Greetings and salutations from the halfway point. That's what we call the All-Star break, which of course, is the point at which teams have played 56% of their games.
At this juncture, the Seattle Mariners are within four games of even and just 6.5 games behind division-leading Texas. And they have as much chance of making the playoffs as PacMan Jones has of winning Sportsman of the Year.
There are more bats in the average church belfry than on the Mariner roster. It's a moral victory in Seattle that the M's have out-homered Jose Bautista. But it's close. The Mariners have not managed to out-homer the combination of Joey Bats and any one of 37 other players, including such sluggers as Mark Trumbo and Asdrubal Cabrera.
Similarly, the Pirates are one game back and yet so far away from contention in the NL Central this year. Pittsburgh fans can celebrate the team's ascent to respectability, but unless that's the peak they aspire to, Pirate brass will balk at flipping emerging talent for veteran rentals in a likely fruitless effort to cash in a year early. Better to leave Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati to squabble over the division this year; the Bucs are priming the pump for a sustained run at contention with four youthful regulars hitting at above average rates, four solid young starters and a stud relief corps. Seven of the 12 regulars are 28 or under and the entire pitching staff is 30 or less.
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With 70 games to play, we can reasonably count out Baltimore, Toronto, Kansas City, San Diego, the Dodgers, Houston and the Cubs. Except for the Blue Jays, these teams are all insurmountably bad and far behind. The Blue Jays are the latter only, but the teams they are chasing are numerous (three, to be exact) and baseball's best.
I've generously left Washington, the Mets, Florida and Oakland off the morgue's cadaver list because these teams' fans may still harbor some remnant of hope for the season. Indeed, the Mets and Nats can feel good about their present state, but Philly and Atlanta will not be caught by the likes of them. The Marlins and A's may be better than their records, but they're 14 and 11 games behind, respectively.
All the teams listed above should consider moving any veterans of value whose contracts expire this year for some nubile talent.
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We've had a whopper of a career milestone reached in the most dramatic way during the first half. There remain some interesting career inchpebbles in the second half. Alex Rodriguez stands sixth on the career home run chart, just four dingers behind Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth. If his knee cooperates, ARod will play again this year and snake his way up the career leaderboard for runs (17th; 50 more moves him to 12th), RBIs (11th; 40 more gets him to eighth) and total bases (14th; 100 more moves him to 12th) as well.
With 58 more hits, Derek Jeter reaches the top 20 in hits and the top 15 in singles. He's 24th in runs scored but can crack the top 20 in a stretch.
On the mound, Mariano Rivera needs 20 saves to become the all-time saves champ, but that's about it. With a dearth of Hall of Fame pitchers plying their trade this year, the smoldering remains of Javier Vazquez is the active leader in strikeouts, and he's 35th on the career list. 44-year-old Tim Wakefield is next, in 57th. Wakefield also leads active pitchers in wins with 198 -- 111th all-time.
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First half awards time. Adrian Gonzalez is demonstrating in spades that the switch from offense-hating Petco to hit-happy Fenway swamps the the move to the harder league. He's accumulated a sparkling .352/.412/.589 slash line, leading the league in hits, doubles, total bases, batting average and RBIs. He's also an A+ defender. So the first half AL MVP goes to ... Jose Bautista.
Amazingly, Bautista makes Gonzalez look like Tinkerbell. At .332/.468/.702, Toronto's masher paces the circuit in on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, walks and intentional walks. Even if his defense could best be described as "feet bolted to the right field turf" he'd be the MVP. (For the record, he's a fine defender who even fills in at third.)
Jose Reyes has a case for first half NL MVP, but Matt Kemp has a better one. Kemp is hitting .317/.403/.591 with home base in Dodger Stadium and surrounded by Frank McCourt's hitless wonders. He leads the league in VORP (value over replacement player), which doesn't account for fielding, and in WARP (wins against replacement player), which does.
Roy Halladay is my first half NL Cy Young, even though Jair Jurrjens has given up half a run less per game. Halladay has pitched 30 more innings and has triple the strikeout/walk ratio. Jurrjens' BABIP-against is a luck-flecked .256. Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Clayton Kershaw earn honorable mention.
AL Cy is also a two-man race: Jered Weaver and Justin Verlander. If you squint, you can see an iota more consistency in Weaver's performance, so I tilt his way, but Verlander is a perfectly defensible choice. Honorable mention to Josh Beckett.
Ninety games is dearly insufficient for an informed Rookie of the Year vote, especially since some rookie phenoms start the season on the farm. There are a lot of good candidates, but Braves closer Craig Kimbrel is mowing down the NL competition. Kimbrel has shattered the rookie record for saves by the break with 28 (of 33). His high heat has sent 70 batters back muttering in just 46 innings and the best hitters in the world are batting .179 against him. Beat that, Bastardo.
Rangers starter Alexi Ogando, about whom I opined a few posts ago, has performed admirably in the first half and is the leader in the clubhouse for AL Rookie of the Year. But as I mentioned in that piece, he's already in uncharted workload territory. If he falters in the second half, Angels first sacker Mark Trumbo might take the prize with 30 home runs.
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When the NL and AL were different leagues, with different rules, different league presidents, different umpiring styles, different playing surfaces and attitudes towards race, the All-Star game was a clash of titans. It was the only time all year we could see Mike Schmidt take his cuts against Jim Palmer or Tom Seaver face George Brett.
