Diamond Digest || This Week's Essential 5 || 4/11/25
Edition #234
Welcome to this week’s Diamond Digest. This is going to be my weekly series that highlights things that happened this week in baseball. Every week, we’ll be looking at key player performances, emerging storylines, trending stats/records, upcoming must-watches, and we’ll end it with a question, something we’ll review each week. I’ll also be sharing one fantasy baseball tip each week.
This column is for people who’ve watched every game this week, have only seen the highlights, or for people have not followed any of the games this week. It’s a very short and concise article which gives you all the baseball info you need!
Key Player Performances:
Currently, Aaron Judge is the leading MLB homerun hitter with 6. He is currently tied with Athletics Tyler Soderstrom. He goes away for RBIs, though, because Aaron Judge takes the lead with 20 RBIs, but it’s actually Jackson Churio, Kyle Tucker, and Teoscar Hernandez behind him with 16.
The current hit leader is Kyle Tucker. He’s tied with Jacob Wilson at 19 hits. Meanwhile, the current doubles leader is Jung Hoo Lee, and the current triple leaders are Zach McKinstry and Jesse Winker.
Marcell Ozuna stays the walk leader, and Wilson Contreras and Seiya Suzuki are now the official strikeout leaders. Meanwhile, the current stolen base king is Oneil Cruz, but the current caught stealing king goes to Jacob Young. George Springer now has the best average in the majors, with an average of .429, and behind him is the young stud, Jacob Wilson.
Marcell Ozuna and Will Smith lead the OBP category with a percentage of .500, respectively. Aaron Judge (.792) and Tyler Soderstrom (.771) follow in the slugging percentage. They also lead in our final stat, OPS.
This week, Corbin Carroll, the center fielder for the Diamondbacks, emerged as the leader in OPS, slugging, and home runs. Brendan Donovan had the highest average, hits, and OBP this week. Wilson Conteras has 12 strikeouts this week. Jackson Churio finally came to life, getting 12 RBIs, and tied with Brice Turang for 8 runs too. Pete-Crow Armstrong and Tyler Tolbert had the most stolen bases this week
Current Players on Streaks:
Emerging Storylines:
The Houston Astros are struggling, and are now 3.5 games back of the first-place Texas Rangers, and are only 0.5 games ahead of both the Seattle Mariners and the Athletics. Their record sits below .500 because while taking two out of three from the Mets and Twins, and losing two of three to the Mariners, they got swept three by the Giants. Bullpen depth will remain a question but a bigger concern is Bryan Abreu blowing two save opportunities in Seattle.
They will now be playing the Angels, who surprisingly, are 2nd in the AL West with an 8-4 record, only 0.5 games behind the Texas Rangers. Will they last? Will this finally be the year Mike Trout doesn’t get injured?
Onto the Giants, who are for some reason winning quite a lot of games, and are even tied with the division rivals Los Angeles Dodgers! Guess who’s in front of both of them by 0.5 games? The San Diego Padres. The San Francisco Giants are finally a fun team to watch. This is finally a team that has the firepower and wants to comeback even if they’re down 5-0 after 3 innings (P.S. they did.).
Meanwhile, the Padres are winning, even without Fernando Tatis and Jake Cronenworth, both stars that are set to return today. But, after landing a huge deal, Jackson Merrill has now been put on the IL. Not very good.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who acquired Esteury Ruiz this past week, lost the series against the Nationals and the Phillies (though aside for one game against the Natties, the games was close).
The Red Sox are finally alive in the AL East after a slow start to the year, and the Orioles are still last in the division. Shouldn’t matter though, because 13 games is just a sample size of 162.
The White Sox are 2-10, the Twins are 4-9, and the Tigers and Royals are 1st and 2nd as expected. The Phillies and Mets are tied. Surprising. The Marlins, Nationals, and then Braves rank next respectively. That’s weird.
Kyle Tucker has been a solid addition for the Cubs, who are currently #1 in the NL Central. The Brewers follow, and then the Cardinals, Pirates, and Reds.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr has signed a mega 14 year, 500 million dollar contract extension, with a $325 million signing bonus. The reason is because the signing bonus is taxed based on where he lives, which is Florida, a state with no income tax. The other part of the contract is taxed based on Toronto. Vladdy was going to hit free agency, but he signed a contract extension and stayed with Toronto.
Jackson Merrill signed a 9-year, 135 million dollar extension, with an 10th year option. He definitely made it clear that he wanted to be a Padre for a long time. The 2021 1st-round pick, is the latest Padres to sign a 9-figure contract joining Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Fernando Tatis Jr, and Xander Bogaerts.
Kristian Campbell also locked down a deal with the Boston Red Sox, signing an 8-year, 60 million dollar contract extension. He was drafted in 2023. Campbell’s deal also includes a $2 million signing bonus, with club options of $19 million in 2033and $21 million in '34. The remainder of the contract breaks down as follows: $1 million in '25, $2 million in '26, $3 million in '27, $4 million in '28, $6 million in '29, $9 million in '30, $13 million in '31 and $16 million in '32.
Trending Stats/Records:
No one huge is on verge of a record.
Series to Watch (April 11th-April 18th):
Royals vs Guardians (Fri-Sat)
Giants vs Yankees (Fri-Sat)
Brewers vs Diamondbacks (Fri-Sat)
Giants vs Phillies (Mon-Thu)
Royals vs Yankees (Mon-Wed)
Guardians vs Orioles (Tue-Thu)
Tigers vs Brewers (Mon-Wed)
Also, if you’re interested in 2 bad teams playing each other, starting Tuesday, the A’s1 play the White Sox?
Pro Fantasy Tip:
Wins, batting average and ERA are poor barometers of talent. Use FIP.
Thanks for reading this edition. If you liked it, please be sure to drop a like below, and comment your thoughts on any topic. Your support will keep this series going!
If you consider them a bad team?
Watch us fall to 3rd after Yankees and Phillies series lol