Baseball fans, your long (two-day) national nightmare is over. The season's second half kicks into gear Friday night, and with it come a number of intriguing storylines. There have been a lot of big surprises this year, and watching how things play out through the late summer and early fall should be fascinating.
Which of those storylines are the most interesting? Let's take a different approach and dive into five of them — by the numbers:
62
Rightly or wrongly, there are plenty of fans who consider Roger Maris' 61 the magic number for home runs in a season. And for the first time in a long time, there's a player with a chance to pass that number — and he just happens to be wearing pinstripes, too. Aaron Judge is hitting homers at a staggering pace, leaving the yard once in every 10 at bats. He has the best HR/AB ratio since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006. Judge is on pace to match that number, but as the weather gets warmer and balls start flying farther, he definitely has the chance to be the first player to break the 60-homer barrier since Barry Bonds in 2001.
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Can Judge take it one step further and pass Maris (and Babe Ruth, for that matter) on the single-season list? Hey, he already broke one Yankee legend's home run record — Joe DiMaggio's rookie number of 29 — so what would be a few more? With all the talk of Judge being the new face of baseball, shattering three Yankee legends' home run records would go a long way toward cementing that status.
2
The two biggest surprise contenders this year, the Brewers and the Twins, enter the second half of the season with the playoffs squarely in their sights. Can they shock the world and finish what they started in the first half? Both of them have tough roads ahead.
For the Twins, they have to contend with an Indians team that seems to be hitting its stride, while also fending off the Royals in their own division. The AL Wild Card picture is a mess, too, with no team in the league more than 7.5 games out of a playoff spot. The Twins may not have the strongest team in the league, but they're certainly competitive. Watching them try to navigate their way to October baseball over the last three months of the season should be fun.
The Brewers are in a better position than the Twins, currently in first place in their division with a 5.5 game lead. But the Cubs are still lurking, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes they'll be a sub-.500 team at the end of September. Will Milwaukee go all in and make a move to match Chicago's acquisition of Jose Quintana? Will they be content with what they have and not sacrifice prospects for a short-term game? The NL Central is shaping up to be the most interesting race of the second half, and the Brew Crew is front and center.
109
It's the magic number for win-loss records this year. Both the Astros and the Dodgers are on pace to win 109 games, which would be the most wins in a season since the Mariners won 116 in 2001. There haven't been two teams to win 100 games or more in the same season since 2004, and two teams with 100 or more wins each haven't met in the World Series since 1970. Might this be the year it happens again, with two teams winning regular season games at a .673 clip?
On the flip side, the Phillies are on pace to lose 109 games this season, which would be the worst record since the 111 losses suffered in 2013 by ... the Astros. Hey, at least there's hope!
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185
As in minutes — 3 hours, 5 minutes to be exact — which is the average time for a major league game this year and would be the longest in history by 5 minutes. Hard to believe the automatic intentional walk hasn't worked to speed things up!
This is a number that simply isn't acceptable for Rob Manfred and his seemingly never-ending quest to improve the pace of play. If the long games continue and the average time stays at 185 minutes (or higher), expect an avalanche of new rules to come crashing down this winter. A pitch clock seems like the most obvious choice, but don't be surprised if things like limiting the number of mound visits the pitching coach/manager/catcher can make per game, cutting down the number of warm up pitches a reliever can throw when entering the game, and finding a way to speed up replay make their way to the bargaining table, too.
6,127
Are the balls juiced? Who knows, but the record number of homers teams are hitting this year certainly won't quell any conspiracy theories. After the first half, MLB teams are on pace to hit a mind-boggling 6,127 home runs this year, a number which would shatter the previous record of 5,693 set in 2000.
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Baseball has cracked down on PEDs in the game since the start of this century, so what's causing the sudden surge in the long ball department? Players are bigger and stronger, yes. The ballparks are more hitter-friendly, sure. But did Major League Baseball decide to wind the balls juuuust a little tighter this year and give the game a jolt of excitement? We're not apt to buy into conspiracy theories around here, but man, that's a lot of home runs