The Pirates and MLB at the Halfway Mark

On Friday, the Pirates played their 81st game of 2021.  It was, literally, the halfway point of the season for them.  Yesterday, was the 4th of July, a traditional halfway mark of the season, and in another week or so we will contest the All-Star Game, another traditional halfway point of the season. 

So, where are we?

Before delving into that, let us first salute the Pirates' two representatives on the National League All-Star team, seciond baseman Adam Frazier, who was voted into the starting lineup, and outfielder Brian Reynolds.

This is a not case of "even the crummy teams need to have someone on the team."  Both of these guys are absolutely deserving of being on the teams, so good for them.  Shadowing over this bit of good news is the assumption that Frazier is likely to be traded for prospects by the end of the month, and tells us more about the state of MLB and the Pirates than it does of Frazier, who has been nothing but a good guy during his time with the Bucs.   His All-Star selection will serve as a fitting coda to his Pirates career.

Back to the original question, where are we?

In 2020's shortened season, the Pirates had the worst record in MLB, 19-41. After sixty games this year, the Pirates were 23-37, a four game improvement over last year.  And Frazier and Reynolds are All-Stars.  And Ke'Bryan Hayes seems to be the real deal at third base and at the plate.  You want good stuff...that's it, that's the list.

The Pirates today sit at 30-53, on pace to go 58-104.  They are what we thought they would be - terrible.  Amazingly, they are NOT the worst team in baseball, Arizona and Baltimore have worse records.  How bad must they be?  All that we Pirates fans can do is place our trust in GM Ben Cherrington as he rebuilds the Pirates following the "Astros Model" and hope for the good times to start rolling in 2023 or 2024.

As for the rest of the Majors...

• The Mets have a 3.5 game lead in the NL East, a surprise to me.   The Braves, whom I thought would win that division, are in second place and one game under .500.
• The NL Central is proving to be a one team division as the Brewers have a seven game lead, seventeen games over .500.  Only the Reds are over .500 and the Cardinals, always a contender it seems, are in fourth place, ten games behind the Brewers.
• In the NL West, I was under the impression that the Giants weren't going to be any good, but they sit in first place in what has to be the biggest surprise in the NL so far this season.  However, the Dodgers are .5 game behind and the Padres are 4.5 behind, 22 and 14 games over .500 respectively.  The West could be the best race in baseball in the second half of the season, and my money says the the Dodgers are still the team to beat.
• The biggest surprise in the American League has to be the New York Yankees: 42-41, fourth place in the East, ten games behind the Red Sox.  "Stink" is a relative term when describing bad baseball teams, and using the same word to describe the Pirates and a 42-41 Yankees team is absurd on the face of it, but I wonder how many fans up in the Bronx are using that tern to describe the Yankees these days?
• The White Sox with a six game lead appear to be the goods in the AL Central.  Only Cleveland is over .500 behind them.
• The Astros hold a 3.5 game lead in the West over the always competitive Athletics, and the Mariners are in third only 7 games back.  As it is in the NL West, the race in the AL West could be a fun one to watch down the stretch.

The most amazing story of this season is being written by the Angels' Shohei Ohtani.

In twelve starts as a pitcher, he is 3-1 with a 3.60 ERA and 83 strike outs in 60 innings pitched.  As an outfielder/DH, he is batting 2.78 with 31 home runs and 67 RBI.  He has made the AL All-Star team as both a DH and a pitcher.  The last time anyone did anything like this playing both positions on a full time basis was in the 1919 when a guy named George Ruth did it for the Red Sox.

Yes, we are writing Ohtani's name in the same sentence with that of Babe Ruth.  BABE RUTH!!!

Here's to the second half of the season.