Letting the Yeast Rise to See Who is Still on Betty CROCKer's List

A while back, I took a look at the leader board for MLB. I was surprised to see some of the names on the list. Now with 2/3 of the season over. It's time to see who is still standing and who has fallen back to earth or reverted back to bad habits. Here's the list of the people I noted and what's going on now:

AL
1. Joe Mauer was sitting atop the batting leader board, hitting .381. Joe has hit a respectable .288 in the second half, but that is almost 100 points lower than he was hitting. He is still in first by a point, but Jeter and Tejada are close behind and are more established hitters.
2. Alex Rios was also tearing it up during the first part of the season, hitting a career high .341, but he has been awful over the second half hitting .211, dropping him to .291 (about his career average).
3. Jermaine Dye has proved that when healthy, he is a star player. Dye had jacked 19 bombs 1/3 of the way through the season. He's pretty much kept that pace and now sits third on the HR leaders with 40 (his previous best was 33).
4. Dye's teammate Jose Contreras was on during the first part of the season and had me questioning my poor opinion of him, but now the fade (or plumet) is on and he is showing his true colors. A poor 3-7, 5.20, 1.32 second half has dropped him to a "ho-hum" 12-7, 4.09, 1.24
5. Mike Mussina's numbers look pretty solid, but you can tell he has tapered off from his strong start. In the second half he is 3-3, 4.85, 1.33.

NL
1. Freddy Sanchez. Who? Yeah, you better learn his name. Sanchez had stayed the course hitting .344 for the year and tops the NL batters.
2. Brandon Webb was having a break out season, but the second half has been more of a "broke down" season. It looks like fatigue is setting in and after starting 8-1, 2.61, 1.02 his second half numbers (5-3, 4.30) have dropped the wow from his stats, but he still ranks 2nd in Wins and his ERA (3.14) is still in the top part of the league.
3. Brad Penny was trying to keep healthy prove that he can be a top pitcher. He leads the NL in wins, but his second half has been pretty bad (5-5, 6.00).
4. Jason Schmidt. See Brad Penny (Post All-Star stats: 5-3 4.62).
5. Aaron Harang was picking up Wins and Ks like Wilt Chamberland picked up girls. The Wins have slowed down, but Harang has kept the Ks coming. He is 4-4 in the second half with 64 Ks, bringing his totals to 13 and 184, near the top in both categories.

So there you have it, the Contenders and the Pretenders. Hope you were on the right end of trades with those guys.

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