Major League Baseball

Jacob Stallings' grand slam and Nick Castellanos' T-shirt bring the good times

Updated Jul. 29, 2021 9:36 p.m. ET

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By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Every week, we focus on three things from the previous week in baseball — fans, managers, players, teams, cities, fan bases or mascots — for which the times were good.  

Let’s get right to it.

1. Jacob Stallings

A walk-off grand slam is a true rarity. The phrase itself almost sounds like a joke or a childhood dream. It’s something you simulate as a kid with your friends in the backyard with Wiffle balls, not an actual baseball happening. In fact, there have been only 266 walk-off grand slams in baseball history, dating to 1916, which is as far as the data goes.

For Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings, the walk-off grand slam dream became reality Saturday, when he lofted an Edwin Díaz offering just over the wall down the left-field line to give Pittsburgh a 7-5 win. It’s a remarkable highlight video. First, Díaz throws a vicious fastball 98 mph about three balls off the strike zone in on Stallings’ hands. Stallings somehow gets his hands inside the baseball and kinda fights it off up and down the line to left.

Off the bat, it looked like an easy flyout, to the point that Díaz pulled out his inner Hansel Robles and pointed to the sky to indicate a catchable ball. The ball then just barely escaped the confines of PNC Park, with Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar going full Lambeau Leap trying to rob the homer. For a fan base that has been forced to watch some brutal baseball in 2021, the Pirates faithful were out in force Saturday evening and went into an absolute frenzy after Stalling’s game-ending wall-scraper.

The whole play was a great reminder that (1) when the Pirates are good, Pittsburgh is an amazing baseball town and (2) even bad teams can have incredible, lasting and meaningful moments amidst a difficult season. That dramatic win over the Mets won’t alter the course of the Pirates’ season or their rebuild, but if you can sift through the cynicism that surrounds a bad team, you’ll find a genuinely wonderful baseball thing that deserves to be appreciated in and of itself. 

Head down to the ballyard, and you might see something you’ve never seen before, even if your favorite club is 21 games under .500. The folks in attendance Saturday at PNC Park are probably more likely to take in another game this year than they would have been, and there’s nothing bad about that.

2. Liam Castellanos

Besides being one of the best hitters in the National League and a harbinger of serious news, Nick Castellanos is also a dad. And like any good dad, he’s an inspiration to his son, Liam. Liam Castellanos, like most kids — like most people, honestly — enjoys a good drawing session. And when your dad is an All-Star-level baseball man, it’s pretty straightforward what your drawing subject will be.

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The drawing, which the elder Castellanos was rocking on a shirt at the All-Star Red Carpet, is actually pretty solid — especially for a 7-year-old! Like, yeah, the arms are way too skinny, particularly for a power hitter such as Nick Castellanos, and said arms are located bizarrely low on the torso, and yeah, the eyeballs are super tiny, but the more I look at it, the more impressed I am. 

If I tried to sketch Nick Castellanos on a white T-shirt, it would look light-years worse than this. Little Liam absolutely nailed his dad’s five o’clock shadow and the "C" on his Reds cap. Plus, the size of the portrait is spot-on. When you’re working with a canvas that blank, you could really screw up the scale, but Liam Castellanos would never.

After Nick wore the 1-of-1 custom tee on the red carpet, the Reds and a company named Cincy Shirts arranged to have the Liam Castellanos design sold in the team store at Great American Ballpark. 

When Liam found out about that, he was an adorable ball of joy.

The proceeds from the shirts will be donated to a charity of Liam’s choice, which is a pretty cool twist. You can buy one online yourself! They’re actually pretty sweet, and I love that there’s no explanation of what the shirt is besides a drawing on the front that was very clearly done by a small child.

This is fashion. I don’t care what you have to say.

One last thing that’s only tangentially related. While we’re on the subject of Liam Castellanos, I need to share this video of him singing Blink 182’s "I Miss You" with his dad’s All-Star and outfield companion, Jesse Winker.

3. 2022 draft fans

The 2021 MLB Draft is barely over. Although some draftees have inked deals with their new clubs, many have yet to. The mainstream baseball world is still mostly focused on evaluating the draft that occurred eight days ago, not the one happening 357 days from now. But the 2022 Draft class is out there playing, so scouts and draft writers are right back on the grind, watching baseball, taking notes and making lists.

One of the year’s most notable amateur showcase tournaments, Perfect Game National, took place over the weekend at Tropicana Field in Tampa. Even though it’s hilariously early for most baseball fans to begin caring about next year’s draft, there are three names I’d really like to toss on your radar: Elijah Green, Termarr Johnson and Michael Gupton. 

First, let’s chat about Green, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound 17-year-old from Florida. Again, it’s stupid early, but he’s one of the most exciting and most promising talents to come out of the amateur ranks since Bryce Harper. We’re talking light-tower power with MLB-ready exit velos and elite arm strength. Over the weekend in Tampa, Green laced a ball with a swing that looks as crisp as you’ll see.

The second name to know is Termarr Johnson. At 5-foot-10, 170 pounds, Johnson isn’t a physically imposing dude like Green, but when you see him do pretty much anything on a baseball field, you know immediately that the kid is special. Over the weekend, he knocked a no-doubt homer over the wall in right. He’s goooooood.

The final name to know, Michael Gupton, is below the other two in terms of overall future potential, but he did something over the weekend that I’ve never seen before or even heard about. The kid ran a 5.96 60-yard dash.

To put this in context, anything below 6.6 is very, very fast. I played travel ball against an absurdly fast kid who was drafted by the D-Backs. I once saw him run a 6.2, and it was all we talked about for weeks. Roman Quinn, who is currently ranked by the Statcast Sprint Leaderboards as the seventh-fastest player in the bigs, ran a 6.57 in high school. This is all to say that anything under 6.0 is patently ridiculous.

Sometimes there are timing issues at these events, and players’ dash times can look a little wacky. But even if Gupton’s 5.96 is really a 6.16, that’s still about as fast as I’ve ever seen a baseball player run. And it tracks with Gupton’s background, as the North Carolinian is currently the two-time defending state champ in the 55-meter discipline. Dude is blazing.

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.

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Major League Baseball

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Jake Mintz