MLB Midseason Report

By Guest
Updated: July 20, 2012

Andrew McCutchen photo taken from Google Images

By SBRForum.com

We’re past the halfway point of the baseball regular season. Join us as we reflect on the top performers and on which teams have made the most money in MLB odds throughout the first half.

In terms of player performances, there’s been one true standout in each league.

Mike Trout (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The AL has been taken over by Mike Trout, a rookie left fielder for the Los Angeles Angels who’s batting over .350 and has already swiped over 30 bases too. He has single-handedly turned the fortunes of this team around with his stellar play in all aspects.

Trout’s been good, but Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen has just been out of this world.

In only his fourth season in the bigs, McCutchen has firmly established himself among the game’s best. He’s batting .369 with 22 home runs, 25 RBI and has added in 14 stolen bases too.

Pitching-wise, there’s been so many standouts, but R.A. Dickey’s story has been pretty amazing. He’s tied atop the NL with 12 wins so far.

Gio Gonzalez, Madison Bumgarner, Chris Sale, Jered Weaver, Justin Verlander, Ryan Vogelsong, Johnny Cueto, Jordan Zimmermann and Matt Cain are all having exceptional seasons as well.

Overall though, it’s been the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals that have been most impressive as teams thus far.

The Yankees have already built up a 10-game cushion in the AL East with a remarkable 57-34 record, while the Rangers have the second-best record in the MLB at 55-36. Washington’s dominant pitching staff has guided them to a 53-36 mark and a 4.5 game lead on the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.

The biggest surprise has to be the Pirates though, who are currently tied atop the NL Central with Cincinnati. We’re eager to see whether they can actually hold on this time around, instead of running out of gas late like they did last season.