Diamond Digest || This Week's Essential 5 || 4/4/25
Edition #233
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. the Arizona Diamondbacks 3rd Baseman Euginio Suarez is the leading home run hitter in the MLB with 5 home runs total. Behind him, leading the 8-0 Los Angeles Dodgers (more on them later), Tommy Edman has 4 home runs. A revitalized Wilmer Flores, the torpedo bat (more on that later too) Anthony Volpe, the Cubs duo Seiya Suzuki and Kyle Tucker, and the innocent Aaron Judge are all tied at 4 home runs as well.
Aaron Judge, Seiya Suzuki, Euginio Suarez, and Kyle Tucker all have 11 RBIs so far, and Wilmer Flores and Cedric Mullins are tied at 10. Kyle Tucker also has the most hits, and behind him is Seiya Suzuki, Fernando Tatis, and Otto Lopez.
The current average leader is Edmundo Sosa, with the Red Sox’ Wilyer Abreu at 2nd, and the Dodgers catcher Will Smith in 3rd. For OBP, Abreu crowns over Sosa by just .25 points, and Will Smith is still 3rd. Finally for OPS, Abreu takes #1, Judge takes #2, and Sosa takes #3. Smith is not far behind at 5.
14 players have triples, 1 player has more than 10 walks (Marcell Ozuna), 18 players have double digit strikeouts, and only 2 people have actually stolen more than 5 bases.
These are the players currently on streaks:
Emerging Storylines:
The Dodgers are now the first World Series champions to start the season off 8-0. On Wednesday, after being down 5-0 in the 2nd inning, they came back with home runs from Tommy Edman and Michael Conforto. The score by the 8th inning was 5-3, and when the Dodgers had a couple men on in the 8th inning, in an attempt to seal the win (because the Braves really needed it), Brian Snitker brought in Raisel Iglesias, who gave up 2 runs in the 8th inning. He got out of the inning with the Braves in a tie, but they couldn't score any runs at the top of the 9th inning. Iglesias started off strong, striking out Andy Pages, but Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off home run.
The Braves are now 0-7. This was a team that was predicted to win the NL East. Fast starts really matter, as my friend
stated in one of his recent articles. The Braves still have a shot at the crown. After all, it is a 162 game season. The question is whether or not they’ll keep hope.The A’s got swept at “home” in their “home” opener at Sutter Health Park against the Cubs. Actually, not just swept. They got blown OUT. They lost 18-3, 7-4, and 10-2. (Article coming soon on the A’s and West Sacramento).
The entire AL Central is 2-4. Heck, the White Sox were even #1 for some time.
The Blue Jays and Rays are #1 and #2 in the AL East respectively. The Red Sox are last. The Padres are 2nd and are 7-0. The Giants are #3 in the division. The Cardinals are #1 in the NL Central.
The Yankees have now stirred up a controversy, just like they do every year. This year, it’s torpedo bats. By now, you’ve probably heard about it. They are basically bowling pin-shaped bats, that distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional bats. It basically ensures the fattest parts of the bat is where the player makes the most contact. It has more mass at the end of the bat, which is 6 to 7 inches lower, giving a bowling-pin shape which is thinner.
Here are the benefits:
The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players' swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that's a tradeoff they're willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.
The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer's weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick's is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.
ESPN
It probably wouldn’t have been a huge issue if not for the Yankees hitting 9 home runs in one game against the Brewers. It’s something that many MLB players use, including Francisco Lindor and even Ketel Marte used it at one point in his career. The torpedo bat is here to stay, at least for this season, and 100s of players will be trying it this season.
Trending Stats/Records:
No one huge is on verge of a record. Something trending, though, is that Roki Sasaki, the Japanese phenom is struggling.
Upcoming Series to Watch:
Padres vs Cubs Fri-Sun
Dodgers vs Phillies Fri-Sun
Orioles vs Royals Fri-Sun
Yankees vs Tigers Mon-Wed
Orioles vs Diamondbacks Mon-Wed
Phillies vs Braves Tue-Thu
Pro Fantasy Tip:
Make sure to start and drop a pitcher every single day, so you have one guy who gets you 10+ pts every day.
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!
You forgot that the Giants started 5-1 ;)
Judge is now tied for the league lead in homers after his 3-run dinger yesterday! Sorry, can’t let anything about the MVP slip by 🤣