MLB

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 21-27, 2020, the final week of baseball’s 60-game regular season: Mazel tov Of the 13 Jewish athletes who played Major League ball in 2020, 10 are on teams that will participate in this season’s expanded playoffs: Ryan Braun (Brewers), Alex Bregman…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 14-20, 2020: Mazel tov P Ryan Sheriff (Rays) earned his first career save on September 18, pitching a perfect inning of relief on just 9 pitches to preserve a 2-1 win. The southpaw has yet to give up an earned run…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 7-13, 2020: Mazel tov MLB.com columnist Jonathan Mayo ranked Orioles rookie Dean Kremer #9 last week on a list of baseball’s hottest rookies. MLB.com gave manager Gabe Kapler credit for inspiring his San Francisco Giants to come back from their early-season…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 31-September 7, 2020: Mazel tov The Orioles threw rookie P Dean Kremer into the deep end for his Major League debut on Sunday (September 6), making him start against the Yankees on less than 24 hours’ notice. Kremer delivered a dominant…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 24-30, 2020: Mazel tov Ryan Sherriff (Rays) earned a win in his Tampa Bay Rays debut on August 26, pitching a perfect inning of relief on 11 pitches, 10 of them strikes. It was the Team Israel veteran’s first MLB appearance…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 17-23, 2020: Stats to share Alex Bregman (Astros) has safely reached base in 40 straight games, dating back to 2019 (see rankings). The next best current streak? Mike Yastrzemski, at 20 games. One of the knocks on Kevin Pillar (Red Sox)…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 10-16, 2020: Mazel tov P Rob Kaminsky was called up by the COVID-depleted St. Louis Cardinals on August 15 and made his MLB debut the following day. A 1st-round pick out of St. Joseph Regional High School (Montvale, NJ) in the…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 3-9, 2020: Mazel tov C Ryan Lavarnway was called-up by the Marlins on August 4 and played the next day, making Miami his seventh MLB team in nine seasons. Lavarnway’s debut also marked his first MLB appearance since obtaining Israeli citizenship in…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the period beginning Opening day (July 23, 2020) through August 2, 2020: Mazel tov CF Kevin Pillar, playing for his third team in the past 2 seasons, went 3-for-5 with a double and 3 RBIs in his Red Sox debut on July 24. His .387 batting…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of October 7-13, 2019, the second week of the playoffs: Mazel tov Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Andy Yerzy, a 21-year-old first baseman and a native of Canada, is on the roster of the Canadian national team, which is pursuing a berth in the 2020…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 30-October 6, 2019, the first week of the playoffs: Mazel tov Kevin Pillar is San Francisco’s nominee for the 2019 Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the outstanding offensive player in each league (see article). Stats to share By one measure, Max…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 23-29, 2019, the final week of the regular season: Mazel tov CF Kevin Pillar, playing in his first season with San Francisco, won the 2019 Willie Mac award. The honor is given to the Giants’ most inspirational player, as voted by…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 16-22, 2019: Mazel tov Led by 1B Danny Valencia and P Joey Wagman, Israel’s national baseball team won an Olympic qualifying tournament in Italy last week, earning it a berth in the 2020 games in Tokyo (see article). The last time…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 9-15, 2019: Mazel tov Israel’s national baseball team finished 4th in the 12-team European Championship that ended Sunday (9/15/2019), good enough to advance to the Olympic qualifiers taking place in Italy from September 18-22. Stats to share Two players — rookie…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of September 2-8, 2019: Mazel tov Danny Valencia, a 34-year-old infielder who spent nine years in the Major Leagues and last played in 2018, obtained Israeli citizenship last week and is playing for Israel in the European Championships held in Germany. Valencia manned third…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 26-September 1, 2019: Mazel tov LF Joc Pederson set a career high with his 27th and 28th home runs last week. The latter was special: a pinch-hit, 11th-inning home run on September 1 that traveled 454 feet and proved the game-winner…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 19-25, 2019: Mazel tov Alex Bregman’s 2-run HR on August 22 marked the 119th Jewish home run of 2019, surpassing the 118 hit in 2018. Like the Majors as a whole, Jewish ballplayers are seeing a surge in HRs. Alex Bregman (32)…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 12-18, 2019: Mazel tov 2B Ian Kinsler (Padres), who joined the injured list on August 16 with a herniated cervical disk, played just one game last week, on August 12. It was a memorable one. Entering the game in the top…

By Scott Barancik, Editor Here are your MLB highlights for the week of August 5-11, 2019: Mazel tov CF Kevin Pillar (Giants) recently talked to the Jewish News of Northern California about his bar mitzvah, a religious studies course he took in high school, and being one of the few Jewish players in the Major…