MLB Opening Day 2020: 12 must-follow baseball content creators on social media
If you are a baseball fan of any kind, these follows are sure to enhance your social media experience

The wait for the 2020 Major League Baseball season is finally over. With summer camps coming to a close and Opening Day scheduled for Thursday and Friday, the 60-game march starts now. For baseball personalities and social media content creators everywhere, the season has already started.
MLB has increasingly embraced the popularity and necessity for a social media presence both internally and externally. While the disagreement between fair use and sport exposure still remains grainy, the league has allowed nationally televised broadcasts to use the work of Rob Friedman, known to most as @PitchingNinja on Twitter. MLB has also permitted Jimmy "Jomboy" O'Brien to continue creating hot mic and captioned breakdowns (with restrictions) after numerous copyright battles.
As a whole, MLB has relaxed its once intense policies toward copyrighted material on social media -- that's great for both content creators and baseball fans.
From pitch grip breakdowns to wacky statistics, social media is a melting pot of baseball content for fans at zero cost. Who is the best of the best? Well, that's up to one's own interpretation. @PitchingNinja did win the Best Baseball Twitter User of 2019 in a bracket poll on Twitter that received more than 300,000 votes in totality this past December.
With respects to the hundreds of creative and talented users across social media, we have chosen to make a collection of 12 of the best content creators -- as opposed to a ranked list. Consider this a conglomeration of suggested follows.
To those who may have been snubbed from this list, your work has not gone unnoticed. We genuinely appreciate all the content creators across the Twitter-sphere and beyond.
Social media content creators provide fans with an aspect of the game that otherwise would be absent. They give the game personality. They give the people what they want and are growing the game of baseball one post at a time.
Without further adieu, here are some of our favorite social media baseball follows.
Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja)
Voted 2019's Best Baseball Twitter User, nobody benefited more from MLB's change in social media policy than Rob Friedman. The Pitching Ninja focuses on pitchers, specifically pitch movements, grips, and mechanics. He has also single-handedly help jumpstart baseball careers through his FlatGround App. MLB has embraced the Ninja by allowing ESPN to use his content on their baseball broadcasts.
Thor's 97 mph Black Magic Sinker (slow).
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 15, 2018
It's looks like he's throwing a pitch in a tornado. pic.twitter.com/6GzYdMQXPy
Jimmy O'Brien (@Jomboy_)
No baseball content creator gained as many followers as Jimmy "Jomboy" O'Brien last year. A longtime Yankees fan, Jomboy rose to prominence by creating breakdown videos with captions from scenes around baseball. Now grown to be Jomboy Media, O'Brien took off on the social media front after detailing the iconic Aaron Boone ejection where he labeled his hitters as "savages." He also provided insight and video evidence regarding the Astros' trash can tactics used in 2017.
Here is the full sequence of the Boone ejection. Hot mics galore. pic.twitter.com/R6Vw0qw0qn
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) July 18, 2019
Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD)
Rather than relying on technology to build a brand like Jomboy and PitchingNinja, Jessica Kleinschmidt uses her innate witty personality to provide a unique twist on topics surrounding the baseball world. The Reno-native mainly focuses on Oakland A's stories and content, but provides so much more through both comedy and perspective. She truly is "one of the good ones" on the blue bird and always provides a good laugh.
My all-time favorite baseball gif. pic.twitter.com/VcJ3OQgBpt
— Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD) November 24, 2016
Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats)
The once high school statistic guru is now in college. But, don't worry, Jeremy Frank's content has only gotten better. His Twitter handle tells you just about all you need to know about his schtick, @MLBRandomStats -- though his stats are anything but arbitrary. Frank recently published the book "Hidden Ball Trick: The Baseball Stats You Never Thought To Look For" that is already selling by the bunch.
This could be my favorite stat, ever...
— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) July 20, 2018
Joey Votto pop ups by year:
2010 - 0
2011 - 1
2012 - 1
2013 - 1
2014 - 1
2015 - 2
2016 - 0
2017 - 1
2018 - 0
Since 2010, Votto has popped it up 7 times. With the same amount of PA, the MLB average player would have popped it up 127 times.
Christopher Kamka (@ckamka)
The NBC Sports Chicago producer, Christopher Kamka, is the ultimate baseball fun fact source. His pinned tweet says a lot about his repertory: "If you respond to one of my tweets with 'Who cares?' the answer is me. That's why I tweeted it." While the above-mentioned Jeremy Frank concentrates mostly on current baseball stats, Kamka has a statistical archive unlike most, and his baseball history knowledge is truly supreme.
