Mlb At The Halfway Point: 7 Eye-popping Numbers At The 81-game Mark

Well, that was fast.

Major League Baseball has reached the halfway point of its season – actual, not symbolic, with the All-Star Game not tipping off until July 14 in Philadelphia. But come Thursday, June 24, more teams than not will have played 81 games, and it’s all downhill until this baby wraps up Sept. 27.

Weird year, right? The league is filled with lots of bad teams who really aren’t out of it, leaving observers to ponder if any team is actually any good. Perhaps the hot summer months will bring clarity.

Or perhaps we’ll wonder why MLB will insist on a lockout for competitive balance when everyone is mid.

Either way, now’s a fine time to look at the many eye-opening paces that teams and players alike have set. Perhaps some of them will even hold up.

But for now, the math’s easy, so here’s seven numbers that catch our eye should they hold up come Game 162:

10: American League teams below .500

Yeah, that’s two-thirds of the league under water. #IfTheSeasonEndedToday (and it doesn’t), the Toronto Blue Jays would claim a wild card spot with a losing record.

What gives?

Well, it’s easy enough to look at the interleague records and realize 12 of 15 teams have losing records against the National League. The Angels (9-18) and Twins (9-17) are the worst of the bunch, while only the Mariners (12-11) and Rangers (16-14) are above .500.

Bo Bichette (Blue Jays to Mets) and Alex Bregman (Red Sox to Cubs) hopped leagues, and while they haven’t lit up the scoreboard with their new clubs, their losses are palpable for the teams they left. Tarik Skubal remains in the AL, for now, and while he missed five weeks and his team has floundered, the Tigers are still alive.

Which brings us to our next point: Everyone’s in it.

25: Teams within six games of a playoff berth

Put it this way: It’s a lot easier to list the clubs who aren’t a fortuitous week away from getting into playoff position. That would be the Angels and Red Sox in the AL and Mets, Giants and Rockies in the NL.

Don’t think that automatically means those teams will be sellers, though. The Angels are just 6½ games out of a playoff spot and the Mets 8. Still, though, you wonder how many teams will truly believe, come Aug. 3, that They Are Good.

Will the floating mass of contenders break up a bit by then? That’s typically how it goes, but don’t discount anything in this season of the meager.

0: Teams on pace to lose 100 games

OK, now for some good news: Nobody’s objectively terrible.

The Colorado Rockies lost 119 games a year ago and they’re once again at the bottom of the league, but the new regime has them at 32-49 and on pace to go 64-98. Progress!

218: Strikeouts for Cam Schlittler

That would be the most for a Yankee not named Gerrit Cole since 2018, when Luis Severino punched out 220. In his first full season, Schlittler has pitched like an ace practically every start, more than holding it down while Cole and lefty Carlos Rodón were on the comeback trail.

While Cole has had moments of dominance in his return from Tommy John surgery, it’s hard to imagine anyone unseating Schlittler as the club’s bona fide, Game 1 playoff starter. Presuming Max Fried returns without incident from his elbow malady, the Yankees have a potentially daunting quartet of playoff starters.

9: Hits per nine innings given up by Freddy Peralta

Pardon the esoterica, but it’s hard to pinpoint one number for all that’s befallen the Mets this season. So let’s go with this one, simply because it appeared baseball ops president David Stearns stole Peralta at the end of the winter from the Milwaukee Brewers, a bona fide ace ready to lend stability to a star-studded team that needed pitching.

Yeah, about that.

Peralta has been getting thoroughly peppered, giving up 41% more hits than last season, when he won 17 games, posted a 2.70 ERA and finished fifth in Cy Young voting.

That ERA has swelled to 4.83, his K rate has shriveled from 10.4 to 8.7 per nine innings and Stearns, it seems, is experiencing the business end of Brewers devil magic he was so good at brewing up in Milwaukee.

Now, it’s doubtful Peralta can help the Mets get back into contention, unclear how much trade value he’ll have come August and curious what his market will look like when he finally hits free agency this winter.

220: Home runs for the Chicago White Sox

Yep, guess who’s second to the Bronx Bombers in home runs? These White Sox of Colson Montgomery and Munetaka Murakami, who lead the team with 20 longballs each. Those two are tied fourth in the AL, a remarkable feat for Murakami, since the Japanese rookie hasn’t played since May 29 due to a hamstring injury.

They are, somewhat stunningly, in first place in the AL Central just two seasons after losing a record 121 games. It’s a startling display of resolve for both team and individuals, most notably Miguel Vargas, who has 17 homers and has doggedly continued his rise since getting traded to the sad-sack ’24 Sox.

If they actually reach that 220-homer mark, that’ll tie the 2003 White Sox for fourth-most bombs in franchise history.

82: Wins for the Washington Nationals

Credit where it’s due. The Nationals’ entirely new regime signed virtually no free agents, traded former All-Star MacKenzie Gore to Texas and ran it back with a group that went 71-91 in consecutive seasons.

Yet it’s all working: The 33-year-old manager, a resurgent Aussie, and All-Star talents like James Wood and CJ Abrams stepping to the fore have made what seemed like a bottom-up rebuild look less laborious and much more fun. Should they go out and get a bullpen if they hover in playoff position?

Can't hurt. Consider that they were on pace for 84 wins until lightning struck in the ninth inning on consecutive nights.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These MLB stats tell story of season at halfway point