We've reached the halfway point of the season, and the Rays are on pace to win 100 games, something they've never done in team history (they did go 40-20 in last year's abbreviated season, but I doubt they would have won 108 games). Here are the MLB standings and leaders:
A few surprises here, we figured Milwaukee and Minnesota would be good, but best records in baseball good? And on the other side of the coin, it's surprising how bad the Braves have been as well as the Cardinals and Cubs.
Here are the Rays midseason stats:
The offense definitely has been a "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" so far as we're second in scoring despite being 7th in OPS. Part of it is due to our excellent baserunning but I suppose this could be a portent of some relative offensive struggles in the second half. Our run prevention has been fine, the defense is good, and we're not outplaying our Pythageorean record so all good there. The only pitching negative is that we've given up a lot of homers, something guys like Wacha, Wood and even Glasnow are prone to do.
The hitting stats:
This has basically been a 3-man offense (Lowe, Meadows, Arozarena) with Adames' high WAR total in large part due to his defense. Wander Franco needs to get going as he's cooled off after a relatively hot start to give us a 4th option, and Ji-Man Choi needs to produce a little more. We'll see how things go over the next month as to whether we need to bring another bat in.
The pitching stats:
WAR doesn't like our pitchers because they give up a fair number of homers, but they've gotten the job done. Rich Hill will be back soon from rehab with Chris Archer the shakiest member of the rotation. I don't see picking up anyone else in trade since we have Shane McClanahan and Brendan McKay pitching well at Durham.