Another dominant first half at 61-21, and here's where things stand:
Our usual productive offense of course, and our starting pitching has been fairly gruesome, probably the worst we've had in this save. It's not be as good the last few years and I keep thinking it'll be our undoing. It hasn't yet (certainly wasn't last year) but one of these days we're not going to outscore our problems. Now some of this is defense, but the D is actually a little better this year. And we are still #1 in WAR which tells me there's been some bad luck involved and the pitching isn't quite as bad as it looks. But it's not elite by any means.
Luis Barela is the front-runner for yet another MVP, one that could go to Doug Johns as well. Juan Davila has finally lived up to his billing as one of the game's top prospects earlier this decade as he's gotten a chance to play with the Yuji Morioka injury. Morioka is due back any day now, though, so I'll have to be real creative to get Davila steady at-bats. Otherwise, despite injuries to Morioka and Nelson Bocardo the offense has hummed along.
With the exception of fifth starters O'Brien and Ramos, the top four have been pretty decent in terms of WAR so again I'm thinking they'll put up better surface numbers in the second half. The pen has been fine for the most part as we have four legitimate closers (Soto, Gray, Carrasco, Falcon) although Gray and Carrasco have struggled some of late. Really at this point the only thing that matters is how they show up for the postseason.