Baseball Brunch: Halfway Home

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

The most remarkable thing about this season as we hit the not-halfway halfway point of the All-Star break isn't Albert Pujols' RBI total. Or Zack Greinke's ERA. Or the PED suspension of one of the game's biggest stars.

It's the standings. And they not only reflect the season so far, they give us a clue as to the weeks head leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline.

The Phillies and Dodgers are the only first-place team with a lead of more than 2 1/2 games. And 21 of the 30 teams are within 7 1/2 games of a playoff spot: nine of 14 in the AL and 12 of 16 in the NL.

Teams have been waiting for the contenders and pretenders to shake out and loosen up the trade market. But other than Philadelphia pulling away a bit the past few days, things just keep getting tighter instead of clearer.

While parity and more teams in the races might make Major League Baseball happy, the economy hasn't. And that too affects the trade market, as contracts will be hard to dump.

"Scary quiet," as an official from an AL team told FanHouse last week about trade buzz.

The official predicted that many of the trades that are consummated will be "money-for-money" deals – teams swapping contracts they'd like to move instead of someone taking on money.

The first half, though, made plenty of noise of its own. And we're ready to present our first-half award winners.

We could give you the MVPs and Rookies of the Year to this point, but the Baseball Writers' Association of America wisely waits until season's end, and so will we.

Instead, we'll hand out some different hardware:

• Choo Choo Coleman Award: to the Nationals, who are making a run at the 1962 Mets for record atrociousness. With a green rotation and overripe bullpen, Washington has gone 10-12 when scoring six or more runs – and no team has ever finished with a losing record when scoring more than five.

• We Aren't The World Award: to the pitchers who worked in the WBC and have struggled and/or been hurt in the major-league season – Daisuke Matsuzaka, Matt Lindstrom, Jesse Crain, Damaso Marte, Rafael Perez, Edinson Volquez, Luis Ayala, Oliver Perez, Joakim Soria, Jonathan Sanchez, Ian Snell, Armando Galarraga, Carlos Silva, Jeremy Guthrie, Joel Hanrahan, Roy Oswalt, Scot Shields and J.J. Putz. OK, could be coincidence. Or it could be a reason to wonder if the WBC is a good idea that just isn't feasible.

• I'm Not Dead Yet Award: to Gary Sheffield, released late in spring training by the Tigers and now, improbably, leading the Mets in home runs.

• Trap-Door Bullpen Award: to the Indians, who have used 20 relievers already. Not that it's helped. The record is 33 relievers, by the 2002 Padres, who went 66-96.

• Deserted in the Desert Award: to Dan Haren, whose Arizona teammates won't score runs for him, leaving him just 8-5 despite a 2.16 ERA and 0.83 walks plus hits per inning – the latter of which would rank sixth-best in history.

• Venus de Milo Award: to Cito Gaston, for managing Toronto to a decent record despite a lack of arms. The Blue Jays have put 10 different pitchers on the disabled list this season.

• Over the Hill Gang Award: to the Athletics, who added veterans Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra and Orlando Cabrera in the offseason – and are in the bottom three in the AL in runs scored.

• Triple Lindy Award: to Pirates rookie Andrew McCutchen, who hit five triples in his first 17 career games.

• Mirage Award: to the three NL West teams that played past game No. 162 in 2007, Arizona, Colorado and San Diego. Two have already fired their manager from that season, and the Padres are dreadful. Maybe those teams were just above-average in a bad league two years ago and overestimated how good they were.

• Road Sweet Road Award: to the Mets' David Wright, who has hit .304 with runners in scoring position at home (with more strikeouts than hits) and .382 with runners in scoring position on the road.

• John Dillinger Award: to the Tigers, who stole Edwin Jackson from the Rays for Matt Joyce. Jackson is second in the AL in ERA and first in opponents' batting average.

• The Time and a Half Award: to the Padres, who work overtime. San Diego has played an 18-inning game and a 16-inning game this year. Of course, the Padres have made up for all those extra innings pitched by going 12-31++ on the road, avoiding a lot of bottom of the ninths.

• Bg Htter Award: to Pujols, who knocked the "I" out of the "Big Mac Land" sign at Busch Stadium with a homer on May 21. Pujols has four grand slams already; no one has ever had more than six in a season.

• Breakthrough Player Awards: Joey Votto, Ben Zobrist, Adam Lind, Jason Bartlett, Casey McGehee, Jason Kubel, Shin-Soo Choo, Mark Reynolds, J.P. Howell, Matt Cain, Josh Johnson, Jair Jurrjens, Wandy Rodriguez, Nick Blackburn.

