It's been quite a ride during this first half of the season, starting 19-31, making 3 major trades in one day, 4 overall, and going 26-5 to finish it out. Adley Rutschman of course has been everything as advertised but Griffin Canning and Tarik Skubal have definitely helped the rotation. It remains to see how much Chris Sale will help, as his stuff has diminished and he's had trouble staying healthy, meaning we may have lit $40M or whatever we're going to end up paying him on fire. Anyway, here are the midseason standings and leaders:
Rays team stats:
These numbers have obviously turned around quite a bit from last time we looked, with the pitching an unsung aspect of the turnaround as the offense has gotten all the publicity with its 180-degree flip. Also I find it very interesting we're 20-5 vs LH starters but 25-31 against righties as that includes the times we were going bad.
Individual hitting stats:
The new guys have done well (Rutschman and Kieboom), but not to be overlooked in the team's renaissance is the return of Vidal Brujan from injury as he missed most of the first 6-7 weeks.
Individual pitching stats:
As you can see we've gone through a fair number of pitchers this season, but the current group looks like keepers. WAR doesn't like Canning and Skubal because they're somewhat homer-prone but they pile up the strikeouts and don't give up much else.