« Universal injunctions are good again | Main | NCAA v. Alston ruling »

Monday, June 21, 2021

A tough season for Jews in MLB

In my article on Jewish baseball players on Yom Kippur, I wrote that we were enjoying a new gilten alter (golden age) of Jews in baseball. Several Jewish players seemed on the verge of stardom or being solid contributors. Approaching the midpoint of the season, it has not played out as well as we hoped.

Jewish Baseball News has the basic stats for the six non-pitchers and five pitchers who have appeared in MLB this season. Alex Bregman has been solid but not at his 2019 near-MVP level, plus he is on the Injured List and no date is set for his return. Joc Pederson started the season slowly but has come around of late as the lead-off man for the Cubs. Kevin Pillar missed time after suffering a broken nose from a pitch to his face. Rowdy Tellez has been up and down to the minors and was removed from the starting line-up this weekend after going 0-for-8 with two strikeouts in his four prior appearances.

Life has been worse for pitchers. Max Fried, seemingly set to become the next great Jewish lefty, has an ERA in the mid-4.oo and has been inconsistent. Israel-born Dean Kremer, who made several promising starts for the Orioles as a late-season call-up, is 0-6, has an ERA over 6.00, and has surrendered 13 home runs in 49 innings. Fried and Kramer pitched well over the weekend, so hopefully they each can turn the corner. Richard Bleier continues to do well as an innings-eating reliever, a position in which Jewish pitchers have thrived. Ryan Sherriff, another innings-eater who pitched well for the Rays in the 2020 World Series, stepped away from the game for personal reasons in April; he is back in the Majors as of two weeks ago.

Posted by Howard Wasserman on June 21, 2021 at 11:21 AM in Howard Wasserman, Sports | Permalink

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.