So... the "first half" of the season wrapped up yesterday... definitely have been lots of surprises, not many division races are going to plan up to this point. New York and Boston are battling for last place in the AL East, Houston has been upstaged by the other Texas team. Atlanta has been amazing, but nobody expected Miami to be the team closest to putting pressure on them... although I can say that I've known for years how good Luis Arraez is... and even though he has fallen off the pace a bit in his quest for .400, he is helping make batting average a cool stat once again. NL West is very competitive, although surprisingly the Padres are not part of that competition... amazing how the spectacularly huge spending sprees by the Padres and Mets are not working out at all. Both Central divisions are extremely mediocre, Cincinnati has been a big surprise, and so has St. Louis, but in a much different way. I think this is the worst I have ever seen the AL Central in all my years watching baseball. For so many years, we were overlooked by the big money teams on the East and West Coast, even though Cleveland (and other Central teams) have produced lots of great teams and amazing players, we all never got the respect that we probably deserved... but wow... this year, there really isn't a good team in the division. I was really high on Cleveland after last year's success... and they have somehow managed to climb back to 1st place despite struggling ever since a good first week of the season. Minnesota has legit starting pitching, but a lot of awful hitting lives in this division. I am surprised how the White Sox have never found their stride... their last rebuild looked good on paper, and they have produced a lot of stars, but winning hasn't come together for them. Looks like either Cleveland or Minnesota is going to win this thing by default, although Chicago and Detroit could put themselves right back in the mix with a hot streak of a week or two... haven't heard many rumblings on what Cleveland intends to do at the trading deadline... I can't imagine trading anyone of value for a rental player, our team isn't good enough to think that they are one player away from being a legit World Series contender. I wouldn't be against trading a veteran or 2, especially if it gets us help for the coming years... even if it hurts our chances this year. As a small market team, we always have to balance the present with the future and keep a steady stream of talent flowing through our minor leagues.