At 56-27 and tied with the Dodgers for the best record in baseball, it's certainly been a successful first half. Here's a look at the team's stats:
First of all, there's really nothing bad to say about the offense. Averaging 6.63 runs/game and leading the AL there can be no complaints, especially since the last 55 games or so have been played without Austin Meadows who at the time of his injury was the best player in MLB, amassing 3.6 WAR in early May. This is not a big HR-hitting team but that's fine because they can get on base and make contact, and in this day and age of the strikeout to average only 6.6 whiffs per game as a team is extraordinary. This is why they're never out of games this year and can easily come back from 3 and 4-run early deficits without blinking an eye. The team speed is excellent and they're not a bunch of singles hitters either.
The pitching, on the other hand, has been a disappointment. With the exception of the back end of the pen (Anderson/Alvarado/Hand) and Joe Ryan, it's been brutal at times and is the reason why they've had come back from a lot of 3 and 4-run deficits. The problems here are twofold: wildness (the big 4 are all up about a walk per 9 innings) and balls in play (they've allowed more of them than last year, and the defense hasn't been turning them into outs). They're still getting their strikeouts (and that ranking will probably go to #1 with more Glasnow starts in the mix after he missed the first two months), but any non-strikeout is a problem. This is not a very good defensive team as you can see from the stats and while Toro has been a defensive upgrade on Bohm at 3B, there are no elite defensive players here except for Kiermaier, and he missed a month and a half. Kepler for Renfroe has been a slight downgrade, and everyone else is average at best. Not sure how much to blame Keibert Ruiz for the staff's slump as he's a 60 defender. Perhaps the 6-man rotation with the days off got them out of whack but I haven't noticed that much improvement since they've been back in a regimented 5-man.
Anyway, here are my grades with a few comments.
C: Keibert Ruiz (A-) 319/371/520 makes him an all-star, and Ronaldo Hernandez (A) (361/430/723) has been ridiculous when he's gotten to play. It's hard to believe this was the same team that had the likes of Mike Zunino and Jason Castro at or below the Mendoza line the last couple of years.
1B: Ji-Man Choi (C+) 268/359/434 is really not the production of an upper-division 1B these days and I don't know if OOTP has this built in or not but I swear he's the streakiest player I've ever managed. Alec Bohm has struggled in intermittent play but might start getting more at-bats (he would have already if we ever faced any lefties, only 20 in 83 starts). Barring a huge second half I'm having a hard time seeing Ji-Man back next year as his salary approaches eight digits.
2B: Vidal Brujan (A-) 310/387/394 makes him the prototypical leadoff man. Yes, it'd be nice if he had a bit more power but for a rookie I can't complain. He was in danger of being overtaken by Xavier Edwards in the grand scheme of things after a disappointing 2021 in the minors but with Edwards missing April, he grabbed the opportunity and (literally) ran with it and then kept it up as a true regular after Meadows got hurt and Merrifield moved to LF. My only qualm is that he's been caught 9 times in 23 steal attempts which is a net negative sabermetrically.
SS: Wander Franco (B+) This grade is by Wander standards after a brutal May that saw him drop to .244. He's back up to 294/337/531 after a red-hot June and he should be just fine.
3B: Abraham Toro (B+). He was who we thought he was, his 278/384/440 slash is virtually identical to what he did in two extended periods with Houston the last two seasons filling in for Bregman and he's soldified the Spinal Tap drummer of a position 3B had been the last few years.
LF: Whit Merrifield (B)/Austin Meadows (A+). It would have been nice to see what Meadows could have done this year after he appeared to be bringing it up a notch after he brought it up a notch last year. An MVP wouldn't have been out of the question. Merrifield has filled in well, though, and as long as he's hitting over .300 he's useful and he's hitting .312 right now.
CF: Kevin Kiermaier (A-)/Brandon Marsh (B-). Kiermaier got off to a red-hot start at the plate this year just as he did last year, except this time he got hurt in mid-May and missed about 6 weeks so regression hasn't had a chance to kick in as he's still slugging about .700. I've been wary of exercising the $12M team option for him next season with Marsh and Josh Lowe as heirs apparent, but if he keeps this up, I'm going to have to. Marsh has been pretty good but with less power than hoped for - perhaps yesterday's game is a start in that direction and if so he can get some ABs playing LF as well.
RF: Max Kepler (B-). Kepler's drawing walks and hitting for power but his average of .227 is even worse than Renfroe's (although he still has a higher OBP than Hunter did the last 2 seasons). His RBI total is misleadingly high with all the baserunners the team puts in front of him. I'm hoping for positive regression the second half but have to say I'm disappointed so far.
DH: Nelson Cruz (A). Nellie keeps going and at age 42 he's still slugging .561. He's been pretty consistent as well. At some point I have to go with Seth Beer and/or Kirilloff here so I doubt he gets re-signed, but at $7M he's been a bargain so far.
SP: Blake Snell, Brendan McKay (C-). I'm lumping these two together as they've been the biggest disappointments. I expect some wildness from Snell but a 5.99 ERA is bad and it isn't all bad luck either as his FIP is far and away a career-worst 4.96. I can only hope for better. With only one year left on his contract, he could be moved in the offseason. McKay's 6.15 ERA is also supported by his bad 5.35 FIP and the alarming thing with him is that his BB/9 has gone from 2.1 to 3.9, almost doubling. His stuff isn't that overpowering to be walking that many hitters.
SP: Tyler Glasnow, Max Fried (B-). Glasnow's a bit of an incomplete. Since coming back in late May he's shown flashes of his normal brilliance but has had some real clunkers in there too. In his case though it's been bad luck and bad defense as his 4.84 ERA belies his 2.62 FIP. After a slow first 4-6 weeks last year Fried was one of the most consistent pitchers in the league the rest of the way but this year has been consistently inconsistent. His BB/9 has also spiked, from 2.5 to 4.1 and that's been the big killer here. His FIP each season has been in a narrow 3.69-4.05 range but with the walks up it's 4.41.
SP: Joe Ryan (B+). He was a B until that brilliant outing against Houston yesterday. He's been the one starter who's followed up what he did last year with more of the same, although with his K's down about 1 per 9 and HR allowed slightly up he's the one starter outpitching his FIP.
RP: Nick Anderson (B-), Jose Alvarado (A), Brad Hand (B+). Anderson's yet another of the Rays whose control has deserted him this year - in years past he's been between 2.0 and 3.3 BB/9 but it's up to 4.3 this season and there's been a slight erosion in his K/9 from around 15 in years past to 13 this season. Alvarado on the other hand has been money, and while his 0.56 ERA isn't sustainable, his 1.74 FIP says it's not that far off. Hand has been pretty reliable (yet to blow a save) so no complaints there.
Overall team grade: A.