5 MLB Storylines We Gotta Talk About This Week: Jordan Walker is the Best Baseball Player Ever

Welcome to MLB storylines we gotta talk about this week which will be a weekly deep dive into the random baseball-related stories that I want to talk to you guys about. This week we have a late black history month celebration.

Here are the 5 MLB storylines we gotta talk about this week:

1. Jordan Walker: myyyyyyy nigga

If you’ve been reading my previous MLB articles here at Deadseriousness then you know I pushed all my chips in at beginning of the year on St. Louis Cardinals rookie outfielder, Jordan Walker. The Cardinals may be in last place right now but that is no fault of Jordan Walker who has hit safely in all 9 games he’s played this season.

Jordan Walker’s 9-game hitting streak to start his career ties the #STLCards club record! pic.twitter.com/W5Z6Hb71s2

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 9, 2023

Here is the list of players 20 years old or younger who have started their MLB careers with 9+ hitting streaks:

Eddie Murphy in 1912
Ted Williams in 1939
Jordan fucking Walker right now

This is even more impressive knowing that Walker played in AA last season. The Cardinals elected to skip his AAA assignment completely and start him opening day and he’s made the most of that opportunity.

We know there are significantly fewer black baseball players in the league than a decade ago. We don’t have to tiptoe around that fact. I grew up with Torii Hunter and Gary Sheffield and fast forward to 2023 and Gary Sheffield’s son is a right-wing geek that works for Clay Travis’s website that looks like it’ll give your Malware if you stay on the site too long.

Jordan Walker is the rookie of the year and once he discovers his power, let’s get this man some MVP votes.

2. The Devil Rays are the greatest team ever, probably

The Tampa Bay Rays have decided to run the “score more runs than the other team” play every game and it seems to be working as they’ve started the season 9-0. Not only are they 9-0 but they have +57 run differential. The second-best run differential belongs to the Milwaukee Brewers at +25. The Rays are the best team by a mile.

The Rays are leading the Majors with 24 homers. They are absolutely beating the shit out of every pitcher they see. Oh, they also have the lowest team ERA so far so not only are they clobbering opposing pitchers but their own pitchers are blanking out opposing hitters.

Now, allow me to be a hater for just a moment. The Rays have beaten the Tigers, Nationals and Athletics—the literal 3 worst teams in baseball. The Devil Rays are running up the numbers against 3 AAA teams that aren’t even trying to compete this season.

Let’s see what this team looks like when they play like, real-life professional baseball teams.

3. Free Jo Adell

Meet Jo Adell, the 24-year-old outfielder for the Angels Triple-A affiliate who has a 6-game home run streak.

🚨JO ADELL BREAKS THE FRANCHISE RECORD WITH 6 CONSECUTIVE GAMES WITH A HOME RUN🚨 pic.twitter.com/DnvXzgrIoM

— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) April 9, 2023

Adell has 41 homers in 148 AAA games. That’s good, I think. But the Angels acquired Hunter Renfrow in the offseason so Adell was forced to start the year in the minors. It’s insane that a team that has been mediocre for my entire adult life suddenly has toooo much talent in their organization.

Either trade Jo Adell to a franchise where he can play on the major league level or let him at least be the 4th outfielder on the bench traveling with the team every day but this young man is too talented to be on the fucking Salt Lake Bees.

Plus, as I said with Jordan Walker, we need more color in Major League Baseball. How long does Adell’s streak have to go before the Angels make the call?

4. If an Oakland A falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it…

Last week, 3,000 fans were in attendance to see the A’s lose to the Cleveland Guardians in extra innings. That’s about 6% occupancy for the Oakland Coliseum. Oakland ranks dead last in attendance this season. For comparison’s sake, the San Francisco Giants—the team that’s like, 12 miles away—ranks 9th in attendance this season.

Oof. Game time in Oakland. pic.twitter.com/AzcYs8Zk6d

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) April 20, 2022

The Oakland A’s aren’t even trying to win games. They have the lowest payroll after getting rid of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Chris Bassitt in recent years and replacing them with—*Googles*—no one.

I genuinely believe they are trying to leave Oakland and have no desire to bring any excitement to the current ballpark. They want to cut the payroll to nothing. They want the stadium to be empty so they can blame the fans for not showing up when they leave for Vegas in the middle of the night.

5. Respect Gleyber Torres

Yankees fans are assholes. As a Yankees fan myself, I’m allowed to say that. It’s impossible not to feel yucky when Yankees fans attack young prospects for every minor failure especially when the fans are all middle-aged Italians with blue lives matters stickers on their cars and the prospects they’re shouting at are young Spanish kids. It feeeeels like the fans had way too much extra anger at Gary Sanchez because he didn’t know how to speak English.

So when Gleyber Torres struggles and Yankees fans lose their shit about it, it makes me double down and want to root harder for my guy. My patience has been rewarded this season.

Gleyber Torres becomes the second fastest Yankee to reach 100 career home runs in team history.
pic.twitter.com/1MqIZDi9l6

— Conor Maguire (@cmaguire2008) April 4, 2023

Gleyber leads the Yankees in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. Basically all of those slashing numbers say Gleyber is the best hitter on the team. He’s also stepped up defensively and looks as great as he did when he hit 38 bombs in 2019.

It’s just fascinating to watch Yankees fans treat Anthony Volpe like their sweet little baby boy even though he’s batting .129 but the second Gleyber commits an error or strikes out in the 9th inning, these same fans will line up to drive Torres to the airport out of New York.

I wonder what’s the difference between those two players…

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