July 16, 2018 ALL-STAR BREAK

It's Kushner and Wells on top as usual at the season's unofficial "midpoint." In fact, it's been mostly a see-saw battle between those two for the last month, until McCloskey and Hawkins flirted briefly with first place last week.

It's been mostly pitching categories that have been responsible for the lead changes of late, with AL IP and ERA and NL Wins and Saves being the big ones. In fact, as a group, we've done a much better job with the pitching categories -- or, perhaps, they've been more predictable -- with Dee Gordon's AL SB lead and J.D. Martinez's AL RBI lead (hat tip to Greg Glassman) being the only hitting categories we have right at this point.

AL IP could prove to be a pivotal category, as our two leaders traded that point on the final day prior to the break, with Justin Verlander overtaking Corey Kluber. Trevor Bauer is in the mix as well, and with him starting tomorrow, he should at least briefly take the lead in this category.

Meaningful baseball is back tonight, and in full swing tomorrow, and with the "second half" representing 40% or more of the season, there's still a lot that could happen. Good luck everyone!