First Half Recap

With the All-Star break all but done, and the second half of the season looming on the horizon, let's take a quick look back at some of the stories from the 1st half.

- A trio of arms and a pair of legs has carried The Degenerates through the first half of the season, leaving the team atop league standings with 6113.5 points. Justin Verlander, Adam Wainwright and Jon Lester have paced a mostly young and unproven pitching staff combining for a 28-15 record, while the rest of the staff has gone just 22-35. That's right, those three have combined for 56% of the teams' wins. The offence has been paced by Carl Crawford's league-leading 44 first half steals, contributing to the Degenerates league-high of 124 SBs (Only two other teams above 100, The Screwballs 123 and Eric Byrnes Joints 115).

- Despite the fact the Black Sox have used a total of 1183.0 IP thus far, roughly 200 more than the next team, they have used up the least amount of man games for position players. At the break, the Black Sox have 877 GP. Every other team has used at least 917 and the Homestead Grays have used the most with 970. The first half has been up and down for the Black Sox, as they rode their lead in IP to the top of the standings for the first month or so, but a power outage (dead last in league HR with 103), and an 3.98 staff ERA has the team on the outside of the playoff picture, looking in.

A run-down of the each team's staff Era's:

3.61 ERA - WinOrLoseHitTheBooze - (394 ER in 981 IP)
3.64 ERA - Master Batters - (375 ER in 927 IP)
3.66 ERA - The Degenerates - (367 ER in 902.1 IP)
3.69 ERA - Starcity Arms - (372 ER in 908 IP)
3.69 ERA - Homestead Grays - (358 ER in 872.1 IP)
3.96 ERA - Eric Byrnes Joints - (418 ER in 951 IP)
3.98 ERA - Black Sox - (523 ER in 1183 IP)
4.02 ERA - The Screwballs - (424 ER in 948 IP)
4.79 ERA - YBombers - (481 ER in 904.1 IP)
4.85 ERA - Ball Smashers - (447 ER in 829.2 IP)

- With the biggest collection of busts and walking wounded among any staff in the league, the Ball Smashers have compiled a disastrous 39-67 staff record, sending the team into a length stay in the cellar throughout the first-half of the season. Jake Peavy, Justin Duchscherer and Chris Young have been injured much of the season. Francisco Liriano, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Chien-Ming Wang all got off to horrible starts and none of these 6 starters are currently in the team's rotation (Liriano traded and the others on the DL or in AAA). Young flamethrower Tommy Hanson, recently acquired real-life teammate Javier Vazquez and the potential to draft Stephen Strasbury 1st Overall in 2010 could form a solid core for the Ball Smashers rebuilt rotation. Peavy and Matsuzaka are strong bets to return to form but Duchscherer, Young and Wang may all wind up as unsigned free agents in the offseason.

- The Master Batters lone MLB All-Star, 1B Albert Pujols, leads all hitters with an outstanding 473 points at the break (32 HR, 87 RBI). 1B Prince Fielder (394), 2B Chase Utley (369), LF Carl Crawford (369), LF Jason Bay (369), 3B Mark Reynolds (366), 1B Justin Morneau (365), 2B Ian Kinsler (362), RF Jayson Werth (350) and SS Hanley Ramirez (348) round out the top-1o hitters in the first half.

- The biggest busts among the top 100 O-Ranked Yahoo Hitters:

SS Jose Reyes (131 points), CF Josh Hamilton (132), LF Manny Ramirez (171), LF Carlos Quentin (113), 3B Aramis Ramirez (77), RF Vladimir Guerrero (127), and C Ryan Doumit (43) have all missed significant chunks of time due to injury.

C Geovany Soto (168), RF Magglio Ordonez (184), 3B Garrett Atkins (159), 1B Chris Davis (188) have been amongst the most ineffective hitters all season.

- Hitters currently amongst the top 25 in points but outside the top 100 O-Ranked:

3B Mark Reynolds (197 O-Rank), RF Jayson Werth (128), 1B Carlos Pena (101), RF Justin Upton (129), CF Torii Hunter (113), RF Shin-Soo Choo (183), and DH Adam Lind (190)

- Top 5 pitchers in points:

Tim Lincecum (509 points), Zack Greinke (487.5), Dan Haren (482.5), Felix Hernandez (424), and Justin Verlander (421).

25-year old Zack Greinke leads a crop of emerging young break out starters. Others enjoying outstanding first-halfs are Josh Johnson, Jered Weaver, Adam Wainwright, Edwin Jackson, Wandy Rodriguez, Nick Blackburn and Zach Duke... all in the top 25 in points.