First off a quick look at the standings and leaders at the halfway point:
Now you know why I haven't mentioned the division race. Here are the Rays team stats:
The usual preponderance of 1st-place rankings, and look at that zone rating! Positive! 5th in the AL! What is this new devilry? Rodriguez/Buitrago were a downgrade from Jasson Dominguez defensively, and the only other major positional change has been a lot of Melvin Gutierrez's 75 glove at SS in place of the injured Ricky Widmar, who was a 65. Perhaps that's making the difference, too bad Dane Ayers is back and getting the bulk of the work at SS now.
The hitting stats:
The pitching stats:
The grades:
C (B): Will Quintana has turned to be a little more productive than Luis Corpus, but at the expense of power. Quintana may have earned more of a job-share than he had before Corpus' injury.
1B: (A): Victor de Jesus has been a force with the bat and would be in the MVP discussion if a certain teammate of his wasn't already running away with it. Also he's become a 65 defender at 1B for what that's worth.
2B: (A+++++) Jaiden Hardaway, that's all. By the way he could be one of the few players in MLB history to have a 200-hit, 100-walk season (on pace for 212/98). Only 13 players have ever done it, most recently Cody Bellinger in 2021.
SS: (incomplete) Ricky Widmar was doing this thing until his torn labrum which will have him back right around the end of the regular season/beginning of the playoffs. Melvin Guiterrez gave us great glove but no bat, and now Dane Ayers is taking over. Ayers hasn't hit since he's come back but it's only been a handful of games.
3B: (A): Bo Angeac exceeded expectations last year and he continues to do so as he might be the best 3B in the AL right now.
OF: (B-) Nate Clark hit a lot of homers in the first two months of the season, but hasn't hit that well overall, Omar Rodriguez has slumped badly of late, and Alex Buitrago has had his moments but has also cooled of late. Dayle Jenkins is missed, and he'll be back after the All-Star break.
DH: (C+) Rodolfo Rivas has been a disappointment, with only an .818 OPS and 0.8 WAR in half a season as Mike Harms has earned about as much WAR in a little over 1/3 the at-bats. With Joe Jimenez on the way, Rivas could be trade bait this winter.
SP: (A-) The rotation has been great in spots 1-4, but the minus is for the Alec Sachais spot, which became Kevin Kerstetter for a while and now is Nate Thompson. Leo Ortega and Nate Schultz have been the excellent Little/Hayes replacements we hoped they'd be, and check out Ortega's BB/K ratio. Andy Aparicio is pitching somewhere between his otherworldly 2031 and his pretty good 2032, so that makes him an ace too, and Jon Soranno has continued to blossom. That 5th spot isn't really a source of worry since it won't be used in the playoffs, but I still hold out hope Nate Thompson will turn out to be great.
RP: (A, maybe A+). The bullpen has been incredible this year with Kikuo Kawase turning out to be everything as advertised and then some and is a main reason we're 4 games over our Pythag record. Tim Siqueiros would be getting a lot of ink if he wasn't being overshadowed by the Japanese sensation, and while Jim Connors and Jordan Diaz have had their good and bad moments, they've been decent overall. And Danny Medina is a beast in middle relief, a weapon most teams don't have. Mike Wherry has been OK as the lefty specialist and Bob Sirna has pitched well around all those walks.
Counting down until the days in October.