{"id":1187,"date":"2025-07-16T22:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T22:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/1187\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T22:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T22:51:10","slug":"mlb-storylines-at-the-all-star-break-bullpen-woes-dazzling-detroit-and-torpedo-bats-reconsidered-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/1187\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB storylines at the All-Star break: bullpen woes, dazzling Detroit and torpedo bats reconsidered | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Major League Baseball<\/a> season has reached its halfway point, or, more accurately, we\u2019ve landed at the All-Star break, with 60% of the schedule already in the books. So, how did it go? Here\u2019s a handful of storylines to chew on as we prepare for the second-half stretch run.<\/p>\n

What hasn\u2019t happened<\/p>\n

Remember the torpedo bats that were a destroyer of worlds in the season\u2019s opening days? Some geniuses even said they were the latest example of how \u201cover-innovation can ruin baseball\u201d (no idea who wrote that zinger)<\/a>. Well, so far that\u2019s looking like the kneejerk reaction of the season, or maybe several seasons. The Yankees, who are the chief adapters of the redesigned bats that boast customized sweet spots, hit 15 home runs in three games against Milwaukee at the start of the season. Then they calmed down and struck 1.46 home runs per game from then on. Yes, they still lead the league in homers, and yes, they\u2019re averaging more dingers per game than they did last year when Juan Soto was in their lineup. But the tech has not in fact made a complete farce of the game. Has Cal Raleigh, the Mariners\u2019 torpedo bat swinging MVP candidate<\/a>, been aided by the innovation? Well, he has 38 homers this season, four more than his career-high already, while Triple Crown candidate Aaron Judge, who doesn\u2019t use a torpedo bat, has 35. This time, let\u2019s go with a more conservative take on the bats: the jury\u2019s still out.<\/p>\n

Cal Raleigh\u2019s wild, breakout season continued with a win at the Home Run Derby in Atlanta on Monday. Photograph: Mike Stewart\/APOh, the bullpens \u2026<\/p>\n

What drives fans the most crazy? The way their manager handles his bullpen. Don\u2019t believe me? Try searching \u201cbullpen management\u201d on X and see what comes up; it\u2019s not pretty. But here\u2019s the thing: when your starting pitchers average well under six innings a game, and you have to figure out how to get an additional nine, 12, 15 outs or more, where\u2019s the roadmap for that? There isn\u2019t one \u2013 managers make it up on the fly most nights. With a bevy of starters recovering from elbow injuries, while upper management continues to nurse the long men, desperate brass are forced to shuttle relievers between the minors and the majors looking for fresh arms. It\u2019s pretty ugly. Is anyone getting it \u201cright?\u201d Well, few outside LA are going to sympathize with the super-rich Dodgers, but their skipper Dave Roberts is getting just 4.5 innings a game<\/a> from his beleaguered, injury riddled starters, the worst number in all of baseball (the MLB average is 5.2<\/a>). Apparently there\u2019s more than a few teams that\u2019ll be looking for bullpen help at the 31 July trade deadline. Yeah, you think?<\/p>\n

Stand up for Detroit<\/p>\n

Remember last July when the Tigers were dealing away players, and then somehow made the playoffs and came within a single victory of the American League Championship Series? Well, as it turns out, that run was no fluke. The Tigers have an 11.5 game lead in the AL Central at the break, the largest such lead they\u2019ve had since the All-Star Game began in 1933. For context, the historic 1984 Tigers that began 35-5 had an eight-game lead at the break. Detroit own the best record in all of baseball, even after losing their last four games.<\/p>\n

When it comes to time for Tarik Skubal to pitch, just wind him up and let him go.
Photograph: Jose Juarez\/AP<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s gone right? Tarik Skubal has stiff competition from Boston\u2019s Garrett Crochet in his bid to win a second successive Cy Young, but the Tigers hurler has walked just 16 batters in 121 innings \u2013 an astonishingly low number. Meanwhile, Detroit\u2019s lineup is full of redemption songs, with three players in the top five favored for the AL Comeback Player of the Year award (Rangers ace Jacob deGrom leads that group). Former No 1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson has recovered from an abysmal 2024 to power up a Tigers offense driven by Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene and Zach McKinstry, allowing the bats to overshadow a middle-of-the road pitching staff, Skubal aside. But perhaps the story of the season is Javier Baez. The once big-dollar-bust is an All-Star this season, and has upped his OPS by more than 230 points from last season and is Detroit\u2019s face of mojo as they head to the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

The Lost Boys<\/p>\n

The Colorado Rockies weren\u2019t daunted by the 2024 White Sox\u2019 modern MLB record<\/a> for losses in a season. With a team of misfits, horrific ownership and tough NL West neighbors, the Rockies went to work on besting (or worsting) the ChiSox right out of the gate. And away they went, losing 36 of 46 games at Coors Field, a modern home record.<\/p>\n

Oops! Photograph: Jay LaPrete\/AP<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, pitching phenom Paul Skenes is one of the only bright lights at the Pirates, who continue to sag, having failed to finish higher than fourth in the NL Central since 2017. Their lack of competitive play is even enough to get Commissioner Rob Manfred somewhat \u201cconcerned\u201d about the Buccos<\/a>, not to mention teams such as the Marlins, who lead a system of meandering franchises whose ownership appear uninterested in winning. Clearly a salary cap, which every other major North American sports league has in some form or other, could help with such imbalance. But with a divide between rich and richer owners and a players\u2019 union that\u2019s fought against a cap for its entire existence, that will always be a tough sell, and so the issue will be a source of labor strife after the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

And speaking of a tough sell, MLB<\/a> has been trying to unload a short-term package of games since ESPN opted out of the final three years of their rights deal worth roughly $1.5bn. Manfred, who admitted that having to find another suitor to replace those lost dollars is not all that fun, says there\u2019s been \u201cprogress\u201d in that search and says he should have some news in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Odds and ends<\/p>\n

Thanks to breakout star Pete-Crowe Armstrong, Kyle Tucker, Nico Hoerner and virtually everyone else in the Cubbies lineup, Chicago are having their biggest OPS+year since, well, 1884<\/a>. They lead the Brewers in the NL Central by a single game. In the NL East, the Phillies have power issues, but it\u2019s Zach Wheeler and their starting pitching that\u2019s given them a short lead over the Mets, who started fast and fell faster, losing 17 of 27 games heading into the break. In the AL East, the Yankees slumped themselves out of first place, while the surprising Blue Jays overtook the Bombers despite an inferior run difference. The once hotter than hot Rays traded places with the Red Sox who rode a 10-game winning streak into third place at the break, all after controversially trading away Rafael Devers and losing Alex Bregman to injury. The Houston Astros of the AL West dealt away their best player, Tucker, in the offseason, but look better without him: hurlers Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and a white hot pen have the \u2018Stros in a commanding first place position after an un-Astro-like 2024. In the NL West, the \u201cBest Team Ever\u201d are yet to play like it, but then again, LA have been missing most of their rotation for most of the season.<\/p>\n

What doesn\u2019t Shohei Ohtani do? Photograph: Godofredo A V\u00e1squez\/AP<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are likely to get stronger when it matters though. Shohei Ohtani<\/a> is pitching again and has an ERA just over one as he stretches out for the postseason, Tyler Glasnow just returned, with Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to follow. Add that to All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto and it\u2019s clear that we ain\u2019t seen nothing yet. Whether or not heavily favored LA can become the first repeat World Series winners since the 2000 Yankees is the question heading into the second half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Major League Baseball season has reached its halfway point, or, more accurately, we\u2019ve landed at the All-Star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}