Diamond Digest || This Week's Essential 5 || 5/16/25
Edition #245
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 that gives you all the baseball info you need!
Key Player Performances:
Currently, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, and Kyle Schwarber are the leading MLB home run hitters with 15. Aaron Judge is the current RBI leader with 41 RBIs.
The current hit leader is Aaron Judge, with 68. Jacob Wilson is 10 behind him. Bobby Witt Jr. remains the current doubles leader with 17.
Marcell Ozuna stays the walk leader, with 36, and Michael Toglia is the official strikeout leader with 61. Meanwhile, the current stolen base king is Luis Robert with 17, but the current caught stealing kings are Maikel Garcia and Luis Robert. Aaron Judge now has the best average in the majors, with an average of .412, and behind him is Freddie Freeman.
Aaron Judge leads the OBP category with a percentage of .497. He is also the leader in slugging percentage and OPS. Freddie Freeman is behind him and takes 2nd place in all of those categories.
This week, Aaron Judge emerged as the slugging leader. Heliot Ramos was the OBP. Three players have tied for 4 home runs, leading the pack. Michael Toglia had 12 strikeouts this week. Shohei Ohtani hit in 12, and Fernando Tatis contributed 9 runs. Jackson Churio had the most stolen bases this week.
Emerging Storylines:
While the A’s absolutely fed on the Dodgers during the first game of the series (11-1), the Dodgers came back and beat up the A’s (9-3), then went on an oh my god rout of the A’s with the score on Thursday being 19-3. Wow.
The Diamondbacks have traded Jose Castillo to the Mets.
Juan Soto makes his return to the Bronx. This time, not in the Yankees jersey, but as a Met. In his one year as a Yankee, Soto turned a lot of heads and did well enough to ink the biggest contract in MLB history.
Ex-MLB Star Rafael Furcal faces felony charges in South Florida. The former All-Star turned himself in on Wednesday and was released on bail a short time later. He's charged with battery with a deadly weapon and throwing a missile. Horrendous.
Furcal, 47, started with the Atlanta Braves in 2000, followed by stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was with the Cardinals in 2011 when they beat the Texas Rangers in the World Series. He retired with the Marlins in 2014.
He wasn’t known for all that, though. Furcal completed the 12th unassisted triple play in MLB history on Aug. 10, 2003, while playing for the Braves against the Cardinals.
Spencer Strider to come off IL when the Braves visit the Nationals.
Tony Kemp retires from MLB after 9 seasons.
Pete Rose is now eligible for the Hall of Fame after the MLB lifted a ban. He’s not the only one, though. Same with Shoeless Joe Jackson. It’s so unfortunate this happened after both of them died, though.
The A’s dropped from 2nd to 4th in 2 days.
The Rockies still haven’t gotten past 10 wins.
Trending Stats/Record/Streaks:
Series to Watch (May 16- 22nd):
Mets vs Yankees (Fri-Sun)
Braves vs Red Sox (Fri-Sun)
Athletics vs Giants (Fri-Sun)
Mets vs Red Sox (Mon-Wed)
Royals vs Giants (Mon-Wed)
Diamondbacks vs Dodgers (Mon-Wed)
Poll:
Pro Fantasy Tip:
Exploit Positional Flexibility & Schedule Volume
Maximizing games played per week can quietly win you matchups in categories or H2H leagues. Many fantasy managers overlook this.
And that’s it for me. As always, please be sure to leave a like on the article, comment your thoughts, and subscribe if you haven’t already! This kind of stuff always makes my day! I do take article suggestions. Email me at sportssquareauthor@gmail.com if you have any!