Today, the NL and AL are little more than conferences in a league. They're separated by the DH but connected by 300 interleague contests and free agency that moves players between them regularly. A whole team has switched sides and another is rumored to be on the way. Naturally, the Mid-Summer Classic feels more like an oldie. There's no going back, and the fact that the site of one World Series game might hinge on the result doesn't change that.
So I'll enjoy the game for what it is -- an exhibition filled with future Hall of Famers -- and try not to fret about what it's not.
b
Similarly, the Pirates are one game back and yet so far away from contention in the NL Central this year. Pittsburgh fans can celebrate the team's ascent to respectability, but unless that's the peak they aspire to, Pirate brass will balk at flipping emerging talent for veteran rentals in a likely fruitless effort to cash in a year early. Better to leave Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati to squabble over the division this year; the Bucs are priming the pump for a sustained run at contention with four youthful regulars hitting at above average rates, four solid young starters and a stud relief corps. Seven of the 12 regulars are 28 or under and the entire pitching staff is 30 or less.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With 70 games to play, we can reasonably count out Baltimore, Toronto, Kansas City, San Diego, the Dodgers, Houston and the Cubs. Except for the Blue Jays, these teams are all insurmountably bad and far behind. The Blue Jays are the latter only, but the teams they are chasing are numerous (three, to be exact) and baseball's best.
I've generously left Washington, the Mets, Florida and Oakland off the morgue's cadaver list because these teams' fans may still harbor some remnant of hope for the season. Indeed, the Mets and Nats can feel good about their present state, but Philly and Atlanta will not be caught by the likes of them. The Marlins and A's may be better than their records, but they're 14 and 11 games behind, respectively.
All the teams listed above should consider moving any veterans of value whose contracts expire this year for some nubile talent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We've had a whopper of a career milestone reached in the most dramatic way during the first half. There remain some interesting career inchpebbles in the second half. Alex Rodriguez stands sixth on the career home run chart, just four dingers behind Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth. If his knee cooperates, ARod will play again this year and snake his way up the career leaderboard for runs (17th; 50 more moves him to 12th), RBIs (11th; 40 more gets him to eighth) and total bases (14th; 100 more moves him to 12th) as well.
With 58 more hits, Derek Jeter reaches the top 20 in hits and the top 15 in singles. He's 24th in runs scored but can crack the top 20 in a stretch.
On the mound, Mariano Rivera needs 20 saves to become the all-time saves champ, but that's about it. With a dearth of Hall of Fame pitchers plying their trade this year, the smoldering remains of Javier Vazquez is the active leader in strikeouts, and he's 35th on the career list. 44-year-old Tim Wakefield is next, in 57th. Wakefield also leads active pitchers in wins with 198 -- 111th all-time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First half awards time. Adrian Gonzalez is demonstrating in spades that the switch from offense-hating Petco to hit-happy Fenway swamps the the move to the harder league. He's accumulated a sparkling .352/.412/.589 slash line, leading the league in hits, doubles, total bases, batting average and RBIs. He's also an A+ defender. So the first half AL MVP goes to ... Jose Bautista.
Amazingly, Bautista makes Gonzalez look like Tinkerbell. At .332/.468/.702, Toronto's masher paces the circuit in on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, walks and intentional walks. Even if his defense could best be described as "feet bolted to the right field turf" he'd be the MVP. (For the record, he's a fine defender who even fills in at third.)
Jose Reyes has a case for first half NL MVP, but Matt Kemp has a better one. Kemp is hitting .317/.403/.591 with home base in Dodger Stadium and surrounded by Frank McCourt's hitless wonders. He leads the league in VORP (value over replacement player), which doesn't account for fielding, and in WARP (wins against replacement player), which does.
Roy Halladay is my first half NL Cy Young, even though Jair Jurrjens has given up half a run less per game. Halladay has pitched 30 more innings and has triple the strikeout/walk ratio. Jurrjens' BABIP-against is a luck-flecked .256. Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Clayton Kershaw earn honorable mention.
AL Cy is also a two-man race: Jered Weaver and Justin Verlander. If you squint, you can see an iota more consistency in Weaver's performance, so I tilt his way, but Verlander is a perfectly defensible choice. Honorable mention to Josh Beckett.
Ninety games is dearly insufficient for an informed Rookie of the Year vote, especially since some rookie phenoms start the season on the farm. There are a lot of good candidates, but Braves closer Craig Kimbrel is mowing down the NL competition. Kimbrel has shattered the rookie record for saves by the break with 28 (of 33). His high heat has sent 70 batters back muttering in just 46 innings and the best hitters in the world are batting .179 against him. Beat that, Bastardo.
Rangers starter Alexi Ogando, about whom I opined a few posts ago, has performed admirably in the first half and is the leader in the clubhouse for AL Rookie of the Year. But as I mentioned in that piece, he's already in uncharted workload territory. If he falters in the second half, Angels first sacker Mark Trumbo might take the prize with 30 home runs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the NL and AL were different leagues, with different rules, different league presidents, different umpiring styles, different playing surfaces and attitudes towards race, the All-Star game was a clash of titans. It was the only time all year we could see Mike Schmidt take his cuts against Jim Palmer or Tom Seaver face George Brett.
Today, the NL and AL are little more than conferences in a league. They're separated by the DH but connected by 300 interleague contests and free agency that moves players between them regularly. A whole team has switched sides and another is rumored to be on the way. Naturally, the Mid-Summer Classic feels more like an oldie. There's no going back, and the fact that the site of one World Series game might hinge on the result doesn't change that.
So I'll enjoy the game for what it is -- an exhibition filled with future Hall of Famers -- and try not to fret about what it's not.
b
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