Overheard and Understood

• The Red Sox's approach to the trade deadline will depend on third baseman Mike Lowell's progress in his recovery from a strained right hip. "I think we're just keeping an eye on Lowell, basically, which is a big question mark," one Boston official said. "We need to help our offense." The Sox looked at the Rockies' Garrett Atkins, but "the asking price is a bit too steep for him" and Colorado didn't like what it saw of Boston reliever Takashi Saito. Arizona is trying to shop Chad Tracy, but he hasn't looked good. So Boston's best option, if Lowell doesn't recover soon, could be to get a first baseman, which is "easier to do," and put Kevin Youkilis at third.

Chart of the Week
How do the NL East contenders match up? Well, the Phillies, Marlins, Braves and Mets are a combined 31-8 against the woeful Nationals. And when you measure those four against the other three, you see no team stands out – with Atlanta having played the best in the head-to-head-to-head-to-head matchups:
Team	Vs. Other Three
Braves	11-8
Marlins	10-10
Phillies	12-13
Mets	11-13

• Baltimore is one of the few teams that knows it's in position to sell, with Aubrey Huff and reliever Danys Baez (Twins, perhaps?) good trade candidates because they are eligible for free agency after the season. But the Orioles aren't interested in a fire sale, according to a source familiar with their plan. Because the O's went 5-20 last September and 10-19 in September 2007, they want to avoid showing their fan base another flat finish.

"One of the [Baltimore] goals is to be competitive the latter half of the season," the source said. "That [coast to the finish] is the one thing [president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail] doesn't want to have happen again."

Consequently, Baltimore will need to be overwhelmed to deal closer George Sherrill, and while it might have listened on Guthrie, that won't happen now since Koji Uehara is out with a sore elbow.

Huff may wind up a target for Detroit, which could use some left-handed pop but the Tigers prefer someone more versatile or at least able to play the outfield (they inquired on Washington's Adam Dunn, but the finances didn't work). Detroit's concern would be getting Huff regular at-bats, since he's limited to first base and DH. The Orioles have been checking out some Tigers affiliates, and with not much there in the way of high-ceiling prospects, it could take a package of multiple minor-leaguers to get Huff.

• According to a person familiar with the Indians' clubhouse, part of the problem in Cleveland has been the impatience of management. Players are looking over their shoulders, the person said, feeling that if they don't produce for a couple of games in a row, they will get benched. The Tribe has had a revolving door at second base, shortstop and left field.

• Kansas City has not had a position player make the All-Star Game since Mike Sweeney in 2005.

• Dodgers manager Joe Torre will serve as a coach at the All-Star Game. "Coaching is the easiest thing in the world to do at an All-Star Game," he said, "because you don't have to do anything. I just told Charlie [Manuel], I said, 'I'll keep track of the players for you.' "

• The jersey of Dodgers catcher Russell Martin reads, "J. MARTIN." It's a tribute to his mother's side of his family, where the last name is Jeanson. Martin's full name is Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin Jr.

• The Rockies do need relief help. They have been using Joel Peralta and Matt Daley to set up in front of closer Huston Street and those two "are not set-up guys," one scout said.

• Rays phenom David Price was better Thursday, but his problem all year has been that he has become, as one scout put it, a "one-side-of-the-plate pitcher." Price has been able to locate pitches to his glove side – inside to right-handed hitters – but not to the other half of the plate.

• Florida's Ricky Nolasco has averaged 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings in seven starts since returning from a stint in the minors. Before getting sent down, he averaged 7.6 strikeouts per nine innings – which made him more vulnerable to the Marlins' defensive deficiencies. A scout who saw him recently said Nolasco had "more of a strikeout attitude, [as if he was thinking,] 'I'm not going to leave this to the guys behind me any more.' "

• Boston's Tim Wakefield is the third pitcher 42 or older – second knuckleballer – to get 11 wins by the All-Star break. The others, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, were Warren Spahn for the 1963 Braves and Phil Niekro for the 1984 Yankees.

• Talks to send Arizona lefty Doug Davis back to Milwaukee seem to have died down.

• Elias says that this is the first season ever in which two third basemen – Washington's Ryan Zimmerman and Toronto's Scott Rolen – have had hitting streaks of at least 25 games.

• Tampa Bay would like an upgrade in right field over its Gabe Gross/Gabe Kapler platoon.

• Mets manager Jerry Manuel was asked what peers he might turn to for advice when going through tough times like he has recently. "I need Gandhi and King," he said. "They went through the same stuff. That's what I reach out to." (That's Martin Luther King Jr., not Ray King.)