I haven’t been posting consistent articles over the past month so for today I will go over some of my most important baseball moments and statistics of the past month. There is so much fascinating baseball ideas that get left unnoticed in baseball, so much news so much thrill. From two of baseballs most feared hitters having a slugfest in the American League to a historic feature to a profound marking in baseball to bringing back one of baseball’s most beloved stadiums back from the dead plus so much more!

The best slugger isn’t Aaron Judge??

You heard that right. The best slugger and prime time baseball hitter isn’t Aaron Judge it’s however another American League superstar taking the league by storm and without Aaron Judge in the league would be leading the MVP conversations for the AL. Obviously this is a mild exaggeration as Aaron Judge is the best pure hitter since Barry Bonds but one thing that isn’t an exaggeration is how underrated ‘Big Dumper’, Cal Raleigh is. Memorize that name and don’t forget it as Cal currently leads the league in homers with 23 with two ahead of Judge. After winning the platinum glove as the Mariners primary catcher in 2024 his production as a player has jumped to the next stratosphere. In just under 60 games, Cal Raleigh has accumulated 3.4 WAR which is just 1.3 WAR behind his career best that he posted in 2024. As of now with just 214 at bats he has 56 hits, 39 runs, 23 homers, 45 RBIS. It is remarkable of Big Dumper’s total RBIs half are homers! To put things in greater perspective, Raleigh is on pace for 64 homers and would crush the single season catcher homer record, currently held by Salvador Perez’s record of 48 back in 2021. A slash line of .264/.379/.637/1.016 gives him an OPS+ of 194. For right now he is beating Aaron Judge in one category and although he won’t even finish with one first place vote he is still on pace for history and already is. To add more flame to the fire, Cal Raleigh hit 10 home runs in March/Apriland has 11 homers in May going into the month’s final day…he is the first Seattle player with 10+ homers in multiple calendar months within the same season since Nelson Cruz in 2016 (10 HR in June, 11 HR in Sept/Oct). Raleigh is the first to do it in back-to back months and capped off the month by going 8-for-23 (.348 AVG), 6 HR, 10 RBIs.

A Trio of Greatness

It is always great when the three best hitters of a team hit a homer in the same night and the Mets had the delight of having that feature with Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto all hitting a homer during Sunday’s sellout game of 43,224 against the Rockies. “There’s three really good hitters at the top [of our lineup], and it’s fun to see them going deep in the same game,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We envisioned that. When you’ve got those three at the top, it’s pretty special.” What is even more exciting about this is Pete’s homer Sunday moved him into sole possession of fourth place on the Mets all time RBI leaderboard with 632. He broke a tie with Howard Johnson and trails only the three best Mets offensive legends in Mike Piazza (655), Darryl Strawberry (733) and David Wright (970)

Back from the Dead?

The Polo Grounds are defined as one of MLB’s most profound stadiums of the late 20th century of baseball. Split between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees, the Polo Grounds was the home of the historic Willie Mays and the New York Giants, and known for the greatest catch in World Series history by the Say Hey Kid in 1954. After the Giants and Dodgers cut bait with the East Coast, the Polo Grounds were left empty until the Mets used it as their inaugural ballpark for the final two years of the stadium, before it was demolished in 1964. Flash forward to the future, and the Polo Grounds site is now home to New York public housing all the way up in Riverside Manhattan. Well, MLB just announced the revival of the stadium, as they will break ground later this year and have the stadium ready in time for the 2027 season. So I say this with full excitement as a kid who has always been into baseball history and who has walked all the way up to the home plate plaque all the way uptown that Major League Baseball has announced plans to construct a to-scale replica of the historic Polo Grounds in Pelham Bay Park, located in the Bronx, New York. This new stadium is expected to open by the 2027 MLB season and will serve as a venue for special event games, aiming to celebrate and preserve the rich history of baseball in New York City. It’s an exciting time for baseball fans of all ages, especially those who grew up with two of the best National League rivals in the city but were left disappointed when the teams packed up and headed to the West Coast.

Rocky Start for the Rockies

The Rockies have always stunk, but this year it’s even worse than stinking — it’s historically terrible. Just 60 games into the season, the Rockies have not only had a ‘rocky’ start, but the worst 60-game stretch to open a season in modern baseball. Even after winning their 10th game this season, the Rockies still have the worst start in history at 10–50. The last team to be this horrible? You guessed it — the 1932 Red Sox, who went 11–49 in their first 60 games. A year after the White Sox took the 1962 Mets record as the worst team in modern history with a 41–121 record, the Rockies are on pace to crush that record, heading for just 34 wins.

Tarik Skubal is a Maddux

Tarik Skubal had a phenomenal outing against Cleveland for his first career complete game. He is an old-school type ace that this sport has desperately lacked over the past six years. There just aren’t guys as dominant as Skubal has been over the past two seasons. After winning the Cy Young unanimously in 2024 while capturing the Triple Crown, one of his most impressive feats has been his immaculate length—reaching nearly 200 innings pitched.

For the season, he’s 5–2 with a 2.26 ERA, and in just 12 starts, he’s logged 75.2 innings, averaging 6.26 innings per game. On May 25th, he became the first Tigers pitcher to throw a complete game with zero walks, no more than two hits, and 13 strikeouts. The last time a pitcher did that? None other than Jacob deGrom in 2021.

Tarik threw just 94 pitches, with 72 of them being strikes. His final pitch was clocked at 102.6 MPH—his fastest pitch ever. He also recorded the most strikeouts ever in a complete-game ‘Maddux’ (a shutout with fewer than 100 pitches). Throwing just 94 pitches over nine innings averages to 9.4 pitches per inning, and with only three batters faced per inning, let’s just say Tarik was lights out and locked in.

The Cy Young race in the American League just got a whole lot more interesting. The current frontrunner, Max Fried, who sits at 7–1 with a 1.92 ERA in 75 innings, now has some serious competition to worry about.

To Wrap it up

The beauty of baseball is that there are so many headliners so many stories. It is truly a revolving door of pure and dominance baseball. Unlike other sports, baseball plays everyday so with one player headlining the night with a remarkable catch, the next day could see a player coming off a 0-30 stretch hit two homers. That is the beauty of the ball and the most entertaining facet of sports.