It has been a fun, though a bit unexpected, first half of baseball.
Aaron Judge is having yet another historic season, including an absolutely dominant June in which he hit .409 and slugged .864 with a 1.378 OPS and 37 RBIs. Entering this week, he was on pace for 56 home runs and 146 RBIs on the season. The acquisition of fellow slugger Juan Soto has surely helped Judge, as Soto bats in front of the Yankees captain and leads MLB with 77 walks and a .427 on-base percentage.
Meanwhile, the White Sox got off to one of the worst starts in history and are joined at the bottom of the standings by a handful of teams — the Rockies, Marlins, A’s and Angels — that simply can’t get anything going. The Astros were as many as 12 games under .500 before slowly making their way back to relevancy. Riding a stellar bullpen, the Guardians have been a top team all season, while the Royals surprised many by coming out of the gates hot before tailing off a bit recently.
With the first half in the books, let’s give all 30 teams a grade on their performance, relative to their preseason expectations.