10+ K starts since 4/29/2008 (Max Scherzer's MLB Debut)
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) June 26, 2019
89 Scherzer
84 Phillies
78 Cubs
78 WSox
78 Rangers
75 Dbacks (3 by Scherzer)
75 Yanks
72 Mariners
66 Angels
63 Brewers
58 Marlins
56 Jays
56 Cards
53 Reds
52 Braves
48 Rox
42 Padres
41 Bucs
39 Royals
38 A's
30 Twins
20 O's
Doug Glanville (@dougglanville)
Shifting now to the podcast side of media, former Phillies outfielder and current baseball analyst Doug Glanville has joined forces with Jayson Stark for a must-listen show called, "Starkville." Doug's down-to-earth personality and playing experience provides his listeners with a new way of looking at the game and its players. Recently, Glanville has used his podcast to serve as a medium to discuss social issues and the Black Lives Matter movement. The "A conversation: Retired African American MLB players on race, baseball, America" episode is totally worth a listen.
What I found so powerful about this moment was how John Carlos walked us through it. He had us first open our hands with our fingers wide apart then he had us close our hands slowly into a fist. And his message? The power of “unity.” You could feel it. https://t.co/mZsu0GpFsy
— Doug Glanville (@dougglanville) July 11, 2020
Sarah Langs (@slangsonsports)
If you're interested in the analytics of baseball, Sara Langs is your girl. Langs' expertise in sabermetrics, Fangraphs, and projections allows her to provide deep investigations into the statistics of individual players and teams. She is an encyclopedia of baseball knowledge and relies on the numbers to make her conclusions.
Chris Davis now up to 0-44 dating to last season.
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 7, 2019
Longest 0-fer by a position player in MLB history is 0-46 by Eugenio Velez in 2010-11.
Joey Mellows (@baseballbrit)
In 2019, the Portsmouth, England-native quit his job and sought out on a mission to learn and promote the game of baseball around the globe. His genuine love of the game can be felt through his personality. He has traveled the globe to watch games in Asia, North America, and beyond. Mellows provides a perspective unlike the regular baseball experts and insiders, in that, he is still a student of the game. MLB has long been trying to grow the game internationally, and the Baseball Brit is helping lead the charge. After completing his MLB road trip last year, he planned on taking on the Minor League Baseball world before COVID-19 suspended the season and put a halt to those plans.
Game 111: @FresnoGrizzlies at @epchihuahuas
— Baseball Brit (@BaseballBrit) August 20, 2019
This may be my FAVOURITE ballpark in all of Minor League Baseball... 🤩 pic.twitter.com/m2sPYxzaxG
Ryan Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder)
Another baseball history and stats whiz, Ryan Spaeder provides his own unique twists on the baseball statistical front. While he relies on analytics, he is also known to dig up some treasure stories. He has also co-authored the first and second editions of "Incredible Baseball Stats: The Coolest, Strangest Stats and Facts in Baseball History" with Kevin Reavy.
My girlfriend was born in Iran and had never played baseball before, this is about the sixth throw of her life — not bad! pic.twitter.com/OQxkyIvsgW
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) March 23, 2020
Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22)
To say Cutch is a "content creator" might be a stretch, but his social media is game more than fits the bill. Obviously, he is a bit busy playing right field for the Phillies, but he still finds time to interact with his fans and provide plenty of entertainment through his social media accounts. Whether he's dancing on the field, showing off the always exuberant swag, or meeting up with local high school baseball teams for batting practice, McCutchen is a treasure to us all.
Just got to my Rental in Philly, I kinda feel like Will Smith in that last episode w/ no furniture pic.twitter.com/uZMT40bwTV
— andrew mccutchen (@TheCUTCH22) June 30, 2020
Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB)
Similar to Jomboy, 24-year-old Braves fan Bailey (declined to offer his surname) started from scratch and has taken both the YouTube and Twitter worlds by storm. His YouTube account, Foolish Baseball, has grown to more than 116,000 subscribers. Foolish Baseball provides a combination of statistical and visual analysis. Bailey has also found a niche on Twitter through sharing quirky baseball facts and takes.
Jared Carrabis (@jared_carrabis)
The diehard Red Sox fan elicits obvious bias through his Boston scope, but that's his brand, and many, not just BoSox fans, have come to enjoy it. What separates "The Rocket" from other content creators is his player interviews. From Christian Yelich to Andrew Benintendi, Carrabis takes a unique strategy by taking an interview and turning it into a laid-back conversation. His interviewees seem to appreciate the break from the every day, methodical questions they so often are exposed to; leading to more genuine responses. Carrabis gives us all a deeper dive into how our favorite players truly live their lives both on and off the diamond.
This is what makes @Starting9 different. Christian Yelich sums it up perfectly. pic.twitter.com/uxdJAYUpG0
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) February 21, 2020
Other great social media follows:
- Marc Luino (@GiraffeNeckMarc)
- Cut4 (@cut4)
- Megan Brown (@thatgirlondeck)
- Devan Fink (@devanfink)
- Emily Waldon (@EmilyCWaldon)
- Alex Fast (@alexfast8)
- Katie Woo (@katiejwoo)
- Baseball Quotes (@BaseballQuotes1)
- Ben Porter (@Ben13Porter)