, 22 RBIs, and 2 stolen bases with a .422 average and 1.602 OPS. His PR15 on ESPN (a measure of the relative value of a player in fantasy baseball over the past 15 days) is a whopping 28.20, by far the highest. Matt Chapman has the second highest PR15 at 17.69, and only 13 batters, including Judge and Chapman, have a PR`15 over 10.

As if all that weren't enough, I was reminded of a couple things I love about Aaron Judge while "researching" this post (i.e., Googling "Aaron Judge"). First, he wears knickers, the correct baseball pants, and not slacks. He's also ridiculously handsome.

Congratulations, Aaron Judge! You are my MLBoyfriend of the week.