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.

Prince wastes NO time...

(Photo: The Canadian Press)

in cashing in on the money. Moments after slugging his way to the Home Run Derby title during All-Star festivies in St. Louis, Fielder inked a 4-year deal to stay on with the Homestead Grays. The deal will cost $25 per year and is the first inked by any ThaGreenMonster player after the 2009 Inaugural Draft. Fielder received the longest contract allowed by league rules and it wont expire until after the 2013 season, making him part of the foundation for the Homestead Grays to build their team around for the future.

Thus far this season, "Cecil Jr." is batting .315/.444/.614 with 22 HR and 78 RBI and is second only to Albert Pujols amongst hitters with 394 total points. At just 25 years old, Prince has yet to hit his prime and should be a standout investment for the duration of the deal.

If only he were Canadian.. (he's born in Ontario, CA).

It's now midseason, and time for owners to begin to shake down their payrolls and see the big picture. Keeper Rosters are due by October 5th at 12:00am but there could be lots of signings well before that deadline. As the trade market begins to develop prior to the August 2nd trade deadline, expect to see some owners locking up key pieces of their future. As more players sign, the crop of available players should emerge and lead to a busy last month of trading season.

Prince has gone first. Who's next??

Separating The All-Stars

Homestead Grays (Danny)

P Zack Greinke, 1B Justin Morneau, SS Jason Bartlett, CF Curtis Granderson, P Josh Johnson, 3B Ryan Zimmerman, 1B Prince Fielder

Black Sox (Kedro)

2B Chase Utley, 3B David Wright, OF Carlos Beltran, SP Edwin Jackson

Master Batters (Ilya)

1B Albert Pujols

Starcity Arms (Grosh)

3B Evan Longoria, SP Roy Halladay, C Victor Martinez, CF Adam Jones, 2B/RF Ben Zobrist, LF Ryan Braun, SP Chad Billingsley, RP Jonathan Broxton, SP Matt Cain, C Brian McCann, RF Justin Upton

Ball Smashers (Jordie)

2B Dustin Pedroia, SS Derek Jeter, RP Andrew Bailey, RP Joe Nathan, 1B Kevin Youkilis, SS Michael Young, C Yadier Molina, SS Hanley Ramirez, 2B Orlando Hudson

The Screwballs (Buster)

LF Jason Bay, RP Jonathan Papelbon, SP Tim Lincecum, SP Johan Santana, RF Hunter Pence

Eric Byrnes Joints (Shay)

RF Ichiro Suzuki, SP Mark Buehrle, SP Felix Hernandez, 2B Aaron Hill, SP Dan Haren, SP Jason Marquis, RF Brad Hawpe

WinOrLoseHitTheBooze (Jason M.)

C Joe Mauer, SP Josh Beckett, RP Mariano Rivera, RP Francisco Cordero, SP Ted Lilly, RP Francisco Rodriguez, 1B Adrian Gonzalez

YBombers (Yosef)

1B Mark Teixeira, SP Tim Wakefield, LF Raul Ibanez, RP Heath Bell, 2B Freddy Sanchez

The Degenerates (Jason G.)

CF Josh Hamilton, RP Brian Fuentes, SP Justin Verlander, LF Carl Crawford, CF Torii Hunter, RP Ryan Franklin, 1B Ryan Howard, SS Miguel Tejada

**Does not include MLB's Final Vote Players, or any potential injury replacements

Interesting Extras:

- Only 2 All-Stars are playing in 'AAA', C Yadier Molina and 2B Orlando Hudson, both for Jordie's AAA-Han-Ram's My Man. Perhaps a last place team should be calling up these All-Stars??

- Master Batters had only one player named to the 2009 All-Star Game, although he is arguably the best player in the world. Fittingly enough, the team has recently agreed to a deal which will bring in three more All-Stars.

Say What?? Adenhart killed after dazzling season debut

More to come, but here's the link to the LA's Times report.

Adenhart, selected by Shay in the 5th round, 41st overall, was tragically killed in a car accident hours after his season debut Wednesday night.

A rising prospect, Adenhart was 3-1 in 2008 with his lone career win, while posting an ugly ERA of 9 over 12 IP.

In his season debut Wednesday, Adenhart pitched 6 scoreless innings, giving up 7 hits, 3 BB, and 5 K's and was in line for his 2nd career win before the Angels usually dominant bullpen blew it for him.

John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar, Ervin Santana... and now Nick Adenhart.

R.I.P. Nick.

Opening Day: Worst to First!!

For those who love the game of baseball, Opening Day is an annual tradition that marks not only the end of a long and bitter winter, but the chance to shake the demons of failure from previous seasons.

Opening Day '09 was no exception.

Amongst the biggest performers from the dish:

OF Adam Jones 3-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI, 3 Runs
OF Adam Lind 4-5, HR, 6 RBI, 2 Runs
IF Emilio Bonifacio 4-5, HR, 2 RBI, 4 Runs, 3 SB
C Jarrod Saltalamacchia 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 Runs
SS Hanley Ramirez 2-3, HR, 5 RBI, 2 Runs
3B/DH Hank Blalock 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 Runs
1B Chad Tracy, 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 Runs
IF Tony Clark and Felipe Lopez combined, 4-8, 4 HR, 5 RBI, 4 Runs

Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia, Brandon Webb, Justin Verlander, and Roy Halladay all got off to much rockier starts than anticipated.

Opening Day can be quite a crazy day, and the proof is in the pudding as Kedro of all teams, a perennial cellar dwellar, is in sole possession of 1st place in Tha Green Monster to open the season. Only 161 more games to go, can he hold on??