It's been quite a first half for the Rays, and let's check in on where things stand:
As expected Houston is our main competition in the AL although the White Sox have been torrid as of late. Note that longtime former Rays superstar Danny Ayala is having quite a debut season in Houston with 95 RBI at the midway point, threatening Hack Wilson and lapping the league in that category. But it's another of their stars, Ricky Clark, who's having a season for the ages with 5.8 WAR already.
Here are the team stats:
Nothing not to like here, nary a weakness to be found. As has been well-advertised our defensive efficiency has improved to middle of the pack, a veritable zenith for this franchise in the last 15 years or so. Those defensive numbers have slipped a bit as they were 6th in DE and Zone Rating and they will likely erode a little further as the injury to Dan Gregory, who was almost single-handedly responsible for the improvement, continues to take effect. Also losing Jeff Baez for a while didn't help.
The hitting stats:
No complaints here as Seth Williams has emerged as a more-than-adequate replacement for Jaiden Hardaway. While he isn't likely to put up 10+ WAR seasons like J-Hard, Williams is still the real deal and combined with Mike Willis they've replaced his on-base skills at the top of the order.
The pitching (oh god yes, the pitching):
Not sure I've ever had pitching this good in the history of this save, and that's with a slew of Cy Young Award winners in our past. Brockman and Jackson are the pitchers I was hoping they'd be when they were acquired last year, Romero is doing Romero things, and Jose Mendoza has blossomed into an ace but here he's our nominal 5th starter (right now Vinny Willard is probably the odd man out of the playoff rotation though). And find me a team that had their top 4 starters go a combined 48-4 over the first half of a season. Former rotation members Jon Harbour and Jordan Perez have excelled in long relief, not that they've need to be called on that often. Dan Anderson has done a great job taking over as the 7th-inning guy from the injured Ken Burgess, but if there is any cause for concern it's that the back end of the pen has become a bit less reliable as Kikuo Kawase is showing signs of age and has already blown 3 saves while Ed Pretty has had a few rough outings as well (although he's been victimized by a .441 BABIP).